Fun Chinese Sentences

My teacher is full of fun Chinese sentences. Here are some samples.

2-3 (3-3)
老闆 (小姐) 你好請你給我啤酒. 沒有啤酒只有小姐.
Lao3ban3 (xiao3jie3) ni3 hao3 qing3ni3 gei3wo3 pi2jiu3. Mei2you3 pi2jiu3 zhi3you3 xiao3jie3.
Hello boss (miss), please give me some beer. We don't have beer, only ladies.

When two 3rd tone words are next to each other, the first one changes to second tone. So use this sentence to get your 2-3 tones down.

4-3
下午下雨最好跳舞．日本電影
xia4wu3 xia4yu3 zui4hao3 tiao4wu3. ri4ben3dian4ying3
This afternoon it's raining so it's best for us to go dancing. Japanese movie.

The 4-3 word pair comes out with the second word only having the low end of the dropping tone of 3rd tone without rising up again. Make sure to go very low!

3-2
美國有錢,女人很忙...
mei3 guo2 you3 qian2, nu3 ren2 hen3 mang2...
America is rich, the women* are busy.

The 3-2 word pair changes the first word into just a dropping sound, leading into the rise of the second word.

*女人 vs 女生 vs 女的 vs 女性
The first has a sexual connotation. The second is for a student. The third is saying female. The fourth is for saying female gender.

4's
世界運動大會報告
shi4 jie4 yun4 dong4 da4 hui4 bao4 gao4
The Olympics report

1's
今天 媽媽說她發燒．　東方新生擔心...
Jin1 tian1 ma1ma shuo1 ta1 fa1 shao1. Dong1 fang1 xin1 sheng1 dan1 xin1...
Today Mom said she has a fever. Eastern first year students worry...

I can't remember the teacher's so made up my own.

3-2-1
補習班，
bu3xi2ban1

Again, I can't remember the other samples.

Ma
媽媽罵馬，馬罵媽媽．
Ma1ma ma4 ma3, ma3 ma4 ma1ma.
Mom scolds the horse, the horse scolds mom.

Shi
事實是事實.
Shi4shi2 shi4 shi4shi2.
The truth is the truth.

The beauty in these last two is that I can actually hear the tone differences and say them correctly, whereas I know that first and second quarter I was still quite tone deaf. Yay for progress!

The Best Chinese Study Method

I've just discovered the best method for studying Chinese. Get the kind of illness where you are bed ridden. Then you are forced to lay there with nothing but laptop internet access. After a while, you just can't read any more news or play any more Scrabulous...so it's down to studying Chinese. I've actually gotten a head start on the memorization for Chapter 5...instead of my perpetual being behind last minute cramming of this quarter.

So I've been on and off sick for a week with various ailments that I won't go into here. It really sucks. Yesterday I missed an alum lunch with my friend Tina (who I haven't seen since she moved back to TW) and all the new students and then Stewart and Vita's wedding. Today I'm missing disc (which is really unfortunate b/c I really need the exercise) and then a bbq at my friend FeiFei's house. These are once in a blue moon opportunities (besides playing disc)...ARG!

The upside is all this rest is getting me better. I know if I were to go out I would make everything worse. I've made that mistake before.

Oy.

In studying news, quizlet.com has added another game to their flashcard software. I stopped using it near the end of book 1 (near the time I started slacking off on my Chinese), but I've just entered in the first half of the vocab for Ch 5 in the new book (2nd edition, Book 3) and have been enjoying using it again. This time I input the regular pinyin pronunciation of the characters and then a separate set of meanings.

Feed Your Baby

For all my new parent readers out there, I thought this Nestle study was interesting - talking about how you need to reintroduce previously rejected foods, as some babies take time to adjust. I for one can attest to a few foods that I've previously detested and now love...I'd say reintroduce throughout life - in my case, for some foods, it's taken 25 years!

• xiang gu - Chinese dried black mushrooms. Their taste is very strong and when I first had them as a kid did not like them at all. I was still a kid when I started to not just like them, but love them. They're an essential ingredient for homemade jiao zi.
  
