Chinese

On the eve of Chinese New Year and in the days to follow, expect to hear firecrackers go off well into the middle of the night. No, your fortress is not being attacked, although it certainly sounds that way. Coming from a long line of tradition, the loud bangs from firecrackers are thought to fend off evil spirits and ghosts. Although, the noise will probably be more successful at frightening the the uninitiated than warding off bad luck. If this is your first time spending Chinese New Year in China, brace yourself for a week of uneasy living.

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With Spring Festival on our doorstep, it's time to get into the spirit of things. Check out any one of these great temple fairs for a full day of fun -- lao Beijing-style.

1) Ditan Temple Fair 地坛春节庙会 (地坛公园内)
Tel: 64214657
Feb. 13th – Feb. 20th

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Being able to speak two languages (or three, or four) is an amazing skill. But beyond the obvious benefits of simply making one's self understood to a wider range of people, the cultural benefits can really broaden your horizons.

Teaching your children Mandarin can be invaluable, and if your stay in Beijing is intended to be a long one, it will be a necessity.

An interesting article in US family magazine Cookie, sung the praises of embracing more than one culture and language:

"In the global culture, what could be more important than knowing several languages?" asks Orville Schell, dean of the University of California at Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, who, with his Chinese-born wife, Baifang, has raised sons Sebastian and Sasha to speak three languages. The boys have interacted in Mandarin with their mother and her relatives ever since they could talk, and they were enrolled in a French lycée as soon as they hit school age.

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Who doesn’t love the story of Cinderella, a tale of unlikely love with magical elements and a triumph of good over evil?

 
But the real question is, what's the best way to study this fairytale?

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Mao's Last Dancer is a drama based on the autobiography by Li Cunxin. At the age of 11, Li was plucked from a poor Chinese village and sent to Beijing to study ballet during the last years of the cultural revolution. The film explains how Li's amazing life took him  the United States as a principal dancer for the Houston Ballet, and then on to Australia as a principal artist with the Australian Ballet.

Filmed on location in Australia and Beijing, Mao's Last Dancer premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and is set for release in Australia today.

Unfortunately the film won't be released in China, however I recommend you get your hands on the book.

I always tell my Chinese friends—and everyone else for that matter—that my Chinese only reaches a tolerable fluency once I’ve had a few cocktails. All of a sudden my tones are perfect, my vocabulary is impressive, I’m witty and entertaining. Basically, I turn into the Bing Crosby of the Chinese language.

Learning Mandarin is no easy task, but you can be your own worst enemy. It’s hard to accept the humiliation that inevitably comes with trying to string a sentence together in a foreign language, but you can’t let the fear of humiliation stop you. After months of Chinese classes where I was expected to take part in class discussions about sand (I kid you not), I was going nowhere fast. I’d stumble through some basic sentences to get by, but to be honest I spent more time staring into the bottom of my coffee thermos than practicing my Chinese.

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My first week back at school has been a sensory overload. The reading, the writing, the having to constantly feign understanding while my teacher discusses traditional Chinese farming practices. All I gleaned from that lesson was how to say “sheep skin turban” in Chinese; trust me when I say you will never need to lean how say that.

My supply of Chinese friends who are willing to hear me prattle on about school (one of the few topics I can hold more than a two minute conversation about) is fairly limited. So how do I practice my spoken Chinese? In my effort to be a good student (hen nu li de xue sheng 很努的力学生) I’m on a mission to talk to every single taxi driver (chu zu che si ji 出租车司机) in this fair town. Taxi drivers are easy prey, they can’t tell you to shut-up and they have nowhere to hide from your horrible grammar.

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I loved theatre groups as a kid, and I never really got over them. Singing, dancing and generally showing off (but with flare, of course) have been imbedded into my personality ever since I joined my local theatre group at the tender age of 7.

Sadly, it’s now time I step aside and let the younger ones take over. On that note, the Beijing Playhouse has announced that they will be holding enrollment/auditions this Sun 22 for their kid’s theatre camp. Kids aged 6-13 are invited to perform the classic Chinese play Monkey King. I am giggling with glee at the thought of our littlest Beijiners giving this red-hot go.

For more info check out the event listing on beijingkids.

I am 100% allergy free. There is nothing I can’t (or don’t) eat. This, of course, is a wonderful asset in a city where you’re never quite sure what you’re getting. My darling friend, Belle, on the other hand is plagued with allergies. Her allergy to peanuts takes pride of place amongst her other various ailments. Belle is many things: educated, sophisticated, has an amazing ability to hold her liquor (ta neng he jiu 她能喝酒); but a Chinese scholar she is not.

Belle is not so keen on learning Chinese. She already has a second language and has absolutely no interest in obtaining a third. But after she’d been living in Beijing for almost a year, one thing continued baffled me. OK, so you don’t need to know what ‘bike’ is in Chinese, you don’t need to know what ‘computer’ is in Chinese, however you do need to know what, “I go into anaphylactic shock if I eat peanuts” is in Chinese.

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I may be starting a tad later than your little ones, but it’s back to school time for this little black duck. Last year I made the crazy decision to commit myself to two semesters (xue qi 学期) of Chinese study (xue xi han yu 学习汉语). It’s had its rewards, but mostly it’s just prevented me from going to post-work drinks on Friday night because I was chained to my desk writing characters (han zi 汉字).

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