So we have completed our first week of school. Needless to say, it was a humbling experience with small (very small) encouraging moments to break up each day. Our class runs from 10:30-12:15 Monday-Friday. Then we have a private tutor for an hour each afternoon. The tutor is followed by 3-4 hours of individual study/field practice each day for a combined 30-35 hours a week of intense language learning.

The first 2 weeks of school are solely focused on tones/sounds. We are not learning vocabulary or how to communicate with anyone yet – we are just learning how to produce Chinese sounds. Sounds repetitive, but the tones/sounds you produce are the basis for everything. Mandarin is a 4 tone language with a 5th neutral tone. This means that the same spelling of a word has 4 different ways of pronouncing that word which will produce 4 completely different words. Mind Blown? Ours is 🙂

Below, we have a video of me (Danny) trying to order water on the phone. In my defense, this was before we started class so I have no idea how to produce the sounds of the words I’m saying.

 

Sounds successful… but the person on the other end of the phone did not understand a single word I said, and called back 4 minutes later. At that point I handed my phone to my friend so he could repeat everything I just said (but correctly) and the water showed up the next day!

Kristen will be ordering water for us next time 🙂