My learning of the Chinese language has been a painfully slow process. This is partially because I am bad at learning languages, and partially because when the weekend rolls around the last thing I want to do is work on my online classes. I've sort of embraced the trial by fire method, where I just go out and live life in China with a lot of embarassing encounters as I try to communicate. However lately I've been feeling guilty about my lackadaisical approach and so I signed up to take one of the in-person classes at Headquarters. On the schedule, classes are marked by level, such as beginner, intermediate, and advanced. There is also a topic listed that the lesson will cover. For example, one of the beginner lessons was "Do you play golf?" One of the intermediate lessons was "Of course you must eat the duck!" I mentioned to my Mom how I found the schedule frustrating because you don't have a clear idea of what the class will cover. She said it is just like my blog titles. Okay, point taken. But I'd argue that a schedule is meant to be informative and my blog is meant for entertainment.
Turns out, the topics should have been the least of my worries because the schedule had the much worse flaw of not being specific enough about the levels. I attended what I thought was a beginner class. It was a beginner class, but a beginner book 3 class. Suffice it to say, it was awkward. At the end of the lesson, the instructor asked me if I thought the level was a good fit. Um, no. I may not speak Chinese but I'm not delusional. I asked him to let me know when a new book 1 will start and I apologized for crashing the wrong class. I was embarassed but I did spend an hour as the only woman in a room full of good-looking men, so not a complete loss. Also the next day at Starbucks the man who made my coffee told me my Chinese was very good. All I said was "thank you," but his comment was still more than enough to cheer me up.
- I finally made it to the Shanghai museum, which most people describe as the best museum in Shanghai. It had some interest exhibits, although unfortunately I missed a temporary exhibit about the Ottoman Empire that had been highly recommended.
- I tagged along to a visit to the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center. I enjoyed it because it has a lot of pictures of Shanghai from previous years and it is incredible to see the rate of change and how different it looked only ten or twenty years ago. I also really liked the model of the city. Sadly, where I work is not on the map but that doesn't come as much surprise. Even the locals who live there consider it a village rather than part of Shanghai.
- More soup dumplings, although this time they were fried rather than steamed. Still delicious but difficult to eat. I also tried a new dessert, with sesame ice cream, crushed ice, lotus seeds, and mashed taro. Surprisingly good but very filling.
- Spring is here!