Mandarin lesson #1

Things that I didn't realise would be so darn difficult:

Budgeting

Liquid black eyeliner

Learning CHINESE

this post is just about the last one, mandarin is darn difficult. I do a little bit every day to try and keep it fresh but i'm struggling with the basic things like writing the correct characters, some of the characters are difficult and seem so darn fiddly!

Or I will look at a character and know what it is in English, but not how it sounds in chinese! Which is not so helpful for when you want to speak to people, and only useful for reading.

Anywho- here's a little chinese lesson for you, who says you don't learn anything here!?

 

Zhōng means middle and guó means jade but when you put them together they mean China! How funny is that??
so...
China sounds like Zhōng guó

Yīng means wise but when added to guó means United Kingdom, so kind of like 'wise country'

it sounds like Yīng guó

and the last country of the day is America
Mĕi
means pretty, and added to guó means America- the literal translation is the pretty country!

it sounds like this Mĕi guó

cute!

Ni Hao WHAT now?

You know you have those things that you really want to do at one point or another and you're sure you'll get around to it but you don't have a plan of action as to when.
I do this all the time, my list of 'great things to do' only gets longer not shorter!
Things like:
Learning to play an instrument
Giving blood
Going to an open top cinema  (see yesterdays blog post)
Oodles of craft projects
Learning a language
Going scuba diving

all these fun things I intend to fall into place in the near future but..I don't know when
But recently, I've taken matters into my hands on one thing and that's 'learning a language' that language being Mandarin (Chinese)

Me and languages at school were... not so great.
But I hope that through choosing to learn it myself and take classes the experience will be more inspiring than that of school.

Here you can see I'm practicing writing Ni Hao which is hello or literally 'you good' and get to grips with the characters too.

Small little baby steps but who knows maybe this time next year I'll have progressed a little!