真棒！如果不是blogsphere，我不知道哪年哪月可以读到一片用中文写的关于美国人在中国学中文的故事。我觉得他写的很真实感人。尤其用词恰当出语不俗，我也读不出什么语法错误。到让我想起了自己刚开始学英文的感受。我想文化的差距和实际的距离是很容易疏远朋友的。但记忆总是美好的。用中文把这个记忆珍藏起来让我觉得很浪漫。
真的很有意思，我妈单位也有外国人教英文。那时喜欢听他们学中文的笑话还有他们
买东西怎么给人家坎。记忆犹新是一次听到老外问”你是什么东西？” 当然他一点没有冒犯的意思。就象我爸问andy: what’s up yours 其实想问 what’s up with you? LMAO
Pure-Essence.Net 
Hey Dodo. I thought the hanyupinying for your name was supposed to be dou dou? First time I’m commenting, so great site, and I love the themes, especially the oriental one =) Very japanese-y. Oh wow… so you named your post after the story? I read the first paragraph, as I read Mandarin really slowy, rather sad, but I’ll add it to my list of ‘to reads’. Wow! You actually learned English after you learnt Mandarin? Eeeh. Even I mix up sometimes, my grammar for my Mandarin is terrible…
hrm no i learned mandarin first. that american guy in china is learning mandarin. “dou dou” is very odd english spelling plus it’s likely not pronounced correctly by americans as the sound of beans in mandarin. that’s why it’s dodo.
Hi dodo:
At the first time I saw your lovely name dodo, I thought that might be your Shanghainese name “much much” called by your family as little name, right?
I have a question having been hidden in my heart for a long time and I hesitated to ask you. As I found your perfect Chinese writing above, which was beyond my imagination, that question came across my mind again. Which one do you think your native tongue is, Shanghainese or American English? Which one is used in conversation with your parents? To be honest, when you want to express your complex feeling, which one come up to tip of your tongue firstly and more strickingly? As a bilingual, do you have some confusion? I guess you must have been thinking of such problems a lot. If you have interest in it, would you think of that seriously again?
By the way, how do you celebrate our Chinese new year now?
Happy New Monkey Year!
i feel being interviewed 🙂
Which one do you think your native tongue is, Shanghainese or American English?
Mandarin. My shanghainese (spoken not hearing) is quite shabby actually since i stopped speaking it a long time ago. i first learned shanghainese as that was what spoken between my parents. then i was taught mandarin in kindergarden; the teachers said speaking shanghainese was bad behavior (no idea why but we never learned to question teachers back then) so i stopped speaking it at home. the rule continued through elementary school. i had one year schooling of middle school in china then i came here.
Which one is used in conversation with your parents?
Mandarin, sometimes shanghainese, now all mixed with english hahaha. coz there are many technical terms i have no idea how to say them in chinese because i never learned those in schools of course.
To be honest, when you want to express your complex feeling, which one come up to tip of your tongue firstly and more strickingly?
complex feelings? DEFINITELY CHINESE. i read more in chinese so i have a MUCH BIGGER vocab in chinese than english. and therefore chinese describes my feelings better tho i do not enjoy typing in chinese (that is why i don’t write chinese online much). but if you are talking about daily converstion, i’m more used to english only coz i’ve been speaking it everyday for the past 10 years. now that i don’t live with my parents, i speak it at home too with my bf. the other day andy said he heard me talking in english in my dream XP.
As a bilingual, do you have some confusion?
as in what sense? translation? a lot of times i don’t know how to translate back and forth. even tho that has improved dramatically. you can never count on a perfect translation between english and chinese.
By the way, how do you celebrate our Chinese new year now?
back in china? it’s watching tv, fireworks, dinners, talks etc. now i don’t really celebrate it. there is a chinese association here in UI. i was quite involved for many years but i am no longer interested in it. not that i lost interest in chinese tradition. to say the truth, i just don’t like how chinese always gossip, talking about money earning, comparing their children’s excellence in acamedics etc. those are dull topics for me.
i’m surprised you didn’t think i can write perfect chinese? i used to write a lot more. i used to write diary in chinese. i have four books full. i thought you’ve seen this? – it doesn’t have everything. i had a angelfire site that had scans of my diaries but it’s gone now 😦 and my diaries are buried in the storage. what a shame.
What a relief! dodo. Thank you for your kindness showed to reply my trivial questions. I am delighted that every sentense is within my expectation. I don’t know how many times I nodded for your response.
Yes, the leopard never change his spots. No matter how long you live overseas, no matter how much enthusiasm you pour in, it seems impossible to make yourself speek, use, and write a second language as in the same fashion as native speakers, let alone making it into your native tongue. That is what I found after I have lived here Japan for 5 years.
wait, you are not miki from http://www.sanlive.com/?
where are you originally from then?
Where am I from? I am from Shanghai, just like you. 🙂 Oh, I remember, when I was anxious about SARS outbreak last spring, I stumbled across Wangjianshuo’s blog, and oneday saw your comments on that, so discovered your unique real life blog with so much steaming Chinese passion. Even though I have a lot of same thought shared with you, sometimes I still think your passion conceining about Bribery, rights of speech, Mao’s reputation, and even sexual education, must cool down some day, but now your are keeping high sensitivity for a while. Anyhow, I appreciate, if I can, your conspicuous outspoken character.
a reader like you is a writer’s treasure. my concerns might be overheated sometimes partly coz there is a lot of political apathy in china. i can not help but worry. perhaps i’m a bit implusive at times tho i still like say whatever is on my mind. thank you for your comment 🙂