Week 15 of 23: 第十五周
Roomie's house! 我的室友家
I went to my roommate's house last Friday! My roommate's parents have a house in Shanghai, but she lives in a dorm Monday through Thursday. Her house is about an hour away by bus. Being at her house was very confusing because her parent's were speaking Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, and the local dialect of Shanghai Hua Chinese. I could only understand one of those languages so I think I missed like like two thirds of their conversation but it's okay, I'm used to feeling clueless. My roommate's dad laughed at me for not understanding Japanese, but I just shrugged and said "yeah I don't understand anything except Mandarin Chinese," and he laughed at me for not understanding Shanghai Hua Chinese either.
My roommate also showed my her old yearbooks, and asked me to read some of the comments her high school friends wrote her. I read them out loud, thinking my roommate just wanted to share the comments with me. But then she said, "No, I asked you to read it so I would know what they wrote." My roommate is a college junior, which means she went at least three years without reading those comments because the handwriting was messy for her to read, and I came all the way from America to help her read the comments.
My roommate also wanted to play a piano duet, but I haven't really played piano in a few months. I mean I vaguely remember how music works because I occasionally make sad attempts at teaching myself guitar. But I forgot how to read ledger lines, which is pretty embarrassing, but we played the part of a duet that didn't involve ledger lines. My roommates dad recorded us playing piano, and then he put the recording on through his car speakers as he was driving me back to my dorm. It was very weird and he said he loved our duet and wanted to listen to it every day. I hope/think he was kidding?
上个星期五我去了我的室友家做客。我室友的父母住在上海，所以她平时住宿舍，周末就回家。她的家离我的学校一个小时。我在他家觉得有点糊涂，因为他爸爸妈妈会用日语，上海话，和普通话交谈。我就能听懂普通话，所以三分之二我都不了解。噢，我已经习惯像个呆子一样不知道人家在说什么。我室友的爸爸就笑我听不懂日语，我耸耸肩说我就能听懂普通话。然后他又笑我听不懂上海话。
My Jingjiang dialect could use some work 靖江话很难
So I think that when I hear Jingjiang Hua Chinese now, I can sort of pick up on the topic by hearing keywords that sound sort of like Mandarin Chinese. I'm pretty happy about that, but sometimes I hear things completely wrong. My uncle asked me how big my shoe size was, but he didn't say it in Mandarin Chinese. The word for "shoe" in Mandarin Chinese is "xie zi". But what I thought I heard him say was "hai zi" which sounded to me like the Mandarin Chinese word for "child." So when he asked "how big is your 'hai zi'", I thought he was asking me how old my child was. I was thinking I didn't hear that right, because I certainly hope I've not given birth yet. And even if I had given birth, then I think that own uncle would hopefully know how old my child was without asking. So I asked him to repeat that again, and I still couldn't understand him, so I had my aunt translate it into Mandarin Chinese for me. Everyone around me started laughing at my confusion, but I will now always remember how to say "shoes" in Jingjiang Hua Chinese.
当我听到靖江话的时候，还可以听懂一些很像普通话单词。这让我很开心，不过我有时候会猜错！有一次我舅舅用靖江话问我的鞋子多大，但是我听错了，以为他再问我我的孩子多大。我很糊涂，真在想，我还没有做妈妈呢，怎么会有孩子呢？而且如果我真的有孩子，我自己的舅舅应该知道我的孩子几岁了。于是我让我舅舅再说一遍，结果还是一样。最后还是我姨妈帮我从靖江话翻译成普通话才明白。然后大家都笑了起来。现在我永远也不会忘了怎么用靖江话说鞋子。
I love Chinese. 汉语翻成英语好玩，也许是因为我翻的不对罢。
Sometimes I get frustrated with how ridiculously hard Chinese is, but sometimes I love it and it feels so easy and fun.I think I should try to focus on how fun I find some of the words due to the American part of my brain translating things back to English in a very choppy way.
In Chinese, "ban ma xian" means "crosswalk", but word for word it translates into "zebra lines" because crosswalks have stripes.
"Da ma lu" means "large road", but the word for word translation is "big horse road" because before there were cars there were horses.
"Dian chui feng" means "hair dryer", but its word for translation is "electricity blow wind."
"Chang jin lu" means "giraffe", but its word for word translation is "long neck deer."
"Huo ji" means "turkey", but its word for word translation is "fire chicken."
"Ma ma hu hu" means "careless" or "mediocre", but its word for word translation is "horse horse tiger tiger."
"Tian tian quan" means "doughnut", but its word for word translation is "sweet sweet circle."
"Dian nao" means "computer", but word for word it means "electricity brain."
"Huo che" means "train" but word for word it means "fire car" because trains used to use coal.
In a way, I think it's easier to remember words like this.
汉语中斑马线是指人行道，完全是因为那白色的条纹。而大马路虽然通常是指可以开汽车的大路，但是别忘了先有马才有汽车的。所以大路是马的路。当然电吹风是可以把头发吹干的，而长颈鹿确实脖子很长。不过火鸡跟火确是毫无关系，而马马虎虎的意思也与马和虎毫不关联。当然把圆圆的甜圈叫成甜甜圈，把计算机叫成电脑，或者把需要烧煤才能开的车叫火车，不是都很形象吗？
从这个角度来说，这些汉语反而比较容易记住。
I also love the weird tongue twisters that my family and teachers show me, even if I don't understand most of them. I can remember "明明明明明白白白喜欢他“ which is pronounced "Ming Ming ming ming ming bai Bai Bai xi huan ta" and means "Ming Ming (a boy's name) clearly understands that Bai Bai (a girl's name) likes him." Another one I think I sort of remember is "常长长常常长，长长常常长长" which is pronounced "Chang chang chang chang zhang, chang chang chang chang zhang chang." I don't quite remember, but I think it means "the long thing frequently grows bigger, the long thing frequently grows longer." (Someone help correct my Chinese translation skills, please?)
Chinese is an insane language.
我也喜欢那种奇怪的绕口令。我只记得一些。"明明明明明白白白喜欢他“是其中一个，讲的是叫明明的男孩很清楚地知道那个叫白白的女孩喜欢他。另外这个 "常长长常常长，长长常常长长"只是说要长长就要常常长！
汉语真是太让人抓狂了！
Thanks for reading! 谢谢你读我的博客
I will officially know in a month, but I think I passed the HSKK Chinese Speaking Test last Saturday! There's only 3 levels: beginning, intermediate, and advanced. I took the intermediate, and am happy I don't ever have to take it again. There's no way in heck I'll ever pass the advanced level. I lack the motivation.
Tomorrow I am skipping one day of class and hopping on the 5 hour train to Beijing for the weekend. Last time I went to Beijing I was 7 years old, and I pretty much only remember running into an American who told me my English was really good. I think I said "I'm from Ohio" and she asked, "Where in China is Ohio?" Ohio is definitely not in China, and my English definitely should be good considering I lived in Ohio. Hopefully this time I go to Beijing I will be able to remember more of the actual city, but I guess if not I'll just go again next year.
Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next Thursday!
虽然还要一个月才能确认，但我感觉我能通过HSKK口语考试！我考的是中级，我可能永远也考不过高级，也没有那个动力，所以我很高兴我不用再考。
明天我会逃课，去北京玩。上次我去北京，我当时才七岁。我就记得我碰到了一个美国人，她说我的英语很好。然后我说我来自俄亥俄，她就问我们俄亥俄在中国哪儿里。她是美国人，但是好像忘了俄亥俄是美国的一个州。我希望我这次去北京印象会深一点。但是我不着急，明年还可以再去。谢谢你读我的博客。下个星期四见！