Unskilfully managing Chinaland

Tuesday is class day, and in the 4 lessons I've had previously I've been a little unimpressed by the amount of Useful Chinese that is being taught. Now the issue with this statement is what constitutes 'Useful Chinese', is it understanding the most basic directions and conversations? Is it being able to identify signs or menus? In my opinion it's me being able to communicate with my host family (especially when the mum isn't there) and being able to engage in conversation with someone - even if that conversation is quite limited. Now part of this is obviously confidence and despite the fact that I've only been here a few weeks I feel like each day I can say or understand something new. Being able to understand every nuance of the language, or to cover less likely areas of conversation such as Nuclear War isn't a top priority right now. However I feel as though my personal study is what has been improving my Chinese far more than the 4 hours of lessons provided. I appreciate that learning these poems and parables is important as it helps put the modern language and customs in context, and I think that in the long run these are an integral part of studying Chinese. My argument here though is that right now I want to be able to engage Leo as much as possible, he finds it hard to communicate with me and visa versa. So learning the ancient word for kettle and all its derivatives doesn't rank highly on my list. This thinking caused me to question Nick about his teaching techniques. I pointed out to him that learning how to say attack and wound weren't the most important things right now, and that going through this parable word by word wasn't helping me learn Chinese in an efficient manner. As there are only 2 people in the class and I knew Evelina feels the same as me, I thought this would then lead into a discussion about how he can help us most effectively. I stupidly didn't count on the concept of face. For the Chinese maintaining face is very important especially in front of strangers and foreigners. There are countless stories of people asking for directions, only to be given random instructions that lead nowhere as people maintain face by helping them. Consequentially Nick was completely offended that I the student would question him the teacher. How dare I suggest that attack and wound weren't essential words to learn. What would happen if Leo and I got attacked and we were wounded what would I do? I said that I would show them these wounds and hope that common sense would prevail and whoever I went to would get the point. My sarcasm shockingly didn't aid the situation and Nick remained closed to our suggestions for the rest of the lesson. Great work Alice.

The afternoon was far more pleasant as Evelina and I gorged ourselves in a Scandinavian inspired restaurant. 

Evelina getting far too excited. 

Yes there is cheese but I scraped it off!

I ate far too much and practically rolled myself home.

Ah pollution you make the sun so pink!

That evening when I went to pick up Leo I apparently became the most suspicious person ever! It was the first time I'd been entrusted to pick himself up by myself, the main problem came about when I wasn't allowed to. As in the TAs didn't let me take him. We had to wait for the teacher to turn up before they could let him go. Combine this with the security guard at the gate to the apartment complex questioning where I live; it was just like come on people I'm not a danger to anyone - apart from myself when I trip on flat wooden floors.