I took a job in Langfang, a small city between Beijing and Tianjin, and my Chinese rose to a new level. I was often the only English speaker in the open office area where my desk was. Eavesdropping became a great language learning tool.
I studied Chinese in school for over ten years, the final year being at a Chinese university in Beijing. All this did NOT make me fluent. It didn’t make me sound Chinese. So what did? Talking to lots of people – especially taxi drivers.
I am often asked how I learned Mandarin Chinese. The short answer is good fortune and hard work. When I arrived in Beijing I could already read and write Chinese pretty well. Listening comprehension, however, took me a long time.
Lots of people were interested in the bird flu pamphlet I translated, so here is the full translation. “…When going out, try to avoid contact with wild birds or going to the habitat of wild birds…”
Bird flu was confirmed in my neighbourhood. I translated an illustrated pamphlet we received with information in Chinese, to see what the “Shunyi District Health Board” and “Shunyi District Center for Disease Control” are telling the public.
I got completely out of the habit out wearing seatbelts when I first arrived. Many cabs did not HAVE functional seatbelts. I would automatically reach for a seatbelt and the driver would laugh at me, bewildered as to why I would bother with it.
China’s system of terms of address is complex and much more utilised in common speech than in English. While in English most people are addressed by their given name, very few people will address you by your given name in Chinese.
In English, there are recognised names – words that have no meaning on their own, but are simply names. Chinese does not have a set of names like this. There is a set inventory of Chinese surnames, but given names are chosen from existing words.
I thought I would be sad to leave my apartment, that I would miss it a lot, but I mostly feel thankful – for all the things I learned during 3 years in Yinling, and all the memories made there. This post is thank you and farewell to my first real home.
I have moved house 5 times in my 9 years in China, always fairly local moves. Over the weekend I made my most recent move. Surprisingly there weren’t any hiccups, parlty cos I made got a chu men tiao before moving. This step is easy to miss!
Chinese new year festivities last two weeks. There are a LOT of new year traditions in China, many of which I’ve participated in one year or another. Fireworks, new year dinner, decorations, fireworks, temple fairs, dumplings, and fireworks.
The toffee fruit vendor chatted to the jian bing vendor, saying “Wow! She speaks pu tong hua [standard Mandarin Chinese]. Like my grandson. He can’t speak our dialect. We speak our dialect to him but he doesn’t pick up much.”
Stories From Tanya 