Day 10: Language Barrier Stronger Than the Chinese Great Firewall?

I mainly just packed today and stayed in my hotel room until we had to take the bus to the Shanghai airport, so instead I will reflect on a situation that I experienced earlier in the trip. It happened all the way back in the first day of the trip. The day ended with a challenge. The flight to China didn’t allow shaving cream, so I needed to go to the supermarket to buy some. The guides from the Asia Institute had to say in one place to wait for everyone, so I had to go alone without a translator. It was the first time I was in a situation where I was the only one in the place who could speak my language and I could not communicate verbally with the people around me. Luckily, I was able to talk with my hands well enough for one of the cashiers to tell me where the shaving cream was and I got out safely. I ended the night with some Chinese MTV. They have some weird music videos. I then went to bed to prepare the Great Wall and the Temple of Heaven the next day. As I lay up in bed, I thought to myself that I will be in those situations quite a bit during this trip, so I need to come up with a plan for when something like this happen. That night, I practiced talking with my hands more. The natives were not going to understand English, but they can understand the signals I made with my hands. Once I practiced speaking with my hands, my communication skills got better and eventually I was able to explore the towns we stayed in without a translator always needing to be with me. The lesson I learned that night served me really well.