Years ago I went to a Chinese speaking Toastmasters club in Singapore after I saw somebody had written on Facebook that he went to a Chinese Toastmasters club to learn Chinese.
Chinese Challenges In Singapore
I could not understand a word.
In the interval. I had enormous trouble finding the toilet in the interval. I tried pointing to my groin and miming hand washing. Eventually somebody showed me the floor with the toilets and left me. I did not know which toilet was which.
Now I have learned the sign for women from the Chineasy flashcards, with their explanation that the old-fashioned idea was that a woman is kneeling, I prefer to think of it as a woman in the ladies toilet, maybe a Japanese woman, adjusting her hair with a hat pin or adjusting her hat.
I know that men is the other sign. To me it looks like a man running, maybe running to the toilet.
At the end of the meeting I had trouble explaining that I needed a taxi or railway station to get home. If you are a complete beginner, your best bet is a bilingual club.
I went to a bilingual club and I kept hearing 'knee how?' followed 'by how!' After somebody who was bilingual explained to me that Ni is you and hao is good, and ni hao, you good? ia a greeting, wo which the reply could be simply, hao, meaning good, I had that ingrained for life.
In China I thought I had learned the toilet signs. I copied the sign outside the ladies toilet. An hour later I passed a toilet, recognized part of the sign and thought, that's it, the Ladies.
However, I went in a saw men's backs. I retreated fast.
Downstairs I found the guide and insisted that the guide come up to the toilets to look at the sign and compare it with what I had written down. The sign I had copied was indeed over the ladies toilet. What was wrong? I had not copied down the sign for ladies. I had copied down the sign for toilet.
Now I have learned the signs for men and women. The woman sign looks like either a woman with breasts or the classic drawing of a kneeling woman.
Useful Websites
Chineasy Flashcards
Chineasy Book
Earworms disc and language book
Foreign Workers and Domestic Helpers Language Guide from Mighty Minds
https://www.livinglanguage.com/languagedemo/chinese/2501/essential-essential-expressions
To learn Mandarin Chinese, here are some websites for you:
Youku(优酷),
Tudou（土豆),
CNTV, and
Slow Chinese.
Some good apps are (alphbetically)
ChineseSkill,
Duolingo, (better on your laptop than on the phone)
Hello Talk.
Memrise
About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, brought up British speaking British English. Has lived in the USA, Spain and Singapore.
