The joys and frustrations of learning Chinese

I’m again sitting at home staring at my Chinese book wondering what do all of these strange scribbles on my book mean. I supposedly have learned all the characters, yet I always find it very hard to remember them when I see them anywhere outside of the original school book text. Those of you who have studied Chinese would know the additional challenge that a pictographic script adds to learning a language. I have discovered an entirely new world of “not understanding” or “partially understanding a language”

1. 1I do not know this word, I do not know how to write it and I do not know what tone it is.
2. 2I know what this word means and I can write it in pinyin, but I struggle remembering the correct tone (can often result in a completely different word) and I have no idea what the character for this looks like.
3. 3I know this word, I can pronounce it correctly with the correct tone but I can’t recognise or write the character (because I’ve never seen it).
4. 4I can recognise this character, and I know what it means but I have no idea how to pronounce it. (For example, this happens when you have seen a character in sign at a shop– but don’t know what the pronunciation is or how to write it either in pinyin or the character)
5. 5I know the word, can pronounce it and can recognize the character when I see it but I would not be able to write it unless I had a model.
6. 6I know the word, I can pronounce it, recognize and write the character. Unfortunately I still have very few characters that I can put in this group!

Add to the above idiomatic expressions  and grammar and you know why many people find studying Chinese frustrating. I’ve been told that Chinese grammar is easy – although I wouldn’t call it extremely difficult I don’t think it’s easy for speakers of European languages. Interestingly enough I personally find it often easier thinking about the English translation of Chinese than Finnish. Finnish language structure is just in its own league. I am yet to learn a language that resembles my mother tongue even remotely!

Despite the frustrations I still find Chinese language interesting.  The characters may be difficult but they are also beautiful. Writing has been one of the most enjoyable activities for me (a task that divides the opinions of many Chinese learners – some love it whilst others absolutely hate the scribbles). I am pleased that I have another 4 weeks to study and 2 weeks to travel in China, yet I know I will also be happy to complete my three and a half months here. I will want to continue studying Chinese yet I want to do it at a slightly less intense pace.

One fo the most enjoyable activities is writing Chinese characters. I can't recognise them - but I love writing them. Hence my character practise notebook has lines and lines of neatly drawn characters - and it isn't even part of my homework. I just like doing it whenever I can find the time. Putting it into practise is somewhat more challenging and my attempts at short dialogues or stories for class always end up coming back with multiple correction suggestions from my teacher (on the right). A long way to go to mastering this language - but it is a good start!

Beijing First month: More historic places, new Chinese teacher and air pollution

More sweating in Beijing! The second week included climbing some of the remote areas of the Great Wall (they were marked "not open for the public" and had some really nice steps and climbs) and continuing on the equally rewarding & frustrating mission to learn mandarin. We also experienced rather high levels of air pollution (yeah, probably very low on Beijing standards...) on two days of that week, ate some pig brain in the this week and I also managed to visit both the Great Wall and the Summer Palace, as well as the Olympic park grounds.


OLYMPIC FOREST PARK

Week 2 started on a Sunday noon trip to the Olympic Forest park. The park is on the north side of Beijing in the vicinity of the 4th ring road. I was on a mission to find myself the cleanest and best running routes in Beijing and I thought starting at the Olympic forest park where there should be 3km, 5km and 10km marked routes would probably be a good idea. The park is about 40-minute commute from where I live in the north-east of Beijing but for good tracks it's worth the travel. It was pretty, way too warm yet will be a nice place to visit on a  cooler day (35 degrees is not a day for a walk in the park!) The Olympic stadium area will need another visit - the buildings are at their best in the evening when they are lit up.

The Olympic Forest park is huge! Luckily it has very good maps of the area.
I did not even attempt covering all of it. I did a walk around the lake and explored some of the nearby areas.
There are also means of getting around the park without needing to completely exhaust
one's legs. There are both battery operated vehicles (in the bottom left corner of the above picture)
and pedal cars for rental. The running routes and distances are both marked on the map and painted on the pavement.

The actual Olympic Green area is more worth it if you visit it during the night, after dark (after 7.30pm in the summer). Since I wandered there in the middle of the day on a Sunday, we had to return with the classmates for an evening of staring at lit-up buildings. It was beautiful and I really enjoyed it but it may not be everyone's cup of tea considering there are very few sights and it's a long journey. The park is quite far from the centre. If you are taking a subway, getting to the park from the city business district takes over an hour.

From top left to bottom right: The Birds's nest stadium, The pagoda,
The pagoda at around 7.15pm when it was just lit up and the aquatics centre.

