By Kendall, on March 22nd, 2010
When I used to live in Clifford Estates (祈福新村) in Panyu (番禺區) last year, I would often employ the services of the motorcycle taxi guys (摩托佬 this literally means moto-guy  ) waiting outside the Hanxi Chimelong Metro station (漢溪長隆站). I used them because if I took the public bus to Clifford, and then the internal Clifford bus, it would take me 30 or more minutes just to get home. After a long day I didn’t want to do that, so I would pay the 8 kuai and take the bike back. I did this quite often and, looking at this video now, I’m surprised I wasn’t killed (you’ll see why about halfway through).
By Kendall, on March 22nd, 2010
September 30th, 2009 at 7:04 PM in TiYuXi Lu Station Line 3 Guangzhou, China. Heading up the escalators to line 1. Chinese people get a 4 to 7 day holiday for China’s National day, so everyone and their grandma was on the move at this point.
There were so many people changing to line 1 that the escalators were shut down. I had to climb the equivalent of 3 storeys to the top packed in with what seemed like the rest of China pushing at my back. Once I got to the top I was lost in a sea of people all pushing and shoving against each other. After taking this video I was lucky enough to end up behind an old woman who was getting crushed in the madness. I put my arms around her and made sure to push back against the crowds behind us so she wouldn’t get crushed. The heat was unbelievable. You can see metro employees trying to direct people with the megaphones. Absolutely horrible!
By Kendall, on March 4th, 2010
While waiting for my friends at a metro station I decided to listen to the owner of a jewelery store in the metro who was talking to the lady that worked at the bakery in the next booth. I just wanted to see how much Cantonese I could understand, however, when I came by they became very shy. Finally after a few minutes one of the women asked me (in Mandarin  of course) if I can speak Chinese. I said in Cantonese that I couldn’t. This caused them to laugh and say that I just spoke Cantonese to say I couldn’t. How could that be?! So I told them I’m just pretending. After a small conversation of how I’m “so smart” and “so handsome” and each of us accusing the other of lying she asked me how long I’d been living in Guangzhou, and when I told her 1.5 years she yelled out, “1.5 years! You’re really good at pretending then!” Made me laugh, and on that note I got out of there quick!
By Kendall, on December 19th, 2009
I went to Gangding, which is an area of Guangzhou known for its huge computer centres, last week. I bought 26 movies that have great Cantonese dubs. They are all cartoons (The Simpsons movie anyone?) because cartoons usually have the best dubs. Some are Pixar and old Disney films, and others are Japanese animation films from Studio Ghibli (Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro, Princess Mononoke, etc.). I even found Shrek in Cantonese. It’s a great dub.
I have noticed that people who reached fluency have said that massive amounts of authentic input are necessary to truly learn a language. Studying diligently for a few minutes or one hour a day to fake “student” material isn’t what they recommend, but hours of listening to real content for real native speakers even if only passively. And they are, I believe, correct. I didn’t want to do it at first. I thought that listening to real Cantonese with no subtitles would be too hard and that I wouldn’t get anything from it, but I was wrong. I have picked up many new words, and my comprehension level has improved dramatically. I’m also seeing new vocabulary in context over and over which makes it easier to remember. And it’s not hard to keep listening either, which was another fear I had. Today I listened to about 8 or 10 hours of Cantonese. It’s running through my head. All I can think of is Cantonese. When I try to think something or say something to myself it is in Cantonese. I’m just blurting out Cantonese. I hope my room-mate doesn’t think I’m nuts!
One of the many Cantonese movies I watched today was Toy Story 2. In the English version when Rex jumps in the toy car in Al’s Toy Barn, Barbie says first in English then Spanish: Remain seated, please, but in the Cantonese version she says it in Mandarin. Interesting, especially since in the Japanese version she just says it in English. I wonder if it has anything to do with Mainlanders going to Hong Kong and being rude, so that when the Hong Kong tour guides would need to say something like “Remain seated” or “Don’t spit” or “Don’t push” they would have to say it in Mandarin or waste their breath. Or not, but that was the first thing that crossed my mind.
By Kendall, on December 7th, 2009
I walked into a 7/11 today to buy some almonds. Instead of saying the price, the cashier just pointed to the register. I thought that was rude. The least she could have done was said the price in Chinese, so I just stared at her for a moment. She kept motioning to the register, and I kept staring at her. Finally I asked her the price in Cantonese. She told me the price in Cantonese then immediately said in English, “You can speaky da Chinese?” but I cut her off mid-sentence and said in Cantonese, “You can speak English! So good, so why didn’t you tell me the price?” Then she told me that she doesn’t understand English. Why then would she reply to me in English instead of Cantonese?
