This note will contain the same kind of content that I shared in my previous notes that are titled 'The life of a Chinese learner living in China... ', although it may not be as specific to language learning as previous notes. As far as the title, Chinese people will, from time to time, send me a text message saying 'I wish you happy everyday'. It is a Chinese thing I guess. Although I am not 100% sure, it is a literal translation of 我祝你天天都高兴.
Anyhow, not to brag, but I really feel that my speaking has really improved in the past couple of months. A big reason for this may be all the traveling that I have done in the past few months. I have had opportunities to practice the skills that I have been working on over the past couple of years. Tonight, I was talking to a Chinese friend at a restaurant. When I first met her, her English was way better than my Chinese. Now, the difference is not as great. We spent most of the time talking tonight, and I understood most of her, and she understood me. Actually, I may have passed her, but it is definitely not the blowout that it was when I first met her.
I was able to order water delivery for myself, yet another way that my language learning is allowing me to be more independent. I don't think I made any serious mistake with my Chinese, but it helps if I tell the water company the correct apartment number. I live in apartment 601, not 106. Ha ha ha.
I have changed my studying method (for those of you who care, you can read about it at length on my blog 'amesburygeorgechinesestudy.blogspot.com'). I hope to really improve with my new method.
The thought that I want to leave with today is a little bit of a tirade. I am a little upset with people who are critical to those who cannot speak English well. After living in China for over a year, and spending most of this time studying hours per day, and trying to get things done on a daily basis, and making mistakes all the time and confusing myself and others, I can really say that I truly know what it is like to live in a foreign country where I can't speak the native language well. For those of you who are hard on those who live in the US, but cannot speak English well, come back to me and complain after you have lived abroad in a foreign country. Okay, I'm done, and thats off my chest.
I guess that is all I want to say right now.
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