Potentialities
I might be put in touch with someone (through one of my parent's acquaintances) who has a Mandarin-speaking friend. Apparently this friend enjoyed teaching this "someone."
Waiting to hear back via e-mail. Not sure how this will work, but hey, if it's an opportunity to prevent my increasingly deteriorating comprehension, I'm game.
ETA: Mom just called - we're having a "Chinese" get-together with this contact tomorrow evening. They're coming over after dinner so we can get acquainted (and I can give them an idea of my comprehension level)
First Interesting Thing:
Aunt: So, I heard you're in contact with your family [over there] and you've been learning a different language to communicate. What is it you've been learning, Cantonese or Chinese?
Me: *fighting to impulse to answer deadpan* Cantonese is Chinese.
Aunt: o.o
Me: It's a dialect of Chinese.
I'm really kind of surprised at how many people don't know Cantonese is a Chinese language, and that they're called dialects. Really, how can you have heard about China geographically and not hear the introduction about dialects?
Second Interesting Thing (at my hairdresser's yesterday):
H: So do you keep in touch with your family? Your sister? Any relationship?
Me: Not really. Mostly just through Facebook.
H: Does this lack of relationship disappoint you?
Me: You bet. But... I kind of figure... there's not much I can do about it. And there's also only so much of a relationship you can form when you ... don't speak the language well enough.
H: Can you speak it?
Me: Survival-passable.
H: ...
Me: Um, basically I can speak enough basics to survive, but I can't, you know, read a storybook, because it uses different language contexts. Storybooks don't use the same terms as survival language.
H: (awkward pause) Oh, I see.
And before anyone asks me how I couldn't have become proficient going to classes, I'd like to make a point: Did you become even remote proficient taking your school's "compulsory" second language?
Waiting to hear back via e-mail. Not sure how this will work, but hey, if it's an opportunity to prevent my increasingly deteriorating comprehension, I'm game.
ETA: Mom just called - we're having a "Chinese" get-together with this contact tomorrow evening. They're coming over after dinner so we can get acquainted (and I can give them an idea of my comprehension level)
First Interesting Thing:
Aunt: So, I heard you're in contact with your family [over there] and you've been learning a different language to communicate. What is it you've been learning, Cantonese or Chinese?
Me: *fighting to impulse to answer deadpan* Cantonese is Chinese.
Aunt: o.o
Me: It's a dialect of Chinese.
I'm really kind of surprised at how many people don't know Cantonese is a Chinese language, and that they're called dialects. Really, how can you have heard about China geographically and not hear the introduction about dialects?
Second Interesting Thing (at my hairdresser's yesterday):
H: So do you keep in touch with your family? Your sister? Any relationship?
Me: Not really. Mostly just through Facebook.
H: Does this lack of relationship disappoint you?
Me: You bet. But... I kind of figure... there's not much I can do about it. And there's also only so much of a relationship you can form when you ... don't speak the language well enough.
H: Can you speak it?
Me: Survival-passable.
H: ...
Me: Um, basically I can speak enough basics to survive, but I can't, you know, read a storybook, because it uses different language contexts. Storybooks don't use the same terms as survival language.
H: (awkward pause) Oh, I see.
And before anyone asks me how I couldn't have become proficient going to classes, I'd like to make a point: Did you become even remote proficient taking your school's "compulsory" second language?