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Two new languages tough at first
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When I first arrived in China, I was really surprised. China is one of the most famous Asian countries. Where I ended up living was Shanghai.
Since I was very young when I arrived, I didn’t realize how fantastic it was to be all the way around the world. In the beginning it was all incredibly strange and weird, because I had no idea what language they were speaking, and I didn’t even know how to speak English! The most challenging moment was going to school. One of the reasons was that I had no idea how to say “good morning” or “bye-bye.” When I went during my first year to the first grade, I remember that all the teachers kept on speaking both Chinese and English. I couldn’t understand anything they were saying and I couldn’t even communicate properly with my classmates. Later on that year I learned English well enough to communicate with people.
Learning Mandarin was and it still is very hard! It is also very different from English in so many ways. I think that the thing in the Chinese language that is really tricky is the characters; it is an enormous change to go from letters to characters. Learning Chinese is not a big challenge. It is a huge one!
Another really shocking feeling you would get when trying to adapt would be the food. The food was also really surprising to me. Even though I am not really a fan of it, I still had some experiences. Every time I have an experience with the food, it always ends up being a good one. One time I was at a traditional dinner, and I ate bullfrog — it actually tastes very good, kind of like chicken. Another time I drank a soup with fish lips and again it wasn’t as bad as it sounds.
Adapting was hard, but it was also very fast, and it was totally worth it!
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