295 dtg (interesting blind dates and massage parlours)

People in China use the word yisi, which means interest or meaning, fairly liberally. No matter what the situation, you will be asked if you have lots of interest (hen you yisi) or no interest (mei you yisi). A landlord will ask you if you have interest to a house, a University will ask you if you have interest to course, a friend will ask you if you have interest to a girl etc.

I'd decided that this was to be my first question about contemporary Chinese society to discuss with a Chinese person (in Chinese) and had a good chance the other night. Embarking upon my list of things to do twice in Qingdao, my tutor (jia-jiao, literally 'home teach') had set me up on a blind date (Number 31) with her hen piaoliangde pengyou (very beautiful friend). The plan was for the three of us to enjoy dinner and drinks together - we had tried to find a fourth person but no volunteers came forward within the specified time limit.

Two things become apparent. One, few things in life could be more frustrating than attempting to speak sweet words in a foreign language, and yet simultaneously having your jiajiao jump in and correct every mistake (cuo wu) that you make. Don't get me wrong - I love the fact that my tutor corrects me all the time (it's one of the best things about her), it's just not very date-friendly. Secondly, my biggest problem (zuidade wenti) right now is that while I know the words to speak about myself in Chinese, I can't understand (buneng mingbai) what is being said in reply - my ting li (listening skill) is awful. Thus our conversation (dui hua) was stuck at the two-minute mark when I asked "Ni gongzuo shi shenme" (your work is what?) and her reply was something about a faguan. Having forgotten to bring a dictionary, or even paper and pen for rudimentary drawings, I just couldn't make it out (something to do with white hair and black clothes and they are in Australia too) and thus we had hit a pretty major obstacle. We stuck it out until midnight speaking through my tutor, but rather unsurprisingly she has meiyou yisi to me.

Having gone on that night to console myself with a few too many gin and tonics I found myself in a curious position. It was 3:30 in the morning, and I was stuck outside (wai mian) my locked apartment building with half a dodgy key in my hand, and the other half broken off and wedged in the lock (seriously, why does this stuff always seem to happen to me?). I barely knew the words to explain this situation to any of the few people I could have rung for help, but I was pretty sure that no matter what they might have said in reply, at 3:30 in the morning it was likely to mean something along the lines of "why the hell are you ringing me now?" (Now there's a thought - maybe ting li isn't so important after all). Anyway, I am lucky enough to live around the corner from a 24-hour massage parlour (er-shi-si xiaoshi anmo keting) and they were happy to let me rest there until sunrise for the hen pianyi (very cheap) sum of 60 kuai (about US$7). For a few more kuai there were plenty other services they would have provided, but I've become much better behaved since I discovered that Mum's been reading my blog.

I woke up with a pretty awful hangover (tou teng), but enough recollection of the previous evenings' (zuotian wangshangde) activities to look up faguan in a dictionary. It means judge, and yes they do wear white wigs, long black robes and also exist in Australia. So at least I got to lean a new word for my trouble.

Paulie

PS: Thanks to all who provided addresses, your letters are on the way. My teachers have tried their best (shi li le) to help me understand Chinese grammar, so I wish to inform you in advance that all errors are of my own making.