Day 2,3 Shenzhen China

Speaking gibberish…

My tongue feels like it has been doing gymnastics. I know only a few words and phrases but even just saying them is difficult. My American tongue is not used to making these shapes. In the US I remember making fun of Chinese people with very heavy accents. They can’t seem make the proper sounds. Well, it’s the same for us Americans when we speak Chinese. Not only are there different sounds there are 4 tones. The rising tone ( / ), the high tone ( - ) the falling then rising tone ( \/ ), and the falling tone ( \ ). The same word means drastically different things as you say it with different pitch or tone.

I think I will try to include a word or phrase with every post from now on. (This is pinyin, a phonetic method used to write Chinese using the English alphabet.)

Today’s phrase is: Wō xiăng yào dòng nīng chā.

Translation: I would like, iced tea drink (served with lemon and milk)

This is my new favorite drink. It might even have some coffee mixed in. All you need to know is its damn good.

Todays breakfast. Note that is a purple sweet potato.

Expect the unexpected.

I remember asking people from work what it was like in China. Every single time I got one of two answers, “...It’s China…” or “It’s hot.” The former annoyed the hell out of me. Obviously it’s China. The latter was repeated so many times, that while I appreciated knowing it was going to be hot, it became annoying to hear what I considered such a simplified answer. However, no amount of hearing these two answers could really prepare me for either the heat, or…the…China-ness. It truly is different. Things you take for granted and expect to work one way, work differently. Maybe it’s our own provincialism as Americans, subconsciously thinking that we are the center of the world, maybe it’s our own ignorance. The sunrise may not look much different than the sunset, but the countries it shines on certainly are.

Another dramatic Chinese landscape.

China’s most plentiful resource.

I read somewhere that people are China’s most plentiful resource. No mater where you are, you can usually find a crowd. It occurred to me that this may be part of the reason why the traffic control is so un-moderated. Aside from a few modern stoplights there are very few road signs or street names or any sort of sign to direct traffic at all. So, maybe there are many accidents, but with china being as overcrowded as it is, it can afford to lose some people to traffic related accidents. It almost helps the problem of the population. I wonder if the Chinese government is aware if this and consciously puts little time and money into traffic control?

This morbid thought aside, the people represent a rich culture, are very hard working and complain little. They do a lot with a little and supply the rest of the world with tons of the stuff we use everyday.

Me looking awesome (!) in my factory suit. It actually has vertical pinstripes.

Inside the clean room.

A rose by any other name… (continued)

Here are some more chosen-English names of people who work here.
Johnson
Star
Sunny
Hardy
Diamond
Candy
Macro ( not Marco, friend of Polo, but Macro, the opposite of micro)
Napo (short for Napoleon)
Silence
Tiger (like the Woods type, not the grrrr type)

While we are on the subject of funny names, there hasn’t been a single day when I haven’t had someone come up and say, “Oh, Goodnight, like every body go to sleep now,” then laugh hysterically. I guess some things do translate perfectly.