Intro. to Mandarin Class

Sidenotes: My mandarin teacher, Zhang Laushi, began teaching in her native tongue immediatly after she stepped foot into the classroom. Her intensity made me freeze.

I was doomed from the beginning.

To learn an Asian language the teacher has to explain tones, which is a foreign concept for Westerners. (ma can mean like 4 different things depending on how you say it). To make the tongues easier my teacher put it to a music scale and diagramed how it sounded phonetically. She then waved her hands to show how it sounded. (Ex.-ma' her hands lowered then rose high). Seeing her conduct the class 'all together now' and demanding things like "higher pitch" gave me flashbacks of my God-aweful middle school choir days.

I wanted to get out...and get out fast.

In the words of Snoop Dawgg...I'm droppin' it like it's hot.