Hey... wanna talk to me?!! Anyone?!OK so I have to be frank w you. I got the results for my spoken exam yesterday and I did not do well... at all. So now I’m a bit despo to practice, practice, and practice my spoken Chinese.
Yesterday I took the following three actions:
At the gym:
3 Chinese personal trainers are standing together, chatting. On of them is my qym ‘acquaintance’, meaning we say hi and goodbye to each other every day. But today I step it up one inch. I approach, excuse myself for bothering them (“no problems!” everyone is now all ears.) and starts talking (with a broken Chinese) about a physical test I want to do at the end of the month, and about training my legs… and yeah well, ANYTHING I can think of that is gym related and that I know how to speak of. The other two trainers lose interest quite fast. My acquaintance annoys me by replying to my questions in English. But OK, at least he must have understood me, right?
Later that day in a taxi on my way home from tutoring a Korean kid:
Since the Korean family live on the other side of the lake in SIP in Suzhou (where there’s a lot of building projects and development going on) it is always a pain to get a taxi from their house. I try for 40 min before I start walking in a direction I’ve never walked before. It pays off and I get a car. The taxi driver looks friendly and I see my golden opportunity:
-Wow, it’s so hard to get a car on this side of the lake! I start.
-Hmmmf, I don’t think so, he grunts back.
-Yes, it is! I have been waiting for more than 30 min!
-Hmpfff…. So where are you going?
-Xin du…. Bla bla.
-OK.
-So have u been busy today?
-Hmmpfff….
End of conversation.
Well, I guess everyone is not in the mood of talking to strangers.
Yesterday I took the following three actions:
At the gym:
3 Chinese personal trainers are standing together, chatting. On of them is my qym ‘acquaintance’, meaning we say hi and goodbye to each other every day. But today I step it up one inch. I approach, excuse myself for bothering them (“no problems!” everyone is now all ears.) and starts talking (with a broken Chinese) about a physical test I want to do at the end of the month, and about training my legs… and yeah well, ANYTHING I can think of that is gym related and that I know how to speak of. The other two trainers lose interest quite fast. My acquaintance annoys me by replying to my questions in English. But OK, at least he must have understood me, right?
Later that day in a taxi on my way home from tutoring a Korean kid:
Since the Korean family live on the other side of the lake in SIP in Suzhou (where there’s a lot of building projects and development going on) it is always a pain to get a taxi from their house. I try for 40 min before I start walking in a direction I’ve never walked before. It pays off and I get a car. The taxi driver looks friendly and I see my golden opportunity:
-Wow, it’s so hard to get a car on this side of the lake! I start.
-Hmmmf, I don’t think so, he grunts back.
-Yes, it is! I have been waiting for more than 30 min!
-Hmpfff…. So where are you going?
-Xin du…. Bla bla.
-OK.
-So have u been busy today?
-Hmmpfff….
End of conversation.
Well, I guess everyone is not in the mood of talking to strangers.
Outside our flat:
Finally, I reach our flat. There’s a man playing with his kid outside, flying some kind of electronic kite (?).
-Oh, she’s lovely your daughter! I try.
He stares at me as if I was an alien.
I leave.
Well, okey, this is going to be a hard one but u can’t blame me for not trying! Today I am going to Shanghai after my listening exam. Hopefully I’ll be seated next to someone talkative on the train.
1 comment:
Ingen vidare respons där. Men du kämpar på. DET är imponerande! :-)
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