The Chinese Language

After Tai Chi, we went to formal Chinese language lessons between 8 in the morning and about noon.  It was my first time attending such lessons and they were so helpful for getting a sense of how the structure of the language actually works.  I actually find the language to be incredibly beautiful to listen to, though I am not able to understand anything unless the speaker is talking slowly.  The Chinese express themselves, ideas, thoughts, and concepts in very different ways than we do in English.  For example, if you wanted to ask someone if they wanted some water, you would actually state the name of the activity (verb) associated with the object you are talking about and then say "you".  So in this case you say "you drink?", as in "do you drink (water)?" to ask them if they would like some water.  

Today we learned what radicals were, which are the building blocks of Chinese characters.  Some radicals can actually be characters all by themselves but most cannot.  We even learned the names of a few of them and how to say things like "Are you American/French/Russian...?" or "Are you studying English/French/Russian (language)...?" 

I bought three books today, two of which are grammar books and the other is for reading.  Hopefully, with enough time to study them and practice, I will be able to speak many more basic phrases and even write a little bit.  Hopefully.  Today is a pretty exciting day for me.  

After grabbing some lunch, we will go to the electronic market, a place where you can apparently buy many basic gadgets.  We are hunting for an internet router for our apartment because our current internet setup is far too slow for our needs.  We've been using the neighbours' wifi since we got here with their permission but I'd like to be able to get our internet up to snuff today.  One of our coworkers bought a router for about 105 quai (around 16 ish Canadian dollars) which sounds great to me.  It'll just take some Chinese expertise to get it actually hooked up to our laptops.

After, we will head to the JaiLeJa (shopping mall) where my roommate wants to buy a peacoat he spotted yesterday.  We tried it on but it is far too short for me but it looks great on him.  Then we'll get cracking on some ESL lesson planning and cook some dinner.  BREAK!