• tofu - I couldn't stand tofu when I was a kid -- all the way to my early 20s. To me, it was a bland cube of mushiness. And sometimes it was a bland cube of fried mushiness. No thanks. Then a few years ago in Seattle something changed and I started loving tofu. I ordered it whenever I could instead of meat. I still can't get enough and like all kinds. My dad used to get cho tofu (stinky tofu) and it was just more reason to dislike tofu as it stunk up everything in the fridge, and when he started cooking it outside on the back porch, would stink up the whole neighborhood! I never even ventured a bite (why would I put something so stinky in my mouth when I couldn't even stand being within a 50 foot radius of it?!). However, last year, when I visited my aunt and uncle in Kaohsiung, I ventured to try some at the night market. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad. Now that I've moved to Taipei I've had it on a few occasions and enjoy it.
• tea - I've hated tea my whole life. Being in a Chinese family, this proved particularly difficult as every Chinese person I know drinks tea. Every Chinese restaurant serves you tea. Every Chinese host offers you tea on arrival. And I always have to refuse as my true longing is for a nice large cold cup of water. It's not just the heat of the drink that bothers me but also the flavor. And when I got older I realized that the caffeine has a strong effect on me, so just one more reason to avoid it. However, in my first visit to my cousin in Malaysia, she offered me tea from one of her many beautiful tea sets. How could I refuse? And it wasn't as bad as it usually is. Usually one sip makes me want to gag, but this was doable. Since then, I can drink tea in social situations.
• green beans - boy did I ever avoid this dish when I was a kid. Since the rest of my family liked it, my mom would always make it. The taste was always too unpleasantly strong. At friend's houses for a traditional Thanksgiving meal, I would politely take 3 little strands and force them down my throat begrudgingly. But again, this one changed recently...maybe while I was at my sister's a couple years ago. I think the sauce balanced out the flavor and I've since become used to the natural flavor.
  

There's still a list of foods that I can't stand (celery, licorice, papaya) but maybe in the next 25 years that will change too.

Celebrity Lookalikes

I've spent entirely too much time on the internet looking for my celebrity lookalike. I was actually doing productive research on just the right cell phone to get when I got distracted by MyHeritage.com This was a site that Larry had told me about in Colorado that I'd been meaning to check out for while.

I didn't get any of the Bollywood stars that his friends got, but I did get a few surprises. Of course, it depended on which photo I uploaded. Here's what one of my photos matched...

http://www.myheritage.com

The Asians seem like an obvious choice, but I can actually understand why I end up matching to an old white man as well. When I did the morph option and chose reference points, I noticed that I usually have the same creases and chin shape from smiling as the celebrities. Here's another set of matches...



In less goofy news, I tried Mister Donut and had one of their popular donuts. As Judy describes it, they are very QQ - that is to say they have a chewy bite to them, unlike any American donut I've ever tried. I tried the Pon De Kokuto and Kinako. They were surprisingly tasty - very airy and 'QQ'.

I had a quick walk through Da'an park as it started to downpour. I ran into the library and waited it out. I read a New Yorker, including a moving article about people suffering from Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome. Many with the genetic disorder are self destructive, to the point of biting their fingers and lips off. They tend to say and do opposite of what they want to, sometimes terrifyingly so, even to themselves.

Reading articles like these always makes me ponder the wonders of the brain. I went up to the English language section and picked out a book from the science section. Parkinson's: A Patient's View by Sidney Dorros, is an autobiography about his early onset of Parkinson's and the myriad of treatment options he went through. He discusses the decision making process, the struggles, the successes, the mistakes as a guide for others to learn from - including anyone who is diagnosed with the disease, works with patients, or is friends with someone. It's a compelling read, including personal accounts of what his wife and four kids went through in a twenty year span from diagnosis to publication.

Dorros references Oliver Sacks quite frequently throughout the book, including quotes from Awakenings. I bought that book years ago and let it sit on my bookshelf for a long time before packing it up in a box now in storage. I've enjoyed several of Sacks' other books (The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat, Migraine, An Anthropologist on Mars) and hope to get to it someday.

Being unemployed in a country where I'm nearly illiterate, mute and deaf has some benefits. I finally feel like I can sit down and just enjoy reading for a while (in English of course). Other times I wonder if I should be using this time to study Chinese more. My goals for the next year aren't as clearly defined as they could be - certainly I'm here to spend time with PoPo and learn more about the family history, learn how to speak and read Chinese, and get in shape. But that still leaves time for much else. I need to find the balance of enjoying Taiwan and enjoying other things in life. We'll see.

