OPINION: I never imagined my first week as an international student in Auckland would begin with a sense of starvation.
Not hunger for knowledge, but hunger for food. In China, lunch is considered the most important meal of the day – I was brought up to have lunch at either 11.30am or 12pm.
After my first day at AUT University, I was shocked to see people’s relaxed approach to taking a lunch break.
I couldn’t help but wonder why New Zealanders do not appear to have a fixed time to have lunch.
To answer my question, I searched the New Zealand Stock Exchange website to see if they had a lunch break. I was shocked to uncover they operated from 10am to 4:45pm without closing down for a lunch break.
Beyong imagination
I told this to my friend, Gao Yuanying, who works at a brokerage firm in Beijing. She couldn’t believe Kiwis didn’t stop for lunch - even the financial sector in China does.
Again, the next day, I couldn’t have my lunch when I wanted to. My biological alarm clock kept reminding me “it’s time for lunch”. How I miss my days at the China Daily!
I could just head for the canteen to have lunch with my colleagues.
I was unable to access a local securities trader, or conduct a nationwide survey, but I found some AUT students do not have a concept of a fixed lunch time.
Third-year AUT journalism student Jessi Mee was surprised to hear that some people around the world stopped what they are doing to have lunch at a fixed time.
People need to realise Chinese people are educated to have three meals a day and most consider 12 o’ clock as their lunch time and may even rest afterwards.
I later talked to a Chinese first year business studies student at AUT, who thought she could never get used to the idea of not having a fixed lunch time. However, after some time she has now become used to it.
Quick lunch
I talked to my friend Huang Lulu, who moved from Guangzhou province in China to New Zealand 15 years ago. She said many students here concentrate their study into as short time as possible, as lunch can be finished before or after classes in about 5 to 10 minutes.
Then they will have time to do part-time jobs or run their own business, she added.
My claim for a lunch time seems absurd, even to a native Chinese who has lived here for 15 years and I felt even “guilty” the day after I met Huang as I may be seen as an energy-waster not willing to adapt to local culture, who is just here for education.
This article was first published by Te Waha Nui Online.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
Song Jingli
