I think I did pretty

I think I did pretty well on my quiz today. I still messed up a few chinese characters: yinhang (bank) I reversed the second radical, xuesheng (student) I wrote xuexian and I wrote cidian (dictionary) wrong, and I couldn't remember how to write benzi (notebook). To be fair, benzi was on the list of supplementary words, so we shouldn't have been required to know it... But overall, not bad, and I'm sure all my studying yesterday helped.

My Cantonese and Mandarin class are very different from each other. In Mandarin, there's no one in the class taking the class for an easy 'A'., because it's quite a bit of work. From a class of 30 students, there are only 14 remaining. The reason we are all taking the class is because we want to learn the language. Our instructor isn't strict, but is very focused on teaching our class, and does drills and exercises. If you come prepared to learn, you get a lot out of going to class.

My Cantonese class on the other hand...The majority of my Cantonese class already speaks Cantonese, so they're taking it for an easy A. The professor doesn't like this, because those students don't come to class, and when they do, they're gabbing in the corner, and not paying attention. I've become acquainted with most of the other students who are taking the class for other reasons, since we're usually the ones with the confused look on our faces when the Dr. Leung goes into full bore Cantonese.

It's a class I have a love-hate relationship with. Sometimes I love the class, and sometimes I hate it because I feel like we're wasting class time. But it usually gives me my laugh of the day. Today, we were doing gaaisiuh(introductions), and he went around and asked questions. This is what he asked one of the non-native speakers in the class:

Dr. Leung: Neih giujouh matyeh meng a? Neih bindouh yahn a? (What is your name? Which country do you come from?)

Kelly: Ngoh giujouh Kelly. Ngoh haih Taiwanyahn. (My name is Kelly. I am from Taiwan).

Dr. Leung: Neih sik gong matyeh wa a?" (What do you speak?)

Kelly: Taiwan sik gong Guandongwa (They speak Cantonese in Taiwan).

The class bursts out laughing at this point, because the professor lets loose a huge hearty laugh...