Oy Vey

So the Chinese language is hard. Yea, its really hard.  We are pretty bad it, mostly for lack of trying...I admit.  I think if I had the drive, I could do okay with it.  They praise my pronunciation, and then giggle at Tim's.  So I'll take that as a sign that I could do this . . . if I wanted to.  But I don't know, I guess it doesn't matter that much to me.  I used to always hear stories about people going to a country like China and being there for a while (say, a year?) and then returning home with almost no working knowledge of more than 2 or 3 words. I thought it was crazy, how can you live in a country for that long and not know more than that?

Now that I'm here and in that situation I guess I get it, especially when you are here for work it can be hard to devote much time to learn more than 1 new word a day.  Especially when they are Chinese words because to be honest half the time I can't repeat words back even right after they say it.  It's crazy hard to pronounce.  Sometimes I don't know if the letter is more like a G or K or Z or B.  Then if you can get the sounds right, the tones are always wrong. My ears are just confused.  Even if I can pronounce it, I forget it in 3 seconds.  In one ear, out the other. I suck at this.  I should boast though, that I have I Chinese vocabulary that I use regularly of about 20 words.  haha I know, it's a pretty big deal.