You may or may not know, but Ed and I are studying Chinese. We've hired a personal tutor to come and teach us the inner workings of the language. Needless to say, it is hard. It is damn hard. But after about a month or so of 'study', we can both agree that we are making some progress!
For example, last night Ed and I visited a new bar near our apartment. We were the only ones in there, which meant that the bar man felt it necessary to talk to us. Usually, people will just say something to us and we both shrug our shoulders and respond with a smile and "Ting bu dong" (I don't understand). And there ends the conversation.
Well, lo and behold, last night's conversation would not be stopped there!
We were able to have a three minute conversation with him! Well, to be more realistic, it was more like him asking us questions and us responding with one word answers (yes/no/teachers/not Xiada). But hell, we were able to understand his questions.
Yes, I have lived here for 6 months and can still only grunt out Chinese words, not sentences.
Yes, it is better if Ed is with me, because two brains work better than one.
Yes, I still have no idea how to say the simplest things in Chinese (like where's the toilet)--I just say WC and they point.
Yes, I still don't have any idea what the taxi drivers are saying to me unless the use the word Russia (which they do often).
But, I can say that something is too expensive.
I can tell someone that I don't want it.
I can talk about my family in the basic sense.
I can say that I'm an American.
And with Ed's help I can say a whole lot more!
Pretty good I think considering it took me a year to be able to do this much in Korea.
