I just got back from a nice rainforest hiking trip with my kids in Wuzhishan, Hanian. We managed to hike up to the first peak and even got back down before eleven o’clock at night! The locals were very impressed that an eight- and a ten-year old could make it up there (and after sundown, they were kindhearted enough to call every 30 minutes to see if we were still alive).

When we were on the bus on the way to Wuzhishan City, the 车长 (bus stewardess?) looked at my kids and asked me “Tāmen dǒng tīng hànyǔ ma?” Continue…

Continue…

ხურო ჯუჯები

დილიდან ხურო ჯუჯები გამალებით მუშაობენ თავიანთ პატარა სახელოსნოში.  ქუჩაში გამაყრუებელი ხმაური გამოდის.  იცით, რამდენი საქმე აქვთ?!  ჯერ ციყვს წიგნის თაროები უნდა გამოუჩარხონ, მერე ეჭედელ ჯუჯას – მაგიდა და სკამები.  იმ კუს კი, ხუროებს ისე რომ ამხიარულებს, ახალ სკეიტბორდს უმზადებენ.

Continue…

The title of this post is one of my favorite ungrammatical constructions.  That (un)grammatical construction doesn’t really have much to do with the post other than the fact that in college, when I first started thinking about that construction, I didn’t know what to call it (or even how to “fix” it).

There are some things that expats use or deal with every day in China, but in a Chinese language environment.  When asked how to say them in English, we spin our wheels because either there really are no suitable translations, or the suitable translations are something that we’re not familiar with. Continue…