Language Lesson

When it’s this hot, and this humid, and you’ve been doing this much all week, including Saturday language class, well, you don’t really feel like doing much on Sunday. So that is what I’ve done all day, nothing really, at least nothing that would take me out of the apartment. I mostly studied language and worked on my lesson plans for the first day of teaching. One thing I would pass along about Mandarin for those who don’t know it is that it is tonal, that is, the same syllable can mean something entirely different depending upon how it is pronounced. Basically, there are four tones: a flat, high tone; a rising tone; a combined falling and rising tone; and a falling tone. So, for example, ma in the 1st tone means “mother,” in the 2nd tone means both “hemp” and “numb,” in the 3rd tone means “horse,” and in the 4th tone means both “scold” and “sweat.” So the picture is of me in my room working on my language homework. As you can see, I’ve figured out how to work the self-timer on my camera. The highlight of the day, besides not moving from the apartment, was watching the big volleyball match against Italy with Mr. Z, who it turns out is quite an avid volleyball (“piuqui” pronounced peeyew chewee). After each point I would count out the score in the local dialect. It was good practice. In case you were wondering, Italy won three games to none.