I am taking a four-week 'Beginner Chinese' course while in Tianjin, and then a four-week 'Advanced Chinese' class in Shanghai. They are optional and you pay 470 yuan (~$80) for each set of four weeks but get a full-refund if you have perfect attendance; it's M-Th from 8:30-9:20 am. Kat and I go together and we should definitely get a refund for these first four weeks. I actually am learning a lot and am able to understand different small phrases here and there when we go out to eat and such.
Our professor has trouble saying our English names so she gave us Chinese names this week. In China, it's custom to say the last name first, and then your given name. Basically, it’s the opposite of Western customs. She tried to give us names that sounded similar to our English names, then the same first letter from our English last name. Mine is actually pretty close in sound to Julie: Fù Jiū Lì (foo – jeeOH - lee). She also gave us the Chinese characters…Sadly, we aren’t really learning to write characters so that’s still completely foreign to me.
Random side note: on the Great Wall trip I hung out with all of the guides that went with the four different groups a lot. They asked me my name and they said “OH, like Angelina Jolie!” I said, “Yes, exactly!”. Close enough, right? Then they told me that my eyes looked like hers…Not entirely sure how they came to that conclusion, but hey, I’ll take the compliment. Anyway, they continued to call me “Jolie” the whole trip and it made me miss home (for those of you that don’t know- my mom calls me Juhlay, Jolie, Jelly, Jilly, basically anything but Julie…).
Also, our Chinese book gives two examples of English names translated. One of them was Paul! It’s Bǎoluó (ba-how-lu-oh). So Dad, I’m going to call you that when I get back!
Zài jiàn! (see you)
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