I have fallen into a routine in which everyday is an adventure. I am teaching 240 Chinese students, exploring my surroundings, balancing time between my “brothers” and making new friends, drinking beer and learning tai chi, and trying to study a language that I am still unable to distinguish from scribbles.
The one consent in China is eating. I am always eating. Everything I have eaten is blog worthy delicious (I still haven’t cooked for myself or had western food).
I will start writing more, or lose my sanity. Living in Beibei is a total cultural immersion. I want to avoid cliché travel blog writing, so here is my China. Children here have a different “potty training”. Instead of diapers, the Chinese cut slits in the clothing in necessary areas for their children to fire away. I saw two separate babies today in downtown Beibei (European style eating, shopping, and plazas) shitting in the street. I think I would rather shit in the street than use the public restrooms.
Learning Chinese, or trying to learn Chinese, takes all my free time. I have Chinese class twice a week for an hour and half at night, but that brings me only slightly behind the shitting babies. I am basically trying to study three languages at once. We study Mandarin Chinese, which is the national language of the People’s Republic of China. To learn Mandarin, I must study pinyin, which uses Latin phonetic alphabet. For example, “Ni hao ma?” is the common greeting which means “Are you good?” Seems easy enough, but each word also carries a unique tone. “Ni” is the second tone which means it rises, “hao” is the third tone its pronunciations drops than rises, “ma” is the fifth tone and is therefore said quickly. Still got it?
Next I learn the characters. Memorization appears to be the only way this is possible. I find the characters fascinating, but learning them is challenging. I have been here nearly a month and can now maybe recognize 15-20 characters.
So, after a night of studying, John walks out to a restaurant to get some food. The moment I walk outside of Southwest University, Mandarin is thrown out the window. Chongqing dialect is what the common Beibei citizen speaks. The dialect is not a regional accent, but a whole new language. My understanding is that the dialect and Mandarin is comparable to Spanish and Italian, which are similar, but nowhere near as similar as American English and British English. I forgot to mention English is only spoken on campus, and it is British English. I am now accustomed to asking, “Where is the W.C.?”
I must arise and go now. I am going to meet my Chinese brothers to plan my National Day trip. Chinese National Day is a week long vacation starting October 1st in honor of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. I will be traveling to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan. Everyone said it is a lovely city with a laid back attitude, not to mention the home of the largest Panda bear reserve in the world. Look it up!
I need to start writing more.
If you want to send me mail, my address is:
John Murray
NO.2 Tiansheng Road,
Beibei, Chongqing 400715
P.R. China
If you send me a letter or a package, I will send you something in return-Something that is made in China.
Love,
John Murray
The one consent in China is eating. I am always eating. Everything I have eaten is blog worthy delicious (I still haven’t cooked for myself or had western food).
I will start writing more, or lose my sanity. Living in Beibei is a total cultural immersion. I want to avoid cliché travel blog writing, so here is my China. Children here have a different “potty training”. Instead of diapers, the Chinese cut slits in the clothing in necessary areas for their children to fire away. I saw two separate babies today in downtown Beibei (European style eating, shopping, and plazas) shitting in the street. I think I would rather shit in the street than use the public restrooms.
Learning Chinese, or trying to learn Chinese, takes all my free time. I have Chinese class twice a week for an hour and half at night, but that brings me only slightly behind the shitting babies. I am basically trying to study three languages at once. We study Mandarin Chinese, which is the national language of the People’s Republic of China. To learn Mandarin, I must study pinyin, which uses Latin phonetic alphabet. For example, “Ni hao ma?” is the common greeting which means “Are you good?” Seems easy enough, but each word also carries a unique tone. “Ni” is the second tone which means it rises, “hao” is the third tone its pronunciations drops than rises, “ma” is the fifth tone and is therefore said quickly. Still got it?
Next I learn the characters. Memorization appears to be the only way this is possible. I find the characters fascinating, but learning them is challenging. I have been here nearly a month and can now maybe recognize 15-20 characters.
So, after a night of studying, John walks out to a restaurant to get some food. The moment I walk outside of Southwest University, Mandarin is thrown out the window. Chongqing dialect is what the common Beibei citizen speaks. The dialect is not a regional accent, but a whole new language. My understanding is that the dialect and Mandarin is comparable to Spanish and Italian, which are similar, but nowhere near as similar as American English and British English. I forgot to mention English is only spoken on campus, and it is British English. I am now accustomed to asking, “Where is the W.C.?”
I must arise and go now. I am going to meet my Chinese brothers to plan my National Day trip. Chinese National Day is a week long vacation starting October 1st in honor of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. I will be traveling to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan. Everyone said it is a lovely city with a laid back attitude, not to mention the home of the largest Panda bear reserve in the world. Look it up!
I need to start writing more.
If you want to send me mail, my address is:
John Murray
NO.2 Tiansheng Road,
Beibei, Chongqing 400715
P.R. China
If you send me a letter or a package, I will send you something in return-Something that is made in China.
Love,
John Murray
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