Learning Chinese

Eliot is learning Chinese or at least so he thinks. While the things he can actually say don't amount to much more than 'hello', 'goodbye', 'excuse me', 'thank you' and 'see you tomorrow', he believes that he can communicate and that people understand him perfectly. He realises that the sounds of Mandarin are different to those in English but he doesn't seem to understand that if you don't make the right sequence of sounds, the sounds don't mean anything.

This morning, Eliot opened the gate to our house on his way to school. "Ni hao" ('hello') he said in a very passable accent raising his arm in salute to the noodle maker, the bookseller, our driver and Master Worker Shen who were out in the lane preparing their wares for the day. Shema jzhe shema he added conversationally and completely nonsensically while maintaining passable accent. "Mummy, do you know how to say 'Mummy' in Chinese?" he asked a few seconds later. "No" I said, hoping I'd learn somthing "Mummy-ah" he said (incorrectly). I think he got this from our helper Sally (as she insists we call her). The sounds are coming but the words are not.

At the receiving end of Eliot's 'faux chinois' is Xiao Jun, Master Worker Shen's eight year old son. Eliot has a strange relationship with Xiao Jun. When they scooter in the lane, Xiao Jun is the leader and Eliot follows him enthusiastically. When, however, Xiao Jun comes into our front garden to play with Eliot, Eliot bosses him around endlessly. This doesn't help Eliot as Xiao Jun doesn't understand but he knows when he is being bossed around and the desire to play with Eliot's toys is usually outweighed by the irritation of Eliot's constant chatter in about ten minutes. "Eliot, you have to speak Chinese to Xiao Jun, he doesn't understand English" I say. "Xe Xema Xedze" says Eliot in reply to Xiao Jun, nodding encouragingly. Alas, Xiao Jun is still at a loss.

On saying goodnight to Sally today, Sally answered in Mandarin and Eliot tried and failed to repeat what she said. "I don't think that was right Eliot, try again". He repeated his made up words. Sally smiled. "You see" he said, "she understands me" and she did.