怎么学中文 (How to study Chinese – for Gemma)

As you know, over the last two years, I’ve learned a bit of Chinese.  I’ve taken classes, but a lot of what I’ve learned has come through self-study outside of class as well.  Here’s a list of resources that should help you along:

更多中文

今天我要再用中文写日记。

昨天我工作一年了。  很长吗？我听说这是很段的时间工作。  但是这也是我最长的时间只作一个计划。  在大学我的计划都是三个月的。  虽然这是很长的我有时候觉得我不太孳。  我觉得这个感情是因为工作总是有别的问题。  我做完一个问题就开始别的。  很有意思的感情。  我想一个“feeling of completion”。

hmm有别的吗？  有。  今天晚上我看了我的姐姐的履历表。  我体认了我喜欢读履历表。  上大学的时候我做这么多面试所以我也想一想我的履历表。  用LaTeX写。  我觉得我现在知道很多履历表的东西。  要是你想我帮你，当然可以。

今天我也看了我的同事的blog。Lis是一个公司的作家所以她的日记很好。  名字是A Millenial Speaks。  我建议这个。

明天我要写很多中文的电脑工具。  我现在用了很多。

再见！

生活在哪里？

我从中国回来波士顿了。  先我觉得我得生化比较不一样。  每个东西很不一样－我有新的石室友，有的朋友们搬家走了，有的朋友们搬家到了，我知道我非常喜欢中国了。  现在我觉得我点点忘了这个感情。  每天我工作吃饭睡觉。 忙点。  我非常不要忘我的感情。  有一天我一定要住在一个外国可是现在我也觉得住在波士顿在VistaPrint工作对我生活比较好。  有的人可以说我太responsible了（怎么说？我的字典不能帮我。）我希望有好的生活所以现在我需要工作储蓄。感叹。

有一天

My passport’s back!

Quick update:

I just got my Chinese visa!  I dropped the application off at A. Briggs Passport Expetitors near Downtown Crossing last Friday, then just had to wait.  I’ve heard some horror stories from people whose visas got stuck in the consulates for weeks or months, but I was optimistic (and perhaps foolhardy).  Today, it showed up at work at 10:00!  My passport is back with the actually-quite-attractive Chinese visa on page 12.

The only strange thing is that it was issued in 华盛顿 (Washington D.C.), even though I thought I’d have to get it from New York…

Regardless, it’s here, and this trip is really happening!

Off again!

Well, I know, I know. I’m a terrible blogger (thanks, Gemma!). However, I’m leaving for another long trip soon, so I’m planning on updating from internet cafes, etc. like I did last summer. That was actually a lot of fun and I enjoy looking back on the stuff I did even now.

This time, however, I’m headed to East Asia. Specifically, Korea and China. My flight leaves Boston the morning of August 9th, heads to Chicago, where I’ll pick up my sister, Laura, then goes direct to Seoul. From there, we’ll head to Busan/Gimhae, back to Suwon, and Seoul again for one day. Then, I’ll leave Laura in Korea with her friend Diana, and I’ll fly to Beijing. I’m not going to stay long, however, because I’m going straight to Shanghai for a few nights, before returning to Beijing to watch a few Olympics events and visit my friend Mike from high school.

Right now, I’m trying to work out how to travel between Beijing and Shanghai. I’m thinking about the Z5/Z6 sleeper trains, but am unsure of how to book them online. I’ll make it work, though.

Finally, if anyone wants a postcard, just email me your address and I’ll put you on my list. Wish me luck!

中国菜！

星期四，我跟一个 女的朋友去了一家中国饭馆(Chef Chang’s House)吃了一只北京烤鸭。非常好吃。这是我的第一次吃。跟服务员我说疑点中文，可是他直说英我觉得文跟我。疑点奇怪，所以我也常常说英文。现在我觉得我应该说多中文。

星期六我下中文棵以后我有疑点时间所以我去了中国城里 。我想吃叉烧包可是我找不到所以我买了一个猪肉pie.我再说中文！厨师还好。我旁边的白人看来我很诧。说中文很好玩儿。我应该常常自己在中国饭店吃反说中文。

Flying Away

As I write this (in my journal), I am sitting in an airplane accelerating down a Dublin runway bound for London. I’ve just said goodbye to my family, and I’m off on my own in another country for the first time.

I have enjoyed having Dad, Mom, and laura with me in Ireland. I think they all had a good time as well (other than the cold and rain in the last few days). Laura’s a lot of fun to have around; she and I sing and tell each other how to say things in Spanish and Chinese. For example, I now know that in Spain, the proper way to greet a young lady is “Hola, chica bonita.” In turn, Laura now greets young Chinese women by saying “Ni hao. Wo gege hen shuai.”

Actually, beyond seeing sights like the Rock of Cashel; Newgrange (a tomb built before the pyramids and still intact), Trinity College and the Book of Kells, and the Jameson distillery, I have actually spoken more conversational Chinese than I have in quite a while.

Our first night in Dublin, we had been traveling all day and were absolutely famished. Unfortunately, most of the pubs we saw mysteriously did not serve food. So, when we say the tempting signs for a reasonably priced Chinese buffet, we ran in. The first thing we noticed upon entering was a large list of rules on the wall. First and foremost was the rule, “One plate per customer!” This rule even had subsections: “You must clear your plate before getting more food”; “Our waitresses are not allowed to throw away food. Please help them reduce waste and Eat Everything!”; etc. This language quite frightened us, so everyone got small portions. Good thing, too, because the food was terrible.

