renaissance poisson

One of the things that bugs me is that French (the first non-native language I tried to learn) was so easy for me. I was never fluent, but I found the classes to be incredibly easy. Having no reason to believe otherwise, I thought that Japanese would just be a bit harder. Wow...so very wrong. I think I just did it wrong though...I was so stressed about it from day 1, and ended up desperately trying to learn through rote memorization which is not one of my strong points. Mandarin I'm just learning through occasional contact with it in class (unlabeled and mixed with cantonese and fukienese...sigh) and Instant Immersion CDs.

Yep, going back to China for the second time on another whirlwind kung fu tour. 1.5 days per location, all over a large section of the country for 2 weeks seeing sites, seeing demonstrations and for some of us putting on demonstrations. Not me...one thing the world doesn't need to see more of is giant fat white guys trying to perform traditional kung fu. Although, I have to admit, the Chinese people on the last trip were very entertained by me. Like a mix between a Circus Freak and a Sports Celebrity.

I apparently practiced a couple of phrases last trip well enough that it sounded like I spoke Mandarin. One woman slowly asked me a question, I answered with the correct pat phrase from the CD, and got back a very fast torrent of chinese with gestures, questions and smiles. I understood only a couple of words. hehehe Then I couldn't remember how to say that I didn't speak Chinese. oops. I'll have to make sure I have that one down this time.

I've got to get Greetings, Food Ordering, Directions, and Bargaining down...those are the sets of phrases I know I'll need the most. Oh...and numbers...that's always useful.