User Comments - chanelle77

Posted on: Pretty Clothes

Thank you Amber!

Posted on: Pretty Clothes

I expected a question particle at the end: 他真的会说汉语？(Can he really speak Chinese?). Because  会 is used you don't use it or can you add ma?

Posted on: Traffic

Like the video, love the music. I think it's great to add vid! Thank you

Posted on: The My Minefield

My teacher told me lao po is more colloquial. In Nanjing I hear almost everyone (that is my driver, ayi, and friends) use lao po (and lao gong) referring to men and wife. Maybe this is also different in differents parts of China?

Posted on: Chinese Birthdays and Local Hospitals

Giving blood was a very interesting experience for me. I had to go to some sort of small office with two glass windows. Behind these windows were sitting 2 nurses. The room was about 1.5 * 2 meters and 20 people!!! were in there to have their blood taken: of course there was no line. My driver was with me and told me when it was my turn. You take a seat in front of the window, put your arm on the desk and within 30 seconds it was finished. I had the feeling that I was in a post office or something. Privacy is an interesting concept in China :-).
I just arrived in China and I was really scared that they used dirty needles and would hurt me (it goes without saying they don’t). Although I did find it very strange it was really fast, efficient and clean. However, I felt a little bit uncomfortable as 20 Chinese were watching me :-).

Posted on: Chinese Birthdays and Local Hospitals

Happy BDay DA,

A few months ago I went to a local hospital in Nanjing (after I visited a Western clinic first). I was accompanied by a Chinese nurse (who made sure we wouldn’t wait for hours) and had an ultrasound. The hospital and material looked really modern, doctors seemed very professional and I had a good impression. One small point of criticism: everything was so incredibly crowded. It was almost impossible to sit down somewhere and the elevators were so crammed I could hardly breathe. First thing that crossed my mind was: what about infectious diseases?
Sometimes I have dinner at an Italian restaurant here and there is a local hospital nearby. What really surprises me is that there are patients "walking" on the street with there pyjamas on, sometimes even with a drip in their arm :-) ! If it makes them feel any better I am happy for them, but to me it seems a bit odd or somewhat inhygienic. Maybe that is my Western point of view? Related to the pyjama’s, I have a question. I heard that it will be prohibited in Shanghai to wear nightwear in public. Were my friends joking or is this serious?

Posted on: Golf

Hi Chris,
First of all sorry for the late response, I missed your comment. Currently I am back in Holland for a few weeks and haven't been focusing too much on my Chinese. My husband is making progress, but because of the demanding job, he has fewer opportunities. He also thinks that Chinese should learn Dutch and is therefore not particularly motivated *wink*. With his driver he speaks a strange combination of English, Italian, French, Dutch, German or whatever he feels like hahaha, but hey if it works for him it’s fine. As for the "expat wife thing": well I love to socialize, but I also love a purpose in life :-). To be honest I find China pretty difficult. Although shopping pearls and playing golf is nice, there is more in life! So I figured, learning Chinese is not a bad idea if you are living and hopefully working among Chinese a few years, so I locked myself in the house and studied quite a lot. As said, I would love to work myself, but it is very hard to find a nice job in Nanjing (I even offered to work for free!!!). I used to be in retailing / innovation and since there are a lot of nice stores I figured I could easily work here. I could not have been more wrong, ""they" prefer Chinese. I tried to cover up the bad Chinese, blue eyes and blond hair but that did not work. Maybe I should socialize a bit more and learn less Chinese. By the way, lucky you to be in Shanghai: I love it! Good luck with you studies.

Posted on: What size?

For the ladies: I'm a size 39 in Europe (7.5 US, 5 UK) and I can buy shoes in China, I haven't seen much 39+ sizes though.

Posted on: Nationalities

Weet iemand toevallig wat Amsterdam is?

Posted on: Golf

@Fayimadu maybe this can help you a bit to get an idea...

September 2008 it was decided that my husband and I would live in China for 2 years. Because I thought it was extremely important to learn the language, I decided to start a beginner’s course at the Confusius Institute in The Hague. This 30 hour course was really introductory and to be honest (in retrospect), I did not learn too much about the language. But, more important, my teacher made me really enthusiastic about learning Chinese. She was just a really nice and great teacher, who gave me the confidence I would “survive” China and was able to learn the language. After the course I decided I would try to learn Chinese during my 2 year stay.

I arrived January first in China and tried to order a cup of tea in a restaurant and miserably failed. For the first months it was almost impossible to find ( a good ) teacher and I did not study at all. I thought how can it be so hard to learn Chinese in China?

By March, I found two teachers and started right away. The more practical private teacher focused on spoken and practical day to day Chinese. The other more scholarly teacher from a university focused more on reading, writing and grammar. The fact that she did not speak English at all was a bit challenging in the beginning, but it worked out pretty well. Every week I had 8 hours of classes, 10 – 15 hours of preparation and studied by my self for about 20 hours a week. Chinesepod I used as something “extra”. It was a great way for me to relax, have fun and learn! And very useful to practice listening which my other teachers did not really practice.

After a few weeks I noticed progress and soon I was able to express myself to my ayi, driver, people in the Suguo and they understood me as well. I felt so proud when I could get around by myself in a taxi, stores etc. :-). The interaction with others really motivated me to continue and opened a new world for me. A downside is that my ayi stopped gossiping, because I understand too much now.

My Mandarin is far from perfect and I have to do a lot of work to get to the level where I want to be, but the moral of the story: Just put a lot of time in, do not be scares it AND really enjoy to learn Chinese, you will be surprised how soon you can get around!

In fact Chinese is one of the easiest languages to learn: "There are many people studying Chinese now. I hope that all of you reporters, and the other ladies and gentlemen in attendance, can take up the study of Chinese. I believe that Chinese is one of the easiest languages in the world to learn. Otherwise, how can you explain why 1.3 billion people have chosen it as their mother tongue?" (China's Foreign Minister on a press conference, source: Danwei).