Chinese Class

On Monday I had my first Chinese class.  It is taught by Frances, Gerald's wife and school director.  I liked it.  The class was kind of fun, but I like foreign language classes in general.  Maybe now I will actually learn something besides ni hao and xie xie.  Frances is teaching us bopomofo, a phonetic alphabet used exclusively in Taiwan.  She says that it is a better transition into characters than pinyin. 

The class is three times a week, so I had my second class on Wednesday.  And I passed my first quiz with flying colors.  Eight of the teachers are taking the class.  I like that we were given workbooks to practice our bopomofo characters.  I feel like I am a child again.  Frances mentioned that we should feel that way.  We are constantly repeating sounds after her, and I get them wrong a lot.  I don't have an ear for it yet.  I will think I sound just like her and she says, "Wrong!" The class is really fun and relaxed. 

It is starting to get a little harder.  On Friday, we were given seven more bopomofo characters to learn.  They are starting to get a little jumbled in my mind. 

I find any opportunity I can to practice.  Yesterday, Erin and I went to get a bing-sha.  I tried to ask for mine in Chinese, "Wo yao chi papaya milk."  (I want eat papaya milk.)  Jenna, the lady who sells bing-shas taught me the words for drink, papaya and milk.  So now I can say, "Wo yao he fan mu gua niu nai."  I probably won't remember that tomorrow.  Haha!