chinese class~

Soo, I didn't tell you guys. (I don't think, anyways.)

Shortly after my first post about China, after much praying, a homeschooling friend sent me a Facebook message, telling me that there was a Mandarin Chinese class that was going to be taught in the area, at a very reasonable price. I mean, like, "HIP HIP HURRAY", everybody!! This was such an answer to prayer!!! God always provides, and I'm so excited to see what more He has in store in the future. He is so good. :D

Anyways, yesterday was the first class! I already knew some of the phrases, like:

"Nǐ hǎo." Of course, everyone knows this one. :) "你好.”
"Zài jiàn." (Good-bye.) “再见.”
"Nǐ jiào shén me míng zi?" (What is your name?) “你叫什么名字？”
"Wǒ jiào..." (I am/My name is...) "我叫..."
"Xìexie." (Thank you.) “谢谢。”
"Bú yòng xìe." (You're welcome.) 不用谢。”
"Duì bù qǐ." (I'm sorry.) “对不起。”
"Méi guān xi." (That's ok.)“没关系。”

 See those little lines over some of the vowels? Those are called "tones" - basically, your voice does as they look. Like for "Nǐ hǎo", on the "Nǐ", your voice starts midway, then drops down, and comes back up. Then with, say, "Zài", (you say "ai" like "i"), your voice starts high and then drops low. Yeah. Chinese is definitely a tonal language. A word's meaning can change by the way you say it. Yeah...that's kinda scary...:P

Then we went over the numbers.
 yī 一，èr 二，sān 三，sì 四，wǔ 五，lìu 六，qī 七，bā 八，jǐu 九，shí 十。
I have yet to say all of them under 10 seconds, with all the correct tones. He he he. The tones are hard to get used to, but practice makes perfect!! At the classes, lao shi (teacher :)) says that anything we know how to say in Chinese, say it. NO ENGLISH ALLOWED. Ok, not quite. ;D But, she is encouraging us to use it as much as possible.

All of the phrases yesterday were the only ones I know, so next week, I'm excited to see the new stuff. I absolutely can't wait!! :)

So yeah. OH. Happy new year!! ("What, what? New year was like a month ago.") Noo, I mean, CHINESE new year. ;) Wanna learn a Chinese phrase?

Xīn nián kuài lè!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! :)

新年快乐!

February 10th marks the beginning of the Year of the Snake (shé nían 蛇年). I so wish that I could go to a Chinese new year festival, like that would be the coolest thing ever, but that's not happening this year...hopefully next year!! And hopefully I'll know a little bit more Chinese than...now. :P

So, xin nian kuai le, everybody!! May your year be prosperous. ;)

To infinity and beyond!~

Bethany~

贝萨妮

Gong xi fa cai = Congratulations, get rich. ;) Be happy and prosperous.