Do you know the feeling that the more you try to prepare the more you feel unprepared? Well, I can tell you, this is definitely the situation I am in right now.
When trying to look for useful presentations that could be of interest for the companies we will be working for during the weeks to come, I get lost in "too much information". At a point I stopped to download "interesting stuff". We will find a way at the time we know our clients.
The other topic is "learning Chinese". Believe me, I did not try to be over-ambitious. I tried simple things. Like pronouncing the city, we are going to, Shijiazhuang. People look at me as if I was kidding, when the tones leave my mouth so very reluctantly and it sounds something like 'schitschischuang'. The expression on my face when I say it is something in between complete despair, wonder and embarrassement. A completely different language.
A nice colleague of mine taught me to say "I am from Austria" in Chinese. This is something like 'wo shi ao di li ren'. (same expression on my face, same very unchinese sound).
When I really gave up on my Chinese was, when I learned about the different tones and ways to pronouce them which is leading to different meanings. I came across the sentence: 'Mama qí ma, ma man, mama mà ma.' Which means: 'My mother is riding a horse, the horse is going slow, mother is upbraiding the horse'. Come on!
... to be continued. All the best to you all, Sue
No comments:
Post a Comment