Belinda

No. Belinda is not a teenage witch.

It sounds like it a little, yeah? Belinda... Sabrina... Something about those two names sound similar. But this is just me getting off topic. Because I want to take this entry to introduce to you all my Chinese tutor.

According to her, it was fate and destiny that brought me to her.

Me? I don't know if I believe in fate... but... well-

Let's start from the beginning.

Fairly early on in the semester, George (one of the other American English teachers here) asked me if I wanted someone to tutor me in Chinese. He, like all the other veteran American teachers here, have been a great help. He drew me a simplified map of Baoding (to come later), he showed me how to read the bus route signs at the bus stops, and - here's the biggest favor he did for me - he helped me find a Chinese tutor.

I explained to him that I had some background in Mandarin Chinese... and, more than anything, I wanted someone who could help me with my speaking. I wanted to improve my listening and speaking fluency.

His first question? "Does it matter if your tutor's a boy or a girl?"

My response? Without thinking, I just shrugged. "Whatever."

Next thing I know, he's introducing me to a young man - a third-year computer.. science (I think?) student. The four of us (George brought his own tutor along, since his tutor was the one who found the student) stood around awkwardly in the park. We shook hands, introduced ourselves, exchanged phone numbers, and set up our first meeting time and place.

I wasn't really sure what to expect.

We met at the park the next week. Only... wait? It wasn't just him. Two people were waiting for me there. The two of them - the guy that I had met last time and his girlfriend (Belinda) were there waiting for me. Belinda laid out a seat cushion on the concrete ledge that they were sitting on and told me to sit.

Ok.

So the three of us just chatted. Belinda is a third-year English major, so she actually knew enough English to jump back and forth whenever we got stuck. We took a stroll around the university park, and we talked about the historical value of some of the structures there.

Lesson 2: Let's take a look at Belinda's dormitory! Her boyfriend waited outside - all dorms at this campus are segregated by sex... guys can't walk into the girls' dormitories, and vice versa. That's a MAJOR difference from college life in the US, yeah? More on that later. They also showed me around the rest of campus.

Anyway...

Within two weeks, Belinda explained to me that her boyfriend wasn't going to come anymore. It would just be me and her.

I was confused, of course. And I still don't really know what happened. Was he my original tutor, and did his girlfriend... excited for the opportunity to speak English... steal me from him? Or was this their plan all along? Or.. or...

...Well.

Belinda and I met twice a week during the semester for two hours each session. If it was nice outside, we'd meet in the park. If it wasn't (and it got cold really quickly), we'd meet either in her dormitory (where I got to meet all of her dorm mates... which was really cool), or at my apartment. Sometimes, if I wanted to meet in the coffee shop, I'd treat her to ice cream or whatever it is that she wanted to eat.

And... despite the lack of structure, we just spent our entire time talking in Chinese.

In the first or second lesson, when both Belinda and her boyfriend were there, I very quickly learned one phrase that I constantly use to this day: qi1 fu2 欺负 - or, to bully.

I will talk about my tutoring sessions with her as my blog progresses. For now... I'll just end with this: I think Belinda gets a little frustrated sometimes at how quickly I pick up certain words (mainly curse words - mild and otherwise) and how long it takes me to pick up other... more important vocabulary points.

And in case you are interested, in order of intensity from the lightest to the most severe:

er2 二 (dumb)

haui4 dan4 坏蛋 (bad egg)

ben4 dan1 笨蛋 (stupid)

chi2 dun4 迟钝 (mentally impaired)

bai2 chi1 白痴 (idiot)

Now you can go and dou4 逗 (or verbally/jokingly insult... tease) your friends. Be nice though, yeah? See you tomorrow...