Hi, my name is Niel, otherwise known as Confused Laowai. I blog about my exciting, yet often confusing adventure learning Chinese.
Useful Chinese I picked up while in China
While travelling I picked up really useful Chinese. For some expats and other laowai these might be obvious, but I found this to be very useful. 打包 (dǎbāo) – Take Away With my girlfriend we’d often go to the Xiamen University canteens and order some delicious noodles, but because it was so ridiculously hot, we’d often get takeaways to go sit in air conditioned dorm rooms. I used this numerous times, from fast food to [...]
China Round 2: My Language Experience
I went to China with little expectations. Back in 2009 in Beijing, I got a pleasant surprise. I thought I’d be able to talk… at least a bit. Come on! But alas my use of Chinese was limited to spotting characters and using single words to communicate. A phrasebook could have had a better conversation than I did. So this time around I set myself with little expectations and a desire to use every opportunity [...]
