...Which is pronounced mama huhu, and actually means "so-so."
Don't ask.
I've been meaning to do a post on learning Chinese for a while. We get free evening classes, which is generous and cool. How useful they are is an object of debate. There seem to be many problems associated with studying Chinese: the pinyn, which means getting used to sounds not corresponding to letters, and some sounds being almost unpronounceable anyway. As in zh and c being pronounced respectively zd (sort of) and ts. But don't quote me on this. Then there are the tones. Why a language thought it made sense to evolve with tones is beyond me. It looks like some divine curse. But they're there, and need to be practiced and learned, at least a bit. Then there's the writing, obviously, without even the comfort of Japanese kana (incidentally, when I studied Hebrew, and proferred the sentence "if I ever take another language, it will have the Roman alphabet", if there is a God or some other superior entity he must have laughed very loudly).
However, the classes supply some basis, even if it's not ideal, especially as I've never been a champion of self-discipline and pure self-study doesn't work for me. I've also discovered a neat trick. The laoshe (teacher) you have a total of three hours a week is not the only laoshe you have. There are scores of them. Cleaning ladies and repairmen talk to me, I repeat stuff like a kid, sometimes guess and infer meanings. I point at fruit and vegetables at the market and the sellers say the names (except one lady who wants to practice her English--that's unfair!). People talk to each other, say hello, good bye, how are you with perfect tones, obviously. Anyone can be your teacher (for little orfree, or sometimes providing additional services) and the world your language classroom.
No comments:
Post a Comment