On a personal note
We thought it would be nice to share with you this mail that Nirit sent to one of her friends that studies with her:
I read your comments at our blog, but I can't answer back through the blog.
first of all, I hope you had fun in Slovenia, and that you finished your exams already.
I just wanted to say about the Chinese thing, I don't want to get your expectations too high.
I manage to talk with them, but most times it's just the basics: where is something, I want to buy a ticket, how much is that and so on.
it happens quite frequently that I try to ask someone something a little more complicated and then he answers a long "bla bla bla" which I absolutely don't understand. So most of the time I back off and say, well, I didn't understand but thanks. Only in a number of times when I feel the other person is more patient, I ask them to say again or try to ask the question differently. It is hard, more than I expected after 3 years of studying. The worst place was at Chengdu, where for some weird reason, they don't pronounce the "H". So they say "si" instead of "shi", "ci "instead of "chi"...etc. It was unbelievable, as if you don't have enough meanings to each word as it is. That way 4 sounds like 10 and you can guess the rest. Horrible!!!
the more south we went, the more they don't understand me well. Although on the smaller places I get along better.
sometimes on the trains people begin talking with me, and if they are really curious we have a very funny, half broken Chinese half broken English, conversations.
yesterday I had an amazing experience. We went to this temple where they teach Kong Fu and Tai Qi by orphan children who live there. We met there an Israeli girl who spent the last two weeks there and she gave the kids some English lessons. When she heard I can speak a little Chinese she asked if I can help her in class. So we gave them the lesson and the kids were really cute and so eager to learn. And I think they were happy to have someone that can speak both Chinese and English so they can communicate better.
wow, that was very long. Sorry about that. Anyway, it's hard but it was worth it all along. So don't give up.
I read your comments at our blog, but I can't answer back through the blog.
first of all, I hope you had fun in Slovenia, and that you finished your exams already.
I just wanted to say about the Chinese thing, I don't want to get your expectations too high.
I manage to talk with them, but most times it's just the basics: where is something, I want to buy a ticket, how much is that and so on.
it happens quite frequently that I try to ask someone something a little more complicated and then he answers a long "bla bla bla" which I absolutely don't understand. So most of the time I back off and say, well, I didn't understand but thanks. Only in a number of times when I feel the other person is more patient, I ask them to say again or try to ask the question differently. It is hard, more than I expected after 3 years of studying. The worst place was at Chengdu, where for some weird reason, they don't pronounce the "H". So they say "si" instead of "shi", "ci "instead of "chi"...etc. It was unbelievable, as if you don't have enough meanings to each word as it is. That way 4 sounds like 10 and you can guess the rest. Horrible!!!
the more south we went, the more they don't understand me well. Although on the smaller places I get along better.
sometimes on the trains people begin talking with me, and if they are really curious we have a very funny, half broken Chinese half broken English, conversations.
yesterday I had an amazing experience. We went to this temple where they teach Kong Fu and Tai Qi by orphan children who live there. We met there an Israeli girl who spent the last two weeks there and she gave the kids some English lessons. When she heard I can speak a little Chinese she asked if I can help her in class. So we gave them the lesson and the kids were really cute and so eager to learn. And I think they were happy to have someone that can speak both Chinese and English so they can communicate better.
wow, that was very long. Sorry about that. Anyway, it's hard but it was worth it all along. So don't give up.
posted by Nirit & Shaul at
19:22
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