Mandarin Update

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Yay for me! My blog magically reappeared! I guess a lot of the entries were somehow restored. How great for the webmaster/admin. I bet a lot of time was spent trying to get them back. Travelblog is hosted by just one guy - I think it's not really for profit either. Anyway, I am thankful that I got most of my entries and photos back. 😊

So I have a Chinese test next week. I'm in trouble because part of the test is oral reading. Umm... of the 1,500 I'm supposed to know, I can literally read 300. I have to write in my own pinyin romanization on almost all of the text we study. Oh well. I'll study and just see how it goes! In the other class, I was literally the worst Chinese reader in the entire class. I switched to a different class (better teacher) and there's this Italian guy in the class and I think he's even worse than me when it comes to reading aloud.... but he's Italian! Sigh.

The good news is, I hung out with one of my language partners (named B) today who I haven't seen in weeks. She said to me, "You can totally speak Chinese now!" Haha. She said she was impressed that I've improved so much in the past few weeks. Yay for me! I think it's only because I threw in some fancy words in our conversations. 😉 B recently got a job teaching at Mandarin House, a private Mandarin learning center. It's such a small world because my other language partner, J, is an administrator at Mandarin House! They are coworkers/colleagues now! How funny that I randomly met B and she happens to know one of the only local girls I know in Shanghai (fyi, Shanghai has a population of over 14 million). Haha, maybe the world IS small! We are also the same age too - what a coincidence! Despite having completely different life perspectives and experiences, she is a pleasure to talk to and all around really nice. I'm lucky to get to know her.

This coincidence reminded me of the time I had lunch with B (friend of friend), who also randomly brought along C. We didn't talk about volunteering during lunch, but the next day when I showed up for volunteering, C happened to be the coordinator of the event! I think this reminds me that when we pursue our interests and goals, we end up meeting the kinds of people who we'll have things in common with!

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Comments

[twf]

good luck on your test!