| weather | : | sunny-ish | |
| outside | : | 18°C | |
| mood | : |  | contemplative |
The Chinese version has been moved here.
I was chatting with 
katie_ah today and I realized that I have never written anything of significant length in Chinese.
When Husband Guy's Grandma was still alive, I had the thought of writing to her for practice. But every time she went back to Taiwan, she didn't stay that long so I never got around to writing. Phoning them was a lot more convenient anyway.
I'd never had a Chinese Penpal either.
So, my Chinese still sucks. I know my parents are disappointed... and, honestly, so am I. It's embarassing that I'm Chinese, I can't read, I can't write and some of the North American kids in the 
zhongwen community are better at it than I am. I did go to Chinese School when I was younger, Mandarin and Cantonese classes at different times. But I never got to use what I learned in class, so it was kinda useless.
*sigh*
Comments
I know a family where the mom speaks in Mandarin to the kid, and the dad speaks in Cantonese. And the boy answers accordingly, depending on who he's talking to. Lucky kid - he'll grow up knowing both languages...
the best way to improve your writing and chinese skills is to read chinese newspapers... and i don't mean the chinese tabloids!
actually, nevermind. ur school's tuition was probably much higher than mine.
Hmm, maybe not... VC's tuition was only about $2500 a year. And I only went to a private school from Grade 6-12...
(There she goes using "dude" again...)
But the guys I know who come out of St. George's are really smart...
I would be more than happy to be your pen-pal, if not just online. It would be kinda fun! I need incentive to practice, and you can be the wielder of the red marker!
Ohhhh! However did you do the < lj user > user thing with different names? Do tell!
<a href="http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=[USERNAME_HERE]"><img height="17" border="0" src="http://www.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif" align="absmiddle" width="17"></a><b><a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/[USERNAME_HERE]/">[LINK TEXT HERE]</a>
Thanks!
I happy to see you again & again. ^_^
Also went to Chinese school when I was in grade school but I had very little interest in Chinese at the time. I was so stupid. Now I wanna go to Beijing and study Chinese there for a year or so at a university there. Even flirted with the idea of getting an internship at the Canadian Embassy in Beijing too (but the pay was miserable). But giving up on my job to pursue this interest is something I'm not willing to do right now.
*sigh*
A) Husband Guy's family is there. I'm not sure if I'd want to live with them, but at least there would be a support network if I needed help. I have family in Shanghai, but they're not as close and I wouldn't want to impose on them.
B) They use Traditional Characters in Taiwan. The Mainland exclusively uses Simplified Characters. I vehemently HATE Simplified Characters and avoid them wherever possible.
C) Taiwan is slightly less of a culture shock (to me at least) than Beijing. I've been to Beijing (not to study though) and I couldn't see myself living there for more than a week. I just don't like the general attitude - if you look Chinese, they can tell you're a foreigner and they treat you badly. There is no such thing as "customer service" in China. It might be different if I were in a University program with local friends who knew their way around and could take me places.
I second that!! The simplified characters just look so UGLY. They've converted the intricate traditional chars into silly stick drawings. I'll see you in Taiwan then. :)
What I can't stand is surnames in Simplified characters. Maybe I hate this because I don't like the way my own last name is, in Simplified, but it feels very demeaning and disrespectful - like not capitalizing someone's name in English.