Backdated entry (early this week)
Early hours are only productive if you're a morning person. :P Unfortunately for me, I'm NOT a morning person and my brain only wakes up at 9am. So for the first hour or so in class, I stare distantly into space.... which is getting more difficult as the teachers have learnt my name and are starting to call on me to repeat long sentences/short passages that they've just said. Word perfect. I have to try my other tactic of sitting behind some really tall/big guy now... and keeping such a low profile that they forget that I'm there.
I'm actually getting a bit muddled between the languages. I've also been speaking a bit of Malay with my Indonesian classmate (Indonesian is quite similar to Malay but the pronunciation is different); English with my Canadian, Holland, Indonesian, Italian classmates; Mandarin with my Korean and Japanese classmates. Learning random Japanese words and phrases to surprise my Japanese classmates too. So... when I try to have a conversation with anyone, I sometimes come up with random Malay, Cantonese and English words instead! Quite confusing. I think of what I want to say in English, try to find the words for it in Mandarin, but sometimes can only think of the equivalent in Cantonese or Malay.. Or if I'm really stuck, I just say the word in English and hope that they understand. The teachers are quite funny because they'll be speaking in Mandarin and explaining everything in Mandarin, and if I give them a blank enough look, they'll suddenly say the one word in English. English the Chinese way. The textbook style, IELTS/TOEFL, way. Very dictionary enunciated. Today's word was "ant". Guess she didn't know how to explain it in even simpler terms since it was the name of a Chinese dish.
Most days, classes can get quite tedious, but since it's a tonal language and we sort of understand enough to see the funny side when someone says something in the wrong tone, we occassionally have the hilarious situation which wakes everyone up from their stupor. Last week's class was the best. We did tongue-twisters in Chinese.. they're so funny! Definitely more challenging than the English ones. And more hilarious when we stumble over the tones and words while trying to say them quickly. Since half the class is male and the other half is female, the teacher decided to do the whole gender competition and we each had to challenge someone in the class to say a tongue-twister.
I spent the whole of yesterday getting very well acquainted with the Beijing public transport system. No to mention, risking life and limb each time I cross any of their roads. Massive 4-6 lane roads where the lights change really quickly.. and the "little green man" can't be trusted as cars/bikes/buses still try to run us over while the light is red for them. The tube into town is perpetually crowded and has a strange unidentifiable smell (at least London's tube stink can be identified as beer and piss).. the buses are also crowded and significantly more colourful with its local characters. A fight nearly broke out on one of the buses I was on yesterday. I don't quite know what the source of the argument was.. I suspect it was someone opening the window and the person in front didn't like it.. then they started arguing and later screaming at each other at the top of their voices. The two sitting behind were a couple whereas the female sitting in front was alone. As far as my limited Mandarin would permit me to understand, it went something like this: female in front was grumbling about something, then the argument escalated, then she insulted their mothers, I think.. then the guy behind called her a bitch, she called them bitch back.. the girl from the couple suddenly said "Crazy Dog" in English in a very bitchy way.. which prompted more insults from the female in front. The guy then stood up, fist up, ready to punch the female in front. Luckily the conductor managed to pull them apart before he hit her. Talk about drama!
I've been growing increasingly restless, as my friend rightly predicted, with the lack of sport. I finally went to look for a climbing wall yesterday, but the first place I went to no longer existed. (I tried calling them beforehand but got a wrong number because it no longer exists) It was on that bus on the way to that Boulder Bar that I was so charmingly introduced to Beijing buses. Such a pity, as it sounded like a really interesting place, bouldering+alcohol+Mexican&Indian curries. It also took me about 45 minutes before I located the place it was supposed to be at (the randoms I stopped on the street to ask them the exact location of the address I had didn't know where the building was even though they LIVED in the area.) So I decided to do that long trek across town (from NW where I live to SE of town) to look for the alternative indoor bouldering place since my friend is afraid of heights and will only do bouldering. We eventually found that place, hidden in the basement of a building that looked like it was being renovated with all of ONE person climbing there. Turned out that the place was closed that day because of some meeting later that evening. grrrr.... So, as a final try, we went to the nearest park (which isn't really all that near) and it turned out to be one of the highest walls around. And they'd closed for the day 5 mins before we arrived. arrrggghhh.... Plus they were really expensive (about 2.5 quid per climb). Doubt I will be going back there.. way too far and expensive! I will try crashing Beijing Uni's wall one of these days after classes this week. So restless... but I have classes this entire week, including the weekend because we get a week's hol next week and to make up for it, we have classes this weekend.
