@tommann, I agree. One moderate advantage of being Japanese though is that the Chinese can't generally distinguish them from their own by appearence alone. What that'll mean is that a random Japanese person walking in the wrong area wouldn't be targeted unless they're heard speaking Japanese, by their clothing or something like that. Sure, that doesn't bring any extra comfort to anyone though as personally, calling for the murder of an otherwise peaceful nation is absolutely bonkers.

Sure, we should all be careful as per the OP's warning, but since most users on this forum are not Japanese, I don't see why there should be additional concerns if you are a westerner, Thai or any other non-Japanese provided you steer clear of demonstrations and the like.

Speaking of demonstrations, I thought they were illegal in China? I have never personally witnessed one and many Chinese people whom I like to get an opinion about something that could be deemed controversial, they generally choose not to answer despite me asking in English (to be safe) and talking amongst friends in a busy restaurant or at home, where nobody else would be able to take much notice of what we're talking about anyway.

@newbe This is an old thread, but if it's still relevant to you, this is how: you generally have to pay for the classes even if you don't show up. It's a little expensive since you're looking at around 4,000+ Yuan and another 400 on top of that for the visa costs just to stay half a year or around 6,000-8,000 for one year + 400 for the visa (student visa i.e. residence permit valid for studying is always 400 no matter if you extend it for 6 months or a year).

The problem with Chinese that nobody mentioned is that it probably has one of the largest number of homophones (words that sound the same but have a different meaning) of any language in the world. I believe there are only 2000 unique syllables in Chinese, whereas English could easily have tens of thousands or 100,000+ (could a linguist please confirm this number?) When I say 2000 syllables I'm talking about 400 "words" with 5 different tone combinations so you end up with roughly 2000. The only way of effectively differentiating them is using Chinese characters or Hanzi.

Without characters, your life will be a lot more difficult. Don't worry too much about being able to write them, as many locals especially the younger generation are no longer good at that either, due to technology. You want to be able to read or at least recognize them and thus avoid confusion.

While I'm making progress with my Chinese, I can tell you that it's a pain trying to distinguish between words that all seemingly sound the same - I also have trouble trying to get myself to understand that just because a word is a homonym in English doesn't imply that Chinese will use a homonym for that same word or concept. I'm much better at learning languages with more words like Thai and Lao (which I am now fluent in because both languages have a large vocabulary, despite being tonal languages. They also borrow frequently from English and other languages, particularly for technology based words, which generally come from English).

Another confusing aspect of Chinese is the logic. Electricity + brain = computer? (diannao).

The funny thing is that when I used to teach English in Kunming some of my students preparing to go overseas for study would ask me: "How can we possibly remember all these words? Chinese only has a small number of words, but English has so many!"

I wouldn't be starting work until my residence permit for work is approved, a process that should take only 5 working days if all the paperwork is in order. At this point though, I am wondering about what my options are to get into Kunming on a tourist visa and then get it converted to a residence permit valid for work. I've received some conflicting information, but still nothing definitive.

I also like Dai food, but unfortunately many places in Kunming also make it really oily which is sad because if there was less oil the food would be superb. Down near Mengla I had a great meal with some friends and these locals from Jinghong we met at the national park place where you can walk along a walkway in the treetops. For some strange reason the park has a Thai name called "Pa Aranya".

Anyway, we had a superb Dai meal at this local restaurant located near Mengla on the way back from the park. Had excellent sticky rice with all sorts of fruits and nuts in it and about 15 different dishes most of which I have never had before. It wasn't oily at all, unlike Dai food in Kunming.