Progress Report

I have been living in China for 2 weeks now. This may not seem like much of a feat...but it is.

The #1 lesson learned in those two weeks...Chinese is HARD.

Basically, I can speak food and read directions.

I can now speak the words for the following:
Boiled water, rice, tea, bill, waitress, dumplings, north, Hi, thank you, no thank you, goodbye, how much is this, road, this, and that
(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9...)

I know the characters for the following:
North, south, east (need to figure out west), middle, gate, exit, faith (you need that to survive the chaos, I mean traffic)

...and that's about it.

In Guatemala, I could get around and understand quite a bit after one or two weeks. Here...ummm well you've seen my progress report.

According to statistics it takes the average person 20 weeks (30 hrs/week) to gain intermediate proficiency in Spanish. To gain intermediate proficiency in Chinese would take 50 weeks (30 hrs/week).

So my new goal for all the world to know: Conquer the book "Survival Chinese" by Christmas. I have lowered my expectations and raised them all at the same time...here I go!

(Oh! I also know the characters for man and woman...so I don't walk into an awkward situation, if you get my drift.)