Wednesday July 5, 2017
Today, we learned about the pinyin primer, which is the pronunciation of words and useful expressions in the Chinese Language. Pinyin primer consists of the 21 initials, 4 tones and 35 finals. We learned about 4 useful expressions. One of the expressions we can now teach our family and friends back home is how to greet people in a formal and respectful manner. You would say “Nin hâo” and the other person should greet you with “Nin hâo.” You are only supposed to say Nin hâo when there are two adults talking to each other. During this workshop, we formed groups to compete by testing our knowledge and got the opportunity to win prizes.
After our Chinese Language workshop, we had downtime where we were able to eat in the university cafeteria and revisit the convenience store. The student volunteers rented bikes for some of the students and let us ride them through an empty basketball court. After time ran out on the bikes, we headed to the Silk Market. Here we were able to bargain shop for the first time. Following the excitement of the market, we visited the area where the Olympics were held in 2008. We took pictures in front of the building and experienced a new part of history.
Last but not least was dinner. We had beef, fried eggplant, chicken, beef, noodles, asparagus with cheese, shrimp and more. Dinner was delicious. We ate at a very fancy and expensive restaurant in China according to our college mentor Migo. We ended the night with toasts to a good day and headed back to the hotel to end our night.
~Terrie Briggs & Cia King
