Looking for a new hobby?

This is the advertisement for the Chinese workshop we had on Dragon Boat Festival Day. Mahj, papercutting, Red songs, Chinese Chess, and zongzi, sticky rice wrapped in leaves.  Which, or all, would you choose?

Nobody's perfect...

...especially when they are practicing their Chinese homework.  Look closely, and you will see plenty of corrections on my worksheet :)

You get extra credit if you can tell me what I was trying to say!

More neat eats

I love the yummy fresh fruits that we have every night for dessert.  Overall the food is healthy and tasty.

 There are many yummy teas to try from the school cafeteria!  Since it's about 6.3 yuan to the dollar, it's really cheap too.

You can buy sugar can juice!  It wasn't fantastic but was pretty good.  They grind it right in front of you!

















This is Oreo milk tea, from a local cafe.  Milk tea is a DELICIOUS Oriental specialty, but it turns out that oreaos really detract from the flavor.  Look closely at the back of the Oreo cup.  There are many examples of "Ingrish" to be found everywhere!

Under construction

I haven't been able to play any soccer all summer. Our sports field is completely under construction! Also I have been unable to track down any parks around my house, and I haven't seen any pickup games anywhere. My poor soccer ball is deflating. :(

Here's some more construction next to our school building, lots of building going on.

Since this is Beijing Language and Culture University's 50 year anniversary, there is construction all over the campus, in addition to the sports field.

In fact, when we were flying into Beijing, it was one of the first things I noticed.  Here's a picture I took of one of the huge cranes out of the airplane window!

Starbucks in China -- a lesson in transliteration

Starbucks is a very interesting foray into giving Chinese names to western things. there are two typical ways to name things. If you have a company, you can either choose a Chinese name that sounds like your western one (such as Wa Er Ma for Walmart), which sometimes might give you weird bunches of characters (read about Coca Cola's travails! http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/tadpole.asp), or you can try to choose characters that sound nothing like your product but convey some nice message about how great your product is or what it stands for, or even just the English word translated into Chinese. So my Chinese name is Ai Li, which is a transliteration of my english name. Starbucks is the only name I've found so far that is a fifty-fifty split between transliteration and conveying a concept. The first character of its name is Xing, which means star. the second two characters are Ba Ke, which together form a transliteration of Bucks. So Xing Ba Ke is "Star" "bucks." This delights me!

The guy below is actually waving at us...

Rain and sun in Beijing

It has been rainy, which could be depressing, but all the umbrellas in China are incredibly cheerful :)

But even when it's sunny Chinese prefer to travel in shade.  Here Rochelle and I are about to travel via rickshaw through the Hu Tongs district in the heart of Beijing.  

This area of well preserved old alleyways still have the air of classical Chinese history about them.  Since the alleyways are close to the Forbidden City compound where the emperor lived, many important generals and dignitaries resided here, and it remains a mix of private residences with trendy shops, bars, restaurants, etc.

At home in China -- my room

With space at a premium in the city, household layout is practical and economical.  

My room is comfy and practical.

Note my University of Michigan string bag -- Hail Hail!

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Class time: Kung fu fighting!

Joseph, Isaac, and Ben are practicing the Kung Fu moves we learned. Kung fu class is seriously awesome, I might take it recreationally when I get back. I'm not learning very much but I'm loving what I do learn. In China, you can major in kung fu in college!

Class time: On the playground

Just like all school kids, even Critical Language Scholars like a little downtime on the playground.

Class time: Checkmate!

One of the topics of discussion is Chinese Chess.  The game is similar to the chess we're familiar with, but not quite the same, so required that we listen closely to learn the rules.  If you look closely on the chalkboard you can see some of the instructions:

将死  --  Checkmate

棋子  --  Chess pieces

棋  --  Chess move

冠军  --  Champion

The board and the pieces look different too.  Playing the game requires a good amount of concentration for more than one reason.

Class time: Zhang Laoshi teaches pronunciation

Chinese calligraphy takes practice, but so does the pronunciation.  Most have heard that Mandarin words differ by "tone", sounds not native to English speakers.  Since nuances in tone make a difference in meaning, pronunciation is very important.  Here our teacher, Zhang Laoshi (literally, Teacher Zhang, since in Mandarin the last, or family name, comes first) works with one of our students on pronunciation.  


Check out the homework on the blackboard in the background.  See the cool stuff you get to talk about in class when you're learning a language:


星巴克  --  Starbucks


麦当劳  --  McDonald's

Class time: 书法课 Curse or cursive -- The art of calligraphy

There is a lot of debate in teaching circles about the relative importance of handwriting for today's youth.  Most of us don't make much use of a beautiful script or bother with pretty cursive, since most of our writing is accomplished on a keyboard.  Not true in China, however, where the ability to form characters is still considered very important.

It also is considered very hard by some of us who are required to learn it.  Brushes up, everyone!

Scorpions -- and no, not for dinner!

China offers something for everyone.  Just in case the dulcet tones of DONG FANG HONG, "The East is Red" (also the name of China's first space satellite program in the 1970's) isn't for you, feel secure that you can get your personal fix of heavy metal too.  The famed metal band Scorpions from Germany is also very popular in Beijing, as this CD in the school bookstore attests.

gōng 宫, shāng 商, jué 角, zhǐ 徵 and yǔ 羽

As different as it sounds, both western and Chinese music are based on the Pentatonic scale: 

gōng 宫, shāng 商, jué 角, zhǐ 徵 and yǔ 羽 

Hard to believe, when you hear it played!  

How to make friends and influence people

Sing their songs! 

In this case I am singing DONG FANG HONG with a group of singers in a park, who think it's amazing that a foreigner could sing this old Communist glory ditty.  But it has a pretty melody, and, meaning of the words notwithstanding, all of us derived great satisfaction using the song to make new friends.  :)

Finding Jesus off the main highway

During one of the excursions to the Great Wall we took time out to stop in an out of the way village for lunch.  This little town is very small and secluded, only having had a road built to it in the last five years or so.  What's even more rare is that the village is entirely Catholic. 

Where do you go to buy things made in China?? Wa - er - ma, of course!

Yes, that really is how you say Walmart in Chinese, even if the little guy here doesn't look too happy about it!

No, when you're in China all the merchandise in Wa - er - ma is NOT Made in the USA, in case you were wondering.  But I did find it the best place to purchase hand sanitizer.






What's even more fun is that they deliver in China too!

Can you find the sun?

No need for welder's glasses to see eclipses here:  We've got a built in visual filter! 

 Here, if you can find it, is the sun on a SUNNY day.

No, that's not fog...

The amount of smog in Beijing is a little hard to fathom until you see it in person.  Witness a sunny day in a traffic jam!

The other Obama in China

We've heard about Barack Obama's half brother, Mark, who lives in Guangshou, but here's another "Obama".  This dog is named Obama, for Obama, since the perception is that if Obama has a brother who lives in China, then Barack must be very sino-centric.

Back to Beijing

Where did the sun go??

I guess that means we have to study.

   

                                     

Sure footed

It was a little tricky.

But the vista at the end was more than worth it.

Just ducky!

Of course, some of us were already more soaked than others, so the duck boats were for fun rather than necessity.