Chinese Language

This week I had two Chinese classes alone with my teacher as Teresa is in the US. This was after four weeks away for me, when frankly I did not open my book or listen to the CD. So I knew I was behind and tried to cram this week before our classes.

I am so frustrated. I cannot hear the difference between lao and gao, between "l" and "g" as my teacher hears it. So when I try to use lao-shi (teacher) or lao-ban (boss) - pretty important words and things that the dialogues use all the time - she corrects me but I cannot understand what is different. There is a subtle position of the tongue behind the front teeth for "l" that I do sometimes but not consistently. What a pain! I have to work on this all week.

Luckily, I hit a home run with the pilot class I taught to some of my work colleagues this week. So that added some balance to my week. I traveled to Tainan on Wednesday and taught from 1:30 to 4:30. My education friends (Peggy, Teresa, and Catherine) had all helped me outline and think through stuff. The content was almost exactly correct for the available time. It was interactive enough and engaging with the group. And the future plan should now be easier to develop as I know more about what can be done and how to do it. Thanks to you guys for the help!