First day of class
I had my first lesson today. It went very well. I have class from 8:30am to 10:30am and then from 4:00pm to 6:00pm. We didn’t do much, but I didn’t expect to do too much at the start. We mostly reviewed the tones, first set of initials, and first set of finals, and then spent a little bit of time on vocabulary and going over numbers (which are still very tough for me). Here is a brief run down:
0 – ling – 2nd tone (low to high)
1 – yi (yao for phone numbers) – both first tone (flat)
2 – er – 4th tone (high to low) – [or liang (3rd tone) at times -- telling time]
3 – san – first tone (flat)
4 – si – 4th tone (high to low)
5 – wu – 3rd tone (medium to low to high)
6 – liu – 4th tone (high to low)
7 – qi – first tone (flat) – pronounced like ci in Italian, or the ci of “cia pet” in English (I know…retarded….but the analogy works)
8 – ba – first tone (flat)
9 – jiu – 3rd tone (medium to low to high)
10 – shi – 2nd tone (low to high)
I initially though I would rather have the 4 hours either all at once or less spread apart, so that I could finish with class and go on to studying or whatever. 2 hours of 1-on-1 time, however, is a LOOOOONG time……especially when you spend the whole time trying to pronounce things. My voice was dead by the end of the day.
I then decided to see if I could find my way to a few places on my own. I went to the bank (Bank of China) (Zhongguo yinhang), xinbai plaza (7 story mall), and the electronics center. I also figured out how to get to the Konall office on my bike. Not a lot to report…..the phone in my apartment got hooked up. I had dumplings for dinner 
November 1st, 2005 at 4:56 am
That class schedule that you have seems to be spread out quite a bit. It’s nice to have that kind of a break though to digest and maybe wander around trying to utilized what you just learned. Seems to me that you’ll be far way advanced come December with all that 1-1 time. That definitely is the best way to learn though.
Dumplings for dinner ain’t bad at all. It’s better than the food here in Daytona. No culture what so ever. Just got a new shipment of lumpia though from San Diego. That’s going to go fast! Have fun Andy.
November 1st, 2005 at 5:52 am
Elijah…..at this point it is more like walk around and try to avoid having people talk to me because I don’t understand a thing
Dumplings are good! What is lumpia?
November 1st, 2005 at 9:29 am
Must be great to finally sink your teeth into the regimen of learning. SAounds exceedingly difficult, having to learn various tones as well as meanings. It should get easier as you go along. I’m sure that they stagger the lessons for a reason. Don’t want to give you brain cramps at the start. Continue to enjoy and don’t turn into a giant foreign dumpling!
Love, Gramps
November 1st, 2005 at 8:22 pm
uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez…. eso es muy facil…. no, estoy bromeando. El idioma chino es uno de los mas dificiles de aprender y cuando aprendas eso, los demas van a ser ‘un pedazo de ponque’ (literal translation for ‘a piece of cake’). Quien es tu maestro (profesor) y de que nacionalidad es?. Me imagino lo dificil que sera cuando empieces a escribir los simbolos.. pero que ‘chevere’ (bueno) que estes aprendiendo todo eso.
John
November 2nd, 2005 at 3:33 am
Viejo,
Tienes razon….es muy facil (en espanol). No entiendo “demas”….que es? Mi maestro es un chino que se llama “Michael”. Si….tengo miedo de los simbolos. Hay mucho simbolos!!!
Andy
November 2nd, 2005 at 8:28 am
“demas” means “what comes later, or after.” I’m agog at your fluency with so many languages! And your writing — precise, evocative, funny, masterful. You seem to enjoy it, too. I hope you’ll collect them in a book, “Gulliver does China.” I’m SO PROUD.
Mom
November 2nd, 2005 at 2:36 pm
Mom……thanks. I am stunned too. I initially was going to write those emails only in English since I was worried about not being able to do the other languages w/o any of my books (dictionaries or verb books) but I first tried Italian and it wasn’t tough and then I figured there was no way to do it in Spanish…but it worked OK as well (I had to creatively reword a lot of things, but it worked). I was SOOOO pleased with myself
Thanks a lot,
Andy