deydreaming

I’ve been living in China for over five months now and I’m ashamed to say that I haven’t really learned much Chinese — umm, excuse me, the correct term is Mandarin. Chinese people call their language Chinese so I’m calling it that too.

My excuse isn’t that I hang-out with a bunch of other expats. No, I’m surrounded by Chinese people all the time. Chinese people with very limited English speaking skills. How do I get by? Well, I’ve learned some words in Chinese, combined with the few words that they know in English, plus pointing, and lots of Google translate. But, it’s getting to the point where that’s really not enough, and I refuse to continue to be one of those foreigners that doesn’t learn the language of the country that they’re living in!

The truth is I’m a bit scared to learn Chinese, actually I mainly fear that I won’t be able to learn it. It just sounds so foreign!  But, I’ve been around it long enough and I cannot continue to keep relying on my Chinese liaison (oh, yeah, there’s a person that helps me communicate with the school, so she helps me get by too).

I’m making myself continue to study Chinese and this time to be diligent about it. I’m giving myself a thirty minute window, every day, to start with. I have the tools to do so, I’m signed up for a Coursera Chinese course, then I downloaded a bunch of Spotify playlists, plus I have a Chinese textbook, and, yeah, I’m surrounded by Chinese people. So, we’ll see how far I get in the next five months. I hope that I will be able to carry-on a simple conversation, or at the very least that I’ve quadrupled my vocabulary!

Quick list of the words that I know so far:

Hello: Nín hǎo

Good-morning: zǎoshang hǎo

I like: wǒ xǐhuān

Do you like: nǐ xǐhuān ma?

Thank you: xièxiè

Meal time: Chīfàn

Tomato: xīhóngshì

Seaweed: hǎidài

Cucumber: huángguā

Celery: qíncài

Apple: píngguǒ

Orange: Google translate doesn’t have the right transition for this!

Grapes: Google translate doesn’t have the right transition for this!

Walk: Sànbù

Carrot: Húluóbo

Vegetables: Shūcài

egg-noode soup: Jīdàn miàn tāng

Rice: mǐfàn

Chicken: Jī

Meat: Ròu

Pork: Zhūròu

Flower: Huā

I love you: Wǒ ài nǐ

Goodnight: Wǎn’ān

Stupid: Google translate doesn’t have the right transition for this!

Oh my god:  Google translate doesn’t have the right transition for this!

Good: Hǎo

I don’t understand: kin Bù dǒng

yes:  Google translate doesn’t have the right transition for this!

no: Méiyǒu

Water: Shuǐ

What is that: Zhè shì shénme

What is this: Zhè shì shénme

1—10:  Yī, èr, sān, sì, wǔ, liù, qī, bā, jiǔ, shí

Yeah, I know, it’s not much so I gotta a long way to go…