Time to try again?
Wow, too bad Mandarin was one of the two languages* I had a lot of trouble learning.
When asked, I always say I studied it for a year (roughly) and all I can say is (excuse my transliteration): “wo shi meigoren” which means “I’m an American.” And I figure, in most Mandarin-speaking situations, that will get me either into or out of trouble.
* The other language I studied and struggled with was Japanese. It’s worse, actually: in Japanese, I don’t even know how to say I’m an American.
7 Responses to “Time to try again?”
Posted: Oct 18th, 2006 at 4:39 pm
hey, you’re doing better than I am… all I can recall at this point is (transliterated) “wo bu ming bai” {I don’t understand}. *grin*
Posted: Oct 18th, 2006 at 6:06 pm
Watashi wa amerika-jin desu. There, now you’ve caught up with me in Japanese!
Posted: Oct 19th, 2006 at 12:57 am
Hmm, in some places in Japan it’s better if you’re mistaken for being Canadian.
Posted: Oct 19th, 2006 at 9:24 am
Of course. And all I have to do to “prove” it is demonstrate that I can’t make a decent cartoon.
Posted: Oct 19th, 2006 at 9:25 am
Hey, thanks! I’ll be sure to practice that.
Posted: Oct 19th, 2006 at 9:26 am
Hey, if we combine our phrases, we’ll be even more ridiculed! Let’s do it!
Posted: Oct 19th, 2006 at 11:53 am
The few phrases of mandarin I know I don’t know how to write, since I learned them from CD. I’m really hoping to get either a teacher or a class in this spring before I go back to China next summer. Here’s a great phrase we picked up though. (remember, I have no idea how to write this so it’s just phonetic as I can get it)
chung kuo sai yo hou shr yo hou kun
“Chinese food is both delicious and beautiful”
My favorite japanese phrases (almost all I can remember from 4 college semesters of it):
watashi no nihongo o zuto dame desu
“My japanese is incredibly bad”
watashi wa sakana desu
“I am a fish”
extra points for people that understand why I would have remembered that phrase and how important it was to me on my japanese tests. Wow was I terrible at that language. In fact, I’m pretty sure that sentence is wrong.