It took me a while to write this entry, but when we arrived at the bus station the other night, I finally met Tiger, our last traveling companion. Tiger is 13 years old and a student starting 8th grade this Fall. I've been interacting with him (with Vicky's assistance) via Skype a few times.
Tiger is a friendly energetic youth. He is learning how to solve a Rubik's Cube from Brandon and enjoying the chess set I brought him as a gift. His favorite subject is math, he likes all subjects but merely tolerates biology. His father is Vicky's brother, Tony, and his mother's western name is Queenie. I had dinner with both of them last night, but was (believe it or not) too tired to take photos. In leisure time, Tiger enjoys reading history and swimming.
He points out that he HAS to love his aunt Vicky very much.
So that makes four of us... each with varying degrees of Chinese and English fluency.
Vicky is an expert on both Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese and very fluent in English.
Tiger is an expert on both forms of Chinese and very good in English... as long as I talk slowly and don't run my words together, like Vicky says I always do.
Brandon supposedly knows Mandarin Chinese... he says he understands it perfectly but is too insecure to speak it (or at least I've never heard him - so far). He speaks English very well.
George is an idiot savant (well, at least the first part) in English, but only knows his colors, numbers 1-6 and a few phrases in Chinese. Brandon gleefully points out that I evidently pronounce all my Chinese incorrectly.
Right now we're madly packing for the cruise... I have one more post from yesterday to put up, then we might be back if the boat has Wi-Fi, otherwise we'll give an update once we reach Shanghai.
No comments:
Post a Comment