Listening

Take a second and think about how much you actually listen and respond to someone in a given day.  I mean actually take in what they say, process it, and deliver a valid response.

Now think about how much of your day is filled up with people aimlessly talking at you and you talking to disinterested people.

Lastly, think about how many times you can respond with a yes, no, or just repeat the back end of some one’s question in answer form.

I realized that maybe about 5% of my day requires me to intently listen and respond with an intelligent answer in Chinese.  The rest I have been able to get by with minimal understanding and some simple head nods and smiles.

What I am discovering is that, outside of class, my degree of understanding conversations with native Chinese speakers ranges from 10 to 50%.  That means that out of any given subway meeting, street vendor discussion, or friendly passerby I can understand at most half of what he is saying.

I have, however, been able to appear more fluent than I seem.  The trick is to know the words that you have learned really well and listen for key words in another person’s speech.  Casual meetings usually contain the same topics like the weather, school, the city, etc.  This makes it easy to expect what is coming, but I encounter trouble when the conversations range outside of my expectations.  This is when my weakness as a Chinese speaker comes into play and I have to resort to my crutch sayings like, “I’m sorry I do not understand, could you please say again more slowly?” or “I cannot understand you can you use different words?”   It is not a bad thing though, I do not claim to be fluent, and I would go crazy if I tried to understand everything.  Also, allowing people to think you are better at Chinese than you really are makes it less likely for them to rip you off, e.g. at the markets, street corner tables, and stores.

On a side note, my lice situation is cleared up thanks to the shampoo given to me by the dorm keepers.  I now know where they keep it so I stole a bunch of bottles and gave them to Li Jiang’s family.  I gave them directions on how to use it, but they really do not have a lot of water to use so I am not sure what they are going to do.  I could not believe how damn itchy my head was from those little bugs, but it made me feel bad for Li Jiang, I am sure she was miserable.  I hope the shampoo helps her out.