This happens all the time. People will say hello to me or say a price to me in Cantonese because they aren’t really looking and don’t realize I’m a foreigner, but when they realize that I am, they speak Mandarin or English (usually Mandarin). I’m used to this by now, but this seemed just a little bit worse because she wouldn’t say the price in English, but she would sarcastically ask if I could speak Chinese in English AFTER I spoke Cantonese to her.
By Kendall, on November 18th, 2009
Trouble in The Rice Paddy
Back in August, 2009, Tom, a Chinese friend (who shall remain nameless) and I went to the beautiful province of Guizhou, China. Located to the north of Guangxi and to the west of Hunan, it’s a rugged and mountainous province and the home of almost 40 million people, including many minorities.
It was a typically hot and humid August day in Guangzhou, when Tom and I were scheduled to leave for Guizhou. Our flight wasn’t until 6 o’clock in the evening, so we decided that we had time to buy sunglasses before heading for the airport. We stopped off at the eye wear market in Haizhu Square conveniently located near the airport express bus stop. We searched through the many shops for much longer than we should have and then rushed off to the airport. The Chinese friend who we were travelling with was a little worried that we weren’t coming. When we arrived at the airport we ran to our gate and just barely made it on the plane. Our Chinese friend seemed a little annoyed. This was the first sign of what was to come.
We landed in Guiyang, the capital city of Guizhou, a few hours later. You could already see the mountains from the taxi as we drove we to our hotel. Beautiful. We got to bed early because we had an early start by bus the next day. Little did we know that an early start and a day-long bus ride was to become the norm for our trip.
The next day we boarded the bus after eating some cheap noodles for breakfast. About 4 hours into the trip, the bus driver pulls the bus over, and warns everyone that from here on out the road gets really bad and that we should hold on. He wasn’t kidding. The road was so bad we could barely stay in our seats, sometimes actually flying out of them into the air. The bus driver was determined to keep up his speed regardless of the road conditions.
After about 6 or 8 hours (I try to block it out now, so I’m not sure how long) we rolled into the mountain town of Rongjiang (榕江). We found a guesthouse in the Dong minority village called Chejiang（車江）, and left our luggage in the room, so we could wander around the village and take some photos. This rice paddy was across the street. A farmer had just finished spraying it with something (probably chemicals).
There was a large drum tower at the entrance of the Chejiang Dong minority village and on the large flat stones surrounding it there were chillies and corn laid out to dry. Below you can see Tom and I with the tower in the background.
We saw a small girl staring at us as we walked by, but when I knelt down to take her photo she ran off into the house crying for her mother.
After wandering around for a bit, we ended up walking down by the river on the boardwalk. There were some Rongjiang locals having dinner there and waved us over. They insisted that we join them and wouldn’t take no for an answer. After dinner they took us to KTV and proceeded with getting us drunk. Our Chinese friend decided to head back to the guesthouse early and we stayed on for one or two more hours. When we left we tried calling our Chinese friend, so she could give directions to the locals, who had a private car and would have driven us back, but she was asleep. For some reason we didn’t want to wait for the locals to come round with the car and jumped into first taxi we found. We drove out into the countryside and were dropped off at what looked like the same drum tower. It was pitch black and we could barely find our way to the foot of it. When we finally did get to it we realized it wasn’t the same one, but were now stranded out in the countryside with no phone, and no ride. Luckily one of the locals had accompanied us and called her friend. He came to get us in a truck and they put us up in one of the hotels in Rongjiang.
The next day we were called by our Chinese friend. We gave her the name of the hotel we were at and she met us in front. She was furious with us. We were supposed to be on the bus heading to the next town by this time, but since we didn’t have a phone, and therefore, no alarm clock we woke up late. We only had 8 days for this adventure, so this cut out a whole village from her plans. She couldn’t even look us in the eye as she wrote down our flight details with a shaking hand and told us that she was parting ways because we travel “differently” than her and had different priorities. Tom tried reasoning with her and apologised, but to no good. She was angry and couldn’t be talked out of her decision. With that she gave us the key to the guesthouse, got back in the taxi, and headed to the bus station. We didn’t know where she was going, and we didn’t know where to go. She had planned the whole trip and was executing it too, so we had absolutely no idea of what to do next except head to the guesthouse to collect our things.
By Kendall, on August 14th, 2009
Yes, it’s true. I’m back in China, and I’m staying. I didn’t know this until a few days ago, however. I met with a past employer and just sort of agreed to work for him on the spot. The next day I was looking for apartments. I can’t believe it! I’m going to be living in China again! There is so much that I didn’t do while living here. So much language that could have been learned (since I’ve been back I already noticed that I picked up many new words), so many opportunities that were just waiting to be taken and were not.
