Ni Hoa, (pronounced ‘knee how” with a little up and down with your voice on the ‘how’ part – like when you say ‘really’ in a skeptical tone of voice.) Congrats, you have just said ‘hello’ In Chinese. Italian is so much easier – just wave your hands and arms a lot and say Chao.
It is a rainy, dreary Saturday in Xiasha Campus and I am going a slightly stir crazy listening to my Chinese Lessons. So I figured I would Blog instead. I even cleaned my apartment - anything to put off this activity that makes me feel so stupid. Last week I bought a Children’s’ version of Learning Chinese with a workbook and CD. I now know how to sing Happy Birthday, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Ten Little Indians in Chinese. I can also play rock, scissors, cloth in Chinese, but that doesn’t help me when I want to know how much something is or how to order something to eat.
Side Note: Don’t worry I won’t starve -- Barb, Gail and Nicole keep sending food. Yesterday I got a package in which Gail had sent me Pickle Relish in a squeeze bottle. Last night I had my first Tuna fish sandwich – yum – I had one for breakfast too!
Even though learning ANY language is tough for me there are some things that are easier in Chinese. Anything that has to do with numbers is easier. Well let me clarify – it is easier AFTER you have finally learned the numbers 1 to 10. We as English speakers really make things difficult. Here is an example of how easy the numbers/dates/times are.
Yi -1
Er -2
San – 3
Si – 4
Wu – 5
Shi – 10
Shiyi – 11
Shi’er -12
Shisan -13
Shisi -14
Can you predict what 15 would be?
Ershi – 20
Sanshi -30 sanshi si would be 34
Have you figured out the pattern yet? – now dates – Months (yue)
Yi yue – January
Er yue – February
San yue – March
Yi hao – first (day - hao)
Er hao – second
San hao – third
Look familiar? – Now Weekdays (Xing qu)
Xing qu yi – Monday (they start their week on Monday)
Xing qu er – Tuesday
Xing qu san – Wednesday
Now Hours (dian)– betcha you can figure it out……(answers at end of blog)
Yi dian – guess what time that is?
San dian – What about this time?
Now minutes (fen)
Er fen – how many minutes?
Si fen -??
Heres a tuffy – see if you can figure out the time
San dian wu fen
Si dian shisan fen
Roger on of our foreign affairs staff and all around great guy has volunteered to give up his free time and teach us Chinese on Tuesday nights. Since I am the only one of our group that has not lived in China for a year or more I am going to really slow the group down unless I put in lots of hours learning some of the basics. I wonder if Roger will develop an IEP for me…..
Well I can’t put it off anymore – I must start listening to the lessons again– so “Xia Jian” (sounds like z-eye gee-an and you have to sort of ‘punch’ the words as you say them) – you have just said ‘Good Bye’ and don’t forget to check your answers!
1:00
3:00
2 minutes
4 minutes
3:05
4:13
