ma, ma, ma, ma

I’ve just had my first Chinese lesson – where else, but a Chinese restaurant – and it was actually fun. Learning language in a restaurant makes things a lot more fun than in a classroom.

The first Chinese word I learned was “ma”. Apparently ma can mean mother, ma can mean dope, ma can mean horse and ma can mean telling off. A very versatile word. It just depends how you pronounce it.

As I was saying ma over and over again with my teacher the waiter came over, said “Ma, ma, ma, ma.” and presented us with complimentary alcoholic mango drinks. You don’t often get that in a language lab. I guess we reminded him of his kindergarten days and he wanted to let us know.

I also have my first Chinese text book for learning the language now. It was picked out for me by my teacher, in close consultation with the ladies who run our local Chinese book store here in the Vienna. It comes from San Francisco and it’s absolutely aimed at school kids. It is full of illustrations and concentrates on language that is used in everyday life. I like the look of it, especially the Chinese writing – which I intend to master by the way.

During the lesson I also found out that tea is called cha in Chinese. But of course I already knew that, being an old fashioned guy who still remembers grandma asking for a cup o’ cha. It’s nice to find that even such a new and strange language has such a familiar word.