Mandarin 101

Nǐ hăo!

Nǐ hăo ma?

Wǒ hěn hăo!

As you can see today I started my formal mandarin lessons today and I really loved it! We are going over things that I learnt in my beginner course in Plymouth but it is good to practice them with everyone else! Today we had a three hour lesson that covered pronunciation, introductions, counting, dates and asking some basic questions. It was a lot of repetition (as is the Chinese way!).

Last night we had our celebration meal, complete with free beer and entertainment! The food was nice and tasty but tasted very similar to western Chinese so I wasn't pushing the boat out too far. After food we had a T'ai Chi demonstration which was more impressive than I thought it would be. Ask me about T'ai Chi before China and I would probably have pictured Helen Mirren and Julie Walters on a hill in Yorkshire but this was completely different. The sense of power and restraint shown by this man and his fan was rather impressive! It certainly reminded me more of martial arts than the Calandar Girls! 

We also a chopsticks competition, a couple of the interns had to race each other to move M&Ms from one bowl to another with chop sticks. I would be interested to see how you all fear against me when I get back! 

Luke lost. Silly Luke.

We ended the night all snuggled up together watching Rio and chatting aimlessly. It was really nice! I have made some really good friends here and I am hoping we stay in contact when we get placed. 

Sam, Kathryn, 'Bottom', Ben and Brad

Sam & Kathryn

Speaking of placements, turns out that a third of us get placed in Cheng Du in the south. That would be cool but not only is it stupidly hot there but its also a 32 hour train ride away!!! Sam, Eddy and a couple of others got the wrong type of visa so have to take a 24 hour train to Hong Kong to change them and then head to their placements! I'd hate to be them! 

Oh and I got emails! Thanks to my grandmother, Pennie and Hettie! I will now answer some of your questions! 

1. Why does food have such an important part in your blogs?
Because I am always hungry? Umm for me it is the most alien thing that I have come across so far as Beijing is very cosmopolitan. Now that I have moved to the training centre we are on the outskirts so all that surrounds me are tower blocks of flats and sky scrapers.

My Point Exactly.

2. What are your general impressions of Beijing? 
Umm Beijing is a city of contradictions, for example: the streets are always very clean but the air and water is polluted. It was relatively dead over new year as many Chinese travel home to be with their families so it will be interesting to see how busy it will be when I head back into the city! It seems weird that industrial and residential areas are one in the same here, as everywhere else it is usually kept separate.  In some ways it reminds me of Eastern Europe because of the snow and the tower blocks. 

3. Have you found people friendly and helpful? 
The Chinese always try to be helpful but their understanding of English is limited at best in most cases. I haven't had much contact with people apart from in shops, the hostel, some restaurants and here in CAMIC. I will certainly find out how helpful they are when I get placed! 

4. What has impressed you most? 
I don't know really, the food is amazingly varied from amazing to horrid but I haven't seen anything else that impressed me. Maybe Tianamen Square?

5. What have you found that you really don't like?
I dislike being out on the outskirts here at CAMIC, the Happy Dragon was right in the centre whilst here there is nothing around; no street vendors with interesting food, no local restaurants, not even a supermarket! It leaves you feeling kind of stranded. 

6. Are you making good friends? 
I really am but they seem limited to those who stayed at the Happy Dragon. There are over 100 of us and so that is almost too big a number to get to know. I have made some friends around but there have also been people I've never talked to. It is very similar to my time at Camp Echo in some ways because there is a group of us who hang out together. Luckily we aren't all in the same class so I am meeting new people too! 

Oh and I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Hettie on her new job! You will be amazing! 

Until next time!

我从英国来

wǒcóng yīngguó lái

I come from England