Chinese Boot Camp
With our next trip to China coming up, I've been pushing Myles to practice his Chinese. Most of the time it is fun and he is cooperative, though I believe he must have had it with me at one point the other day. He said to me, "Can't I just count in ENGLISH?"
At the Dragon Boat Festival we had a lot of opportunity to practice. I really tired to force myself to speak it as much as possible, even though my vocabulary is extremely limited. I wasn't trying to show off; well except once.
There was a booth of trinkets and jewelry and jade. I was a little surprised at some of the prices. I poked around at a few of the pieces. The vendor, a middle aged Chinese man, asked me if he could help me when he saw me fiddling with these bracelets. I asked how much they cost.
The price was almost what I would expect to pay on the street in Shenzhen, after someone negotiated a better price for me (remember, I have no skill for that). Several other items he was selling, like perfume bottles, were more than twice the price of those I had seen in some of the gift shops in Shekou. The jade prices seemed to me a little too good to be true. He started to show me different bracelets and Buddha charms, telling me how much they cost. While I know that jade can be a broad category to include minerals that aren't as valuable as true jade, I decided to have a little fun. I asked the guy in Chinese if the jade was real (Zhen De?). He looked at me. And then I picked up a bracelet, pinged it like I knew what I was doing (I didn't) and asked him if the bracelet was real or fake (jiao de). He said in English, "You speak such good Chinese," and then stopped trying to sell me stuff. I guess that was my answer.
At the Dragon Boat Festival we had a lot of opportunity to practice. I really tired to force myself to speak it as much as possible, even though my vocabulary is extremely limited. I wasn't trying to show off; well except once.
There was a booth of trinkets and jewelry and jade. I was a little surprised at some of the prices. I poked around at a few of the pieces. The vendor, a middle aged Chinese man, asked me if he could help me when he saw me fiddling with these bracelets. I asked how much they cost.
The price was almost what I would expect to pay on the street in Shenzhen, after someone negotiated a better price for me (remember, I have no skill for that). Several other items he was selling, like perfume bottles, were more than twice the price of those I had seen in some of the gift shops in Shekou. The jade prices seemed to me a little too good to be true. He started to show me different bracelets and Buddha charms, telling me how much they cost. While I know that jade can be a broad category to include minerals that aren't as valuable as true jade, I decided to have a little fun. I asked the guy in Chinese if the jade was real (Zhen De?). He looked at me. And then I picked up a bracelet, pinged it like I knew what I was doing (I didn't) and asked him if the bracelet was real or fake (jiao de). He said in English, "You speak such good Chinese," and then stopped trying to sell me stuff. I guess that was my answer.
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