tingbudong

Back to school on Monday!

The past two days have been teacher prep days for all of us.

Yesterday included a mandatory staff meeting... in Chinese since a majority of the teachers here don't speak English.

Richard, a funny English-speaking Chinese teacherfriend, translated for us via headphones. The principal would say something very composed and serious, and Richard would add his own two cents with an extra dose of enthusiasm for our listening ears.

And there sat the English staff giggling away about the cost of last semester's electricity bill...

I'm sure the natives think we're nuts. :)

We occasionally have mandatory meetings in Chinese without translation, and I think they're funny. I like to try to guess what's going on. Most of the time I'm way off.

It's hard sometimes to guess what Chinese people are saying b/c facial expression/context clues don't always seem to help me. 

I was at the little shop by the bus stop the other day, and the lady behind the counter was talk talk talking away. 

I was thoroughly convinced by her tone of voice that she was pretty mad about something. 

(Interesting to note, however, that this is not always the case with the Chinese language. Two people can sound like they are having a super serious discussion and really just be talking about the weather or what's for dinner. It's funny and a little hard to get used to). 

"What'd she say?" I asked my friend Kayla after we left. 

(I ask this question at least 487 times/day.)

Kayla was quite sure she was talking about the sack of eggs we bought. 

Bonnie said she was talking about how much younger I looked today compared to how I looked the last time I came in. 

Haha. 

I have no idea.

We were talking about this tonight... how sometimes you pick up the words you understand and kind of make up the rest.

Ask 10 different people, you might get 10 different answers.  

Makes me empathize with my little first graders who have to try and decipher what this crazy Texas talkin teacher is trying to say on a daily basis. :)

Ah, I wish you could meet them!

You'd love them for sure.

They're great.

I'm excited to see those cute kiddos again.