Class 2: Food, not Angst or Sex

Well, that’s the second class done and all I can say is that all language teachers must have been born from the same mother. Learning French, Spanish and now Mandarin I’ve noticed that they all seem to share the same battle plan: steamroll the students with a smile while flooding them with a torrent of words they don't understand. It can’t be easy to look cheerily out into a class of confused faces and to know that you are the reason they look so dumbfounded. But it works and I guess the looks of joy on our faces when we order our first meal in Mandarin will make up for it.

Food. Words for food seem to be the ones that stick most firmly in my mind. I suppose the same thing would be true for words about sex, or existential angst. But, both of those topics always seem to be off limits in beginner language courses. Maybe there is a market for it:

“Oral Adventures in Mandarin – Level 1”
or
“Mandarin Soul Searching for Beginners.”

Until then though, we’ve got food. Hao Ch = “this food is delicious” ; Xiang = “this smells or tastes good” ; Xi Gua = watermelon ; Kende Ji = Kentucky Fried Chicken; Mai Dang Lao = Mc Donald’s.

That seems to be another element of beginner language courses: words for things that come from your culture. Maybe it is an effort to make you feel more comfortable. If they have words for KFC in Mandarin, it can’t really be such a hard language can it? The people can’t be so different. Maybe it’s true. But on the other hand, I’m certainly not learning Mandarin so that I can order a Big Mac. So, here goes – it’s time to test out both my new vocabulary and my new theory about common words indicating a common understanding. I have a date with a noodle shop in Richmond this Saturday. My goal is to eat a whole meal in Mandarin, or at least to order it in Mandarin.

~@~