I first arrived in Beijing in August
2015. Since I was able to speak some Mandarin, I was confident that I could 1 my new life in China. With the attraction of China starting to 2 , I soon became homesick. Yet I reminded myself repeatedly that everything I unused to would eventually become a 3 part of my life.
As an American, it's difficult to order food at cafeterias on my Chinese university's campus. Above the kitchen serving area, the signs for which dishes were 4 would be changed daily. There were usually about 30 signs, and I could only 5 a few Chinese characters of the dishes each time. If I could 6 in time, I could have asked a Chinese classmate to help translate some of the names of the available dishes for me, and I could have taken the 7 to make new friends who may help me gain more understanding of Chinese culture.
Things changed when I had to 8 how to fix the clogged(堵塞)toilet in my apartment. But what worried me was that I couldn't explain the problem to the repair team over the 9 . Instead of calling the team, I went down and tried to talk to the man watching the building's entrance. I explained the problem in my 10 , then mimed(用哑剧动作表现)a toilet bowl. It turned out that I was a 11 mime performer, so I took out my phone to translate my words. Eventually, the person helped call the repairman and fixed my toilet.
Having 12 a lot, I have been aware that just because some features of the culture were different from what I was used to didn't mean they were 13 . There are no shared languages in the world. But people 14 cultures can communicate with each other if you put in some efforts. And most people will help you with their 15 as long as you are respectful and patient.
