Today is Chinese New Year’s Day! I recieved a red envelope from me Chinese teacher today. I received a shiny 1 Yuan bill. (About 13 cents I think?) At this rate, I’ll only have to wait 6 more years until I can buy something at the dollar menu!

Although I hear that Koreans celebrate Chinese New Year’s as well, I’ve personally never known any Korean to do so. Then again, I’m in America, and maybe that makes a big difference. As far as I know, my family and other Korean families celebrate the New Year on January 1st. I believe the Japanese celebrate on the 1st of January as well.

For those who do celebrate, Gong xi fa cai! 恭喜发财! Happy Year of the Rat! Hope you get lots o’ money from your elders.

I had a presentation for my EALC/GWS (East Asian Lang and Culture/Gender and Women’s Studies) class this past Wednesday. I presented ‘Barriers to women’s cultural change and revolution in China’ to my teacher and classmates. In order to prevent my audience from being too bored, I included some comics in my power point slides. As to how they relate to my topic, I’ll leave that to you guys. Enjoy.

Cover slide insert:

(more…)

Currently, I’m enrolled in a business Chinese course, so I thought my colloquial Chinese was becoming stagnant and prolly more likely, forgotten.

I was trying to make a reservation for a dinner party at a local Chinese restaurant named Mandarin Wok. Starting from my “你好” and ending with “谢谢,” I managed to make a reservation for about 20 people at 6:30 on Friday, with the only English words spoken being “dinner party.” (I don’t know how to say that.)

I told her how my birthday was the coming Sunday, and that I would like to plan for a dinner party. We talked over which day was best, and I reserved a spot for Friday. She even gave me a fortune cookie.

I thought I conveyed my point rather well and quite smoothly to boot. Unfortunately, my listening skills still need some work. Everyone speaks too fast for me.

Level up nevertheless!