Pidgin Mandarin
Me: FuQuan Bei Lu. (North FuQuan Road)
Taxi Driver: Shenma Lu? (Which Road?)
Me: FuQuan Bei Lu, near Xiehe Lu and Beidi Lu
(North FuQuan Road, near Xiehe road and Beidi road)
Taxi Driver: OK. OK. (Gesticulated to me to get in).
Nothing momentous, but for the first time in two months I managed to answer a question that was posed to me in Mandarin. My Mandarin classes of the last 7 weeks seem to be working as i can now catch snatches of phrases, words in others' conversations. I can also reply to simple questions beyond the artificial setting of Chinese classroom comprising me, my wife and a private tutor.
Any case it was for me one of many firsts. Never in the years after college have language classes been attended so diligently. German classes didn't last more than 6 weeks though i did pick up reasonable German to get by even after the classes. Nepalese was like a amalgam of Hindi (the syntax), some Bengali with many words with Sanskrit roots. So I spoke it quite well. Bangkok spoils you. In the 'expat'ted Sukhumvit environs there isn't any pressure to learn Thai and in all the tourist centers in Thailand you can get by in English. Of course any incipient enthusiasm for the language was nipped in the bud when i figure that the language is tonal and "Mai mai mai mai mai" (each syllable said in its own appropriate tone) means "New wood does not burn, does it?"
Mandarin is a tonal language as well.
Mĕi means ‘every’
Méi means ‘not’
It makes it much more difficult, especially if in the past if you have tended to regard accent marks to be some weird print glitches. Mercifully Mandarin has only 4 tones vs. Cantonese that has 8 and other dialects in China that have up to 12 tones !
So well, I am getting some hang of it and in a few more weeks may even speak some passable Mandarin, if I last that long. The syntax seems simple [so far] - conjunctions, prepositions are minimal and declensions and genders for objects are non existent. So it augurs well.
But this whole experience of living in this environment where I don't understand anything has been interesting. I am now deeply grateful to Chinese brand managers who put nice simple functional pictures ( a few clean sparkling dishes indicating a dishwash product for instance) on their FOP s and some English on the FOP and BOP to indicate brand name, variant, ingredients and usage instructions. I also for the first time truly understand what it is to be illiterate. It’s actually worse. At least the illiterate person can talk to communicate. At times I am reducing to gesticulating and uttering odd guttural sounds to make others understand.
Yet I am merrily traipsing all around. Most places i have been to (big cities like Beijing Guangzhao and Hangzhao ) all have bilingual name, direction boards and you can always count on finding a good samaritan willing to help.
But soon i look forward to a day when i am able to get by on my own steam !
Taxi Driver: Shenma Lu? (Which Road?)
Me: FuQuan Bei Lu, near Xiehe Lu and Beidi Lu
(North FuQuan Road, near Xiehe road and Beidi road)
Taxi Driver: OK. OK. (Gesticulated to me to get in).
Nothing momentous, but for the first time in two months I managed to answer a question that was posed to me in Mandarin. My Mandarin classes of the last 7 weeks seem to be working as i can now catch snatches of phrases, words in others' conversations. I can also reply to simple questions beyond the artificial setting of Chinese classroom comprising me, my wife and a private tutor.
Any case it was for me one of many firsts. Never in the years after college have language classes been attended so diligently. German classes didn't last more than 6 weeks though i did pick up reasonable German to get by even after the classes. Nepalese was like a amalgam of Hindi (the syntax), some Bengali with many words with Sanskrit roots. So I spoke it quite well. Bangkok spoils you. In the 'expat'ted Sukhumvit environs there isn't any pressure to learn Thai and in all the tourist centers in Thailand you can get by in English. Of course any incipient enthusiasm for the language was nipped in the bud when i figure that the language is tonal and "Mai mai mai mai mai" (each syllable said in its own appropriate tone) means "New wood does not burn, does it?"
Mandarin is a tonal language as well.
Mĕi means ‘every’
Méi means ‘not’
It makes it much more difficult, especially if in the past if you have tended to regard accent marks to be some weird print glitches. Mercifully Mandarin has only 4 tones vs. Cantonese that has 8 and other dialects in China that have up to 12 tones !
So well, I am getting some hang of it and in a few more weeks may even speak some passable Mandarin, if I last that long. The syntax seems simple [so far] - conjunctions, prepositions are minimal and declensions and genders for objects are non existent. So it augurs well.
But this whole experience of living in this environment where I don't understand anything has been interesting. I am now deeply grateful to Chinese brand managers who put nice simple functional pictures ( a few clean sparkling dishes indicating a dishwash product for instance) on their FOP s and some English on the FOP and BOP to indicate brand name, variant, ingredients and usage instructions. I also for the first time truly understand what it is to be illiterate. It’s actually worse. At least the illiterate person can talk to communicate. At times I am reducing to gesticulating and uttering odd guttural sounds to make others understand.
Yet I am merrily traipsing all around. Most places i have been to (big cities like Beijing Guangzhao and Hangzhao ) all have bilingual name, direction boards and you can always count on finding a good samaritan willing to help.
But soon i look forward to a day when i am able to get by on my own steam !
good fun venx...u obviously are enjoying ur nomadic existence :) in spite of all the cribs u think of ;)oh by the way...u got me with declensions!!!
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