I’ve already made a step in the right direction (or so I think). I bought a cartoon called Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf on DVD which has a Cantonese language track. The buses in Guangzhou broadcast episodes from their LCD screens, so I’ve seen quite a bit of it already. I thought it would be a good place to start.
My comprehension has actually improved since I’ve been gone. My friend and I went looking for apartments the other day and while she was speaking to the real estate agents in Cantonese, I was listening intently. I didn’t understand everything being said, but I was able get the idea. I understood so much that when she would try to tell me what was being said I would tell her first. I think that got old fast for her.
On Monday I met my other Cantonese friend on Beijing Road in Guangzhou, and we went to a café called U+me. At least that’s what I think it was called. I took this picture even though it wasn’t my table or my computer. To me it was quite peaceful.
By Kendall, on August 3rd, 2009
I edited the above picture using time I should have invested into packing for my trip to Hong Kong and China. I leave in less than 36 hours and I haven’t packed a single thing for my 7 week trip. I am unsure of what to pack. I’m going for 7 weeks, so I want to bring my Cantonese books with me and also Mao: The Unknown Story (shhh don’t tell the Chinese). I have read only a few chapters and this trip (20 hours in the plane) would be a great opportunity to finish it. I could then leave it with a friend who lives on the Mainland.
I would really like to bring a huge suitcase with everything I would need to stay in China, but I still don’t know what my plans are. I do know that I’m not going to university yet. I booked my ticket so I’d return just after school started. Why? Well one reason is that I wouldn’t be in the program I wanted, and I don’t necessarily want to go to Concordia!
I was thinking about moving back to China, continuing my personal education while doing an online degree. Studying online was something I was looking at before I came down for the summer last year. Of course, this was before everyone convinced me to stay.
More on this later.
Also, I am moving over to the wordpress platform! I will soon be moving the URL and old posts to my own server! So excited!
By Kendall, on July 14th, 2009
I went to the 19th Annual Echoes of a Proud Nation Powwow on Saturday. This was the first time I’ve been to it in years. I had my first Indian taco. It was delicious. The weather was horrible for taking pictures due to the light drizzle that was coming down all afternoon. That is until it turned to torrents of heavy rain just after 3 o’clock. I got out of there just in time.
By Kendall, on April 21st, 2009
I recently started learning my native language: Mohawk. I ran into a few problems though. It’s a difficult language, and there are no good course books with dialogue; only phrase books, and a teaching grammar. But a few simple phrases will get you nowhere near fluency, and a teaching grammar is, well, a teaching grammar.
The Rosetta Stone company made a Mohawk course for beginners, but I don’t like the Rosetta Stone system. I’ve tried it for Spanish, Mandarin, and Mohawk, and I got nowhere. The problem there is you need to invest a lot of time in front of the computer and you get very little input. Not much listening at all, learning through simple words and phrases. Not real input.
I believe that the best way to learn is by listening (input) to as much of the language as you can. When I was younger I had a French tutor that I spent an hour with everyday. She only spoke French to me. Even to explain a new word or grammar point, she would only use French. The result: I now speak French (even if it is a bit rusty due to not using it all that often).
Another example would be with Cantonese and Mandarin. All the Cantonese and Mandarin I speak comes from living in Guangzhou, and hearing it spoken every day. Although I was trying to learn Cantonese I understand more Mandarin in some cases. The reason being that Chinese people usually only speak Mandarin to foreigners since “it is the official language of China.” So input, not memorization, not drills, but input is what makes learning languages possible.
So what do I do? Sign up for an Mohawk immersion course? My Grandmother teaches one at the language centre in Kahnawake. I asked her if I could join, but registration is only allowed every two years. I can’t wait that long. Some people become fluent in a language in the span of two years, so I decided I would make my own Mohawk course. Pretty ambitious considering I know three words to start! I have something that most don’t have, however: two native speakers – my Grandmother and her sister, both willing to help me in whatever way I ask. So I asked if we could make our own course based on what I now know about languages. Of course they agreed!
Last Tuesday I went to my Great Aunt’s with a recorder (an mp3 player with voice record) and pen and paper! We wrote out a simple conversation between two people and I recorded them. Simple as that! I used the same format as the “Teach Yourself” books. It worked out great! I was able to learn the content after listening to the recording all week. I must have listened to it over 100 times. Yesterday I went back to finish Unit 1 with dialogue 2. Once I finish the course I will make it available for anyone who wants to learn.
For more on input see: Steve. I wish I knew of his ideas years ago!
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