Learning Chinese

Oh, the joys of learning a new language. Brian and I are beginning language training even though we have another year before we head off to Asia. We've been encouraged that this is good preparation.

You might ask, "What does your training consist of?" That's a three-part answer!
#1: We are using a language program on CDs. Brian just compled the first level (30 lessons that are 30-minutes each). I'm about to listen to lesson #26. I've gotten behind a bit.
#2: We are attending a Chinese conversation class at one of the L.A. libraries. Our teacher, Grace, is a lot of fun. She explains the origin of the characters very well.
#3: www.chinesepod.com Check it out! This website has different levels of lessons that are about 10 minutes long. You too can learn to speak Mandarin Chinese!

Brian and I practice at home asking each other in Chinese, "Would you like to drink water?" The language CDs are designed for business men, so they've had some funny conversations. In one of them a man asks, "Can you buy a lot of beer?" The woman replies, "Yes." To this the man responds, "Then, I will have dinner with you!" Of course, we've learned other useful phrases. Here are some of the favorites:

"How many children to you have?"/"I have no children."
"Where is my husband?"/ "I don't know."
"Do you want to drink tea or beer?"/"I like tea."
"Go straight ahead, then turn left."
"Which flight goes to Hong Kong?"
...and one which we will use many times: "I don't understand what you are saying."

P.S. Another fun website is www.engrish.com. It's one of the reasons we are going to teach English in China.

One of the joys of living together...

Thoughts on China...

Many people have asked me if my friends in China are okay after last week's horrific earthquake. The answer is, yes. They live some distance from the areas affected. Thank you for your thoughts and concerns. Please lift up the thousands of mourning families and the millions of homeless in Sichuan Province. What saddens me the most is that because of China's "one child" law many families lost their only child when the many schools collapsed. Please lift up these families too.

Above is a picture of me with a group of students on a biking adventure in the countryside. I am excited to visit them again next summer. China is a beautiful country.

Darla, the cat-child

Some friends of ours asked us to take care of their 5-month old kitten for a few months while they were transitioning. So, now we have Darla. Brian calls her our cat-child. It's our first experience in parenting. She's been a sweet cat, although she is also quite noisy.

Brian and I jokingly came up with this list of how parenting a cat-child is the same as parenting a human-child:

1. When she is bad, you just squirt her with a water bottle.
2. When you leave during the day, just lock her in the bathroom.
3. Be sure to leave plenty of water and food on the floor where she can easily find it.
4. To encourage good litter box training, be sure to clean it daily.
5. Pet her until she purrs. If she's not purring, keep petting her. Make her love you.
6. Never feed her from the table.
7. She is quite easily entertained by a string. In fact, you can make her chase it in circles until she gets dizzy.