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Published: June 18th 2011
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Wish you were here
Charlene's photo of Peter and I at Gloria Jean's Photos:
…..it's cooler now, considering it's summer, rainy & gloomy. We often need the lights on during the day but at least it's reasonably warm & the humidity is tolerable when it's not hot.....
…..it's not my decision to visit Papa John's for pizza. Western food here is over priced & not a patch on the fantastic variety available in hundreds, if not thousands of eateries around town. Still, democracy must be seen to be a practical option so I go along with a group of teachers, ostensibly for a group birthday celebration for those of us whose birthdays fall on, or near the end of the school year. Luckily our friend Shen Yue is back from Nantong for a while, is at the school & accompanies us. We may not have understood that the women at the door of Papa John's were telling us that they were out of cheese & we could come in a wait an hour for our western “fast food”!.....
…..we quickly go to plan B & visit the Laoma (“Old mother”) chain restaurant opposite. For much less than we would have paid at Papa Johns we get more than we can
eat & a selection that includes various meat, fish & vegetable dishes including Wa Gan Guo, an absolutely fantastic frog dish. (Apologies to my sister, who can't abide frogs but I don't mind when you mention you've eaten pig!).....
…..it seems that there may be visitors from the UK in China. A cousin from my “new” family, (this is a big story I'm not going to explain here!), Mike, is a music director. He was in China earlier directing the music for the Miss World competition in Hainan, in southern China. He is flying back & forth for a show in Beijing. With the school year about to end I should be able to work out a convenient meeting time. I also had a message from Duncan, the son of a cousin in the UK, who is travelling around China & hopes to be in Shanghai soon if he makes it with his “limited Chinese”, which he clarifies as meaning “none”.....
…..I have begun the application process for a degree course in languages with the University of New England, (Armidale, new South Wales, not the USA. It will be part time & online, so I can learn while
I'm here with 1.3 billion teachers & able to scrape by on my salary, approximately equivalent to the dole in Australia though, to be fair, the dole doesn't include a small apartment, food, electricity & internet costs. I am broadcasting my application in the hope that I'll be less likely to chicken out if enough people know about it!Other foreign teachers are leaving the school to study full time in Chinese universities. Time may reveal the advantages & disadvantages of both approaches.....
…..& what progress, if any, am I making? It seems that conversation, while not fluent, gets a little easier week by week. I receive a standing ovation in the office when I answer the phone by myself, (always harder on the phone, where you can't point, mime or use other cues). I managed to ask, “Who do you want to speak to?” & tell them that person had already started class so they'd have to call later. Another teacher I don't know recognises me at a bus stop & asks if I want a lift to the school. Her husband, also a teacher, is on his way to pick her up. I am chauffeur driven in their
Laoma, Yangzhou
Real fast food, usually not more than 5 minutes to get food on the table new, black Mercedes to the school & manage to talk about the weather, various countries I or the husband have visited, (the lady, more typically, has never been outside China), & plans for the future. Not without a little effort on both sides but, hey, it's progress.....
…..while English is almost completely composed of words from other languages & the French use English words, although it's apparently frowned on in some quarters to say, “Le weekend”, Chinese has been a more insular language. They create words for new things using existing characters in devastatingly logical fashion, like microphone, kuo-yin-qi, or “enlarge sound instrument”. More loan words are creeping in though, mostly from English. The disadvantage for the Chinese is that the characters used to mimic the sound of English usually make absolutely no sense in Chinese. To us the sound usually bears only a passing resemblance to the original word. See if you can figure out any of these. Pronounce each syllable separately, as the Chinese do:
gi-ta, bu-ding, san-min-che, wei-shi-ji jiu (clue; “jiu” means alcohol), ka-tong, qiao-ke-li,
tu-si, yi-mei, mai-ke-feng, (answers below).....
…..Ha Ha! China is not the only country in need of English teachers. Here
Grace's kittens
Peter's substitute for kids is a spam email I received, allegedly from someone in Russia. Sorry, if you want to contact her, I didn't keep the email address:
Hello. I'm Alena.
I am the beautiful girl. I am do not have man's attention. I am want to find second half for family creation. If you still alone, answer me please on my e-mail: It will be very good if you answer me. Your Alena.....
…..while some students during our end of year testing lead us to feel that we've just wasted a whole year there are some bright spots. I have some students who have said NOTHING intelligible during previous tests. A few still don't but I have some now who not only have their hands raised almost permanently to answer questions but who are doing reasonably well in the spoken English tests. Not grade A yet but I started on the last test giving something to all those who attained an A grade but also to anyone who raised their grade, even from D to C.....
…..our school band, currently Roger, Peter, Gyu, & myself, augmented by Tom, a Chinese teacher who plays saxophone & a couple of elementary school students,
Irish coffee, Yangzhou
Probably not recognised in Ireland Tom & Rachael, sharing the drumming, have one gig, at the school auditorium, on Sunday evening. That's it. I don't think I'll be volunteering next year. Practising on Monday lunchbreaks for one or two shows a year. The Friday evening gigs at Gloria Jean's coffee shop are going well, even though Peter is out of sorts this Friday & I do the gig by myself. Jinghua, the manager, is searching out other musicians to join me when Peter leaves & a young English guy, who has apparently been playing at Ronnie's Australian bar, turns up & we manage a short duet near the end.....
…..I & other foreign teachers, normally so conspicuous, suddenly become virtually invisible if we are on the bus or in town with Charlene. Her hair is a constant source of wonder to the Chinese who very rarely, if ever, see Africans or African-Americans in real life & of course the braided hair is a show stopper. She does, understandably, get annoyed when on the bus, turning sideways to talk to us, women on the seat in front of her start running their fingers through her braids & examining her hair in detail. One day she
gonna whup their ass.....
…..and the English loan words, (translated into English!), are:
gi-ta: guitar
bu-ding: pudding
san-ming-che: sandwich
wei-shi-ji jiu: whisky (“jiu” means alcohol)
ka-tong: cartoon
qiao-ke-li: chocolate
tu-si: toast
yi-mei: email
mai-ke-feng: microphone
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Tony Schick
non-member comment
GeeTar...
I got "guitar" and "sandwich". That's all!