NEW CHINESE TEACHER

Since the two-and-a-half year old in the family I live with speaks much better Chinese than I do,
I attempted recruiting her as my new Chinese teacher. He gladly agreed to this - and five minutes
later announced she is not a teacher. Caught here in the act of making her dinner into a dough in her bowl while the grown-ups were engrossed in a conversation. She was extremely happy by her achievement of turning dinner into a mass.

A GREAT HOTPOT AND A DISGUSTING PIG BRAIN

Andreas took us to a hotpot restaurant. The hotpot itself was good fun, but even more so was when he ordered us some special delicacies. Here a video of one of my fellow students, Adrian, tasting some of the local delights. (I used a mobile app adjusted size for the video as bandwidth in China is so small that uploading a full size video would probably take days!)

FAREWELLS AND AIR POLLUTION

At the end of week 2 we also said goodbye to Carin, our Dutch classmate.
We still enjoyed one more sushi lunch together.

Air pollution levels peaked in the second week and although under 300
is not yet a level where wearing face mask is recommended apart from for the sensitive groups,
I decided that after 3 days of over 250 I'll buy a mask and wear it. My respiratory system and my health are
worth the 3 euros that three of these PM2.5 particle certified 3M masks cost me at 7-eleven.
Posing with my Dutch classmate Carin, and in front of the interestingly shaped CCTV (Chinese TV and press) building.

THE GREAT WALL

The Great Wall must b the one sight almost every visitor to Northern China would like to put on their list. Parts of it are extremely crowded and it's hard to see the wall from behind the number of travellers. Our language school (Live the Language) took us to a more remote part of the wall. The are was called "Xiangshuihu Great Wall Natural Scenic area and it was about 30minutes driving from Mutianyu area - I have to admit I am still not entirely sure where we exactly went although I looked the spot up on the map. The area has much less travellers but it also requires reasonably levels of fitness and a bit of ability to climb as many parts of the wall are less restored and partially ruined. Apparently there are longer hiking trails from this area and we saw a few people going up the wall with their sleeping bags and camping mats. A very good idea in July when the temperatures are warm and sleeping outside is rather pleasant (except for the mosquitos). We overnighted in a hostel / farmhouse.

We did about an 1-2 hour long walk along the wall, and some parts of it only me, Sasha and Mathijs dared. It was good fun - I would definitely recommend this area to anyone visiting the wall rather than going to the more crowded areas of Badaling or Mutianyu.

On Saturday we walked along the lake and garden area
(the two pictures on the left and the one on top right) and on
Sunday we did more climbing of the wall itself.

The weather was a bit steamy, therefore no great scenic shots.
This is the best one I got of the wall.

CONFUCIUS TEMPLE, HUTONG and HOUHAI

The week after we had a walk in the old quarters, or "hutongs" as they are known. We started off near the Lama temple but as it was already rather late in the day we decided to visit the Confucius temple instead. From here we walked towards the Drum tower, had dinner in a small restaurant and still walked around the Hou Hai area before heading home.

At the Confucius temple. The temple is one of the largest in China and
was originally built in 1302 and expanded in 1906. It is a rather peaceful
and quire place and makes a nice stroll to escape from the busy streets.

On our way towards the Drum Tower.

The restaurants, bars and cafes at the HouHai area are colourful and seem like nice places
for a relaxing evening meal or a drink.

SUMMER PALACE

At the end of my first month I went to explore the Summer Palace. Most of my classmates say the Summer Palace is much more interesting and more beautiful than the Forbidden City . I definitely agree! The Summer Palace, covering an area of 290 hectares - a great part of it occupied by the Kunming lake - is a beautiful set of gardens and well restored old buildings.

Although the original site was in the emperor's use already earlier, the current layout was built in the 18th century. The person who made the Summer palace famous was however one of the most powerful women in the Chinese history, Empress Dowager Cixi. who splurged on state funds twice (1860 and 1902). In both cases the palace area was destroyed by western or pro western troops (Anglo-French troops and the Boxer rebellion). Cixi did a marvelous job but in my opinion her extravagant spending and her refusal to modernise the state probably made her also one of the key figures responsible for the fall of the empire. The Summer palace however remains as one of the most impressive sites to visit in Beijing. From things I have seen so far, I've enjoyed the Great Wall Hiking in the remote areas and the Summer Palace the most.

Here is a map of the area I found on an Asia travel site and cheekily copied.
I started from the North gate and
then explored Suzhou street, Temple of the Sea of Wisdom, the Longevity Hill
and its landmark the Tower of Buddhist Incense, made my way down
towards the water's edge, the Long Corridor and the living quarters and
administrative buildings. I finished my tour with a look at the Wen Zhang galleries
and a tour of the north east corner of the gardens.
I did not even make it to the South Lake Island and the Marble Boat!

