Progress

I understood my first complete sentence in Chinese last week! It was while we were going to have lunch at our aiyi's house. Her husband is a taxi driver and he came to pick us up to bring us to their home. I think I've mentioned before that taxi drivers here in China can be a little intense. They drive like they are in a video game. Seriously. We were just leaving our apartment and traffic was a little crazy on our street and Nick told him in Chinese to watch out because a car was coming. He just waved at Nick and said...

"Wo kai cha hen hao."
(I'm not sure if I spelled the pinyin right there, but Nick's not here for me to check with and most people that read this blog probably don't read pinyin either so it doesn't really matter.)

It means "I drive the car very good." I was so excited. It was completely in context and I understood. It definitely motivated me to study a little more now that I'm finally seeing some results. Until now I've mostly been relying on acting and body language to communicate. That has been working out pretty well for me, but its good to be able to speak too.

Sometimes my Chinese friends would be so amazed that I could follow a context of a conversation just from watching them. They thought I understood them...Ha! I usually couldn't catch a word, but they use their hands a lot when they speak so it makes it easier to catch on to what they are saying.

Now I'm off to study some more since Nick gets home from Beijing tomorrow and my studying will probably be neglected for a few days.