Have you eaten?

So I have buckled down once again in trying to learn Chinese. My Chinese friend Amy (the one I went to Jingdezhen with) helps me with Chinese every Friday. I am finally starting to improve - very slowly but surely.

When you get over how frustrating the different tones can be, and how every word has its own distinct written character, Chinese can be pretty logical. The grammar's not too complicated, and there aren't a lot of superfluous words. I will give you an example of some Chinese sentences in pinyin and the literal translations:

"Ni chi guo le ma?" Literally: You eat? (Have you eaten?)

"Hao bu hao?" Literally: Good not good? (Okay?)

"Ni you xiong di jie mei ma?" Literally: You have older brother, younger brother, older sister, little sister? (Do you have any siblings?)

"Zhe shi wode nan pengyou." Literally: This is my man friend. (This is my boyfriend).

"Ta you mei you shu?" Literally: He has not has book? (Does he have the book?)

"Ni shi mei guo ren ma?" Literally: You are beautiful country person? (Are you an American?)

"Wo shi zhong guo ren." Literally: I am middle country person. (I am Chinese).

Isn't that really interesting? And it gets more exciting, because each word has its own tone and written character. I am pretty sure if I had been living in Spain or Germany for all this time I would be completely fluent. But I have to remember He has placed me here, even if the language makes me want to run away sometimes. :)

Like I said above, "Ni chi guo le ma," means "Have you eaten?" This is my favorite, because it is the standard greeting across China. Instead of "How are you?" people ask, "Have you eaten?" That greeting alone can give you a glimpse into Chinese culture. In the past, food was quite scarce, and people were doing well if they had eaten a meal.

Today I happened to be reading on BBC how a new "global hunger index" had been published. China has accomplished a lot in pulling many of its people out of poverty, but the hunger situation is still "serious" in China. That is about on par with many African countries. I guess China still has a long ways to go. The greeting, "Have you eaten," isn't likely to fade away any time soon...

In other news, I have started coaching a junior student for the "CCTV Cup" coming up soon. The Foreign Affairs Office at our school sent him to me to work with him. CCTV is the state-controlled television network that has a monopoly in China. The CCTV cup is a prestigious English speech contest held every year. There are first provincial contests, and the winners move on to Beijing for the final.

So this student, "Justin," has probably the best English I've heard at our school. He is pretty intense, but I enjoyed speaking at a fairly normal pace, while using decent-sized vocabulary words. I'm actually really excited to help him. It is something different to do, and it is challenging.

Today he came during my office hours, and I looked over his speech he wrote about science and culture. I offered a lot of suggestions, and we even had lively discussions throughout - about things like nuclear weapons, the limitations of traditional Chinese education, and leaders who speak flowery, but meaningless words. This weekend he will memorize his speech and then we will practice how he delivers his speech. I'll let you know how it goes!

Enjoy your wonderful weekend!