Photo Collages

Photos of people (and animals) I met during my world travel from Oct 2006 - May 2007 in
France, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Taiwan, Belgium, and the Netherlands.




Photos of my US travel through California, Washington, Texax, Connecticut, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and Minnesota.

CO and UT travel planning

Christina and I are planning our upcoming trip to CO and UT, and perhaps even Grand Canyon. If you have suggestions, do let us know - either leave a comment (with your name!) or email us.

Our current plans and suggestions are on a Google map here.

We are still working on the dates, but something like Jul 29-Aug 12 - which isn't much time to cram in everything there is to see.

Heading out

I'm still not done packing for my US trip, but by request, I am making a quick update to say that I am outta here for a bit. Here being Seattle. I'm off to California this afternoon, to meet Christinahead, for our quick tour of northern CA (yosemite, redwoods, tahoe, etc) and to spend some more time with my cousin Jim. Then I am off to TX for Susie's wedding in Dallas and a quick visit to my aunt in Houston. Then to NY to see family and pick blueberries in CT. Next on the itinerary is CO, to see my cousin Larry, and then do a WildernessVolunteers trip through Eagles Nest Wilderness. Christina and I are still working out the rest of the details - but currently plan on renting a car, driving through CO, UT and to Las Vegas. There's a possible extension plan to continue to the Grand Canyon and end up in LA with Farkas, but all is still unknown. After that, I am heading to MN to see my friend Kristine who is getting married. And finally, after all that, returning to Seattle.

Jun 26 - SEA to OAK, staying in Berkeley one night, then Yosemite, etc.
Jul 6 - OAK to DFW, staying in Dallas and visiting Houston
Jul 9 - DFW to LGA, hitting Flushing and going home to CT
Jul 17 - LGA to DEN, Fort Collins, Breckenridge, and western bits and beyond
Aug ?? - ?? to MSP
Aug ?? - MSP to SEA

We are currently seeking suggestions on hikes to do in Yosemite (Half Dome has already been suggested a half dozen times), other places to visit in CA (Mono Lake is on the list), and cool things to do in CO and UT (Escalante, Bryce, Zion, Arches are on the list). So comment away or email me!

Bad Directions

I'm meeting my friend, Craig, for lunch today. I google mapped how to get to his office and was surprised at just how bad the directions were! Redmond to Snoqualmie is really only a half hour drive - not a cross-Atlantic trip!

FOUND: Lost pictures

I am just wildly excited - I just got a lovely package from Tuyet today in the mail - DVDs of my lost photos from India, Malaysia and Singapore. I've already uploaded highlights to my Picasa web albums. It's such a relief to have these pictures from 2 months of traveling. I hadn't kept a journal during that part of the trip, so really all I had were my memories (which are poor) and some random emails - the photos help to trigger so much. I'm still sad that I lost the audio I recorded (including some crazy noises on the top of Penang hill - all the animals and insects were making noises I'd never heard before), but it's made my night to have these pictures back. Thank you, Tuyet!

Market Days

"Silly Billy and Funny Bunny are friends. It's true. My mommy told me when you weren't here."

This was Maddie's response when I called her a silly goose. (I later told this to my sister and asked if it was something she ever said - of course not!)


We stopped at the Fontainebleau Sunday market yesterday. I love going to fresh markets - they're usually very colorful and alive, and each country/area is so different. I don't have digital pictures of all that I saw in India, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia or Taiwan, but they are in my memory. (Honestly, I felt self conscious about standing out as a foreigner, and didn't want to whip out my camera and set off the flash nor block traffic by stopping to take snaps.)

