英文太难了！ (English is too hard!)

  I am now officially an English tutor, which has made me realize how incredibly difficult the English language is. From what I can see so far, the hardest part about English for Chinese speakers is the "s" at the end of words, whether for possession, plurality or verb conjunction, and prepositions and articles. Chinese, though difficult to pronounce, has relatively easy grammar, so these things seem very unnecessary to them. I tutor two 10-year old girls, one named "Happy" and one named "Vivian" (those are not their real names btw). Their parents want them to find English fun so last Sunday we went shopping and ate at Pizza Hut together. WHOO I ATE CHEESE for the first time since I got here. So delicious. My host dad frequently tries to convince me that English is harder than Chinese, but he has yet to persuade me on that one.

 

The first picture is of a typical Chinese dinner in our house. I don't know what everything is called, but the pink drink is a delicious smoothie of blended apple, tomato and peach, and we drink it everyday. Although you may have heard that in China they serve the rice at the end of the meal, I've only experienced that in the restaurants; at home we eat the rice with our food. Also, the Chinese eat their meat with all the bones still inside so you have to do a little dance in your mouth, swallow the meat, then you spit out the bones. The second picture is a picture of my host family, from left to right, my host mom, dad and grandma.

 

My brother isn't pictured because he doesn't eat dinner with us. He is in the equivalent of 8^th grade this year and has to pass a huge examination in order to get into high school. Everyday he goes to test-prep school after regular school is over. He doesn't get home until 7:30 everyday! And in case you were wondering if it was true, yes, Chinese children do go to school on Saturday. My brother even went to school all day last Sunday too! It is not typical to go to class on Sunday, but for some reason I didn't understand he had class at his teacher's home. 

 

The third picture was taken on a bridge I cross during my morning commute to school. Notice the fence that separates the bike lane from the rest of the street; this bike lane is on every major road in Nanjing and helps keep the bikers relatively safe. All bikes, including motorcycles and mopeds, have to drive in this lane. But if you really want to be a jackass, drive your car in this lane in order to get by the traffic! This also happens a lot because people sometimes have to drive in the bike lane to get to their driveways. I have yet to see someone wearing a helmet, by the way.

 

Two short stories for your enjoyment: We have an intercom system where you can buzz people in to your apartment if they don't have a key. So the other day when my host parents were trying to get back in after a walk, I unknowingly pressed the button to call the police. So a couple minutes after I got them in, the police knocked on the door and my jaw dropped when I answered it. Luckily, my host dad explained that I was just a silly waiguoren (foreigner) and everything was quickly forgiven. I was uber embarrassed.

 

When my host mom and I were at the bank the other day, the number being before us in the queue was "1111" and we were "1112". At Bank of China, they also have English announcements, so when the electronic announcement came on to call number "1111" came on in English, my host mom started laughing hysterically. Finally I figured out that the Chinese equivalent for "Woof! Woof!" (as in the sound that a dog makes) sounds like "one." So when the announcer was saying "One One One One" it sounded like a dog barking to her. She still now will randomly start saying "1111" and start laughing. It was pretty hilarious.