Always learning

(The watermelon lady's daughter selling pineapple).
(Taking a walk with my student).
(Little kiddos playing outside)


Xia Wu Hao! (Good afternoon!)

It has been a slow, but good Sunday so far. I got to spend a lot of time reflecting and reading the word. For the past week or so, I've also been much more diligent studying my Chinese. It is so difficult, and seem so overwhelming, if not impossible, to learn. But I know I must persevere!

So slowly, slowly, slowly, my Chinese is improving in minuscule increments, but its improvement, nevertheless. Whenever I try to speak it, it is also a challenge not to get really depressed. Tones and nearly perfect pronunciation are a must, unlike in English or any other language I've studied. And when people talk back to you, they don't slow down at all to help you. They either repeat it over and over, or they just shake their head and refuse to talk to you.

Today I was walking around on the streets, when a man came up to me trying to talk to me. I could understand a lot of what he was saying: like "what do you do? how old are you? how long have you been teaching?" Then I went to buy some fruit on the street. I only said something insanely simple like, "Hello! I want five bananas." Perhaps my pronunciation has improved slightly, because this time the lady responded, "Your Chinese is great!" So that was a little encouragement, because nobody ever says that to me. They are usually just frustrated or amused at me.

Nothing else very much has been happening. The only other thing I did today was that Rachael and I went rollerblading, since it was a nice 50 degrees. But then it started raining again and we had to head for shelter.

Everything's good in this 'hood.