I did something impulsive. I have no idea what got into me to do this because if a week ago you had asked me, I had no intention to do it. Even a day before I did it if you had asked me, the idea hadn't crossed my mind. I made the decision in a flash. Very strange for me, yes. So I have gone and joined a beginner's Chinese language class! Complete beginner. The fact is even in China I never thought to myself that, you know what, it would be nice to speak Chinese. I suppose I always thought of Chinese a bit like I think of the Himalayas. Too great to be scaled. But in this split minute when I made the decision, when I really toyed with the idea in earnest for the first time rather than passing by the Himalayas category, I realised that a language does not require me to move my body. No physical exercise or strain of any kind involved at all. It's the mind and the vocal cords and even if I don't grasp it, it can't exactly be painful? you get my logic? And I have to say the fact that the class is at 12ish noon had a lot to do with it. Had it been at 10.00ish, I would have put it back into the Himalayas box. Had it been at 6.00ish in the evening, I would have decided I don't have that kind of time to spare. 12.00 happens to be a sweet spot. Which made me think, and you people are by now used to me bringing in the metaphysical into the mundane, it made me think that the universe is waving to me here. I am not making the mistake of not waving back ;)

My first class was fun. It didn't let me down... hehe. My teacher (sounds nice to say that!) whom I will call Zhang (because I am guessing I am going to refer to this class off and on in the next 10 weeks) started the session with something that I found very amusing. She said we should excuse her if she pronounces our name wrong. I thought about how this gesture is normally performed by English speaking people calling out non-English names. I have myself started off this way in many of my classes. It was sort of refreshing to be on the other side of this divide. My class had about 7ish people though more might turn up in the next two classes we were told. We learnt the four tones in this class. The tones go flat, high, high-low, and low so something like... aaaah, aahh, aa-aa, ah. That’s the best I can explain. It reminded me of my Hindi and Marathi language classes in school though they are very different languages. We did have inflections like a aa ee eee uu uuu ehh ehh... etc. But I can't for the life of me remember how we moved from those sounds to actual words. My feeling is we knew how to speak before we knew these sounds and the connections were easy to make. Here it feels like we are grasping at sounds that for now mean nothing... which is why they are so hard to grasp! A bit like listening to a bird singing? 

There were one or two other interesting moments. One where 'zhang teacher' (that's the Chinese way it seems) shared this Chinese idiom, 'teacher for a day, father for life'. I sort of feel like we Indians would perhaps be more easily able to relate to this sentiment. We have this 'guru' figure in our culture who's a bit like a respected elder, on the same pedestal as one's parents. The way one worships one's parents, one worships such a figure... not in a detached western way.

There was another moment where Zhang teacher asked if anyone had been to China. There was me of course. But another person put up his hand and said he hadn't been there for very long. Teacher asked how long and he said he'd stopped over at Beijing and gone out for 5 hours. I am not sure why that tickled me...hehe...

At one point the teacher had a slide on Hofstede's cultural dimensions and a student asked what ‘power distance’ meant. I had to bite my tongue not to chip in. I have to keep reminding myself that I am not the teacher here ;)