China is country which is likely to be the biggest culture shock you will experience, and a country where everything moves and changes really fast.
The vast amount of people, languages and different foods can be a challenge for many people. But at the same time, travelling or living in China can be a great opportunity to learn or develop new skills.
Whether you fancy working in China, spending a gap year in China, or working here, here are 4 great skills that you can get:
1. Communication
It might sounds obvious that communication is one skill you will improve while living in a country where the language is one of the hardest one but is not just that what will make you develop this skill. When one word can have several meanings depending of the tone you have to become an active listener.
At the same time, in China you will always find a Chinese person who wants to know everything about your life, they can ask really personal questions so you’ll always have the opportunity to practice your communication skills and the way you skip awkward questions.
In China you can also find people from all around the world which enable you to learn how people with different culture communicate and also how you communicate with them your ideas in order to reach an effective cross cultural communication.
If you want to improve your language skills you could book a course with the best languages schools in China.
2. Self awareness
When you live abroad you might face difficult moments like being sick and don’t have anyone who take care of you, saying bye to people who you got attached in a short period of time, passing through a break up and don’t have your close friends to cheer you up or feeling lonely… all this moments suck but through these moments you can learn a lot about yourself, your personality, behaviours, habits, emotional reactions and motivations.
3. Negotiating
If you want to practice your negotiating skills you just have to go to any Chinese store excluding big supermarkets and malls. Just be ready for a time consuming day and be sure prepare your strategy and your limits before going into any store and start the negotiation. Chinese people can be really friendly in order to get what they want be careful with that.
4. Flexibility
People who decide to move to there far east, either for studies, work or internships in China must be flexible if you want to stay here for a while. If you are not flexible you will learn how to be flexible. Chinese culture is really different compared with western culture.
Sometimes, especially at first, you might find it rude or disrespectful how some Chinese people behave. Also things might look inefficient or complicated but you must remember that things are different in the far east and things do take time to get used to.
When you decide you want to live abroad or travel to other countries you have to be open minded and learn how to be adaptable in order to tolerate the cultural differences and learn the local norms.
If you want to expand your skills and like the idea of working in Asia, China really is a great place to go. Lots of volunteer programs in China offer the chance to live with a Chinese host family which can be a fascinating cultural exchange. Some jobs in China can include au pairing and taking care of a Chinese children.
This is a great opportunity to do new things and challenge yourself. This experience will look fantastic on your CV and to future employers.
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