Languages
Lonely Planet phrasebook update!
I was given a book voucher recently and I bought some more phrase books - Italian, Greek and Spanish. I think that takes my collection to about 12! Then for Christmas I got Korean and Middle East and Santa bought me some more and with another book token I have just ordered Sinhala so I can try it out on my Sri Lankan pen pal Vinu!
Click here for my latest VideoPodcast - A trip to the Supermarket! You'll need Flash Player to view it. Click here to download free Flash Player. It's not the best quality but there is a file limit on the upload.
I like learning different languages. My best language is Chinese (Mandarin). I learnt this for about a year and a half with a teacher from China called Xiao Ye. She lives in Foshan which is near Guangzhou in the south of China and in the summer of 2008 I went to visit her which was amazing! I am hoping to go to Beijing next summer (2010) to spend some time there and do some more intensive learning with my friends mum (Gao Yun) who is Chinese. I am only learning to understand and speak the language but Gao Yun wants to help me learn characters.
I have started secondary school now and am having proper French and Latin lessons and I am really enjoying both of them.
Before we went on our trip in 2008 I had 2 Russian lessons at my local library. At least I was able to read the signs on the train and in Moscow!
I would really love to learn Arabic and that is definitely something I want to do in the future.
Here is my version of the story of the origin of the dragon boat festival for my Chinese teacher Xiao Ye, who lives in Guangdong Province in China:
Qu yuan shi min zu ying xiong. Ta tou jiang zi jin yin wei jin zhu hen fu bai he jin zhu bu xihuan ta. Zheng shang de ren hen shang xin yin ta men xi huan Qu yuan. Zong zi bu yu chi Qu Yuan de shen ti. Long zhou sai ji nian Qu Yuan hou dong.
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