Hanyu hen nan

Chinese very hard. I think I may be approaching fossilisation soon - another bit of ESL lingo that I learnt at the conference earlier this week. It basically means that once you have reached a certain level of language learning when you can get by, your motivation disappears and moving onwards is difficult. I can get around in a taxi, order food (mostly) and most importantly, communicate at the massage centre (very important!), so I'm in danger of fossilisation soon! The next challenge is to keep this knowledge up and keep improving, so that eventually I can have a conversation without relying too much on sign language and my phrasebook.

That's what I'm trying to do!

My lessons are going reasonably well - Grace, my teacher is very patient with me while she gets me to practise phonics because I am continually asking how to say other things that I haven't been able to say during the week. Although the phonics are hard, especially with the 4 different tones (plus the neutral tone), I can see the practice paying off. I am finally able to pronounce a very important word properly (I think).....toilet. Toilet (cesuo) is necessary to learn because I frequently need to ask it (I'm still addicted to water!) and it's not a word that you can demonstrate using sign language very well!

I can finally pronounce 'toilet' but it often leads me to very dodgy places! This is the cesuo at the Wuxi train station.

I found that I was able to practise a lot when I was in Beijing because I spent a lot of time wandering around local areas, interacting with the locals. I also found that the taxi drivers in Beijing are a lot more friendly than those in Wuxi, so I was able to try different words out. When I spent the day on the Great Wall, I practised a lot because I was with the same friendly driver all day. With the help of the phrasebook and lots of wild hand gestures, I was able to share some interesting conversations - mostly comparing Australa to China, talking about the weather and telling him about being a teacher. So, I am determined not to let 'fossilisation' occur, I will practise more, both with my text book and with the locals!