How to survive as a Chinese in NYC — A guide.
In 2011, I moved to New York City from Beijing, China for pursuing a terminal degree. It was my first time in US as well as the first time I had ever gone overseas.
I did not love New York City in the very beginning, but with these years I spent here, New York has become my best friend. here is how and some useful tips.
1. Forget about your mother language
I know it is hard, but you have to. It is the language prevents you from adapting the expression logic here people accept. Don’t be shy and afraid of making mistakes, everyone is busy with their own stuff, no one would care about you. If there is some one laughs at that your mistakenly take “soap” for “soup”, just laugh back : “ do you speak fluent Chinese?”
2. The label price is different from what you pay
Try to be familiar with tips and tax. New York is the one of the most expensive cities around US, one of the reasons is high tax — 8.875%, which means you pay 8.875 bucks out of every 100 bucks you spent for everything but raw foods and fashion (under 100 bucks). So just be prepared, it is not as cheap as you thought. Bring your calculator when you go to eat in most restaurants, before signing your bill, remember to write a proper tip unless there is 10%, 15% 25% listed on the receipt.
3. Drink or dinner ?!
I know we do drink and dinner at the same time in China, more and more millenniums are not as good as their parents generation in alcohol drinks. But here drink is a social event. Drink with co-works, drink for celebrating birthdays, for a new achievement, party, dates, whatever. Drink usually goes before dinner, if you are not comfortable about that, eat something prior, it may also help with flush face.
4. Food is frozen.
Water with ice, coffee with ice, cold sandwiches, frozen dumplings, vegetables, fruits, meats. Just a reminder for your weak stomach, be prepared!
5. Date does not necessary mean gf - bf relationship.
Girlfriend and boyfriends are far beyond dating. You can dating with different people at the same time and no need to feel cheating. But as soon as you decided to move on the relationship into gf & bf, it means you are serious and you guys are on the way to marriage.
6. Gym & Health
Building a good body or just work-out for being more healthy are very common in New York, people are with big bags and small bags all round on their way to work in the morning and way home in the evening. One of those bag probably is a gym bag. A good body brings confidence and health is important because seeing a doctor is way more expensive than gym membership.
7. XXXXXL
Don’t worry about how many Xs unless it ends with a S.
8. Units.
Inch to centimeter , fahrenheit to celsius, mile to kilometer, ounce to gram, pound to kilogram, letter size to A4 … You are good at math.
9. Laundry outside of apt!
“What? ?” I understand your reaction to this, that was actually my reaction 5 years ago too. You may be hopeless when you heard about the laundry machines are public. You will get used to wash your underwear in one that washed some guy’s sneakers. If you choose hand-wash, you may ended up with drying your cloths with one dried a puppy’s bed because New York doesn’t allow to hang cloth out door. Good luck!
10. Surprises.
New York City is full of surprises, the small, old, grey building near your office might be a hot spot because of a movie. A hidden museum somewhere in your neighborhood has a large collection of anatomy books. David Bowie lives upstair where you shopped. There are tons of talks, meetups, shows, art openings, public sports, games, parade, festivals all year around, you will always have options to engage or stay away. You would never be tired of living such a place.
11. Be reasonable!
Give reasons for things you want to do, people will not make it difficult for you; And you should do the same things to others if you think it’s reasonable. Being helpful to others if that doesn’t hurt you, like keeping the door open if someone is coming. Say “thank you” to the old lady who cleans your office.
12. Pay attention to those nutrition facts.
Most the foods we get from supermarket or groceries are labeled with nutrition Facts. There are couple of things you need to pay attention — Calories, Fat, Sodium and Sugars. If you are super confidence about your body shape, go for it! Foods usually have much more sugars and over-sized. If you are too addict to ice cream, cupcakes, burgers, American fast food, go to read 6.
13. People come, People go
Your old and best friends probably are in your home country, and your newly — made friends just moved to Austin, TX and San Fransisco, CA, You still made a lot new friends because of the events you went recently. But you guys may be hard to be close, because no one really wants to sacrifice time for not-yet-close-friends before it becomes close. Accept it!
If you had a hard time to accept, go to do something fresh. Like skateboarding if you have never ever tried; Being a volunteer for a zoo, you will find your life is so rich, do not disappoint the time you spent here in New York City.
14. Drugs are public secret.
You will understand.
Thanks Tobias van Schneider for his new post How to survive as a European in NYC — A guide, which is where this article comes from.
