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Published: December 19th 2010
2010 Christmas Card
Merry Christmas from China!
Ni Hao!
That means Hello in Chinese, it sounds like you are saying knee how in English. So after 4 months you can see how far my Chinese has come along! Haha no just playing, my Chinese or pu tong hua as its called is actually coming along really well as of the last 2 months.
As I mentioned earlier, Sean and I got a tutor named Jenny who comes by the place twice a week for two hours and we go over pronunciation and forming sentences and she introduces new vocab to us. Its wild cuz in the Chinese language, there are 4 tones for each word and the tone dictates what the word actually means. Needless to say the tones are very crucial in learning Chinese.
For Example: Xiè xiè (both 4th tone) means Thank You, but if you say Xiè xié (4th and 2nd tone) you get Crab Shoes! ITs become a little joke between the 6th of us instead of saying thank you in English we just say crab shoes.
Anyways, on top of the tutor I got audio tapes that i put on my ipod and whenever im walking to school, on the metro, or going to bed I pop it in and try and soak up some sentences. Its cool when I learn sentences on the tapes and then I can use them in conversation when im talking with a Chinese person. Granted I usually end up saying, "Wǒ bù míngbái nǐ shuō shenme" which means, I do not understand what you are saying haha.
I would say though that the biggest contribution in me learning Chinese has been through teaching. While I am teaching the Chinese kids English, I hear everyday sayings while in the classroom and walking around the school. they are all so young so if they are telling me their English name, their favorite color, or saying hello and bye bye then they usually just spew Chinese at me. Now i find myself having convos with the 2nd graders during recess!
I remember when i first got hear and I would hear people speak and i couldnt get over how fast and how weird the language sounded but now i find myself picking up on peoples side conversations and get the gist of their conversations. Each day I make more and more progress and try and pick up a few words each day. As far as reading and writing goes I have written that off as a lost cause, i mean they have over 20,000 different characters for their words, then again, when i first got here i did not think i would be able to speak Chinese as much as i am now so maybe down the road ill look into it. Im taking baby steps!
Its something that I want to keep up with though given that it could be a huge asset for future business endeavors. And with the way the Chinese economy is booming and growing the chances of doing business with China becomes more and more likely. Will be a great tool to have.
Thats all for now, but we got xmas coming up here so Ill be sure to fill you in on what the Chinese think of Christmas and how my Christmas went with a blog post on Christmas day. I have taken some funny pictures of the Christmas decor in China that you'll want to see. Its so funny to me that they have no idea what Christmas is actually about but they set up all the decorations for it.
Have a Merry Christmas everyone!
Zài jiàn (Bye Bye)
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George
non-member comment
Keep them coming
Great Blog, can't tell you how much Lesli Ann and I enjoy. It would be great to learn to speak the language, what dielect are toy learning (Mandarin or Cantonese)? I would guess Mandarin.