Tuesday, May 02, 2006
qat did you say?
I was playing a q the other day and was reminded of something my family informed me of recently. Apparently, now there are two more q without u words in the Scrabble Dictionary, along with za and qi as new two letter words. That just got me all grumpified. But what really got me worried was the fact that I’ve forgotten most of my previously learned two letter words and a good bit of my three and ups. I assume that most expats living in a foreign country for any length of time find that their native tongue starts to slowly slip away, but it is worrisome nonetheless.
I’ve noticed before that when I’m speaking with other Englishers here in China, oftentimes I won’t finish my sentence. I’ll start it, put in a subject and a verb and then maybe a conjunction, but the rest of the sentence just gets left for the birds fill in. For example, just tonight I think I said, “Well, I have to go, but…” This isn’t a proper sentence, and from the context of the situation, you couldn’t even be sure what I would be implying by that ellipsis. And the thing is, even I probably didn’t know what I meant by the implied ending to that sentence. I don’t even think through my ideas before I spit them out. I just start a sentence and don’t care enuff to put the energy in to finish it off. I’m just plain lazy.
But most other foreigners do this as well. Perhaps when you’re learning another language you start thinking in the most simple language you can, and the simplest grammar you can find, and you just …. you know ☺
Man, I’m lazy. Right now I’m writing this in Word so that I don’t have to worry about spelling mistakes. Tho, when I want to misspell a word on purpose, it annoyingly fixes my mistake for me, causing me to have to go back and consciously unfix the word into its “correct” form. Dumb dumb dumb. It would prolly be more efficient to just write this in the web browser. And that way I could prove my point by having tons of spelling and grammar mistakes for anyone to point out. So yeah, all in all, my English sucks right now. And if I ever plan to take the GRE again, I’m going to have to relearn everything. High school was just a waste of time. College, meh. It’s the month or two before a test that really count. That’s all life is, relearning previously learned information until your brain is fed up and sticks it into your long-term memory for good.
Ok, now I’m not sure what I’m talking about. Oh, I can segue nicely into my own transition back into American life during the upcoming summer. Easily done. So, speaking of English and how I suck at it, I’m going to have to start using it once again when I go home for two months or so in July. But at the same time I’m going to have to keep up with my Chinese, as I plan to come back here and study for another year. It would be irresponsible to let my Chinese lapse as a result of a layover in the states. And just plain annoying. This language is hard enuff as it is that I don’t need memory loss on top of ten thousand characters. And yet, I need to see friends and family and submarine sandwiches while I’m back home, so it’ll definitely be tuff reconciling those goals. Whoever you are, if you see me in the US and I’m looking well, remind me that I should be studying. Thanks in advance.
Oh yeah, so, right, now, ummm, America is going to be weird. Driving, and not walking into the middle of the street Frogger-esque to cross the road is going to be different. Personal space is going to be nice. Using a credit card could be both good and bad. Things being expensive as hell could suck, but things being delicious and sanitary could rock. I’m of eight minds about the prospect of returning home, but my parents beckon and I make haste. And my friends are spread all over the country like tacks on a map, so how am I to see them all in this time period? Impossible you say, and I would have to agree. I’ll just do my best to inform the world of my plans and then see what happens when I get there. It’s been two years now. Two months seems like a pittance.
And I won’t get to feel like a rockstar for that time period. Weird. The whole world won’t be staring at me anymore. That should do good things for quieting down my ego, but it’ll make it all the worse when I get back to China and all eyes are on me. It’ll be me feeling ultra self-conscious all over again. Man, you get over it after a while, but for a long time you get sick of all the “hallo” s that bombard you as you walk down certain streets. And of course, every now and then you get into one of those certain moods where you don’t want people yelling at you and you unleash a gush of sarcasm in their direction. However, the emotion doesn’t really translate, so there’s no satisfaction from the action. Just as well, though. Don’t really want to start Too many international incidents just yet.
Oh man, I’m gonna love being able to walk down a sidewalk again. I’ve gotten so sick of it here that I pretty much always walk in the bike lane to avoid the sidewalk. It’s an obstacle course. Four girls linking arms walking down the street – Trash-picker-uppers, with no apparent course in mind, sweeping at your shins – Blankets laid out for people to sell random trinkets or wares – People suddenly stopping with no warning to stare at said wares – The China turn around, i.e. suddenly and for no reason whatsoever changing course 180 degrees to walk in the other direction – Shopkeepers jumping out of storefronts that open directly onto the sidewalks – Bikes parked crossways to make the largest portion of the sidewalk possible impassable – Trees that always have branches dangling at my head height – Awnings and tents set up, also at head height – People handing out flyers, but never for things I want to buy – Ten employees in single file, marching, holding placards that announce the newest laptop or mp3 player or whatever – And of course, people just walking impossibly slow and slightly spread out, defying passage, and, quite possibly, physics. Yeah, it’ll be nice to not have that stuff for a while.
