Week 4: Stinky Tofu, Anyone?
Week Four started off with an awesome confidence boost! As I walked into work on Monday, I ran into one of the Chinese students I met last week, and I greeted her in Chinese. She was surprised at first, and said “You’re speaking Chinese!” I told her I spoke a little (“我会说一点儿中文”), and she told me my accent was very good! I said thank you (谢谢 “xièxie”) when I should have said “nǎli” (哪里) first (which is a polite denial), but I am still counting it as a success!
This week at work, we met with the leader of Zhicheng, Tong 主任 (zhǔrèn = Director). Director Tong is kind, knowledgeable, and highly regarded by his colleagues. He asked us to research and prepare a memo on current United States policy regarding the protection of children on the internet. Later this summer, near the end of July, there will be a symposium on protecting children online that we will all attend. I spent most of my week conducting research in this area, but on Friday, we had our first English lesson with some of the Chinese students! I asked them to write a short paragraph about their favorite Chinese fairy tale and had them read them aloud at the end of class. We had a short discussion on the use of conjunctions and punctuation, but in the future, we will primarily work on speaking in class, and I will prepare some study guides on grammar for them to use for practice outside of class. At the end of class each week, Delia and I will also practice having conversations with them in Chinese, so I’ve asked them to give us some ideas of what they would like to hear about us or America, and we will come to class prepared to have a discussion.
We got out of work early on Friday and have a three-day weekend. Tomorrow is a national holiday, the Dragon Boat Festival (端腹节 Duān fù jié), where in some locations they race boats decorated to look like dragons. We were told to visit a local park, where they may have racing or at least some fun entertainment. So, our plan for tomorrow is to head over to Beihai Park and take part in, what sounds like, a very fun festival!
Yesterday, we went in search of street food, particularly on the lookout for the infamous stinky tofu (臭豆腐chòu dòufu). Another intern in the office recommended the Night Market located on the famous Wángfǔjǐng （王府井）Street. Tucked into a system of side alleys along the Pedestrian shopping street is a market with dozens of street vendors selling a variety of interesting foods, from scorpions to candied strawberries. Here, we found the stinky tofu, and it really was stinky! To me, it smelled like cow manure, but it did taste pretty good (unless you breathed in while you were chewing). I liked it, but I don’t think I’ll be having it again. I tried fried crab legs, some spicy beef on a stick, candied strawberries, and also got some delicious roasted chestnuts. When we go back (because we’re certainly going back), I’m trying scorpion!
