a,b,c,d… in Chinese!

To be more integrated between Taiwanese people, and try to make us undesrtand, Albert and me we have started our respective Chineses lessons. But,  in different schools, different timetable and different places.

It’s impressive how many things you can do with three hours everyday, from Monday to Friday!! Albert, due to his complicated timetable and various trips, he’s taking classes from time to time.

My school is near from home, I just have to cross the park :) And my class is like a small delegation of the United Nations: there is a boy from USA, an Italian boy, a Japanese girl and one Vietamese, who we don’t see very often. And the teacher (laoshi), who is Taiwanese, she just speaks a few of English, so the class is almost all in Chinese! She makes us to work hard and we have to study and do homework everyday; it’s like going back to school.

About Mandarin Chinese, we could say that grammar, unlike Catalan or Spanish grammar, is quite easy. However, the pronunciation (the wretched 5 tons!) and the Chinese Characters it’s another thing. At the beginning, we learn the phonetic alphabet  to be able to read the Chinese symbols later on, what is known as pinyin. And to do it more complicated, in Taiwan also teach another phonetic alphabet called “bopomofo“. Truly, this is an art to learn how to write all these symbols, and also it is an art to know them by heart!

So, now I wont have any excuse to say that “I don’t undersatnd anything if you talk to me in Chinese!”

To celebrate the last day of class before Chinese New Year’s Eve, and also the last day of class for Paolo, we had dinner in a restaurant designed as if it was inside a plane. As we booked in advance, we were placed at First Class. I have to say that the food was pretty much better than in the planes and we had more plece than the real seats!

To receive us, they said: “Welcome on board!”

Zai jian!