I can read!

We arrived in China almost two weeks ago and every single one of those days has been consumed with language study. Every morning Diana and I wake up, perform some daily rituals (breakfast, shower, yoga, etc.) and then hit the books. My flash card count moved from around 175 cards to its current state at 316. Diana's flashcard count is something like 450 or 500 but she knows even more. I still have resolved my own big issue though; which was one of the strongest reasons behind the decision to move to China.

I still can't talk. I can read a number of characters and I'm starting to be able to write sentences but I can't speak to save my life. I lack the one necessary ingredient to learning a language; confidence. Oh yes, I can stand in front of a huge audience and give a speech or pull a random stranger out of a crowd and have a conversation with him or her but that's in English. Its much, much easier being confident in speech when it is in your native language.

Diana's parents gave me a week long English pass but its expiring rapidly. Although they speak Cantonese natively the amount of Mandarin being spoken in the house and, specifically, towards me has risen sharply. I have to get my language in shape or risk not being able to communicate. That's OK, we moved here to be forced into the language. Somehow my confidence has to be built up, my shyness needs to shy away and my courage needs to be brought out from behind the curtains. I'll never speak the language unless it happens.

OK with that said lets get on with what I can do; read. Well I can read a little; heavy emphasis on a little. Its said that you need to know about 3,000 to 5,000 characters before you're able to read a newspaper. I'm at only 300 so I can read next to nothing except for a few signs and billboards around town.

This is the first item I was able to read and understand. It is the head of a salmon ;). The word for salmon in Chinese is a transliteration; which means that the sound of the characters form the sound of another language's word (typically English). Ok onto the characters
Character = pronunciation = English Translation
三 = San = Three
文 = wen = Having to do with literature
鱼 = yu = Fish
头 = tou = head
Ok so its San Wen Yu tou. The first two characters are a transliteration (Sanwen, i.e. Salmon), the characters themselves are only used for their sound and not their meaning. The last two characters are standard.鱼 for fish and 头 for head. Thus we get Sanwen yu tou or Salmon Fish Head. Sweet!

Next is a shop on the outskirts of the nearby mall. The other night Diana and I were just walking around the neighborhood and while she was checking out a restaurant I came across this sign. To my amazement I was able to read the characters and determine the meaning! Whoo Hoo! OK here it is in order of appearance
老 = lao = Old
年 = nian = Year
人 = ren = People
用 = Yong = to use
品 = pin = thing/supplies
店 = dian = Store
thus "lao nian ren yong pin dian"
Literal translation: "Old year People to use things/supplies Store" Translation: "Elderly supply store"

This last one I figured out just yesterday. It is a picture of a pharmacy and the characters read, in order of appearance.
中 = Zhong = Middle
?? = zi = Knowledge (Sorry I can pronounce it but not type it)
大 = da = Big
药房 = yao fang = Pharmacy
Literal translation: Middle Knowledge Big Pharmacy
Translation: Big Chinese-Medicine Pharmacy
Now why does "middle" translate to China? Well years and years ago, you know like in the 80s (kidding, much farther back), China believed that they were the middle of the world or at least that the world revolved around them. The name of their country is 中国, zhong-quo, Middle-Country and pretty much everything that starts with 中 is going to mean China-something.

OK so its established that I can't speak to save my life and I can't read to save a little child's life. Essentially I'm not good at this language thing but I'm going to trudge on and continually force myself into speaking. Eventually, hopefully soon, my confidence will be fortified and I'll speak no matter how goofy or horribly accented I sound. Until then I'm going to keep studying, keep trying and keep enjoying the beautiful weather here.

In other news I'm/we're doing great. Every morning we wake up and look out the window of our bedroom, located on the 10th floor of the building, onto the town of ZhongShan (中山). We leave the curtains open so that we can awaken by natural sunlight and then do about 20-30 minutes of Yoga. Our days are then consumed with studies. We crack the books, read, write, and, hopefully, memorize. We have a long ways to go, I more than her, but we're headed down the road and I haven't regretted it yet!

We're off to Guangzhou today for a 3 day family outing! Diana and I need to head to HSBC to open up on China-based banking account so that we can get our money out of the US (holy crap can it devalue any more? sheesh!). Diana's father needs a new passport so we are going to be translators at the U.S embassy. Also Guangzhou is where Diana was born so I'm sure there will be some family-reunion/reminiscing action going on too. Hopefully we'll get a chance to go back to the glasses market! If we go I'll do a bit of filming to show you what I've been talking about. I love that place (so sayeth the blind man)!