Chronicles of a Taxi-Taker

When I came back to China this year I decided that I would start studying Chinese with a REAL Chinese teacher so I recently found one and have begun! It's going great so far, I really like her and am learning a lot from her...I just wish I had the time and money to meet more than once a week! Anyways, some of my motivation to learn came from my sister, Laura, saying to me before I left, "Why don't you, uh, at least learn Chinese this year?" (insert sarcasm...) :) The other motivations are plenty but one definitely includes me being sick of my own incompetence. There, I said it!

There must be a wire out on me amongst the taxi drivers and they must all know that I am trying to improve my Chinese because lately, they ALL want to talk to me! We have some very interesting conversations, usually ending with me saying, "Wo ting bu dong." ("I don't understand.") :( I do give it a shot, though! Here are two of my recent experiences...

The other day I was going to a restaurant and got in a taxi with a driver who immediately said, "Hello!" I replied and he asked me where I was from. When I told him I was American, he put his car in park so that he could turn around and look at me to make sure I wasn't duping him...haha. Then, he pulled out a little Chinese/English book and proudly declared, "I come from England!" Reeeaaaalllyyyy?? :) Following this interaction was about 25 minutes of broken Chinese and broken English as we tried to communicate. I was actually feeling pretty good afterwards and much more confident because I had initiated some of the questions. That never happens! When I went to take a taxi back to my school later that night, the driver couldn't even understand when I told him where I live...something I say all the time. DOH!

Last night was also a fun taxi night as I was heading out to meet a Chinese friend at her home. The driver asked me all of the normal questions as I was circulating my new Chinese vocabulary from the day around in my mind and trying to figure out how I could work my "fruit and vegetable" vocab smoothly into the conversation. Not so easy. When we ran out of things to say, he flipped on his CD player and I knew that some English ballads were about to be blown out of the speakers. First up was "Hotel California," a favorite here in China followed by, "My Heart Will Go On." I think he got bored with Celine pretty quickly because soon, "Everything I Do" was on and we had a lovely rendition of singing, with the driver trying his hardest to pronounce the words! It's like singing a German song when you don't know German...not that I've tried... :)

As I've said before, living in China is never boring!!!