Making Small Talk

Well, it has been a very long time since my last post.  Life has gotten very busy.  My parents & aunt came to visit and we took a trip back to Yangshuo in Guangxi province, as well.  I can hardly believe that we will be going back to the states in about 6 weeks.  Time has gone by so fast.

Over the past 9 months, I have been slowly, very slowly, learning Mandarin.  With its tones and odd sounds it is a very difficult language to master let alone even start to learn.  I try to practice a little bit each day with online tutorials, asking my chinese friends lots of questions and doing fun games/apps on my iPad (Nikolai loves it when I do those).

I now feel very comfortable ordering food, purchasing items at a store and doing simple greetings, goodbyes and thank yous.  However, I have still been too nervous to actually practice starting a conversation.

Yesterday, I stepped out of my comfort zone.

While taking the bus home after work I happened to be standing next to a little girl ( who was with her mom.  Based on her backpack and lunch pale, I assumed she was going home from pre-school (They start very young here).  She had a cute bowl haircut and a barrette in her hair and when she looked up at me I smiled and said, "Ni hao ma?".

Her face lit up and a smile slowly spread from one ear to the other.

"Hen hao, ni ne?", she replied.

"Wo hen hao."  I smiled back.

Usually, this is where most of my casual street or elevator conversations end.  However, today I thought I would go out on a limb.

"Ni jiao shenme mingzi?" I asked in chinese. - What is your name?

"Wo jiao Zhe Zhe, ni ne?"  she replied.  - I am called Zhe Zhe, and you?

"Wo jiao Jen." - I think you can figure this one out. :)

"Ni duo da le?" - How old are you? 

"Wo san sui." - I am three years old. 

There was a pause in your conversation as she leaned in to get a better look at my face.  She pointed at me and said something about "meimao".

I looked back with a quizzical look and said, "Shenme?" - What?

"Maimao" she said pointing to my eyebrows.

I laughed and looked at her mother who had started to laugh as well.

"Ni lai zi nali?"Her mom asked. - Where do you come from? 

I had to pause for a moment and think about what she was asking.  ...oh yes,"Meiguo." (America...but the direct translation Mei = beautiful & guo = country)

She then leaned over to her daughter and told her that I came from America.  Her daughter turned to her and asked her something about my hair (toufa).  I can only assume it was about the strange color of my hair.  From the bits and pieces I could pick up between the two of them, the mother told her daughter that all people from America look like me and have hair like I do just like all people in China have hair like she does.

Unfortunately, my chinese language skills are not even close enough to begin to explain to her that not everyone in the US looks the same.    This is a common topic that comes up with chinese people, so I guess I better learn how to explain it.

The little girl giggled and nodded at her mother as my bus stop was approaching.

"Zaijian", I said as I waved goodbye and headed towards the exit.

"Byebye", the little girl replied.

Even though I did not understand every word, I had officially started my first conversation in Chinese!  Granted, the little girl had yet to enter kindergarten, but I was still happy with what I had done.  Perhaps in about 6 years I will finally be able to talk to people my own age.  :)