Singing Custodian and Chinglish

Tuesday, September 9. I'm working in the study this morning when I hear again the same ethereal singing I heard last week. Investigate. It's the same singing custodian. Tuesday must be his day to clean the stairwells in our building. I go out to say hello and to let him know I'm listening again. He has such a sweet smile. I've seen him one other time, as he was leaving the cafeteria and I was going in, but he recognized me (duh, how many wei guo ren live here? we are the most recognizable people on campus.)

Reading and correcting and commenting on something like 160 poems today so I can hand them back in class later this week. It's exhausting and exhilarating all at the same time. Some are very good, but with some I don't even know where to start. The assignment is to use the first letters of their English name to write a "poem" about themselves. Here's one example:

MR. RIGHT is (yes, "Mr. Right" is his English name)
Meet a lovely teacher. she taught our
Riting (I think) and how to learn English. when I
Reading English.
I always miss her. Because she is
Great teacher. she taught me
How to make a people and
Teaching me anymore.

OK, he seems to be talking about a former English teacher, but I can't read the word that I have interpreted as "riting" because it is written over so many times. And does "when I reading English" belong to "how to learn English"? or to "I always miss her." And what exactly is "how to make a people"?

In general, punctuation and capitalization are hard for them as very little punctuation in Chinese and no caps. Also the difference between "I" and "me", "he" and "him" etc, as Chinese makes no distinction between these. And don't think that's weird because we do it in English with "you" which has the same form for both subject and object: I see you. You see me. No wonder they're confused. Here's a little Chinese lesson:

"wo" (pinyin) means both "I" and "me."
"ni" means "you."
"ta" means both "he" and "him."

Add "de" to make it possessive:
"wo de" means "mine."
"ni de" means "your."
"ta de" means "his."

And the plural forms are equally simple, add "men":
"wo men" (we or us)
"ni men" (you plural)
"ta men" (they or them)

In many ways, Chinese is very logical. Their verbs are not inflected at all; that is, there are NO verb tenses. Past and future are indicated either by time words (yesterday, last week, next year, tomorrow) or by a single syllable that indicates past (le) or future (hui). In other words, the Chinese equivalent of "Yesterday, I eat Italian noodles." is perfectly grammatical. Makes sense, doesn't it? And there's none of this adding "s" crap in the third person singular! However, lest you come away with the impression that Chinese is easy, let me beg to differ. We haven't talked about the infernal "measure words." Or the tones. And the vocab is sheer memorization.

The bugle is blowing (12:30 p.m.) indicating "nap time." It blows again at 2:00 p.m. ("wake up time"), also in the morning and evening to signal waking up and going to sleep.

It's another scorcher today. I can tell, and I haven't even left my apartment yet. Well, at least, it will make taking a cold shower less difficult as my bathroom will be very warm!

At 3 p.m., Mr. Zhang calls to see if I have time to help him correct some of his English students' compositions. He has had them write a letter on School Life at their school. So even though I'm basically doing his work (and I've had to set aside correcting my own students' work), it turns out to be a fascinating exercise. A lot of the students are critical about things at the school: the playing fields are not large enough, the track is old and not good, the schedule is rigid, they have to get up too early, they have no free time and so forth. I am pleasantly surprised to see that the students feel free to say these things. I wonder if at some point, this generation will "break out" from what they see as too many restrictions. Perhaps they will have a "1960s experience" that could shake their society. (Remember you heard it here first.) Or perhaps they will decide that it was all a good thing in the end.

Of course, the students also say many good things about the school; for example, that it is very beautiful, their teachers and classmates are very friendly. All the things you would expect.

At 5:15 p.m., we go directly from the Senior English teachers' office (where I've been working) to the Pre-Performance rehearsal for our singing tonight. It is very, very hot. (In fact, the air conditioning was on for the first time ever in the teachers' office.) By the time we are finished at about 6, the sun is a big orange ball low in the sky. I will talk about the rest of the evening in a separate entry: Teachers' Day.