Yin cha hour

[Adol Christin]

I'm feeling better. I think I am tired because going back to work. But my wound do not hurt anymore. They have me doing easy work such as ticket booth. I had to answer question in English today and spoken English isn't so good.

Edit: forgot to answer Lemon's question. Wife does work. She's a...how to spell this...secretary.

[galled]

You seem to understand English very well. Do you read it here or use something like google translate?

You must read it because your replies do not have errors indicative of translation utilities.

Just a guess, but is Chinese your primary language? Where did you learn English? It really is excellent.

[Adol Christin]

Thank you so much!
Chinese is my mother tongue. I have learned English since I was in primary school. I think 10 or 11. It was a subject that I did good on. But I can read and write more easy than speaking. Sometimes I get stuck on words or phrases and have to use translator on Baidu. I also have strong Chinese accent and I get nervous that it's hard to understand me.

[Lemon Cheesecake]

Adol: your English is VERY good! If you have problems speaking with a customer then just write it down and they will have no problem understanding you.

[Adol Christin]

Thank you much Lemon! It's the class I was best on school. I think my problem is confidence, not confident guy. Afraid I will mess up and they will laugh and mock me.

[Lemon Cheesecake]

Most people are impressed when they go to another country and someone tries to speak their language to them!
I know I would be worried that I would say the wrong thing because the pronunciation in dialects in the Chinese languages can make one word mean something else.

[Adol Christin]

妈妈骂麻马吗？ Māma mà mámǎ ma? Did mother scold the hemp horse?
Tongue twister use to show how important tones are, for Mandarin learners.

I was told it is considered a considerate gesture to try to speak with tourist in English. But in China, many people ignore tourist who struggle with speaking.

[Lemon Cheesecake]

Well, at least there are electronic translators now. Do you speak Mandarin or Cantonese?

[Adol Christin]

Lucky because sometimes I can't come up with words or phrase.

I speak Mandarin and know tiny bit of Cantonese and Taiwanese because wife is from Taiwan.

[Lemon Cheesecake]

What language do your wife and you speak together then? How about the children, are they learning 3 languages?

[Adol Christin]

My wife knows Mandarin. She doesn't know Cantonese but mother tongue is Taiwanese. She move to mainland China for jobs. The children have to learn English in school and she has not attempt to teach Taiwanese. So they only know Mandarin for now.

[Lemon Cheesecake]

You can practice your English with your kids! Do you watch programs with English subtitles to try and learn as well?

[Adol Christin]

Yeah I do. I try listen to English language music as well.

[Lemon Cheesecake]

We used to watch a kids program called Sagewa about a cat in the palace...I have no idea what the Chinese words mean but I remember how to sing them! It did teach about customs and the culture which was interesting.

[Adol Christin]

At work, I have friend from Korea and I know that sagwa is apple in Korean because he eats apple every day at lunch.
I look it up and it use characters for 瓜 gua, melon. 傻瓜，冬瓜，西瓜 : silly melon, winter melon, watermelon. Or so Wikipedia say. Their last name is 猫 mao cat. The word for cat sounds is 喵 miao. It interesting that they use 傻 in 傻瓜 sagwa name because it mean fool without context.
Sounds like interested show.