After you live in China for a while, you will inevitably learn that the law of osmosis doesn’t apply to its language or culture. If you don’t take steps to actively interact, study, and improve, the sites and sounds of your everyday life will probably be just as baffling as when you first arrived. More familiar, but still baffling. In other words, a plane ticket and an apartment will only get you to the door. It’s up to you to work your way in and explore.

Counting myself among the many foreigners who have decided to call China home for a while, I can honestly say that most people (myself included) bump into this problem sooner or later. My first solution was trying to teach myself Mandarin and leaving my apt more often, but this plan resulted in lots of random “Learn Chinese Quickly” book purchases and only a little bit of spoken language.

After enjoying structure and classmates for a while, I’m sure that signing up for an actual Chinese class was a step in the right direction. Hopefully I’ve made another one by deciding to move in with a host family. Fortunately, my Mandarin school had an opening in one family after their previous guests, a Vietnamese couple, returned to their home country.

A few days ago I moved from the ground floor of my student dorm to a cozy apartment overlooking the Beijing skyline, with the infamous Water Cube and Bird’s Nest glowing softly in the distance. Nothing too fancy, but definitely a nice place to call home. So far it has been a big challenge. My two hosts, an old Chinese couple, have been very welcoming and friendly but don’t speak a word of English. While I can’t complain about the food my host mom cooks (amazing), our nightly conversations are still pretty rough around the edges. More often than not, I have to use guess work to communicate but it forces me to talk, listen and think instead of staring at the internet or heading to the bar.

Culturally, I've quickly learned that both real and host Chinese mothers hate it when you leave the house without warm headgear and socks during winter. I wouldn't recommend trying it, unless you like being cold and making your host mom worry. It will be interesting to see how things develop over the next few months, particularly with Chinese New Year approaching.