2 Down, 1 To Go.

Two weeks of Chinese classes have already passed. TGIF! It's definitely mean a grueling week of Mandarin speaking and listening, but I am starting to not only improve in confidence and pronounication, but also developing a real passion for the Mandarin language. I guess I really enjoy being able to walk up to anyone in town and just strike up a conversation in a totally new language. Now, I know they probably expect me to already speak well, since I LOOK Chinese, but deep down, I'm always going to be a 美籍华人。 But I'm still determined to do my best, and learn as much as I can during my next final week in Tianjin, and in China in general.

A few days ago, I was ordering food at KFC ( yes, I'm so tired of Chinese Food! ). After I finished my order, the customer behind me asked if I was Japanese? Korean? I promptly asked her why she would assume such thing, and she told me, 因为你中文说得不好。 I had to hold back my anger from slapping this old lady in the face. Here I was busting my ass trying to master this language, and she just outright insults me. ( I'm sure she didn't mean to. ) Anyway, I'm realizing there will always be haters and negative individuals out there, and at first, I was thinking, why even bother learning something if I'm never going to be great at it, never going to master it. But I know I'm learning this for myself, not for a grade, not for my parents, but for myself. And if opportunities come up my way because of this skill, great. If not, at least I know how to speak and listen to another language, even if it'll forever be at a basic level.

Enough be ranting. Haven't updated for a while. Let's talk about last weekend. This past Saturday my friend's cousin took me around Tianjin. She and her family were so nice, and showed me the city, ate a fantastic dinner, and checked out the beauty of Tianjin at night. Sunday some friends from Beijing came down to Tianjin, and we lurked around the city, and had a really nice time. Monday was sooo tiring for me, and had a hard time staying alert. But the days afterwards ran pretty smoothly. Though because my classes start at 8 in the morning, and I sometimes skip breakfast cause I wake up too late, and by the time lunch comes around, I'm starving. Not a good idea, since I have four hours of class in the morning!

I am not gonna lie, I look forward to going back home. I'm definitely going to keep in touch with my Chinese friends here, and also my Chinese language partner, who has been very awesome. I wish I talked with locals more. I just got back from class, and saw some old ladies playing with the Chinese version of a hacky sack, and decided to just jump in. We conversed for a while, and then they corrected my tone for 教。 I guess sometimes when I speak casually I don't really think about tones, and then everything just messes up. Sometimes I wish Mandarin came as an overnight success for me, but I know like anything else in life, if you want to get better at something, you gotta practice.

Not sure what's in store for me this weekend. I'm hoping to learn some Kung Fu with a teacher tomorrow, and then just do some hard core studying. Maybe hang out with some of the other students, and then just take advantage of my last week of classes. One on one classes has its advantages and disadvantages; definitely a good amount of individualized attention ( you're the ONLY one :)