Dad had to ask for some sweet-and-sour sauce to go with the spring rolls. At first, the lady didn’t know what he was talking about, and started yelling, “You must pay! You must pay!” over and over. Dad got a little upset as well, but eventually received some soy sauce. The next event was our complete lack of tea. What is Chinese food without green tea? So, to show my family that I had actually learned soemthing at school, I told the waitres, “Women xiang he cha.” She said, “Cha ma? Lucha hao bu hao?” Turns out she is Korean, but studying Chinese, so she knew barely more than I do. I told her that green tea would be fine, so she brought out a kettle and a couple of cups. By a couple, I mean exactly two cups for four people. Eventually, we convinced them to give us two more cups and no more tea (when we first asked for two more cups, they thought we meant more tea).

After that, the meal went relatively smoothly until it was time to pay. Then, we discovered that they had charged us €12 ($16) for the tea; €3 per cup. First of all, what Chinese restaurant charges for tea? Secondly, why did they charge us for two empty cups? Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to debate it because we were late for the Dublin Literary Pub Crawl that we had scheduled. Suffice it to say, that was the worst Chinese meal I have ever eaten.

Also, this morning at the hotel, there was a Chinese lady at the front desk, so Dad told her I knew Chinese. I said, “Wo baba shuo tai duo le.” She laughed, and we talked for a little while; she immigrated to Ireland four years ago.

I think I’ll stop here, since we are about to land in London (it was a very short flight). Until next time…

Yī diănr Zhōngwén 一点中文（A little Chinese)

昨天我有一间中文作业, 可是我的电脑 不能写汉子。所以我的作业很难。现在，我的电脑可以了。

Zúotiān, wŏ yŏu yī jiān Zhōngwén zuòyè, kĕshi wŏ de diànnăo bù néng xiĕ hànzi. Suŏyĭ wŏ de zuòyè hĕn nán. Xiànzài, wŏ de diànnăo kĕyi le.

I don’t really know enough Chinese to say what I’m trying to say, unfortunately. Yesterday, I had some Chinese homework to do, and the teachers requested that we type it up. However, my computer wasn’t set up to let me input either pinyin or characters very easily, so I had to look up how to do so before I could do the homework. Luckily, Mac OS X comes with options that let me set up the correct inputs pretty easily (under System Preferences/International, using US Extended for pinyin).

Now, I can type the pinyin spelling of a character, press space, then select from all the characters that match that pinyin and pick the right one. It’s a lot of fun… Hence, this post.

Weekend and Work

Shang ge xingqiliu, wo qu kan le liang ge dianying – Casablanca he World Trade Center. Liang ge dou hen haokan. Wo zai Stanford de theater kan le Casablanca, keshi zai Steven’s Creek Cinema 22 kan le World Trade Center. Diyi, wo yi ge ren qu; dier, wo gen Matt yiqi qu.

Casablanca was a fun movie. I liked the story and the setting, I could understand the characters, and the end wasn’t entirely predictable (I sort of knew what was coming, but I kept flipping options, and it was nice to see it all played out). As an added bonus, the movie has good music, the humor is not too oppressive, and there were a lot of famous actors in it.

World Trade Center, on the other hand, is not a movie I’d recommend to people who are looking to go to a movie to be entertained. I think it could probably have been entertaining if it hadn’t actually happened. As it is, I felt like the director did a good job just telling the story of these two men. It was certainly a view that I had never heard/seen of 9/11, and I’m glad I went. If you go, just take it in and appreciate it as something to remember. Perhaps this is how WWII vets feel about Pearl Harbor films – I don’t know; this is just the first movie I’ve seen that relates to a significant event that I can really remember actually happening.

On Sunday, I didn’t actually do much. I mostly stayed in the apartment and slept or talked to people. I did get some work done on my website, though, which is good. Now the photo map will automatically set the correct length of time to display, and the map index page looks a lot better and does input validation. The last thing I did before going to bed last night was to submit my resume on Google’s job page.

This afternoon, I got two emails and a call from people at Google looking to hear more about me and possibly get together before I leave for the school year again for an interview or something. I’m not really sure yet, since they were a little vague, but I’m still excited. I think this is a really good time for me to check them out, since I’m Silicon Valley for another few weeks. Oh, one other thing sort of related is that I signed up to go to the Churchill Club Startup Success 2006 seminar this Thursday. FindLaw even offered to pay my way, which is awesome. I’m hoping to learn a lot and possibly meet some interesting people there.

Finally, I had an interesting day today outside of the Google stuff. Work was a little frustrating, but at least I learned a lot more about NetKernel – I’ve heard so much about it that I’m happy we finally had a chance to see what it is and a little bit of how it helps the company. I’m not sure I really understand why NetKernel is FindLaw’s environment of choice, but I can see how it’s useful.

Finally, I tried to sell my car to Steven’s Creek Mitsubishi after work. Dad called them and talked to the used car manager there who said he was interested, but he really wasn’t. I could tell that he thought I was just wasting his time today. He also tried to insinuate that I was just trying to hide an accident and get rid of the car. I don’t get it; there are no accidents on this car’s history report. I kind of feel like he was just wasting my time today, and I don’t know why he wanted me to go over if he wasn’t interested.

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Edit: Sorry about the weird toneless Chinese pinyin at the beginning of this entry. I’m not sure why I did that, it just came out when I sat down to write…