learning Chinese

Okay, after 4 months here, I really should know a little more than ní hǎo.  So, I've decided to become serious about it and a colleague (Mike) and I hired a tutor to teach us.  Her name is Zoe and she comes to my house twice a week. 

Mike trying to get his head around the tones.

We spent the first few weeks literally learning tones.  Mandarin has 4 tones: flat, up, down/up and down.  The meaning of a word differs dramatically depending on the tone.  For example these 4 words all mean different things:

mā        mother

má        hemp

mǎ        horse

mà        scold

It's very easy to get the tone wrong, and sometimes a bit dangerous too as we might say inappropriate words.

Having covered the tones and basic vocabulary, we are now learning small dialogues.  It's very hard to get it right and have any sort of fluency in our conversation but with practice...

I have a few friends here who have studied Chinese for about a year and they can get by okay.  This is not going to be an easy language to learn for me but I'm determined to try!

if you were a vegetable, what would you be?

This weekend I found myself at the Guangxi TV studios in the audience of a 'Blind Date' show.  Some of my friends were in the show and we were along for support.  One was a girl who was in the panel of contestants.  The ladies all bring their mother and my (American) friend brought her Chinese sister in law.  It was funny to see all these chinese girls (and mothers) and then one white American!  She proved to be quite popular and was picked by some of the guys (http://vod.gxtv.cn/VodInfo.aspx?Pid=572&Id=39544).

The next day, an Australian friend of ours was one of the 'selectors' (http://vod.gxtv.cn/VodInfo.aspx?Pid=572&Id=39756).  This was fun to watch as he was on stage for a long time and had to talk in his limited Chinese (a lot better than mine of course!).  He had an interpreter on stage with him to help him out where necessary.  The contestants get to ask each other questions and the mothers get to put their two cents in too.  Not surprisingly, he had questions along the lines of 'how will we communicate' and 'where will you want to live?'

He ended up picking a girl, who after audience pressure (and against her mother's wishes) accepted him. 

China's most picturesque city...

For May Day weekend, a bunch of us visited Guilin (and Yangshuo), in the northeast of Guangxi.

'sunny' Guilin

This is the number one place that Chinese people wish they could visit as it's known to be so beautiful - and I have to agree with that description.  The city is on the Li River and the area is studded with small limestone hills covered in trees, known as the Kaft Hills.  Over the years, these have eroded and now some people claim that they have the shape of a dog's head, or an elephant...

looks like a poodle

elephant trunk??

We'd arrived very early as we'd been on an overnight bus from Nanning.  So, by 630am we were in one of the parks and it was great to see how busy it was with people doing their morning excercises.  There are dance classes, keep fit and tai chi going on or just the odd people doing their stretches.

In the park we also visited a cave.  This was extremely large and they'd created pathways and 'light shows' all the way through.  We tagged along a chinese group, of course not understanding the commentary.  We did have 2 people in our group who speak chinese so every now and then we'd get snippets of the information.

We only had 3 days so we spent one in Guilin, where unfortunately it mostly rained.  The next day we went to Yangshuo, this is a very touristy town, and was a real change from Nanning as it was so western.  But ultimately I'm happy to be living in Nanning, and not in such a touristy area.  From Yangshuo a few of us took a trip on a bamboo raft on the Yu Long river, which is off the main Li River.  This was very peaceful and incredibly beautiful.  We got lucky as it was our only non-rainy day.

maybe not all of it was 'peaceful'

Yangshuo is known for it's impressive light show (http://www.yangshuo-travel-guide.com/liu-sanjie-show.html) created by the chief director and creative brain of the 2008 Olympic Games.  We tried to see the show, and even went to the location, but at the last minute they cancelled it, due to the rain.  So, this is a reason to return to Yanshuo!

The markets were fun to walk around and I enjoyed meandering through the town (and getting lost a few times!).  Some of the stuff for sale is pretty much generic and seen everywhere (even in the Italian markets sometimes) but I like it anyway.