User Comments - chanelle77

Posted on: Giving Instructions to the Ayi

Actually it is not such an impressive story. First months in China I did not really leave the house and only had my ayi to talk to haha! I was forced to learn Chinese quickly :-).

Did not have the language issue with my old ayi and she spoke perfect putonghua with me. However, my new one speaks Nanjinghua, and that is a little different and would have been very hard in the beginning for me (but now very useful!).

Not sure if your ayi cooks for you or you are interested in cooking, but I learned some very interesting recipes and cooking skills....maybe something to consider while you have a chance :-)

Posted on: Giving Instructions to the Ayi

Ayi's role in uni system: what I meant is that mothers will move with their kids to another town to watch over them. For example my old ayi moved with her son from a town 4 hours away from Nanjing to a uni here.

She was certainly not the only one (I live in a university town with hundreds of thousands of students) and while these students lived in dorms their mums rent an apartment and get jobs like ayi's (to kill time and make some money) and not only take care of laowei but also their kid :-).

With well educated I mean being able to read and write to start with and have higher education, have manners, "class" etc. My ayi was well dressed, very polite, clean and took charge of things. She was a wonderful cook and good manager etc. (Same as my new ayi).

Inequality is something that appears or I sense often in conversations related to houskeepers employed by expats. Just wanted to share my point of view.

All ayi's I know have their jobs because they are easy, well paid, treated very well by foreign (or Chinese families). I know many stories where the laowei are taken advantage of and not the ayi :-). These jobs are taken by free will and often great chance for an interesting cultural experience for both parties. More important you support the local community and the ayi functions as a layer between "you" or "outsider" with the real Chinese world. This helped me a lot in the past to understand my (new) surroundings (especially what goes in at my neighbour's houses because ayi's know EVERYTHING, hence your neighbours too haha).

All in all: first thing one should do upon arrival in China: look for a nice ayi!

Posted on: Giving Instructions to the Ayi

Friendly note from my experience not particularly directed at Bodawei :-) :

Many Ayi's (or mothers) move with their kids when they go to uni in a different town. They are (well) educated and certainly not at the bottom end of the social ladder (they can afford a good uni ). They just want to kill time and make themselves useful is my opinion. It works for both parties and their is no inequality in the relationship if you ask me.

Practical Ayi tip: never plan ahead and tell them you are "leaving".

Posted on: Giving Instructions to the Ayi

My 阿姨 also helps me with taking care of my 2 cats when I am away. And more important: learning Chinese (read : gossip in Chinese). If I move away from China first thing I would do is try to arrange a new Chinese speaking cleaning lady / nanny. 

When I arrived in China few years ago, I only had my 阿姨 to talk to, I was speaking Chinese in a few weeks (easier to learn Chinese for me than to start liking cleaning :-) )! I refer to her as my Chinese mother and she was much more than a "housekeeper".

Posted on: Taking the HSK

jomini99 here are 3 related HSK threads (which somehow do not show up in the search results even when tagged "HSK").

One thread has the isbn of a mock tests series and you find links to the pdf versions of the books as well as some general info.

http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/9975

http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/8957

http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/8538

Posted on: Endless Summer

1 HSK prep

2 HSK prep material

3 Continue with the positive changes that seemed to be going on :-) (this is a compliment)

Sarah, I did the same thing with my card in Nanjing and the 交通银行 (where I forgot my card because I was checking the money for fakes, but that is a different story) was very helpful. The whole thing to retrieve my card was not as complicated as I thought! In case you left it at the same bank as I did you have to go to 珍江路 1 号 :-). This might be a nice topic for a lesson? 

Posted on: August, Study Tips and Expo Insights

Information on how to use Chinesepod is something I would expect under "Help", which is down on my side for the moment :-).

I am in favour of more Qinwen's, get rid of one Elly lesson and have 2 Qingwen's ! hahaha! 

If you ran out of inspiration I am happy to contribute to Xiaophil's list!

Posted on: Separable Verbs

Just ordered this book too :-) Thank you Changye for keeping me in mind :-). Btw. I like dandang.com. the next day or so they deliver and you can pay the guy at the door! I LOVE online shopping :-) It is too hot to go out now in Nanjing.

Your suggestions were all excellent, I am very happy with them! Thanks for sharing!

Posted on: Separable Verbs

Simon, my reply was to John, and not directed specifically to you nor Bill, hence the reply to John. Just wanted to share my thoughts.

Posted on: Separable Verbs

I find this discussion very interesting and would like to share my thoughts:

I have been learning Chinese for about 2 - 2.5 years now and have started to focus (more) on grammar the last half year and that has been an eye opener for me. As John said: one can learn a language by total immersion and without bothering too much about grammar or classification.

However, I got kind of stuck after being able to communicate comfortably in Chinese ( most of it I learnt by immersion) .

Daily life language is rather limited if not simple. Hearing Chinese around you (and understanding ) it is much different than really grasping and mastering a language (if that is your goal). Especially for a language that is so different from Western languages. So it is relatively easy to copy or imitate your surroundings, but the knowing the rationale and bringing your language to a higher level is something else.

Also if you know the rules or the blueprint of a language you can grasp it much quicker. I deducted many rules or classifications myself in the beginning, but in retrospect I see my mistakes when learning about the rules.

Moreover I like to understand WHY people around me say the things they do. Grammar enriches your understanding of a language and one can master it more thorough and quicker is my point of view. :-).

The more I progress, the lesser I think of my level and realize how much work it is :-).