I started from the North gate,spent five and a half hours in the area (!) and I did not cover even nearly all of the palace grounds.

The tower of the Buddhist Incense or the Tower of the Fragrance of the Buddha
probably draws most of the visitors although the hike up the hill in
a summer's day's heat is a little arduous. 

The view from the top of the Longevity Hill is totally worth it,
and so is wandering down to the lakeside.
The bottom right image is of Suzhou street shophouses.
The shophouses now mainly have small cafes and souvenir shops
but they were also shophouses when the emperor stayed here.

The details of the restored paintings along the corridors are impressive.
No wonder Cixi spent a fortune on all the works! I'm glad this is still being renovated and maintained.

More details from the corridors.

Again an enjoyable three weeks in Beijing. I am down with a cold when writing this (can't do anything more productive with a fever, haha) but other than the cold my first month in Beijing has continued to be welcoming.

Beijing - first impressions

Beijing can be tremendously intimidating. There are 14 million people, none of them speak English and at 7.30am on a Monday morning they are all inside my metro coach, packed side by side. Well - not all of them are inside the train, some are still left behind on the station platform.

"Not good" was my first thought. Yet somehow this mass of people manages to navigate around you when getting off the train, do not step on toes, get on and off the train in an organised manner. This must be the best crowded metro in the world. I wiggle my way towards the door before my stop (feeling clumsy with my big school bag), get off, find my way to my interlink train with help from the excellent sign posts that are everywhere, large in size and impossible to miss. One can't get lost on this metro.

This picture is taken on Saturday afternoon when the train is less packed. Still a lot of people but much less than weekday rush hours.

I arrived in Beijing on Saturday night of 19th July. The plan is to spend three months here to fulfill one of my long term goals: To learn to speak and read mandarin - writing will be a bonus.  I have been postponing taking up Chinese now for much too long.

I have been working for 10 years now and deciding to go to Beijing, be a student again and live with a Chinese family was an exciting and scary decision. I only speak a few phrases of mandarin and I can practically recognise no characters at all. I'll be illiterate, with next to no spoken language skills living in a Chinese family somewhere between 3rd and fourth ring road. Yet, I'll be able to spend 3 months here, visit all the historic sites (already signed up for a Great Wall trip!), learn a new language and make a lot of new friends. Hopefully the family will not hate me - or try to feed me pork (the only thing I don't eat is the favourite food for many Chinese).

THE APARTMENT WE LIVE IN

My taxi driver drops me off somewhere nearby the apartment building, and I meet my new "landlady" and her two "sisters" (I think they were actually colleagues - still not quite worked that out yet). She had clearly mobilised some helpers to meet the new foreigner. My new "mother" is 13 years younger than me, is married with one child (daughter, 2 years old) and also her mother lives in the apartment with us. I was given the nicest room in their modest flat, shown around, fed some healthy vegetarian food and then she had to go back to work. Fine with me, I'm rather tired after the journey.

Here are a few pictures of the apartment:

My desk and the "aircon" unit.
The fan/aircon kind of works - but you need to put ice inside in the evening to cool the air down.
A very basic cooling system!

Something tells me they've given me the room where their 2-year old daughter normally sleeps...

Behind the kitchen sink is a mess of water pipes and handles that need to be turned in the right position every time before having a shower to enable the hot water. Took me a couple of attempts to get it right.

Unlike Europe, on this side of the world the water pipes are always outside the walls. I guess that makes them easier to fix - but also more of a hazard.

I even had a gold fish in my room when I first moved in.
It lives in a plastic 2-litre water bottle.
Or lived - it died after a few days because the family forgot to change its water...
I hope that was not my responsibility!

THE SCHOOL

I signed up with one of the absolutely greatest private language schools in Beijing, Live the Language, and in my first week I have not needed to regret the decision to dish out a little extra money for that private school experience. I received help with directions and airport pickup from the school, an invite for two school outings already before starting the course (the first one was on my first Sunday - before I had even attended any classes!) and an amazing, fun and thorough introduction to the basics of spoken and written mandarin from my two native teachers, Helen and Felix. I learned more mandarin with Live the Language in a week in Beijing than what I ever managed in 8 years in Singapore. I only have 3 students in my beginner's class - that feels almost like 1-on-1 tuition!

At the school lobby area after class. 

FUNNY TRANSLATIONS

Another one of the first week encounters: funny sign posts and bad English translations. Hey! I came here to learn mandarin so this will only motivate me to learn more. I'm wondering if my mandarin will still sound as bad to them after 3 months as these translations...

