| Biswo |
Posted
on 26-May-01 02:04 PM
First of all, I wish Trailokya all the best in his upcoming China
stay. Hey, I have been pondering about visiting Kunming and
Shanghai (and if possible, inner Mongolia) myself sometimes this
year, I will be very happy if we bump into each other (again?)
in Taquilla Mama in Huaihai Road.
It is also nice to hear that Ashu is looking forward to joining
Chinese class. I guess it will be very frustrating in the start,
and you will have some difficulty in speaking Chinese so as the
Chinese people understand it, but I am sure you will master it
within some months. I also suggest you to take some short term
course in Nanjing once you acquire a smattering of Chinese in KTM.
I learned Chinese in Nanjing, but it was not an easy task.
Specially, because they have some 'sound' that we don't have in
our Nepali language. While we have three 's' sound, of which we
generally use only one, the Chinese still actively use three s,
three ch and three chh sounds.
I am enlisting here a few funny incidents that I had had in China:
1. A friend of mine wanted to buy cigarette. We knew 'yan' was the
word for both cigarette and salt. So, the first time we asked for
yan, we were careful to remind him we were not asking for
salt.
"we are not asking for salt. we are asking for cigarette!"
The shopkeeper looked at our face, lifted his hoary eyebrow a
little, and became confused. Then he gave us salt.
We couldn't convince him, because we couldn't even see if there
was any cigarette in his shop.
2. In one Spring Festival, I was dispatched by other friends to
buy chicken. Most of the shops in Shanghai were closed by then.
I didn't know how to cook chicken, so it was my responsibility
to buy chicken from no matter where.
Looking for chicken, I went to a semi-slum (it no longer is slum,
probably) behind Jiaotong University(alma mater of Jiang Zemin).
Finding a butcher was very difficult, and I was sure he would ask
for a gouging price.
When I found a butcher, he said he already closed the store. So,
he recommended me to go to a store nearby. He told me the store
was run by an old couple, and they were open and selling the
chicken.
So, I found the old man and his wife in the small store."What do
you want? " he asked me in Shanghainese language.
"Ji rou" (chicken) I replied.
He gave me something I couldn't recognize.
"ji_iiiiiii roooooouuuuu" I tried to change my tone.
"jji roo" somewhat modulated again.
He looked at me with his vacuous expression.
It was really painful for me to look for another store that night.
I couldn't even find another person walking around the store to
translate for me in that store.
3. This experience predates my Chinese literacy period.
I was in my route to Beijing from Hongkong. I was vegetarian then,
but I had forgotten to book for vegetarian food.
I asked a beautiful airhostess for vegetarian food:
"I don't eat meat. You understand English, right? I don't eat
meat."
She told me she understood.
When she brought me the food , it was kind of dumpling. Unaware of
Chinese food items, and assured that I had told her clearly about
what I wanted, I started eating.
A vegetarian knows pretty soon if he is not eating vegetable.
It was nauseating. So, I asked the airhostess again: " Is this meat? I am sure this is meat , miss."
She waived her hand in refusal, and said" No, no. This is not
meat. This is beef."
I later found out, in Chinese, 'rou' is used for pork and meat
alike. Probably she thought I was Moslem, and so by 'meat' I
probably meant pork.
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| Trailokya Aryal |
Posted
on 27-May-01 09:16 PM
Namaste Biswoji,
Thank yoiu very much for wishing me luck on my upcoming stay in China. I sure am eagerly ande xcitedly looking forward to it. And I am sure that we will come across each other in Tequila Mama at Er-Si-Shi hou Ruijin Erlou near Huai Huai Zhong Lu.
I really enjoyed learning yoiur difficulties with the language but we all go through that, especially the Tones. Only I know how much I hated those.
I too had a hard time making "r" sound, like "chi" "shi" and "zhi". But, with practice, patience and excellent guidence from my teachers, I was able to say those right. So, Ashu dai don't give up on learning Chinese if you find it really hard the first few weeks. Believe me, once you get a hang of those tones, Chinese is probably the easiest language to learn.
And here's a little incident which I rememebr from my China stay:
I had to go to San Xi Lu but I couldn't figure out how to get there. So, I asked someone "ni zhi dao zen me zou San Xi Lu?" (Do you know how to get to San Xi Lu?" Little I knew, that I wasn't saying San right. I was saying Shan Xi Lu instead. He said, "yes" and gave me directions. I followed his directions but couldn't find the place I was looking for. Obviously, by following his directions, I had ended up going to "mountain west street" than "third west street". I had to call one of my friends who spoke English for directions.
Trailokya
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