Chinese Here, There and Everywhere ~ Officially a Student Once Again

I thought college graduation might finally mark the end of tiresome homework, intellectual confusion, and endless hours of studying. On the contrary, as soon as I escaped these burdens I found myself desperately and gleefully signing up for classes again- this time in Chinese!

Dreaming of Beijing before I arrived, I had assumed that many people living in this international and cosmopolitan city would undoubtedly speak some basic English. I was woefully wrong. Upon arrival I realized that in reality the foreigners speak pretty good Chinese and most of the Chinese I interact with in daily life don’t know a lick of English. Ordering lunch, buying subway tickets, asking directions and dealing with the apartment repairman are interactions facilitated wholly through mime- for me at least. Thus, after living in China for about a month I am itching to communicate and simplify my daily life.

So, it’s official: I have begun my Chinese language crash course- counting down 8 weeks, 5 days a week, 1.5 hours a day of hardcore learning.  When I visit home on December 10^th I look forward to not only maneuvering my way to the airport and buying a snack verbally instead of using my usual exaggerated gestures, but also impressing my folks and friends at home with my dazzling new Chinese speech and comprehension. In January I will return to China ready to rock and roll. 

At least that is the hope/dream/miracle.

The language adventure begins: after haggling with several Chinese language schools over email, I decided to forgo expensive 1-on-1 tutoring lessons for a diverse and solid beginners class at nearby language school called Global Village. After last week’s free trial class I signed up, bought the book and hope to never look back.

Despite missing the first two days of class, it has been smooth sailing so far thanks to constant in-class review. By ‘smooth sailing’ I mean I am totally clueless but haven’t given up yet.  Our teacher (laoshi > pronounced like ‘lao shuur’) is named Guo Wen Ting and is a gentle and friendly Chinese woman in her late twenties. In addition to her fabulous enunciation, she must have a heart of gold and the patience of a turtle because we have been learning basic greeting phrases for 3 days straight- enough to make me crazy even though I barely know what we are talking about.

Although the laoshi is great at speaking exercises, the homework she assigned to us last night was totally out of left field. We were tasked at practice writing 19 different characters. Although this might seem quick, simple and easy, the stroke order when writing Chinese characters is particular and important- and we had spent no time in class learning how to write! Her advice was to get a handwriting book that shows the strokes and order. So I did. But even better, Julia and my other American friends in Beijing are excited that I am learning Chinese and are eager to help with my menial homework! Wayne, my new Chinese savior, spent almost an hour and a half teaching me how to write each of the 19 characters correctly- truly a labor of love. I thought my head might fall off when we finished but Wayne was so helpful and it was rewarding to see the characters come alive on the page.

My Chinese class is confusing, but also entertaining when you notice the class composition. Beside myself, the only Meiguoren (American- pronounced like ‘mA gwO rn’), my classmates include a middle aged Korean couple, several European college kids, a Nigerian woman, a Saudi Arabian tech student, a Korean businessman, a saucy 80 year old Japanese woman (I’m not kidding she told us today) and a 7 year old Russian boy who sometimes cries a little. Thus it is quite an interesting crew, all of us struggling to wrap our foreign brains around the seemingly convoluted basics of Chinese.