There is so much to look forward (or backward) to about America, but I’m not excited about that flight, nor about the logistics involved in making my time there count. But I will do my best to see all and do all, while studying consistently. It could be good. Could be great.
I’ve noticed before that when I’m speaking with other Englishers here in China, oftentimes I won’t finish my sentence. I’ll start it, put in a subject and a verb and then maybe a conjunction, but the rest of the sentence just gets left for the birds fill in. For example, just tonight I think I said, “Well, I have to go, but…” This isn’t a proper sentence, and from the context of the situation, you couldn’t even be sure what I would be implying by that ellipsis. And the thing is, even I probably didn’t know what I meant by the implied ending to that sentence. I don’t even think through my ideas before I spit them out. I just start a sentence and don’t care enuff to put the energy in to finish it off. I’m just plain lazy.
But most other foreigners do this as well. Perhaps when you’re learning another language you start thinking in the most simple language you can, and the simplest grammar you can find, and you just …. you know ☺
Man, I’m lazy. Right now I’m writing this in Word so that I don’t have to worry about spelling mistakes. Tho, when I want to misspell a word on purpose, it annoyingly fixes my mistake for me, causing me to have to go back and consciously unfix the word into its “correct” form. Dumb dumb dumb. It would prolly be more efficient to just write this in the web browser. And that way I could prove my point by having tons of spelling and grammar mistakes for anyone to point out. So yeah, all in all, my English sucks right now. And if I ever plan to take the GRE again, I’m going to have to relearn everything. High school was just a waste of time. College, meh. It’s the month or two before a test that really count. That’s all life is, relearning previously learned information until your brain is fed up and sticks it into your long-term memory for good.
Ok, now I’m not sure what I’m talking about. Oh, I can segue nicely into my own transition back into American life during the upcoming summer. Easily done. So, speaking of English and how I suck at it, I’m going to have to start using it once again when I go home for two months or so in July. But at the same time I’m going to have to keep up with my Chinese, as I plan to come back here and study for another year. It would be irresponsible to let my Chinese lapse as a result of a layover in the states. And just plain annoying. This language is hard enuff as it is that I don’t need memory loss on top of ten thousand characters. And yet, I need to see friends and family and submarine sandwiches while I’m back home, so it’ll definitely be tuff reconciling those goals. Whoever you are, if you see me in the US and I’m looking well, remind me that I should be studying. Thanks in advance.
Oh yeah, so, right, now, ummm, America is going to be weird. Driving, and not walking into the middle of the street Frogger-esque to cross the road is going to be different. Personal space is going to be nice. Using a credit card could be both good and bad. Things being expensive as hell could suck, but things being delicious and sanitary could rock. I’m of eight minds about the prospect of returning home, but my parents beckon and I make haste. And my friends are spread all over the country like tacks on a map, so how am I to see them all in this time period? Impossible you say, and I would have to agree. I’ll just do my best to inform the world of my plans and then see what happens when I get there. It’s been two years now. Two months seems like a pittance.
And I won’t get to feel like a rockstar for that time period. Weird. The whole world won’t be staring at me anymore. That should do good things for quieting down my ego, but it’ll make it all the worse when I get back to China and all eyes are on me. It’ll be me feeling ultra self-conscious all over again. Man, you get over it after a while, but for a long time you get sick of all the “hallo” s that bombard you as you walk down certain streets. And of course, every now and then you get into one of those certain moods where you don’t want people yelling at you and you unleash a gush of sarcasm in their direction. However, the emotion doesn’t really translate, so there’s no satisfaction from the action. Just as well, though. Don’t really want to start Too many international incidents just yet.
Oh man, I’m gonna love being able to walk down a sidewalk again. I’ve gotten so sick of it here that I pretty much always walk in the bike lane to avoid the sidewalk. It’s an obstacle course. Four girls linking arms walking down the street – Trash-picker-uppers, with no apparent course in mind, sweeping at your shins – Blankets laid out for people to sell random trinkets or wares – People suddenly stopping with no warning to stare at said wares – The China turn around, i.e. suddenly and for no reason whatsoever changing course 180 degrees to walk in the other direction – Shopkeepers jumping out of storefronts that open directly onto the sidewalks – Bikes parked crossways to make the largest portion of the sidewalk possible impassable – Trees that always have branches dangling at my head height – Awnings and tents set up, also at head height – People handing out flyers, but never for things I want to buy – Ten employees in single file, marching, holding placards that announce the newest laptop or mp3 player or whatever – And of course, people just walking impossibly slow and slightly spread out, defying passage, and, quite possibly, physics. Yeah, it’ll be nice to not have that stuff for a while.
There is so much to look forward (or backward) to about America, but I’m not excited about that flight, nor about the logistics involved in making my time there count. But I will do my best to see all and do all, while studying consistently. It could be good. Could be great.
