Leaving the text book behind .....

I decided to make a bold move last week by asking Grace, my Chinese teacher, if we could not use the text book for the lesson. I wanted to practice ordering food and learning the names of my favourite Chinese dishes. This seemed to cause a much confusion! Poor Grace didn’t quite know what to do though, despite having prepared a photo copy of another Chinese/English text about food. The lessons are always very predictable and both of us know how much of the text we can get through in an hour (not a lot considering my lack of practice and constant questions). Without the ordered headings of kewen (text), shengci (new words) and lianxi (exercises), to guide the lesson, Grace seemed very unsure of what to do. The lesson was a success though, I now know how to order the dishes I like and I was successful in doing so when I went back to the newly discovered dumpling restaurant for the third time that week. Grace is going to test me when we go out to dinner next week – she is not allowed to do any speaking to the waitress. The next step in my Chinese cuisine education is learning how to make some of these dishes. Grace and I plan to have a cooking night with her friend (and my new language partner), Chris. Jiaozi (dumplings), fan qie chao ji dan (fried egg and tomato), ba si pinguo (apple and toffee) here we come!