I am learning how to speak Chinese. I figured if I want to teach English as a foreign language I should know what it takes to learn a whole new language, and even though I know basic Spanish, I think I should learn something totally different than English. So about 95% of my class speaks Mandarin, and according to Firefly, after the world explodes, the only languages that will survive are English and Chinese, and I want to be ready for all of that.
Lesson One: I am American. I now have this sentence down pact after three weeks of saying it again and again and again. One girl, who is fluent, yelled at me one day, "We get it! You are American! No one needs to hear you explain it because it is only the most obvious thing ever." Damnit.
Lesson Two: Dirty words. I learned then and then was told never to say them. Damnit.
Lesson Three: Chinese version of "Over the river and through the woods". I know how to sing a classic traveling song in a crazy language.
Lesson Four: You're doing it wrong. Apparently I say everything weird because there are 4 ways to say every sound, and if you change the tone of your voice you change the meaning of the word. The words "ma", "ma", "ma", and "ma" are four different words. Damnit is language is hard.
Lesson Five: Compliments. Wo how cu e. With my crazy spelling I just wrote "I am cute". I know how to call you cute. I know how to say great and cool also. The girls in my class all say I am so smart because I can construct my own sentences. I think they are just being nice and or they thought that I would never get it and are amazed when I finally did.
Lesson Six: Numbers. I know 2 only because it is a sound one would make after getting hit by a dodge ball "Ughr".
Lesson Never: Characters. I absolutely do not know how to write any of this down or how to read it.
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