Indian Express
Chinatown in Vellore
Gopu Mohan Posted: Oct 12, 2008 at 2117 hrs IST
The best icebreaker I could think of to make this bunch of Chinese students talk was an offer to take them to a place that sells movies and games cheap. For a group of techies frustrated with the Indian broadband connection, this was probably one of the best things they had heard from a stranger since they landed in Vellore as part of an extension programme at the Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) three months ago.
They had pretty English aliases—Annie, Teresa, Mary, Ian. And they had style too: Zhou Yin, with long hair and clean-shaven, is Kaka, after the footballer he adores; the monk-like Cai Shuo has adopted the alias Blues; the bubbly Feng Rui is Ian; Kang Xi is Calvin and Wu Hanze is Ham. "The Internet service here is very slow and the connections are costly," Ian pulled a long face to convey how difficult it is for them to download movies and songs and how timely my offer of cheap games and movies was.
Hundreds of kilometres away from their hometowns in Hunan and other provinces of mainland China, these youngsters—a batch of 450 students—are at VIT learning computer science, software development, communication skills and even management courses. "We have the hardware, you have the software skills," Kaka said matter-of-factly about their "training" in India.
Holed up in a hotel in Vellore, about 150 km from Chennai, I was told they had only begun learning to speak English and would need help conversing with me. But that was only part of the problem. The Chinese students knew their English, but they weren't taught to think and speak in the language—the way the language in taught in India. "We have English classes right from the early grades. Though we are good at writing and reading, we almost never speak the language. All classes are in Mandarin. In some schools, English is not spoken even during English classes," said Annie in flawless English.
Every Chinese student at VIT has to undergo a two-month training in English—rather, Indian English. "A lot of Indians speak English, but we do not understand what the other person is saying because of their Indian accent. Back home, we were taught either American or British English. But here, it is a different form of English," said Blues. "Sometimes, we have to break into a dance to get auto drivers to know what we are saying," quipped Ian, amid loud laughter. The ice had definitely been broken.
"After coming here, we started reading English books and periodicals. And whenever we had doubts, we would consult the teacher immediately to improve our language skills," said Ham.
When the Chinese first landed in Vellore, they were the perfect eye candy for the locals. "When we went out, people came and asked us if they could take pictures with us," recalled Teresa. The fascination was mutual. The students carried their cameras and cell phones wherever they went and clicked pictures to send home. "We have come to a new place. We take photographs and send them to our family back in China," said Blues and added, monk-like, "They like it."
My declaration that I had eaten Hunan chicken from a nondescript roadside restaurant evoked surprised chuckles from the crowd. They unanimously agreed that the dish isn't anything close to what they eat back home. The Chinese canteen in the campus serves "authentic" Chinese cuisine and has a Chinese chef. But outside the institute, the Punjabi dhabas and random Chinese restaurants serve Chinese cuisine that's anything but that, they said.
Ian cheekily said his favourite 'Indian' dish was "ginger chicken", though others said they had tried idli, dosa and rasam. "Though we use a lot of spices, it is very different from the way spices are used in India," said Calvin, recalling his experience with Indian cuisine during a trip to Chennai.
Chennai is their favourite weekend getaway. "From Monday through Friday, we are bogged down by the heavy work load. During weekends, we relax: get up late, skip breakfast, stay in our rooms, catch up with friends online or simply take the bus to Chennai," said Kaka.
A few of them have already made some Indian friends—that, they say, is an achievement, considering these two student communities do not share classroom space. On Thursday, Ming was all excited about the party he was going to attend. "An Indian friend is throwing a birthday party. We have been invited and have to be there soon," he said, hurrying out of the room where we were sitting.
Indian work hours are gruelling, they said, and parties like the one Ming had been invited to are rare. "In India, professional education is so intense that you do not get any free time during the week. Back there, we had lots of time to play, travel and go clubbing, depending on what your interests are," said Ham.
Back home, in their schools and colleges, students play basketball, shuttle and table tennis, but here, they spend most of their time peering into computers. After all, a trained-in-India tag will help them get jobs in China, or so they believe. "There are a lot of IT companies that are setting up shop in China. Software development will be the next big thing there. With our training here, we will have an edge over others," said Blues.
They had thought of India as the world's largest democracy but at least on the campus, it seemed more authoritarian than democratic. "Here, girls face a lot more restrictions than boys. We have to get back to the hostels earlier and cannot wear anything other than jeans and very long skirts," said Annie. The students say there is a "permission raj" of sorts in the campus, and they have to seek permission for everything. "Our Indians friends, however, have to go through a lot more security problems compared to us," Annie said, with some relief.
It has only been three months since the classes began and many are already homesick. While some of them said they were waiting to return to China after finishing their courses, a few were open to working in India. "If there are good opportunities in Indian companies, I will consider working in India because I am into software development and this is the hub," said Jesse.
According to officials in the institute, an Indian IT major had expressed interest in recruiting these students for their China operations.
As we wound up the interview and said goodbyes, we promised to meet up for Diwali in Chennai: to buy the movies and games.
-- My humanity is in feeling we are all voices of the same poverty. - Jorge Louis Borges