A Lot of Class

Ma and Gong came to visit today, taking off from work to see us and go with us to Chinese class. We were supposed to get together last week but the awful weather canceled the visit as well as class. They arrived this morning, played with the kiddos, had lunch from our favorite deli with us, and then headed to class with us.

They'd brought special "khanom," or sweets (in Thai--the first word I learned!), for the kids to give the teacher (Lao she) for Chinese New Year. They even worked with the kids on how to wish her a happy new year, "Sing nian hao" (I believe--but Sis got it spot on). And when we arrived at class, Sis marched up proudly to Lao she and handed over the tin of treats, saying happy new year. Ma and Gong conversed with Lao she in Mandarin and I gathered they were introducing themselves and talking about Chinese.

See, Mandarin is, as I figure it, Ma and Gong's third language. They speak and write Chow Gio (not sure how that's spelled), the dialect from their family's region of China, as well as Thai, the language of the country where they both were born and grew up (into immigrant families. Keep up: Ma and Gong's parents all immigrated from China to Thailand before the Revolution, met, and married and had their kids in Bangkok, where, at the time, I believe it wasn't easy to be Chinese in Thailand). Gong, especially, learned Mandarin as a young man; Ma speaks some and is learning more from their serialized Chinese movies. Of course, Mandarin and Chow Gio are written exactly the same and pronounced totally differently (as are all Chinese dialects. English is similar, in a way. It's mostly written the same in the US, UK, Australia, and Canada, but if you were to write how we pronounce it phonetically, it would totally look different. And sometimes, of course excepting Lambeth, I can't understand a word some Brits say. And often watch the BBC subtitled). That makes English their fourth language. I think they also both know a little Cantonese. And Ma learned German for her dissertation. Which she wrote in English. Ma and Gong have lived the immigrant experience twice over and mastered new languages and new cultures as the outsiders twice. Impressed yet? I am. Always. No more so than when I'm sitting in Chinese class trying to grasp tones and pronunciations.

Ma and I had a good laugh though, as we worked our way through animals and then foods today. One of the words was "cookie." I could hear Ma and Gong next to me discussing it. Neither knew cookie in any other language but English, because they just don't eat cookies (mind you, the Chinese and Thai have their fair share of sweets, but these kind of cookies are a western thing apparently). So there were Ma and I learning Mandarin together! Of course, she got it faster than I did. The kids faster than both of us. And I still can't tell you what it is. I'll need to practice before next week.

After class, Ma talked to Lao she more and I gather that Lao she told her that Sis and Bud were smart and picking it up quickly, which made us both proud. Ma bowed to her, "xie xie" and "ti jian" (please forgive my pigeon Pinyin) all around, and we left. It was a great day. For all of us.