Soats

Tonight, for reasons I can’t really explain, I went to the Chinese-as-a-Second-Language Teacher Training Department’s New Year’s Party. It sounds less self-important in Mandarin, by the way, partly because there are no capital letters. The format was kind of a talent show, but with more 'show' and less 'talent'. No that’s harsh, actually, it was a pretty good night, I just thought it was a funny line.

The first act was really the winner for me, it was an Ode to the Chinese Language. The introduction, honest to goodness, went
Girl Host: First up tonight we have a song about a very special language. Boy Host, can you guess what language that is?
Boy Host: That’s too easy, it’s the Chinese Language! We all know the Chinese Language, and we all love the Chinese Language!
So on to the stage marched a line of teachers-to-be and proceeded to sing quite passionately about Mandarin. The background music featured pompous trumpets, military drumming, and rousing violins. The song finished with the lines “We love you our Chinese Language, we love you our Chinese Language!” Then applause and bows, and on to the next act.

My other favourite moment was when they pulled students from the audience to play a guess-the-word quiz: one partner has to describe the mystery words to the other as fast as she can, with much hilarity,you know the drill. But the first pair up were two adorable we-spend-all-our-time-together Chinese girls with huge smiles, and the topic they got given was ‘food’. So for the next two minutes they described every single word with lines like “ooh, ooh, it’s what you had for lunch on Thursday!” or “you eat it with rice, it’s the one your sister likes!” There is something enviable about knowing another person so entirely, not least that it wins you all the prizes at parties.