By Carly
My sister and I have a Chinese tutor
named Shu Wen who comes twice a week in the afternoon. She is really fun and we do lots of great
things with her. For example, we go to
restaurants with her, cafes and shop for fruit and food in markets. But on Thursday the 24th, we did
something different with her.
Shu Wen wrote directions on a piece
of paper in Chinese and also in Bo Po Mo Fo, a different style of Chinese
writing that my sister and I can read, for going to an unknown
destination. Perrin and I had to read
the Bo Po Mo Fo and Shu Wen would translate it into English. The first instruction was to get onto the
metro to go to the right stop, which was 13 stops from where we were. We hopped on the metro after watching “Metro
Cares for You” about 5 times on the TV screen above the platform. We arrived at our metro stop about 20 minutes
later. We looked at the directions again. “#8: walk down the little street to crosswalk.” Clop, clop, clop. We walked to the crosswalk. Clop, clop, click, click, clop. People in high heels and all sorts of
different shoes walked past. When we
were once again on the sidewalk, we read, “#9: turn right and walk 20 paces, then turn
left.” O.K. Let’s go!
We turned right, walked 20 paces, 1,2,3…then turned left. OK. Now what?
“#10: walk 10 more paces.” “#11:
walk into the building and tell the security that you want to go to the 2nd
floor.” Three minutes later, “jingle,
jingle, click,” Shu Wen had just taken out her keys and unlocked a door in the
2nd floor hallway.
The room turned out to be an art studio
that belonged to Shu Wen’s mom. Shu Wen
decided to bring us because Chinese New Year is approaching on February 10, and
it is traditional to write characters to celebrate. We were there for about 3 ½ hours writing a
traditional kind of Chinese character with ink.
These characters are called
calligraphy. I wrote four characters on
red paper. Here they are: 心想事成
(xin
xiang shi cheng). They mean to have
one’s wishes come true. I also wrote the
character for spring (春 chun). The characters are written on red paper
because it is good luck. We wrote on red
paper because red is a traditional color in China and the Chinese use it for
Chinese New Year.
Next
time we go to the studio we might make stuffed animals and I am looking forward
to going again.
Carly, Can you tell me about the character for "spring"? Is there a reason the character is shaped that way? And which is the character for "true"? Mr. Fenton would be proud. Your characters look like art work. And how do you keep your paper so clean when you have ink on your fingers? I would be making a mess. We miss you!
ReplyDeletexoxo Rebecca