Tuesday, February 5, 2008

My other application essay

As part of the summer application, I had to write a page-long essay in Chinese. And so, as a companion piece to the first essay I posted here, this is my essay in broken Chinese trying to tell the story of how I bought a cheap watch in Shanghai. If your browser can't read Chinese fonts, I recommend that you Google "displaying Chinese characters" and download something so you can appreciate all of my Chinese knowledge. I know how to write all of this! And if you want to correct my grammar or word choice, I won't be offended. :)

 我一月六号来中国学中文。在美国,我学了一年半,所以我是中级二的学生。在我的大学我的专业是英文,有点儿难来得及学中文,可是在这儿,每天我都跟中国人说话,都学习。我的能力不太好,但是一天比一天好。
 来成都以前我们在上海待了一个星期。第一天早上四点半我们起床,因为我身体以为我们在美国。上午八点为了买手表我跟四个同学从宾馆一起去小卖部。找到老女人的地方,她告诉我请进。我挤地进去,看看她的东西。我买手表,付八。回宾馆前手表已经有点儿坏了,我不能带了。那天晚上前说错了:十五分钟以前。
 第二天早上五点半起床,想回去归还钱。我的朋友们也去,可是他们一词中文都听不懂,所以外边等一下。我知道了八在中国或者美国不贵,可是我很不高兴,想联系说中文。
 我不知道,所以就把手表给她,跟她说《我很不高兴。这个手表很不好,打破了。给我我的钱!》当然她也不高兴了,告诉我很多东西。虽然我一般听不 懂,可我知道我不同意,所以在那。我们俩大喊大叫。他认为我高兴地出去,在外面手表是我的保管,可能我自己打坡了。我告诉她我不打手表。我看要是手表不好,她不应该说《这好。》她说当然我买的手表不好,就是八筷!可是,我争论是我的第二天在中国,我不知道八好不好价钱。
 四十分钟以后,我累了。问她她可不可以给我想买的笔记。把笔记她打五折,我很高兴了。那天以来在那种小卖部没买东西。

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! This is fun! I got the essay in Chinese simplified, mostly. There are some numbers and the word"span" mixed in. The characters look like houses and people and things...I'm going to see if I can find a translator on line to let me see what you have written.
I am so proud of you! You know so much. Best of luck getting into the university in Harbin. I didn't realize you'd have to apply after you arrived in China.
Keep up the great work. I can see why you sounded so excited.
Love, Virginia

David Griffen said...

Hey Will, found your blog and I like reading what you have to say about your experience in China so far. Good job on the essay!

Anonymous said...

Will, I just did the translation on babelfish(as TC would say, personal victory!)
You did a great job! I just laughed so hard. Having heard Chinese people speaking in "broken English" I was hearing your essay with that accent. Here's a question. Can you put it through the translator and then go back and figure out how to correct the characters? This is fascinating. Thanks for enriching my life!
I am printing the translation for Grammy Dru.

Melanie Penman said...

william! :)

suprisingly, i could recognize a good amount of characters and make a broken sentence here or there. i was a little excited. chinese is going okay- I'm kind of buckling down and attempting to get the most out of my obnoxious class.

i think about you brother.
mel.