The Inevitable Finger-Counting Post

So awhile ago, can’t quite remember when, I mentioned almost having to resort to a post about counting on your fingers in China. On that occasion, I was saved by something moderately more noteworthy. Unfortunately this time around, things have been pretty dull since Huangshan, so here you go.

When Laura and I were doing our induction when we first came here in order to familiarize ourselves with the school and life in China, one of the questions was, “Can you count to ten on your fingers?” I thought to myself, “Well, I am still a bit jetlagged… a little groggy… but… onetwothreefourfivesixseveneightnineten? Yep… still got it!”

It didn’t take long before I discovered that there are hand signs in China that allow those who are in the know to count all the way to ten on… one hand. And now I am ready to impart this privileged information on you.

Six. Or, “Liu” in Chinese. Julianne’s mnemonic trick is to pretend it’s a phone and say, “Dial 6 to call Leo.” Or something like that.

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Seven. Or “Qi” in Chinese. Julianne’s mnemonic trick is to pretend it’s a chicken pecking at the ground saying, “Chee! Chee!”

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Eight. “Ba“. It looks like a gun, so “Bang bang.”

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Nine. “Jiu.” But it kind of sounds like “Jo,” so I remember it’s “R” in sign language and my mom’s name is Mary Jo?

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Ten. “Shi.” You can also just cross your two index fingers because it looks like the character for 10.

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Congratulations, you’re now privy to some very valuable information. And as long as I have your attention (assuming I still have your attention), here are just some random musings about China. And teaching?

• An English phrase many Chinese people seem to pick up pretty quickly is, “Oh my God!” Sometimes that’s what people will say to us on the street when they see that we’re white, in place of, “Hello!” “Waiguoren” or the oft debated “Lao wai!” They also really love Lady Gaga. So now a common phrase we hear from our kids is, “Oh my Lady Gaga!” OMLG has become a new fave text abbrev of Laura’s and mine.
• In one of my classes I have an Anne, an Anna, an Anna Lu, a Diana (and obviously I’m Angela [yes, Emilie. Obviously!). In another class I have a Jack, another Jack, a Jacky, and a Jake. One of the Jacks and a girl named Jill (the first student I got to name! Well, I let her choose from Jill, Danielle, Rachel, and Gwen) joined on the same day. No one understood why I started giggling when I introduced “Jack and Jill” to the class.
• We have a cleaning lady at the school (about whom people have mixed opinions… many think she’s lazy and worthless, and okay yeah maybe she takes four hour lunch breaks, and maybe sometimes, when the trash can’s overflowing in the staffroom and classrooms are littered from cut-and-paste activities she can be found in the eating room knitting away, but she’s always got a big smile on her face and is a pleasant enough person) that everyone calls Ayi. Naturally, we assumed this was her name. Then once (and this was actually months and months ago, but I’ve never gotten around to mentioning it) we were at a friend’s place and he said that we should leave our shoes at the door or his ayi would get mad. Ayi means “auntie” in Chinese, and it’s just the term applied to all cleaning ladies. Amateur mistake!

And a few miscellaneous shots I had on my camera:

my little red bonzai and teapot

last tuesday we had an “optional” staff lunch at majiabang park (it was on our day off but we were told our boss would “lose face” if we didn’t show. then she didn’t even end up coming!). the weather was kind of crummy, but we got to make our own chuar (and for the most part realized that should really be left to the experts) and had fun playing frisbee. i only have pictures of the horses that no one wanted to ride because they looked so frail.

laura and i graduated the hf4b class we share (she was teaching another class when the picture was taken)… terry, bob and jerry in front, lina in back, angel missing. now we get to start ef jiaxing’s first ever hf5a class… zomg

random shot i was compelled to take when walking along the canals last night

Alright, Calonder out, sorry to kick off the new blog with such a boring post, and I’ll try to stumble upon some more interesting events in the coming week or so.