Living Language Note: Over the next few months, our new friend Kathleen, aka Kat, will be taking a journey with us. She’ll be learning the challenging yet rewarding language of Chinese – and she’ll be blogging about it along the way! Check here every Monday for an update from Kat. When she’s not learning Chinese & blogging about it, Kat is a chef, writes on her own blog and occasionally tweets on Twitter.
Today I learned how to get around town. Or at least ask how to get there. I learned a few new verbs like “zài” (to be located at) and “qù” (to go). And it finally clicked for me how to pronounce the letter that looks like “c” but it sounds more like a “t.” It only took me six lessons! It probably helped that the word that helped me figure out this sound was “cānguăn” or restaurant. You pronounce it like taangooen. Though I still have a problem pronouncing “cèsuŏ” or restroom. I hear the word but my mouth just can’t make the sound like I want it to. So at least I can get to the restaurant I just won’t be able to ask where the restroom is!
I think my favorite word in this lesson is “pángbiān” which means next to. I think it’s just fun to say, and for once it’s pronounced exactly how it looks (which probably is why I like it the most).
I’m going on vacation this weekend and most words I learned this week related to what I was doing this weekend. Having something to relate to seemed to help me quite a bit. Next week I’m hoping will be a good week because it’s all about going to a restaurant. I think one day soon I’ll have to sit down and go through all the lessons again to refresh everything. I started a new job recently and haven’t been able to devote as much time to learning Chinese as I did at my last job, and I think it’s causing me to suffer some in remembering everything.
Until next week… Zàijiàn!
