Mandarin Mondays

Ni hao! I started Mandarin class at the local community college last week on Monday nights. It's a fun class and already the teacher is trying to talk me into his Chinese cooking class so I can prepare good Chinese food for our baby - including congee (rice porridge commonly fed to children in China). I don't think I can swing two class nights a week, so I might have to wait until next session, but I do love to cook!

So far we've learned basic greetings and numbers - he says I have good pronunciation so far - I make a lot of little phonetic notes, which helps.

In China there are hundreds of dialects spoken. Mandarin is one of them and it is the official dialect of the country, therefore everyone learns it (even if they don't use it much in their local town or province). Regardless of dialect, the characters used for writing mean the same thing, so the character for apple in Mandarin is the same as the character for apple in Cantonese.

My goal is to be proficient in basic travel Mandarin and to be able to say some basic things to our baby when we're in China. Even if her orphanage uses a different dialect, Mandarin will sound less strange to her than English and may offer some comfort during her transition to our family. It will take a while to reach that goal. For now I'll be excited to go to Chinatown and have someone understand me when I say "hello" or "thank you" or "where's the bathroom" in Mandarin...speaking of Chinatown, I think it's time for a dim sum brunch soon....mmmmmmm.