It’s my second time here in Beijing. I still remembered how I used to dislike this city, since… you know, I couldn’t seem to understand the language well. That time, ordering food seemed to be a big day-to-day problem to me. I even wrote about this language thing on How to Survive in China Without Knowing How to Speak Chinese. It shows how desperate I was, 4 years ago. Even worse, not only that I feel people are generally unfriendly, but I feel that they are also angry all the time. And it’s because I don’t understand the language.
So, several months back, before our departure to Beijing this year, Fred and I learned Chinese language for like, 2 – 3 months. I can say that it has helped us a lot during our trip. We could listen a bit of what the Chinese said, and ordered our food in Chinese. And hey, suddenly Beijing doesn’t feel that bad! It’s pretty nice, really.
Sharon Loh 