I'm actually getting a bit muddled between the languages. I've also been speaking a bit of Malay with my Indonesian classmate (Indonesian is quite similar to Malay but the pronunciation is different); English with my Canadian, Holland, Indonesian, Italian classmates; Mandarin with my Korean and Japanese classmates. Learning random Japanese words and phrases to surprise my Japanese classmates too. So... when I try to have a conversation with anyone, I sometimes come up with random Malay, Cantonese and English words instead! Quite confusing. I think of what I want to say in English, try to find the words for it in Mandarin, but sometimes can only think of the equivalent in Cantonese or Malay.. Or if I'm really stuck, I just say the word in English and hope that they understand. The teachers are quite funny because they'll be speaking in Mandarin and explaining everything in Mandarin, and if I give them a blank enough look, they'll suddenly say the one word in English. English the Chinese way. The textbook style, IELTS/TOEFL, way. Very dictionary enunciated. Today's word was "ant". Guess she didn't know how to explain it in even simpler terms since it was the name of a Chinese dish.
Most days, classes can get quite tedious, but since it's a tonal language and we sort of understand enough to see the funny side when someone says something in the wrong tone, we occassionally have the hilarious situation which wakes everyone up from their stupor. Last week's class was the best. We did tongue-twisters in Chinese.. they're so funny! Definitely more challenging than the English ones. And more hilarious when we stumble over the tones and words while trying to say them quickly. Since half the class is male and the other half is female, the teacher decided to do the whole gender competition and we each had to challenge someone in the class to say a tongue-twister.
I spent the whole of yesterday getting very well acquainted with the Beijing public transport system. No to mention, risking life and limb each time I cross any of their roads. Massive 4-6 lane roads where the lights change really quickly.. and the "little green man" can't be trusted as cars/bikes/buses still try to run us over while the light is red for them. The tube into town is perpetually crowded and has a strange unidentifiable smell (at least London's tube stink can be identified as beer and piss).. the buses are also crowded and significantly more colourful with its local characters. A fight nearly broke out on one of the buses I was on yesterday. I don't quite know what the source of the argument was.. I suspect it was someone opening the window and the person in front didn't like it.. then they started arguing and later screaming at each other at the top of their voices. The two sitting behind were a couple whereas the female sitting in front was alone. As far as my limited Mandarin would permit me to understand, it went something like this: female in front was grumbling about something, then the argument escalated, then she insulted their mothers, I think.. then the guy behind called her a bitch, she called them bitch back.. the girl from the couple suddenly said "Crazy Dog" in English in a very bitchy way.. which prompted more insults from the female in front. The guy then stood up, fist up, ready to punch the female in front. Luckily the conductor managed to pull them apart before he hit her. Talk about drama!
I've been growing increasingly restless, as my friend rightly predicted, with the lack of sport. I finally went to look for a climbing wall yesterday, but the first place I went to no longer existed. (I tried calling them beforehand but got a wrong number because it no longer exists) It was on that bus on the way to that Boulder Bar that I was so charmingly introduced to Beijing buses. Such a pity, as it sounded like a really interesting place, bouldering+alcohol+Mexican&Indian curries. It also took me about 45 minutes before I located the place it was supposed to be at (the randoms I stopped on the street to ask them the exact location of the address I had didn't know where the building was even though they LIVED in the area.) So I decided to do that long trek across town (from NW where I live to SE of town) to look for the alternative indoor bouldering place since my friend is afraid of heights and will only do bouldering. We eventually found that place, hidden in the basement of a building that looked like it was being renovated with all of ONE person climbing there. Turned out that the place was closed that day because of some meeting later that evening. grrrr.... So, as a final try, we went to the nearest park (which isn't really all that near) and it turned out to be one of the highest walls around. And they'd closed for the day 5 mins before we arrived. arrrggghhh.... Plus they were really expensive (about 2.5 quid per climb). Doubt I will be going back there.. way too far and expensive! I will try crashing Beijing Uni's wall one of these days after classes this week. So restless... but I have classes this entire week, including the weekend because we get a week's hol next week and to make up for it, we have classes this weekend.