Anxi-cited

The two most common questions I get asked when people find out I'm moving to China are, (1) are you excited, and (2) do you have anything lined up?

How do I feel about our decision to move to China?  Am I excited, scared, nervous, or any other emotions I can use to describe how I feel?  My feeling towards the upcoming move to China should be an emotion most people would have, the combination of anxious and excited, anxi-cited.  

As I previously mentioned, I've never lived outside of Southern California, not even a different state in the United States.  I spent plenty of summers in Taiwan when I was a child, but those were short trips, and we were on vacation.  Although there are similarities between Taiwan and China, the differences seem to outweigh the similarities.  When I am in Taiwan, it feels familiar.  Maybe it's because of nostalgia, or it may be because I still have family members there, but I don't get those same feelings going to China, even though I've been to Guangzhou a lot more frequently over the past few years.  I am anxious about how I will adapt to the culture, handling the different lifestyle, deal with the working environment, and survive the mosquito-filled hot and humid summers.  I am anxious about the language and my ability to communicate in Guangzhou.  Even though the official Chinese language in China is Mandarin, In Guangzhou, Cantonese is the primary spoken language.  I speak conversational Mandarin fluently, but if the conversation gets technical or too academic, then I have difficulties keeping up, which means my comprehension of Cantonese is very minimal.  The majority of children all speak perfect Mandarin, and a lot of them no longer speak Cantonese, but the parents and the elderly still prefer speaking in Cantonese.  Being able to speak and understand Mandarin should allow me to get by, but my bigger challenge is my ability to read and write Chinese because I basically don't.  

After being in China for two and a half years, I am pretty confident both my boys (six and five) and possibly even my daughter (three), can recognize more Chinese characters than I can.  Unlike English, Chinese words are not 26 characters constructed together to create a word, but instead, each character represents one word.  To make things even more complicated, each character can have anywhere between one to ten to twenty strokes, and each character can have multiple pronunciations and meanings.  It is said that a person will need to know approximately 2000 to 3000 characters to read the newspaper.  I think I remember, from my Saturday Chinese school days from elementary through high school, about 150-200 characters.  (I may know a little more than that, but I don't want to oversell myself.)  That is not enough characters to even read first grader's book!  With such limited vocabulary, I cannot read menus, store names, and road signs let alone take care of official business.  I am confident that being fully immersed in a 100% Chinese environment I will pick up the language significantly quicker; however, how long will it take?  

There is a lot for me to be anxious about, and we haven't even talked about what I plan to do in China yet.  With that being said, I am excited for this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for me to move to a different country and experience something completely new.  When most people make a decision of this magnitude, they have to worry about how their family will assimilate to the new environment and handle the changes, but I'm lucky because my family has been there for the past few years, so I'm the only person who needs the adjustment.  Our living situation is already set up in Guangzhou, the kids are enrolled in school, and my wife has family there who can help out if needed.  I figured if I don't do this now, when the kids are still young, and at my age, I may never get this opportunity again.  For that reason, I am excited about this adventure.  

What do I have lined up?  I'm going to a new country (for me) and trying something I've never done before, so why start my own business and give that a try?  I'm going to take the knowledge and experience I have, find the need for my strengths, and utilize that to my advantage.  That is all I can say.