Zongzi and Birthday
Tonight I went to a portion of two different celebrations. First the kids and I went to a Chinese party at Portland State University. They described the experience as extremely awkward, and I have to admit that it was, even for me.
We got there early to see my friend Linda who is working on a PhD. Her proposal was just accepted and I wanted to say congratulations. I also wanted to see her husband Ian who is a really nice guy.
They had been making a sticky rice dish called "zongzi" all day for the party. I was looking forward to trying them. The party started at 6:00 and we could only stay until 6:30, so I was hoping to keep sort of a low profile. This was not to be.
The party started off and the master of ceremonies (the chair of the international student group) took the mic and thanked my friend Linda for all her hard work and also took a second to welcome her "very special guests." Part of this was in Chinese and part in English. I said hi and she asked me to come and introduce myself. I felt that I had no choice but to say hello and say my name and begin to introduce my kids Ian and Jillian. Then I heard Linda say something like "ni yingai jiang zhong wen" or something like that which meant to tell it in Chinese.
OMG
I choked out a couple of words "erzi" (son) "nuer" (daughter) and said their names, which was entirely unsatisfactory. I didn't actually feel as nervous as I should have, but I didn't have any idea what was expected of me. I fell far short, but at least I didn't pee my pants. And I learned an important lesson. I need to have a story ready to tell about myself in Chinese. That is my next project.
We left about 5 minutes after our introduction as the honored guests and I felt horrible, but I had to get to Ben's birthday party.
Our next event was another semi-awkward affair. It is a side of my family that the kids almost never see so they didn't know many people. There were no major gaffes, but I had to leave early from that party as well so by the end of the night I was feeling a little out of sorts.
We got there early to see my friend Linda who is working on a PhD. Her proposal was just accepted and I wanted to say congratulations. I also wanted to see her husband Ian who is a really nice guy.
They had been making a sticky rice dish called "zongzi" all day for the party. I was looking forward to trying them. The party started at 6:00 and we could only stay until 6:30, so I was hoping to keep sort of a low profile. This was not to be.
The party started off and the master of ceremonies (the chair of the international student group) took the mic and thanked my friend Linda for all her hard work and also took a second to welcome her "very special guests." Part of this was in Chinese and part in English. I said hi and she asked me to come and introduce myself. I felt that I had no choice but to say hello and say my name and begin to introduce my kids Ian and Jillian. Then I heard Linda say something like "ni yingai jiang zhong wen" or something like that which meant to tell it in Chinese.
OMG
I choked out a couple of words "erzi" (son) "nuer" (daughter) and said their names, which was entirely unsatisfactory. I didn't actually feel as nervous as I should have, but I didn't have any idea what was expected of me. I fell far short, but at least I didn't pee my pants. And I learned an important lesson. I need to have a story ready to tell about myself in Chinese. That is my next project.
We left about 5 minutes after our introduction as the honored guests and I felt horrible, but I had to get to Ben's birthday party.
Our next event was another semi-awkward affair. It is a side of my family that the kids almost never see so they didn't know many people. There were no major gaffes, but I had to leave early from that party as well so by the end of the night I was feeling a little out of sorts.
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