Amusing Anecdotes

Here's the latest take, neatly organized for your convenience:

Remember how I said I like to judge my progress in one-on-one class by the examples my teacher makes up? Well I'm not sure what to think about this week's example. Help me out here. About halfway through class, prof-man held up his water bottle and said, "史凯灵觉得这是一瓶水, 其实是一瓶酒," meaning, "Cat thinks this is a bottle of water, but in fact it is a bottle of liquor." Ummm...how should I take this? Our relationship is close enough for him to joke about drinking? He really wishes he could drink an entire bottle of liquor every class period? He really DOES drink 536 ml of liquor every class period?? Is this indicative of progress? I don't know.

On another education-related note, my conversation teacher recently told me she thinks my Chinese is progressing quite quickly. This made me really happy until she explained why. See, apparently I'm not afraid making lots and lots of mistakes for the purpose of getting my point across, and then she and the other teachers can help me improve! Yeah! I am willing to slaughter grammar, proper vocab, and tones in the name of communication! Progress baby! Unfortunately, I can't really deny that this really is my method. Last week, after I gave a particularly messy presentation (so I didn't bother looking up all of the proper/necessary vocab, etc beforehand) my business teacher was also really excited about my progress. I secretly suspect this common reaction is a more reflective of their desire to teach than of my progress in Chinese. These teachers are thinking, "Oh man! I really helped Cat today (here I submit: because her Chinese totally blew). Wohoo progress!" They always use that word too,"进步" ("progress" ) , to describe my Chinese...I mean, come on..one time, go for "aptitude" or "ability" or hey even "communicative competence" for a change? Please? Arghmgrupmh (translation, 怎么办).

On the other hand, a random stranger turned around in front of Sixue and me while we were walking today and said, "Hey y'all's Chinese is really good, are you Russian?" We told him nay, we're American, and everyone involved in this little exchange was very happy (people love Americans here). I also understood the plot of the latest Fast & the Furious when we saw it in Chinese theater this weekend, and most of a TV show my roomie was watching today. I think I've maybe reached like, a forth-grade level now. Maybe.

In other news, got hit by a bike today. Even worse, I saw it coming. Not in a literal, oh-crap-there's-a-biker-coming-up-fast-right way, but in a "hey, if I don't start taking bicyclists as seriously as cars while I am crossing the street, one of them is going to be the end of me" way. To my credit, I don't think I could have seen this guy (he flew into my side from the alley around a corner), and I also did manage to stay on my feet. He apologized in English, I told him "no problem" in Chinese, and we went on our merry ways. I predict this will happen again, because I still can't take bikers for a legitimate threat to my safety.

Russian student guy wore the orange suit again today,
China-Cat