Thursday, June 19 2014
It finally hit me! I am in China.
It’s happening now! For the past several days my group and I have been walking
the super busy streets of Kunming. Cars drive reckless and there seems to be no
traffic control. The traffic light may be red but vehicles still go and it
stresses me out a little bit as I walk through an intersection. Also, everyone
dresses so nice! They always look ready for an interview. Also, a lot of people
drive luxurious cars like Audis and Mercedes. It is not rare to see a couple of
Audis driving next to each other on a daily basis. But it gets more interesting
when I attempt to talk to people. Well I actually don’t talk to them because I
can’t. I haven’t started my Mandarin classes so I haven’t learned much. But
what I have been saying is “Ni hao” which translates to “Hello” and I’ll get a
“Ni hao” in return, sometimes. However, if they ever do try to talk to me all
I’ll be able to say is “Wo bu zhi dao” which I’ve mastered and translates to “I
don’t know” and I feel is better than saying nothing. I’m determined to take my
Mandarin classes here even more serious than organic chemistry (just kidding)
because I really hope to be trilingual someday.
One of our activities as part of
our study abroad program was a “drop off” scavenger. My group was split into smaller groups and
our task was to figure out what the Chinese symbols on the piece of paper
meant. It turned out to be a location and we had to go there and take a picture
for evidence. Most people around the area do not speak English, however, two in
my group were semi-fluent in Mandarin and were able to help us find the
location by asking for directions while teaching another group member and
myself how to speak Mandarin. It was a learning experience riding public
transportation and trying to learn pronunciation as I stood carefully hearing the
people in the bus speak. Our destination was “The Golden Temple Scenic Area”.
It was a nice place with all kinds of plants and flowers and nice temples. However,
all I was thinking the whole time is “my Mandarin sucks!” I felt mute the whole
time and I really wanted to have my first conversation with a native.
I remember being at a souvenir shop
just looking around. Something grabbed my attention but I could not think of a way
of asking for the price. Not even with hand signals I would be able to get what
I want because the number system is different too. These kinds of experiences
have made me appreciate Mandarin more and pushed me harder to learn it.
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