我会说一点汉语

I constantly get asked two questions: "Are you American?" and "Do you speak Chinese?" The answer to both is affirmative, but I am quick to clarify the second answer with: "I only speak a little Chinese." Of course, I am then asked to speak in Chinese and generally comment on the weather (still cold) or how I feel about Qingdao (it is very beautiful).

While it will no doubt be quite a long time until I will answer simply "Yes, I speak Chinese," I have been bolstered by recent improvements in my language skills. Every day brings new vocabulary, as well as more characters to memorize. As I build my vocabulary, I have more room to explain myself when I get stuck. While I consistently lack the actual word I want to use, I can now fumble my way through expressing what I want successfully enough to be given the correct word. There have even been some words I never thought I would use, such as "freeze-dried dumplings," that I have indeed used in conversation. After spending several days on vocabulary about being a guest and making dumplings, I was indeed invited to someone's house to make dumplings. What a perfect time to practice!!

One day a few weeks ago I went shopping and came back to the dorm elated, excitedly wanting to share my stories. Not many people understood why I was so happy, but I had experienced my first real success in Chinese! Considering I had learned words for colors and clothing recently, I was perfectly able to shop on the street. Instead of just asking the price and being shown numbers on a calculator, I was actually able to communicate with the sellers, asking about additional merchandise and making polite conversation.

"This color is too light. Do you have darker colors, maybe black?"
"These shoes are too big. Do you have smaller ones?"
"Why is this shirt 60? The sign says 30-50?"
"Why, yes, this is very comfortable."
"It's very pretty, but I don't think I will buy it."

Some phrases I even pulled directly from my textbook's practice dialogue, which greatly amused my classmates when I told them in class the next day. I ended up with good bargains (and really awesome yellow shoes!) but I was more excited to have engaged in a conversation where I didn't feel like I forced the other speaker to stifle their vocabulary. Success!

My friends and I have started to speak Chinese more often when we are just chatting. English gets thrown in a lot and Chinese words get misused but we all have the same vocabulary so we can all follow each other! In addition, each day's new vocabulary allows us to learn more about our classmates that don't speak English; we can only communicate in Chinese so it is a relationship in progress. We must be fun to watch at lunch: one person will attempt to explain something to the group using a combination of Chinese and hand motions, another person will catch on and then attempt to provide additional vocabulary that might help the people still lost, then finally there's a big aha moment before everyone laughs.

Oh, did I mention I had a dream in Chinese. It was mostly someone speaking Chinese to me and me getting frustrated that I could not understand it, but still, what a sign that I'm learning!

I Spy Beijing

Pandas at the Beijing Zoo

Summer Palace

For Blake: something out of a video game he and Drew play.

The excuse for building the Summer Palace was this lake so the navy could train

Forbidden City

Lots of people play this game in the park. We want to learn!

Man playing the sheng

Man playing the 2-stringed erhu. Notice the bow is trapped inside the strings.

Temple of Heaven

Silk factory; gathering thread out of silk worm cocoons

Weaving a silk rug

Scorpions on a stick!

At the Bird's Nest

Water Cube

Climbing that kinda-big wall

All the Missouri State students currently studying at Qingdao

You can ride a toboggan down the side of the Great Wall. Seriously. It's a blast! We all sped our way down the side of the mountain!

Melissa: How I Spend My Time

Just a quick note to explain some of the fun things I am doing: 

-Monday afternoons from 2-4 is a required culture class. So far we have discussed poetry, art, and differences between China and the Western world. Our teacher speaks very good English and we learn a great deal every week. Further topics include politics, history, and education. 

-Mondays from 4-5:30 and Thursdays from 3:30-5:30 I take an optional Kung Fu class. On Thursdays there is an actual class of around 16 students; I am not enrolled in the class but I get to go join. On the first day, we did lots of stretching exercises and then taught the first few positions of a movement sequence. After about an hour, everyone seemed to split off and do their own things. While most of the students were just talking, I was practicing each of the positions over and over again. As a result, I earned private instructions from one of the teachers. When I go to Kung Fu, I no longer have to join the class but instead get to work in the corner of a room with a few other students who have private projects! Yay! 

Working individually means I have to work hard! I want to impress my teacher, as well as avoid being knocked over when he demonstrates that my posture is not well-balanced. I wish I knew my teacher's name because he rocks! He's much, much smaller than me but is extremely skilled. Other than me calling him "laoshi" (teacher), we really can't communicate so he just moves (usually hits!) different parts of my body into the proper positions. It's strenuous. I get into a pose and then hold it for minutes on end while he makes minute adjustments, then I go back to the basic position and then move into the pose again while he fixes it. Over and over. I can feel myself sweating from the effort of keeping my body poised exactly right. It's like yoga on steroids and I'm pretty much in love with it! 

-Tuesday afternoons is an optional painting/calligraphy class. Hunter, Andy, Josh, Drew, and Madison are also all taking this class. All the students essentially work by themselves while the teacher comes around to help. We are practicing making strokes in the proper way (extremely hard!) and creating bird and flower drawings. I like painting more than calligraphy, but the two are connected so it is important to practice both. As part of my birthday present, Hunter gave me painting books for inspiration and paint. I created a very pretty painting of a branch with red flowers. According to Chinese rule, I also left room on the side for calligraphy (probably a poem) but am leaving that blank until I am better at writing! 

Oh, pictures of Qingdao coming soon! I haven't taken that many yet because I've been so busy being a good student, but I am spending the weekend exploring the city so I'll get to take some pictures. It's a 3-day weekend because of 清明节,also known as Tomb Sweeping Day. Lots of students are travelling but we're going to be exploring our own city!