Melissa: How do you say adventure in Chinese?

 
Here's what I've discovered in the past week of class: this language barrier thing is hard! I now have a much greater respect for people living in the United States trying to learn English; being surrounded by a culture that you just can't understand is exhausting!  I think I was spoiled by my experience in South Africa; I picked up Afrikaans extremely quickly, even succeeding in classes that lectured in Afrikaans! Here, I can't even order my dinner.

 

On one hand, it makes life exciting. Making it through each day is an accomplishment as I survive (even conquer!) numerous small adventures.

 

It's an adventure to order food. If the restaurant doesn't have a picture menu or English subtitles, then I just give up on the menu entirely because I don't know what any of the characters mean, really. Instead I give general requests: ji (chicken), zhurou (pork), qiezi (eggplant), etc. It's also important to include the important "bu tai la" (not too spicy). Then, I just accept whatever the chef gives me, which is often not what I'm expecting but extremely tasty!

 

It's an adventure to make your way around the city. Qingdao is a big place! Taxis aren't that expensive, but we're cheap so we usually take the bus. It is only 1 RMB (14 cents) to get anywhere in the city. A group of us went to the market this weekend; the ride took an hour but it was only 1 RMB! We normally only have vague ideas about where to stop, so we have to try to read the street signs and get clues from our surroundings. The buses themselves are VERY crowded. I know understand why China was in an uproar about H1N1 and the swine flu; I breath the germs of the many people crowded tightly around me as I cling desperately to the high railing near the ceiling. (It's even worse if I'm carrying bags!)  Getting off the bus is a process, as everyone literally shoves their way to the back door to exit as more people get on at the front door. I once felt bad about pushing people out of my way—no more! Ok, that's not actually true. I still feel bad, but I've gotten to the point where I am no longer tentative in my shoving! Once off the bus, it's usually necessary to ask for directions in broken Chinese and then attempt to translate the response.

 

It's an adventure to buy things at the supermarket. Some things are easy to identify: brooms, spoons and scissors look the same. Things that need labels are more complicated: laundry detergent, lotion, dish soap. Then there's deciphering food labels. I have to be careful, as everything from blueberry flavoured Lays to packaged jellyfish is available!  I recently bought this juicebox looking thing; I think it might be longlife milk that doesn't have to be refrigerated. There were many different colored boxes of the same brand. Are they flavoured? What does my blue box mean? Why is there a winged girl sitting on a whale on the front of the box? What does the nutritional content say? Who knows!

 

It's an adventure to do laundry. That's something I took for granted: being able to read directions on a washing machine. Of course, the washers in the dorm seem to confuse even the Chinese and everyone has developed their own system. Josh was taught to make the red indicator lights line up in a certain order, which will wash things but then leave water inside the washer so you then have to punch a different set of buttons in order to drain it. It's tedious, but works. After a four hour debacle with broken machines one night, a friendly German woman taught me a simpler way that actually drains it the first time around. Yes!

 

It's an adventure to make it through class! Josh, Drew, Hunter and I should probably be in the 101 class, but after taking a semester of Chinese at Missouri State we decided to forge our way through 102. How far behind are we? We know the material from approximately chapters 1-4. Day 1 of 102 started on Chapter 11. After six days of class we are now done with 11,12, 13 and half of 14. We're moving quickly and still have to find time to study the basics that we don't know!

 

I am doing alright with the new material, but I don't have the vocabulary background needed to communicate well in class. My evenings are spent doing homework, writing characters, and trying to learn chapters 1-10! I'm also struggling with the tones of the Chinese language. Chinese has four tones; getting the tone right is equally important as getting pronunciation right. I'm glad that I've started hearing more Chinese as that's the first step toward learning how to combine pronunciation, tones, and inflection!

 

Class lasts for four hours every day (8 AM to 12 PM). The first two hours are taught by Ding Laoshi ("laoshi" means teacher).  Ding Laoshi only speaks to us in Chinese and usually talks quickly, especially when she shares expressive stories; while I usually always know the gist of what is happening, I don't get all the details. This class focuses mostly on reviewing material. We also complete writing exercises and practice conversation exercises during the first two hours. The first day of a new chapter we have a tingxie (dictation quiz), where the teacher reads the new vocab words and we have to write the characters correctly. Next week, we are doing five lessons so there will be a tingxie every day. Joy.

 

The second two hours of class are taught by Wang Laoshi. Her job is to teach us new material. When starting a new chapter, we are responsible to come to class knowing the 20 new words' pronunciation and characters. Wang Laoshi then instructs about how to use the new material in proper grammatical form. This section of class sometimes moves a bit slower, with some explanations in English and more time for questions, as Wang Laoshi wants to make sure we completely understand the new material.

 

When class gets out at noon, my brain is usually completely exhausted from the morning's immense concentration. However, there's no time to rest because I have to travel somewhere and order food successfully, before facing many more adventures in Chinese! What a relief it is to go to bed each night and dream in English!