I have continued on with my language studies and I feel like I am making good progress. I still struggle to understand what people are saying to me on the street because they speak in the local dialect and not Mandarin which is what I am learning. For example, on my way to class this morning it sounded exactly like a man asked me if I studied English after I had just finished telling him I came here to study Chinese. I was a little confused and proceeded to tell him I was an American and could speak English. He probably was asking me something else and no doubt wondered why I was telling him my nationality! Oh the joys of language learning!
Yesterday when I went to class my teacher started off by asking me if I wanted to play a game with her. She pulled out what is called a Jian zi, a blend between a hacky sac and a badminton birdie and showed me how to play with it. You are supposed to keep it in the air by kicking it with your foot. Well, I wasn't very good at it so after a few minutes she said: "we can use our books!". So, we got our textbooks and proceeded to play badminton in the classroom using our books as rackets! It was a lot of fun.
That is all for now, just wanted to write a quick update and let you all know I am doing well.
