Language Barrier - Yessir

I have to say, this Mandarin Chinese language is a well put-together piece of machinery...

Aside from the 4 different tones that are used on vowels and the odd characters that all seem to look the same to me (不要打开这扇门, 否则将承担后果 = do not open this door or you will suffer the consequences...I would definitely be suffering some consequences if there were no English translation readily available for that one), this 'new' language that I'm learning seems to be easier to learn to speak when compared to Spanish or English. Sentence structure is relatively easy: time + subject + place + verb + object. Making a pronoun plural is quite simple in Mandarin, you just add 'men' to either 'I, you, he/she' - as opposed to English or Spanish where there are many forms of pronouns. Possession is also pretty easy to handle - pronouns don't change, you just add 'de' to something to give it possession ('I' doesn't become 'mine', it just stays 'I'). As I've said before, tones definitely do make things more complicated because you can say 'ma' 4 different ways to mean either 'mother, horse, linen, or scold' and 'tang' can mean either 'hot, soup, lay down, or sugar.' So I guess context clues and proper tones are important in those cases.

I have gotten somewhat decent at being able to introduce myself and ask someone who they are, how old they are, who's in their family, where they're from, as well as asking directions, telling a taxi driver where to go, ordering food, cheering for my favorite soccer team, and some other various things. Although yesterday I did run into a problem with a taxi driver. He thought I was saying a street name that I wasn't, and I may have been pronouncing it wrong, so he took me around the city of Shanghai for quite some time until I realized that we were definitely not heading in the right direction (at first I thought maybe he knew a shortcut). I finally signaled to him that the street I needed was entirely in the other direction and then I coached him in turning left, then right, then left, then straight, etc (good thing I kinda knew where I was going). He was a nice guy and seemed to understand that it was somewhat his fault as well, so he didn't charge me as much as he should have, which was nice.

When I get into a bind and don't know what to say, my brain often directs itself to the only other foreign language that I know - Spanish - and I'll sometimes start saying something in Spanish before I realize that is not at all correct :-) It's good that most Chinese people are pretty helpful people who are willing to work with you to figure out what you want to say!

Since I'm not learning the Chinese characters, and I'm just focusing on speaking for the time being, it isn't too overwhelming to learn the language...I just have to remember what means what and which tones I need to be using on which vowels. I imagine that by the time I am finished with my time in Shanghai, I will have mastered the art of sign language, because I very often use my hands to describe things since I have no idea how to say many things that I want to. I have begun carrying a small notebook in my pocket in which I write down simple phrases and words that are necessary to know for daily interaction with people.

I think I'm catching onto the language a bit faster than some of my friends (although some arrived in Shanghai with classes under their belt already), so that's good to know. My tutor is super helpful because she'll usually ask me what kinds of conversational situations I've had problems with throughout the week and then we'll work on learning real life conversations and we often roll play with her as the taxi driver or waitress and me as the customer.

It can often be very frustrating not being able to converse as freely as you would hope to, and I understand that you cannot learn a language in only a few months, but I'd really like to have the ability to converse simply and understand people...hopefully I can accomplish that within the 8 weeks! (Yep, just over 8 weeks left here in Shanghai. Wow - some of my friends are beginning to end their internships and are getting ready to leave for back home within the next week. It's too bad they can't stay for the entire summer) I'll have to make sure I take proper advantage of the next 2 months I have here!!

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PMM