Howard and I graduated from the first section of our Chinese class on Saturday. I'm in the middle, Howard is on the left, and Ma LaoShi is on the right. I'm so proud of us! It's really hard and embarrassing to try to learn a new language at this point in life. There's just no getting around looking and sounding stupid as you try to twist your tongue around unfamiliar sounds.
Our final involved trying to introduce ourselves to native Chinese speakers, and introducing each other and our imaginary friends, a teacher and a doctor. We also had to introduce our imaginary grandmothers, and indicate if she was our mother's mother or our father's mother--they are different words in Chinese.
There was a delicate moment when Howard introduced his wife as his older brother, but we rallied and moved on. I'm sure we were pathetic, but everyone was very gracious and encouraging. I'm so glad I'm doing this!
Our final involved trying to introduce ourselves to native Chinese speakers, and introducing each other and our imaginary friends, a teacher and a doctor. We also had to introduce our imaginary grandmothers, and indicate if she was our mother's mother or our father's mother--they are different words in Chinese.
There was a delicate moment when Howard introduced his wife as his older brother, but we rallied and moved on. I'm sure we were pathetic, but everyone was very gracious and encouraging. I'm so glad I'm doing this!
3 comments:
Congratulations to you and Howard.
That is so awesome Jeanine! I am so impressed. You're right - learning any language at our age requires bravery, and Chinese has to be one of the most challenging of all. Kudos to you. I look forward to hearing your Chinese - and the good news is - people like me will be hugely impressed no matter what you say.
Great job! Happy turkey day
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