Week 4: Chinese Lessons

The above picture shows my main tools in my quest to learn Chinese. I made the yellow cards so that I could practice the pronunciation of vowel combinations (which I largely worked on last week), and the paper on the sides are used to practice words. I have somewhere between 120-150 words memorized, with a goal of learning 100 words per week for the rest of this month. I also have just started to learn some Chinese characters, as I’ve realized how important they are for understanding the language (it’s like learning the Latin and Greek roots for English), not to mention how useful it is for reading signs and labels.

I’m starting to think that learning Chinese isn’t as hard as it looks, especially if you really want to learn. Actually, since the Romanized transcription of Chinese characters happened last century, the language has been put into a very sensible form, with few phonetic irregularities. The tones (each sound can be made with five different inflections) add an unfamiliar element, but it’s manageable. Though I still rely heavily on the context of a conversation to understand what’s being said.

Of course, the people around me have helped a lot too. My brother Darryn set me on the path of learning to read the pronunciations before worrying about specific words, the other western teachers have shared with me the words that are most useful in day-to-day interactions, and some of the kids at lunch have quizzed me on my vocabulary, which they are all better at than me, though I usually can teach them something new (like “physics”). But the greatest help has come from Lily, a Chinese teacher at my school. Everyday this weak in which she has not been busy after school, she has given me lessons, and some have been very original. My favourite type of lesson is when she takes me out so that I can talk to random people on the street. This may sound odd, but in China, talking to strangers isn’t frowned upon (Canada could learn from this). I usually just ask simple questions, and don’t understand much of the answer, but I’m getting better. It’s also nice just to go for a walk (as my school borders the main beach in Huangdao).

Learning Chinese has taken up most of my week, but there are some other note-worthy events. One of which was on Monday when at about 3:30pm, the sky turned black. I took the following picture with my camera at its highest ISO setting.



None of the other teachers had seen anything like it before, and we weren’t sure what the cause was, but my best guess is fog, a ridiculously large amount of fog! In most cities this might be a silly suggestion, but Huangdao can be an extremely foggy place. Here’s another one of the view across an intersection.



In more interesting news, Lily and I went to the Huangdao zoo on Saturday. Of course, we incorporated a Chinese lesson into our travel with me having to ask strangers directions to the zoo. I practiced the words I needed to use the night before, but the strangers still had trouble helping me (the zoo is in a remote part of Huangdao). Luckily, helping foreigners is enjoyable for most, so I had the help of a crowd which could point me [mostly] in the right way.

Here is Lily by the fantastic gate:



The zoo was large, there weren’t that many animals, but they had some of the greats. Here’s a sample:









One of my favourite experiences was feeding some sort of monkey dudes. It cost about 40 Canadian cents, so I was definitely game for it. Here are some photos:





Lily and I also fed a giraffe (this cost like 70 cents), which was also pretty fun.



I tried to get the kids around me to feed the giraffe, but they were too scared, except for this girl:



Without a doubt the weirdest part of the zoo was watching the “animal show.” At the Toronto zoo, one of my favourite parts is the bird show, so I was hoping that China might have something similar. I knew things weren’t right when I saw a cow in the middle of the field. Then, without much surprise, a lion came out.



The lion started off pretty good with some good bites.



The lion was doing so well, they had to bring in the truck, which I think is some sort of referee.



Anyway, after the truck came out, the cow took control and survived the match. The announcer said that they usually have a few lions attack the cow, but since one of the lions just had a baby, this lion was on her own.

There were definitely some other highlights, but I think that’s enough talk about the zoo.

Sunday was pretty relaxed with most of the day taken up with memorizing words. I also have found a place that sells great baozi (~steemed buns~), which is great as I have finally found a place where I can frequently go to.

That about sums up my week. Today (Monday) was another great day, partly because I had so much fun at lunch/recess. It’s like being a kid, but better, because you get to be the biggest kid!