Collaborative Writing

Today I mailed a letter to my "sister" who lives most of the year in Belarus*. To address the envelope, I printed out a copy of her address, which is writtent in Russian, that my mom emailed to me. But since my sister didn't put a postal code in her address, I had to hunt down some Chinese colleagues to see if any of them could write Chinese characters for "Belarus" where the postal code should go -- you know, so China Post could direct the letter to the proper country.

When I got to the post office, the letter was sent without too much trouble. The postal workers used the Chinese characters to figure out how much postage I would need and didn't seem all that perturbed that the postal code was missing (cost for postage: 7 Yuan). What struck me about this experience, though, was how collaborative everyday mundane things are here for me. All told, it took about 5 people to properly address one envelope. This experience is not unique. If I want to get water delivered to our apartment, I have to use a Chinese-speaking mediator. When one of my packages was held hostage at the post office, I had to enlist help from one of my students to retrieve it. Most of this collaboration is a result of my poor Chinese language skills; if I could speak the language better, I could do more things for myself. As it is, I'm pleased when I can just accomplish simple tasks, like asking the bus driver how much the fare is and understanding his/her reply.

*She's not my biological sister; she's a girl from Belarus who stays with my family for several months each year.