It Takes a Village-- Maybe a City

If you total up the time I spent in Nanjing two years ago, add the semester in Weihai, the two week trip I made here in March of '07, and the two weeks since my arrival, I've spent a total of eight months in China. I'm just now beginning to acquire Chinese-- but consider: how much English did any of us know at eight months of age.

I am starting to talk, much as babies do. I say isolated words such as "soup," "cold water," "dragon boats," and "blanket." I have not acquired this language's syntax. I make brilliant statements such "I go taxi," "see noodles," and "take picture." When I was here in '06, the natives had not a clue what I was saying, for I had no feel for the tonal system. Now, people are starting to understand. Relatively few Westerners attempt Chinese, and the locals are extremely gracious to those who do. I find if I approach people properly, they help me learn Chinese. You remember those inane little sentences we learned in our French and Spanish classes: "Where are the batteries?" "Here is a taxi,""Show me the light switch, please," -- this is the level at which I am functioning.

The process takes time, but when I think about it, things are not going badly. When I was eight months old in America, I doubt I had enough English to tell a taxi driver where I wanted to go.















Think of all that can be said about a bowl of soup:

This is a bowl of soup.
The vegetables are in the soup.
This soup has eggs and mushrooms.
The noodles are in the soup.
The soup is hot.
Here is a soup spoon.
I, you, he, she, we, they, eat the soup.