In Taiyangong park there is a small sign that bans ice skating.
The biggest reason for my amusement wasn't even the English language.
They keep the sign here year round, so it was here also in the middle of the summer when it was over 30C warm... 

I think this restaurant had used some automated translation to translate the names of their dishes to English.
Some came out rather funny.

THE ONLY SIGHTSEEING DAYS:

Tian'anmen square on Day 1 after school and Forbidden City on the first Saturday.

Tiananmen square really makes me think I'm in a communist country.
They have big square, grey buildings, a mausoleum for their former leader Mao,
guards that stand pencil straight and don't move and statues of the brave people
who worked oooh-so-very-hard to make China a great country. A bit grim, I'd say.

Going to the Forbidden City in July on a steaming hot day is NOT a good idea.
We still managed to enjoy some of the views of the buildings, admire the architecture
(although for the untrained eye all the halls looked the same from the outside) and as I
just had to try on on of those Chinese costumes I managed to get my picture taken
by a huge number of  people passing by. White people get asked for pictures all the time
anyway, but a white woman in a  Chinese Empress dress. Completely irresistible for the snap-snap-snappers.

All in all, it's not that intimidating here. Beijing is awesome. Food is good, plenty to see and people are friendly. They speak just about enough English that with a dictionary and some signing I can find my way round - and the less they speak the better because that definitely motivates me to learn more Chinese!

In any case, now I need to finish, because my otherwise lovely host family seem to have forgotten they were supposed to make me dinner. I think at 9.30pm it's a fair assumption on my side that they are not planning to feed me today. So I'll need to go look for a restaurant instead of a home cooked meal.

Fiskars Village Summer 2014 Exhibition BLURRED LINES

Fiskars village celebrated 365 years from when the company Fiskars, best known for their high quality axes, gardening tools and scissors, was founded in 1649. The village has since turned into an artists' community with a handful of quirky shops and a couple of nice cafes and restaurants. In the summer there is always a major art exhibition which I have visited every summer for the past 5 years. In summer 2014 the exhibition was small yet interesting. I would warmly recommend a visit if you happen to be in the Southern Finland area in the summer. In the winter most of the shops open under Christmas, selling gifts and home decoration items.

Here are some photos from the artworks and the area near Fiskars. These were taken in June 2014.

Watching birds and horses on the way to the exhibition.
Fiskars is located in the council of Raasepori, one of the most
beautiful areas in Southern Finland. Stopping for a small break on the way
to the exhibition to enjoy the views of the Finnish countryside
is a good idea.

The Fiskars village with its old buildings - and an old
locomotive, mostly popular among children. I can't miss out the
opportunity for posing here - I've done this since I was a little kid
every time we visited Fiskars.

A map of the exhibition area. These are available in English,
Finnish and Swedish.

Artworks by the entrance of the exhibition.

Artits: Piitu Nykopp. Work 13/dozen. Mixed media, papier mache.

There is also a glassblowing workshop. They often place their
works on display at the exhibition but visitors can also sign up
for a small trial of glassblowing (additional charges would apply).

Artist: Kim Simonsson & Saarikopri design. 3D girl.

Restaurant Wardshus has a small but excellent menu of Finnish
food and a good wine list. Recommended number 1 lunch spot
in the area.

Funny road signs on the village main road. Watch out for ducks
and ducklings crossing! 

Where is Fiskarrs? See this map:

Farewell to Tioman

I could not leave Singapore after 8 years without saying goodbye to my favourite dive spot in the region, Tioman island. A weekend trip with 6 dives turned out to be all one can expect of a last diving weekend: Good friends (with special surprise of Maita who joined the trip on the day itself after her business trip was cancelled - that's a true dive addict!), an underwater photography buddy, beautiful weather, calms seas, clear visibility (means 20m - we often have 10-15m on Tioman) and no currents. Yet the sealife turned up! We had huge numbers of juvenile fish, large schools of curious batfish, multiple cleaning stations, a giant lobster on a night dive (no, I don't have a photo - Terence got one but without anyone else in the picture for size reference it's just a lobster) and my absolute favourite: A cuttlefish couple laying eggs.

Amazing, amazing. I love Tioman - and I can't really say goodbye to you yet. I promise to return. You showed off your best side on this farewell weekend and I can't help but falling in love with you all over again, you trickster of an island.

Photos below are both from the 23-25 May trip (all take on Saturday 24th) and a few from our last September photo trip with Terence. I am still very frustrated with my skills and abilities as an underwater photographer, but I'm hoping that with practise I might one day improve. A few of the nicer shots below.

Turtle on Dive Asia Housereef in Salang.

