New Vocabulary

The last few weeks I haven't been writing much about my life here, but I've been intensifying my study of chinese characters. Instead of writing about whatever strikes me about my recent days, I'm more drawn to learn and copy new characters until I have them down. Each one that I learn seems to unlock other areas of difficulty in the language, so it's coming together very slowly. It's almost like putting together a jigsaw puzzle - once the pieces are into place you almost wonder how it didn't make sense to you before. I got a book on Japanese kanji from Sascha which I've been leafing through a few times a day - I know the meaning of most of the characters, but nothing about the Japanese pronounciation. With some downloaded documents I've been learning more about Japanese and how it relates and compares to Chinese, starting with the Haragana and Katakana which are akin to learning pinyin for those who choose to approach Chinese. Although compared to Chinese, my exposure to Japanese is minimal, it seems much easier to learn and to speak.

Here's some vocabulary that I've recorded over the last few days. Most of it is new, but not all; some of the words aren't completely locked into my head or are ones that I don't use or see often. If you can't see the characters, here are instructions on how to fix that. Some of the words have interesting literal translations which are shockingly appropriate.

电话打不同: Unavailable telephone number
字母: Subtitles (movie)
恐怖分子: Terrorist! (lit. translation: member of terror - I learned this in a taxi today, read below)
说明: Instructions
凶手: Murderer (lit. translation: terrible hand)
无线电: Wireless
毛泽东: Mao Zedong
电池: Battery (lit. translation: electric reservoir)
牙科医生: Dentist
吉他: Guitar
安排: To arrange
足球: Football (soccer)
词典: Dictionary
七十年代: The 70's
舒服: Comfortable
路由器: Router (computer)
无理: Unreasonable
无色: Colorless
Áî±: Oil
汽油: Gasoline
酱油: Soy sauce

Last but not least,味精: M.S.G. (literal translation: perfect taste)

One last daily anecdote, then I'm off to sleep.
Today when I was walking around town with Ben, we saw a really odd-looking black van. It had no markings on it except for a few bold white characters which neither of us could read. Sitting atop the van and to the sides was a strange black metal frame, all around the vehicle. I didn't have an idea what it was for, but we noticed small holes in the side of the van, below dark tinted windows, on both sides of the vehicle. We suspected that these were holes for protruding guns and our suspicions were confirmed when we spoke to a taxi driver about it. He told us that it was a counter-terrorist unit and elaborated that this region housed few terrorists, but that Xinjiang province (NW China), which has a large number of muslims, is regularly under attack by terrorists. If it weren't for todays unusual sighting I don't think I'd have any reason to learn how to say terrorist in Chinese. I suppose that barely any corner of the earth is entirely unaffected by this evolution of guerilla warfare.

But I'll sleep on a happy note because I've been listening to Fleetwood Mac the last hour. 再见!

Blogging in Chinese

I think I should start.

Over the last few months I've intensified my study of Chinese characters, and this seems like the next logical step. I've installed QQ (the ubiquitous instant messaging program used all over China) and have spent more time speaking to Chinese people in their own written language so my reading and writing skills are slowly improving. I'd guess my character recognition to be in the range of 500 characters by now, which certainly isn't enough to read a book or a newspaper. Maybe if I keep at it, I'll get there.
今天我很累因为昨天晚上我没有多睡。但是没事！我马上去电脑场和我想买新的电脑东西。我不知道怎么样说那个东西，但是我知道我的电脑有问题因为是太热了。我的朋友本想去跟我一起。昨天晚上我学习汉字两个小时和今天我看得懂新的汉子：医院和牙医！我需要看一下牙医！不是，上个星期我看过牙医和我的牙没问题。

如果我说的不好清给我说！

PS - If you don't have Chinese installed on your computer, here are easy instructions on how to install it.