Thursday, June 2nd, 2016
Smog Level: 2/3 Mountains
Cool
Jacque, of the kids in Bunny’s class, is the one who said his favorite movie was The Little Mermaid. Another instance where he really doesn’t care that his tastes are not “manly” is that he was carrying around a button that looked like a flower. I remember being a kid and having these little trinkets of basically no value, but thinking they were special and just liked having them. The kids have these things all the time, but this particular one got the girls calling Jacque a girl. He didn’t care, I told him it was cool - a word the Chinese have picked up: kù.
A Parent's Gift
 |
| Common to find women carrying umbrellas on sunny days. Pale is in, didn't you know? |
Class Party
The second class had earned themselves a party with all the stars they managed to maintain! They’ve been good lately. Well, mostly. Anyway, the party is after their month test, which makes it even more enjoyable. It consists of one pocky stick, a gift (stencils), and watching a movie for two sessions (40 minutes each). Awesome, I have time to get all the marking done, then relax for a session. Everyone’s happy!
Mandarin Class
Oh man, breakthrough today for some basic grammar. I had focused a lot on learning opposites, the ones I thought would be useful. Big-small, hot-cold, most-least, more-less etc. I never put it together that the question for “How much does this cost?” is essentially the three words “more less money?” When you take two words about volume, size, whatever like that, you put the bigger one in front of the smaller one and it means “how much” of that category. more less = how much; far-near = how far? Not sure if this always applies, or in certain circumstances, but at least I'll know what they're talking about
I also learned that the word for “thing” is East West (dōng xī) and is meant to be “everything from east to west.” So… basically everything. Thing. Also, their directions are the opposite order of ours. We say North-West or South-East; they say West-North or East-South. It's not Front right, it's right-side front.
Useful!
 |
| The Party Yeah, every classroom has a TV behind their blackboard. Also, Henry mid-jump for joy on the right, there |
Money still doesn’t quite feel real here. In some respects, it comes too easily. I’m doing less work for it here and getting paid more than I ever have so… No complaints, but it just hasn’t sunk in yet. This much colorful paper can get you that much paper. Example: ¥15 (3 CAD) gets you a beer at a bar, ¥20-25 for imported specials, or ¥40 for pina coladas.
The band is back together like our first time at quiz night: Me, Dan, Tad, and Mary, plus Tad’s friend, Cece. The theme for this is “Summer Quiz,” so.. summer music, and blue-themed characters, for some reason. Also, movie taglines. We had a good lead at the beginning, but it kind of fell apart on the songs/artists category. We tied for second, which I clinched for us by beating the other team in a beer chugging contest. Hurrah!
Mary and Dan leave to check out a band somewhere else, but because it’s the night before my birthday, Tad and Cece buy me shots, and shots had been sent to our table because of my birthday, thanks to Luigi, the quiz host. It is kind of blurry near the end, with regards to conversational content. I had spoken to a random girl at the bar who looked like she was British. She wasn’t; a New Yorker. I asked how the Chinese guys treated her, because I hear foreign women are a hot commodity here. She said that they don’t actually approach her, but she always hears them say “piàoliang” whenever she passes by. Now, I hear “gāo” a lot, which means tall. I brush it off because, yeah, I’m tall. Thanks for pointing it out. But imagine how it might affect you if the one word you heard to describe you most often is “beautiful” everywhere you go.
Tad and I bounce to get some schnitzel, but find that it’s closed. We asked a nearby shop where we might be able to get similar food, and they direct us somewhere, but my memory is a jigsaw at this point. We end up at some hole-in-the-wall street food spot. There was some confusion about what we got, and the language/alcohol barrier didn’t help in processing whatever they said. We ate to our fill, then I cabbed into the night.
Words of the Day
English - Mandarin [pronunciation]
Coolkù
[coo]
No comments:
Post a Comment