The Tale of an Unintentional Expat in China

A lot of expats decide to start a blog when they’ve moved abroad. I am starting this blog in the 12th year after I moved to China, which happened to be during the Corona virus outbreak – one of the deadliest viruses in recent history. These 12 years of living abroad have truly been a life-changing experience for me. I consider myself very lucky that I had been given an opportunity to move to China, not once, but twice. In both cases, it was an opportunity to study Chinese.

Throughout these years I’ve learned to speak Chinese fluently, gained an insight into the Chinese culture, and have broadened my horizons by backpacking through the country. I met the love of my life in China in my first job here and we’ve become not just life partners but business partners too. Looking back, this country has provided us with many opportunities to grow and become better. Through our brand ALBA we’ve created something that has touched the lives of many Chinese people. Our story has inspired many and we’ve been invited to share it on China Central CCTV and other media. We participated in entrepreneurship forums, gave speeches to university students, and coached many to success.

 However, the beginnings of what led to my expat story didn’t really imply anything like it. In fact, the beginnings were nothing short of a fiasco.

The Story of Why I Moved to China: Procrastination

It all started in my first year in college. I was a student of English language and literature in Macedonia. Apart from my English major, we were required to take on an additional language as a second major. At that time I didn’t consider myself very talented for languages.  In fact, taking on English language as a first major was already stressful enough. I tried German, then Spanish, and I liked none of them. I was relieved to find out there was an option to choose American Literature instead of a language as a second major.  Even better, I could choose to start from the second year of my studies. That sounded like a great solution at that time…. if you are someone who likes to procrastinate.

The Sudden Announcement

At the beginning of the second year, you couldn’t imagine how shocked I was to find out that I wouldn’t be able to start the American Literature Course; it was put on hold. I only had the option to choose a language. Now that I had to make the decision in my 2nd year in college, I no longer had the easy option for a shorter, 2-year language program. At that time I could only choose a 3-year program, and it had to be a language I had a background in. Without this, my graduation from this university would be at stake. I had no background in any other language. The only language program that didn’t require any background was Chinese. We all know that this wasn’t because Chinese is the easiest of all languages.

My Life Became a Living Hell

 So this is how everything began. It was hard, I struggled, I hated myself for putting things off, yet I had no other choice. To make things even worse, the Chinese teacher that taught during the first 2 years at the university constantly corrected my pronunciation in Chinese, reaffirming what I already knew: that I wasn’t talented to study languages, that I was wasting my time in university. I had no other option but to pay the price for procrastinating and making a bad decision.

Then Things Were Beginning to Change

No, it’s not what you think, I wasn’t getting better at learning Chinese. In the final year of university, we got a new Chinese teacher. This new teacher was way more strict than the previous one. This didn’t give me much hope so I said I’d better use the summer vacation to review some Chinese.

 This turned out to actually offset my bad decision in the first year. The new teacher was much stricter and insisted on speaking Chinese only in class. After a long summer holiday when no one touches the books if they don’t have to,  I, the worst student in the class was now confident to introduce myself in Chinese. Surprisingly this teacher got the impression that I was the best student in what was the most advanced class at the time.

 His strict demands caused the other students’ confidence to start dropping gradually, while mine was growing. From then on I never missed a class. Strangely, I started to develop some interest in this weird language. In fact, I studied it so much that even my father was questioning the logic behind my efforts. He compared Chinese characters to a sparrow’s feet.

A Life-Changing Opportunity

But I knew why. The teacher pointed to me that there was going to be a Chinese language contest by the end of the school year, the main prize being a scholarship to study the Chinese language in one of the famous language universities in China. He assured me that I could definitely try to compete for it.

 And It happened. I won the scholarship to study Chinese at Beijing Language and Culture University for a year at the time. Imagine how happy I felt realizing that my mistake in the first year was not a mistake. It was an opportunity in disguise.

I’m Going on an Adventure!

I was going to be an expat in China for a year, and boy was I excited! What did I pack for my expat life? Nothing special. My music and some clothes. I was going to leave room for the new life, and what was going to come. I didn’t want to bring my old life with me. I was welcoming this long-awaited change that life presented me with.

What’s your expat story? How did you end up moving abroad?

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