Learning Mandarin

So the family is now engaged in mandarin lessons. It is going slow for the Mom and Dad and we are slowing AF down. She is being patient with us and helps with our tones and vocabulary. We have lessons for an hour on Monday and Wednesday nights by a Chinese university student (Annie) who comes to our home. She is being patient with us. We have had 3 lessons so far.

I think the real frustrating part is even if you get the word right, the pronunciation of the tone could change the whole meaning of the word. For example, at work I was asking a person who only speaks Chinese if they wanted some "cha" which is tea. One of my Chinese co-workers chuckled and said it sounded like I was saying "to strangle or choke". There are 5 tones in Mandarin you need to remember.

Trying to pick out words we have learned in a Chinese conversation is also difficult. The only words I seem to pick out are numbers. Another oddity is that people rarely ever use the word "please or excuse me". Thank you and you are welcome are often used.

Maybe one reason for this is the Chinese people don't believe in queuing in a line. There seems to be no sense of order. I have never seen so many people just try and get in front of you in a bank line, a ticket line, or getting on public transportation. Driving on the roads is a whole other experience. Good thing that there is very little road rage in Beijing because the way people drive here certainly would set people off in any US town or city.