曾盛
我是七年前离开中国到海外谋生的，七年不算很长的时间，但这段日子活得挺累挺累的。
大概是因为靠海之故吧，我们乡下素来离家到海外谋生的人很多，所以我加入了这一行列也并不奇怪。我们家本来就不算很富裕，但为了让我能顺利地出国谋生，家人特地向有钱的人家借了钱并托人为我办理出国护照和签证。我先是到了日本。在日期间，我在大阪的一家中华酒楼打杂。工作很辛苦，但除了生活上必要的开支之外，我很少花钱。两年后，我储存了一点儿钱，于是返回中国的乡下，反正在日本的生活也不太好熬。回到家后我着手做点小买卖。但谁料运气太差，我不但在生意上没有多大的声色，甚至还把从日本带回来的钱花得精光。没法，我又得设法离家谋生。这次我赴英国。
初抵英国时我进了伦敦近郊的一间中式餐馆打杂。工资很低，听人说现在餐馆打杂的工资远远不及往年。工资不多还不算，现在的房租却比前贵得多，所以我总觉得手头很紧很紧。怎么办呢？我决定申报难民身份。较早前，要想在英国申报难民身份并不太难。有了难民身份后，申求公屋就很容易。就这样我顺利地住进了公屋；公屋虽说不上什么高级住宅，但比起租用私人的房子来，房租倒是便宜了不少。再说，住公屋，业主也不会像私有产业的房东那样，常常到来检查，每次都对室内室外的一切指手画脚，唠唠叨叨的数落一番。正因为没人检查，住公屋方便朋友熟人来访或留下过夜。朋友来多了，后来有些人干脆搬进来长住，成了我的‘客户’。事实上，象我这样的情况并不罕见，反正大多数人在初抵步时都租不起私人的房子。不久，我把妻子从中国担保过来，才让搭住的朋友们搬出去。
在英国的这几年，工作时有时无：有时在餐馆打杂，有时做临时装修工；而每逢无活可干或生病不能干活时，我便领取救济金。近几年来，由于登陆英国申报难民身份的人越来越多，找寻工作比以前更为困难；即使能找到工作，工资也很低。不过，总而言之，在英国，尽管生活未必很稳定，但主要你能吃苦，温饱还是不成问题的。对我来说，最大的困难还是语言。在日本时我学会了一些日文，出街入市还算应付得来；况且日文中掺有不少汉字，有时候虽不会说也能猜出其中意思。在英国，不懂英语问题就大了。前些时我生病，要定时到医院去检体，由于不会讲英语，遇到的麻烦非常多。我的妻子过来之后，同样遇到这类麻烦，因为女人要到医院的机会好象更多一些。我与妻子商量好，日后有了孩子，一定要让他们好好学习，掌握语言和科技知识，这样在英国才有出路。
Adapting to a New Environment
Zeng Sheng
I left
China
seven years ago to go abroad. Those seven years were perhaps not too long a period, but however, they were to some extent a hard time for me.
Maybe because my home village was a seaside village, so that it was somewhat easier for people to leave for faraway places. At any rate it explains my departure seven years ago. Our family was not in any sense rich then, but in order for me to be able to leave, we borrowed money from a relatively wealthier family to arrange the necessary travel papers. First I went to
Japan
, where I worked for a Chinese restaurant in
Osaka
. The work in the restaurant was heavy for me, but I seldom spent money except for the necessities. That way I was able to save up some money after two years there. Since life in
Japan
was not actually very comfortable for me, I returned to
China
where I started up a small business. However, I had much luck for this venture, for which I poured in most of the money I had brought home from
Japan
. Frustrated, I left
China
again, this time for the
UK
.
When I first came to the
UK
I worked in a Chinese restaurant in a
London
suburb. The wage I received was low, as I had been told that long ago the wages for the same job had been a lot higher. With an already low wage, I had to pay a high rent for somewhere to stay, though. For this reason I was always broke. How should I face this? There was nothing I could do except apply for refugee status so that support could be secured. In fact it was too difficult to get this done then, after all. And as soon as you are a refugee or asylum-seeker you can apply for council housing. This was how I got my council flat. Council accommodation is not the best, but by comparison the rents are lower, and there is no landlord to trouble you with this and that all the time. And since there is no landlord to check on you, your friends can visit you anytime and may even stay with you. Eventually some of them may even become your tenants. This is nothing new anyway, most people would do this when they first came. Later, I applied for my wife to come over from
China
to stay with me. So my friends had to find somewhere else to move out.
I have been here for several years now. Sometimes I work and sometimes I don’t. If I find work it would be in catering or in property maintenance. If I can’t find work I get Jobseeker’s Allowance. In recent years because there have been too many people claiming asylum, finding work has become more difficult. Even if you can find work, the wages are very low. However, in the
UK
, as long as you don’t mind, feeding your mouth shouldn’t be a huge problem, even though life is not always very comfortable. For me though the biggest problem seems to be the language barrier. When I was in
Japan
I was able to learn a few sentences, so that I was more or less able to cope with things like shopping and so on. In any case some of the Japanese characters are also Chinese ones, so that I was able to guess the meaning of them without being able to read. In the
UK
though, things are different. Earlier I had been unwell I had to visit hospital quite often, and that caused me lots of problems as I could not speak English. Now my wife faces the same problem since coming over there, as women tend to need more health check-ups in the health clinics. For this we hope that one day, when we have children, we will get them the best education possible, so that they will be able to settle in the country a lead a better life.
