how do you say "thawing out" in japanese?
I've just spent the better part of the afternoon (about four hours or so) riding around Beijing in below-zero temperatures. I'd say I was insane, but it means that I got done absolutely everything I could have needed to get done.
STOP ONE: I went to Alien Street Markets to get some more tea, which is the only thing I can offer guests to our house aka my tutor. This was a fairly uneventful stop, except that I bought so much tea I don't think I will ever need to buy tea again. Apparently I forgot that tea is light and got about 500g total, roflcopter.
STOP TWO: Much more eventful! I went to pick up the package I thought was my Japanese textbook, which required me to get my housemate's passport off him at work; only to ride around Dongdaqiao about five times asking every newsstand owner in the area where the Hujialou Post Office was. They were all super impressed with my Chinese. So I picked up my package, and after having a lovely little conversation with some dude outside the Police Station (which was next to the post office) about my hat and how great my Chinese was, I decided to open it. GOOD THING, TOO. Apparently neither me nor my tutor looked very hard at the Amazon.cn page, because it was a set of cassettes for the textbook I wanted. So...
STOP THREE: I biked over to Wangfujing to get my textbook, as well as a Japanese-Chinese dictionary (with English as well). I could, I suppose, have gone further up Wangfujing into one of the malls and gotten myself a new pair of jeans, but 1) I didn't have enough money, and 2) my Visa has not been working here so far; I think I need to call my bank about it.
STOP FOUR: Then on the way home, I did some grocery shopping with my remaining money for toilet paper, batteries, and washing powder!
So: awesome and productive afternoon, but biking around in windchill temperatures of -10C, I think I will be spending the rest of the evening inside wearing many layers and sipping some tea. After my Japanese lessons, that is.
In Japanese lessons news, I can say much more now! I can say what time I do things, how long it takes to do things; I can link two "です" sentences; I can add endings to え/い verbs and 无端动词, which are "all the other verbs"; I can also say shit in past tense! The lesson we're on today is about buying things, and formally teaches me a bunch adjectives and verbs I already knew (素晴らしい、珍しい、料理、安い、映画、おもしろい、さんぽ、食べもの、長い、本当に, etc)! I feel like I don't know anything, but surely I do. It's just weird to go through a lesson understanding everything, watching Japanese television and understanding as much as I ever do, and then get to making sentences and feel wretched and hopeless. I'm not even sure what I want to say!
If anyone can recommend a good Japanese grammar book... Hannah suggested A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar, but it's so expensive. :( When my textbook and dictionary (which cost twice as much as the textbook) only cost me Y77 ($11USD), it seems a bit rough to pay $80 with shipping for one book. This one looks okay; so does this one.... I only really need a handbook, to clarify things when explanations in Chinese (over and over again; I do feel for my poor tutor) aren't enough. Any suggestions? Anyone? Beuller?
STOP ONE: I went to Alien Street Markets to get some more tea, which is the only thing I can offer guests to our house aka my tutor. This was a fairly uneventful stop, except that I bought so much tea I don't think I will ever need to buy tea again. Apparently I forgot that tea is light and got about 500g total, roflcopter.
STOP TWO: Much more eventful! I went to pick up the package I thought was my Japanese textbook, which required me to get my housemate's passport off him at work; only to ride around Dongdaqiao about five times asking every newsstand owner in the area where the Hujialou Post Office was. They were all super impressed with my Chinese. So I picked up my package, and after having a lovely little conversation with some dude outside the Police Station (which was next to the post office) about my hat and how great my Chinese was, I decided to open it. GOOD THING, TOO. Apparently neither me nor my tutor looked very hard at the Amazon.cn page, because it was a set of cassettes for the textbook I wanted. So...
STOP THREE: I biked over to Wangfujing to get my textbook, as well as a Japanese-Chinese dictionary (with English as well). I could, I suppose, have gone further up Wangfujing into one of the malls and gotten myself a new pair of jeans, but 1) I didn't have enough money, and 2) my Visa has not been working here so far; I think I need to call my bank about it.
STOP FOUR: Then on the way home, I did some grocery shopping with my remaining money for toilet paper, batteries, and washing powder!
So: awesome and productive afternoon, but biking around in windchill temperatures of -10C, I think I will be spending the rest of the evening inside wearing many layers and sipping some tea. After my Japanese lessons, that is.
In Japanese lessons news, I can say much more now! I can say what time I do things, how long it takes to do things; I can link two "です" sentences; I can add endings to え/い verbs and 无端动词, which are "all the other verbs"; I can also say shit in past tense! The lesson we're on today is about buying things, and formally teaches me a bunch adjectives and verbs I already knew (素晴らしい、珍しい、料理、安い、映画、おもしろい、さんぽ、食べもの、長い、本当に, etc)! I feel like I don't know anything, but surely I do. It's just weird to go through a lesson understanding everything, watching Japanese television and understanding as much as I ever do, and then get to making sentences and feel wretched and hopeless. I'm not even sure what I want to say!
If anyone can recommend a good Japanese grammar book... Hannah suggested A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar, but it's so expensive. :( When my textbook and dictionary (which cost twice as much as the textbook) only cost me Y77 ($11USD), it seems a bit rough to pay $80 with shipping for one book. This one looks okay; so does this one.... I only really need a handbook, to clarify things when explanations in Chinese (over and over again; I do feel for my poor tutor) aren't enough. Any suggestions? Anyone? Beuller?