At Chebeh we first bumbed into two bumphead parrotfish, and then as we were cruising along we found cuttlefish egg - and the cuttlefish laying the eggs. I was so amazed. I have been diving for a few years now but I've never seen cuttle fish eggs - and definitely not a cuttlefish laying eggs.
The female cuttle fish was not pleased at al that a group of divers turned up just as it was in the process of laying eggs. I don't blame her - yet I still could not resist the temptation and snap a few photos of her.

A couple more of the upset female - and at the bottom right one shot of his much calmer male companion who was observing the egg-laying process and guarding the eggs.

This one is for Gemma!
Like I said the pictures I got of the eggs are rubbish - sorry, not a great photographer.
This is all I managed.
The eggs look just like little snails, don't they?

I'm fond of featherstars.
This one was nicely fully open whilst clinging on to a fan coral atMalang Rocks. 

Pretty little fishy. Pictures that you can expect from a female diver, lol.

This nudi is actually from our September trip. I think this is at Seafan canyon although I'm not sure.

Also from September 2013 trip.

No idea what species this nudi is - but I think it's pretty :)

"Ok, the end, nothing to see here"

HOW TO GET THERE

If you have never been to Tioman - but wanted to try - directions below are for those travelling from Singapore - obviously it's even easier if you are already in Malaysia.

The journey there from Singapore can be done over a weekend but you have to be prepared for sitting in a small bus for 4-5 hours and expect a very short sleep on Friday night. Yet it's well worth it! You come back feeling completely refreshed and renewed, thinking you have been away from Singapore for longer than just one weekend.

If you are diving and staying in Singapore, the best way to get there is to contact one of the Singapore based dive shops. There are also dive shops on Tioman and you could also contact a travel agent who can arrange for your bus and ferry - and do the diving with one of the many dive operators based on Tioman isand. I went with Living Seas, who organise regular trips there about once a month.  You can check the schedules on their trips page. The cost for a weekend trip with 5-6 dives is around SGD 400 and this includes the transport, diving, accommodation and most of the meals. Gear rentals and breakfast on Saturda morning are not included.

You'll first spend a couple of hours (at worst) trying to fight the Friday night traffic jam at the Malaysian border crossing - it seems that every weekend half of Singapore wants to cross over to Malaysia and the queues at immigration can be quite long. One wouldn't mind - but because the immigration officers ask you to disembark from the bus with all of your luggage, it is a little troublesome to make the crossing with your dive gear bag. Once again back on the bus and after passport control at both Singapore and Malaysian side, it's about a 2-hour drive up to Mersing on the western coast of peninsular Malaysia.

We overnighted in one of the cheap hotels in Mersing (you get about 5 hours of sleep at best!). In the morning we continued for the ferry that departed around 6am. The departure times vary daily and depend on the tide - Mersing jetty is built on a river delta that brings in silt and the boats can only enter during high tide. What a typically Malaysian arrangement - but there is no other viable option if you want to get to the islands.

Here we are at the Mersing jetty - the queueing and boarding arrangements are not the most organised and orderly ones.

You get to the island, disembark (pay attention for the calls of the village and resort names not to miss your stop), find your bags and walk over to your dive centre. We dived at Dive Asia, which is about 10-15min walk from the jetty. (You can find a general map of Tioman here at travelworld - Salang is all the way up north). Usually we have breakfast first at the Salang Chinese restaurant, then gear up and head out to the first dive. Lunch and dinner are served at the dive centre.

Dinner time!

After dinner there is time to socialise and have a couple of drinks - although the only bar in Salang village closed a few months ago. There are still plenty of tax free stores and other locations that sell beer - there is no need to starve.

It's Tiger time!

On the first day you can manage 4 dives (1 on housereef, 2 boat dives and 2 night dive) and on the second day 1-2 dives depending on the ferry schedule (both are boat dives). I have many favourite sites in this area, including Malang Rocks, Chebeh and Labas with all of their swim through underneath the rocky shores. There are other beautiful sites as well, such as Seafan canyon (you have to land rather accurately on the site to find the seafans) and Soyak island with its whip corals and curious batfish (there are also wrecks at Soyak if you are up for  a deep dive).

After the diving it's time to wash gear, pack up, have a quick lunch and head to the ferry and take thebus back to Singapore. You'll get home around 8-10pm on Sunday evening - sometimes slightly earlier if you are lucky.

Drying gear at Dive Asia, Salang.

Rooms are modest and a little old. For example, there is a huge crack on the wall behind the bed on the left hand side of this picture. They are still (mostly) clean and are fine for sleeping and showering. Don' expect luxury on Tioman!

Time to go home! Bye-bye, Tioman, see you some time once more - I hope.