Sunday, November 21, 2010

A Glimpse Of The Chinese Culture

Although I accepted a job in Dalian, my stay there was for a brief period of time only. I stayed there for a couple of weeks and I started to like it. Then I had to move again for a project which for sure is gonna be a new adventure.
 
Next Destination


A couple of weeks in Dalian was enough for me to see that China have so much to offer. Being in a different culture is indeed interesting and fun at the same time specially when you're staying in a place where spoon and fork is not common and that you don't know how to use chopsticks. Hahaha.. I occasionally spill food during my lunch time specially when I tried to eat noodles.. :))

Language barrier was the hardest thing to overcome.. I do CHARADES, a word guessing game, most of the times. But for those who always play this game, imagine someone who doesn't know English, no sounds like and syllables.. hahahah.. Thanks to Google translate, it made life easier.. to some point that is.. :D

Google Translate FTW!

Medicine Translation

Of course, you need to learn a few Chinese words. I already know "Thank You" - "Xie Xie" so the first thing I learned was "Timpudong" which means "I don't understand what you're saying". The very next word was "Sháozi" which means spoon. The waitresses at the hotel couldn't understand me when I tried to ask for spoon. I even tried to do charades  to no avail. :(

Basically, you can't go on living there without knowing numbers unless you bring a paper and pen with you most of the times. I didn't include zero, Líng, because they don't use it often. Here it goes.. 1 - 10.

1 - Yī 
2 - èr 
3 - sān 
4 - sì 
5 - wǔ 
6 - liù 
7 - qī 
8 - bā 
9 - jiǔ 
10 - shí

The worst part of learning Chinese is their tones, they have four. 

Chinese Four Tones














A single word could have different  meanings depending on how you pronounced it. Once, when I went to a bar, I said something to a girl. I wanted to say YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL but I ended up saying BEAUTIFUL COW. Good thing she knows that I'm just  trying and it turned as a joke.. Hahahah!

2 comments:

  1. Nice post, Jay! Super informative. Ilang buwan ka pa lang jan and you're hitting on girls already?! Haha. Miss ka na daw ni CY :))

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  2. Kei,
    Hahaha.. One and a half month is enough to know all those things.. But hitting on girls, a day is enough.. lols.. hahaha.. Got few more stories pero paguwi ko na lang.. nyahaha

    CY, kita kits na lang sa Feb(Beijing) in case pwede ako! :D

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