I returned home at the end of June. It was nice to leave the heat of Beijing, and the weather in recent weeks in the UK has been pretty good. Before I depart to Scotland for a week’s holiday, a friend (in China) asked for an update on life back in Blighty. Brexit has been …
Tag: Chinese
Can you give me an example?
My Chinese classes have recently become a lot harder. We have been focusing on more nuances of grammar, which I guess is good, because it means I am advancing, but it is also more difficult and confusing. For example, in my last class, we looked at gǎi 改, huàn 换, and biànhuà 变化. They are …
Harder than it looks
I bought a ticket for the cinema yesterday. That’s not overly surprising, since I watch films a lot. But I bought it online and collected it from the ticket machine, which was only in Chinese. It took me a couple of tries, hitting the back and delete buttons, before I finally got it. Avengers: Infinity …
Saying hello
I eat most of my meals in the cafeteria on the university campus where I live (and when I teach, at the other campus). Sometimes, I recognise the food and can say what I want in Chinese; when I don’t, I just point and say 这个 zhège (this one). I often take some Tupperware with …
One character at a time
Thanks to my friend Alexandra at Wild Eyed and Wandering, who gave me an idea for a post about 学习汉语 （xuéxí hànyǔ）- learning Chinese! It has been something I've grappled with since touching down here in September 2015. Is my Chinese any better? It depends. I think I can use it more often in more …