In Tamil Nadu, there would be seller after seller with the same item - like mounds of peeled onions. It was amazing to think that one small town could go through so many of one type of vegetable. I loved the variety (Indian eggplant, okra, cabbage, tiny garlic, carrots, onions, drumsticks, dahl, rice) and was always eager to help in preparation and eating of the combined result. In Da Nang, there was always a strong stench near the drying seafood. I didn't enjoy the sights of chopped animals, but the sheer amount of meat was certainly an interesting contrast to the vegetarian markets in India. At the Central market in Siem Reap, I bought some really tasty steamed buns from the nicest of sellers - we didn't have a common language and I admired her effort and patience with me to tell me the cost of her goods - and mostly her honesty as she didn't try to overcharge me at all (unlike all the taxi drivers).


In Chiang Mai, the stalls were a bit more spread out, selling hundreds of items that would disappear by the time I returned a few hours later. I was lucky to coincide a visit with Chinese New Year, where the market spilled into the street for festivities - there were huge vats of oil for deep frying thai fish cakes and dozens of stalls for making your noodle dish fresh. In Melaka, I joined my cousin's family to a very small, intimate seafood market, right by the ocean, and watched as my uncle examined the fish and talked with the fishermen to choose something fresh. In Penang, I would walk around in the morning admiring all of the foods for sale, and get out of the way as the occasional motorbike would try to get through the throngs of people. In Taipei, I wandered through streets with snakes, rabbits and turtles on display in restaurant entrances - leaving feeling completely disgusted and saddened at the future of the helpless creatures. In Jiufen, I sampled the most delicious mochi products I've ever had, filling up on the chewy sticky wraps around peanuts, beans and other fillings.

FAQ

I really don't address a lot of things in this blog - I like to keep it about what's definite, which pretty much means the past, or what I know is coming up in the next day or two. However, that means that people are always asking me about what I'm doing next. Here I am to talk about it, and get it out of the way in one go...

Q. When are you coming back?
A. I am currently scheduled to return to the United States on May 24, 2007. When my Seattle friends ask me this, the answer is a little unclearer to me. I could be back as early as June, but possibly later.

Q. What did you do in [insert country name here]?
A. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I'm behind in blogging - and the level of detail I may ever reach differs for each country for various reasons. I've created Google My Maps for several legs of the trip, including India (private), SE Asia #1, Australia, SE Asia #2, and even upcoming travel (private). Please wait patiently while I get the blog up to date at my own speed. If you have any specific country questions, feel free to email me or comment.

Q. Where are you going next?
A. I have plans to go to the south of France, Paris, Belgium, the Netherlands, the Bay area, Seattle, Dallas, CT and MN. I am also thinking about going to CO and maybe NY and Boston as well. Beyond that I don't want to say much more (partially b/c it's less certain, and the other is, despite not being superstitious, it does seem that every time I write too much about something before it happens - it doesn't end up happening).

Q. What are you doing with your life? Are you going to go back to your old job/old town?
A. Tough question. These are the answers I'm still looking for. I have very vague ideas now...so vague that I still sound like a mumbling idiot when strangers ask me this. The short of it is that I'm still looking for meaning - and hope to find it in this time off. If I can't figure it out in time (before the money runs out) or it isn't a financially viable solution, I will have to reconsider all my options. I do love living in Seattle - but it may not where I end up short term. I have even less confidence in discussing where I will be long term - who comes to mind is a man I met in Penang, Malaysia, who left Australia 17 years ago to "take a year off" and had since spent most of his time sailing around Indonesia and other parts of the world. Sometimes you don't know where you'll go in life, who you'll meet, or what you'll end up doing. I could certainly build a particular type of life in Seattle, but that's not what I'm looking for right now. Maybe later.

Q. What was your favorite country?
A. This is the unanswerable. I could handle a narrower question, like what were the highlights of each country?

• France - spending time with my sister's family, eating home cooked meals
• India - spending time with an old friend, being immersed in family life, the food, the heat, learning about a different culture
• Singapore - cha sau bao, blending in
• Malaysia - learning about a tricultural country, the food, meeting my cousins for the first time, seeing my aunt (who always reminds me so much of my mother), spending time with Indhu's Grandpa
  
• Australia - mangos, talking with Christina, seeing the nesting loggerhead
• Vietnam - spending time with Tuyet's Grandma and other family members in Da Nang, the food
• Thailand - exercising, dancing with a village woman, the caves
• Cambodia - riding my bike through town
• Taiwan - talking with my grandmother in broken mandarin, learning about my family history from my aunt and uncle, the food