Speech!

Ok, so remember that Speech competition I mentioned in my really boring post about studying Chinese? Well, I've decided to go for broke here and post a video of myself reciting my speech, as to help me get over my fear of people actually seeing/hearing me speak Chinese. For many of you, I imagine this will be the first and last time you ever hear me speak Chinese. Especially if I don't actually know you, and you're just some stranger reading my blog...[that's right random people in Vietnam and Finland, I'm talking to you]. It's awful by the way.

The Video just launches straight into it, as I was using it before to practice memorising my speech, but I'll add a little explanation. Below the video is the transcript in Characters and Pinyin [English alphabet with tones, so you may be able to read along...Eva], followed by the English translation [probably in really bad Google Translate-style English]. The Pinyin has a few mistakes, but that's the gist of it, and I really can't be bothered to edit it.

I'm not planning on posting this on facebook, so don't be offended if you just stumble across without me telling you about it - I'm still shy! Although I'm sure my mum will find a way to send it to everyone she knows, including her Chinese friends -__-. That's another thing - if you're a native Chinese speaker [or just better than me] feel free to leave comments about my pronunciation and phrasing! The tones should be alright...as I'm reading off a sheet of pinyin, which is also why I'm not looking at the camera. Well, that's all I have to say about it - it's not very interesting [I'm not trying to win] but I feel like somehow, in some way, this will help me improve my Chinese...or at least my communication skills.

我觉得我在中国的生活很好。我与室友相处得很融洽, 我们每天一起上课,做作业,吃饭什么的. 值得一提的是，我们每天都在同一个地方吃晚饭。可能你会问，“这有什么奇怪的？”但你知道吗？我们每天吃同样的东西！我们刚去的时候，服务员不认识我们，我们不认识他们，但是现在他们一看到我和我的朋友就开始微笑。他们不再问我们“要吃什么？”，反而当我们招手点菜时老板就笑笑说， “我知道呀！干偏豆角，菠萝故咾肉，三碗米饭，三瓶水！”真了解我们！

有时候我们点别的菜老板留意地看了我们一眼，可是她一句也没说。上完菜以后我们尝一尝，不过正如所预料的我们不喜欢它！有时候我们问老板“你可以推荐一道新菜吗？”可是，她推荐的新菜味道跟我们吃过的菜的味道差不多一样！服务员心里比我们更清楚。

最近我在镜子里看自己，就想“哎呀， 我是不是变胖了？为什么？”当然啊！每天吃那么多米饭，一定变成胖子了。我告诉自己，如果你每天继续吃猪肉，你可能会变成一只猪！

Pinyin: Wǒ juéde wǒ zài zhōngguó de shēnghuó hěn hǎo. Wǒ yǔ shì you xiāngchǔ de hěn róngqià, wǒmen měi tiān yīqǐ shàngkè, zuò zuo yè, chīfàn shénme de. Zhídé yī tí de shì, wǒmen měi tiān dū zài tóng yīgè dìfāng chī wǎnfàn. Kěnéng nǐ huì wèn,“zhè yǒu shé me qíguài de?” Dàn nǐ zhīdào ma? Wǒmen měi tiān chī tóngyàng de dōngxi! Wǒmen gāng qù de shíhou, fúwùyuán bù rènshi wǒmen, wǒmen bù rènshi tāmen, dànshì xiànzài tāmen yī kàn dào wǒ hé wǒ de péngyǒu jiù kāishǐ wéixiào. Tāmen bù zài wèn wǒmen “yào chī shénme?”, Fǎn'ér dāng wǒmen zhāoshǒu diǎn cài shí lǎobǎn jiù xiào xiào shuō, “wǒ zhīdào ya! Gàn piān dòujiǎo, bōluó gù lǎo ròu, sān wǎn mǐfàn, sānpíng shuǐ!” Zhēn liǎojiě wǒmen ! 


Yǒu shíhou wǒmen diǎn bié de cài lǎobǎn liúyìde kànle wǒmen yīyǎn, kěshì tā yījù yě méi shuō. Shàng wáncài yǐhòu wǒmen cháng yī cháng, bùguò zhèngrú suǒ yùliào de wǒmen bù xǐhuan tā! Yǒu shíhou wǒmen wèn lǎobǎn “nǐ kěyǐ tuījiàn yīdào xīn cài ma?” Kěshì, tā tuījiàn de xīn cài wèidào gēn wǒmen chīguò de cài de wèidào chàbùduō yīyàng! Fúwùyuán xīnlǐ bǐ wǒmen gèng qīngchu.


Zuìjìn wǒ zài jìngzi lǐ kàn zìjǐ, jiù xiǎng “āiyā, wǒ shì bùshì biàn pàngle? Wèishéme?” Dāngrán a! Měi tiān chī nàme duō mǐfàn, yīdìng biàn chéng pàngzile. Wǒ gàosu zìjǐ, rúguǒ nǐ měi tiān jìxù chī zhū ròu, nǐ kěnéng huì biàn chéngyī zhǐ zhū



Translation: I think I live a good life in China. I get along well with my flatmates: everyday we go to class, do our homework and eat food together, amongst other things. There's only one thing: we eat dinner at the same place everyday. You may ask "Why is this weird?" but did you know? We eat the same thing everyday as well! When we first started going, the waiters didn't know us and we didn't know them, but now whenever they see us coming they start smiling. They no longer ask us "What do you want to eat?", but instead when we start to order, the boss smilingly says "I know! [something like] Fried beans with meat, sweet and sour pork, 3 bowls of rice and 3 bottles of water!" They really know us well!

Sometimes when we order a different dish, the boss looks at us funny but doesn't say anything. When they bring the food over we try it but, as expected, we don't like it! Sometimes we ask the boss "Can you recommend something different for us?", but the dish they recommend tastes almost exactly the same as the dishes we usually eat! They know our hearts better than we do.

Recently I looked at myself in the mirror and thought "Haven't I put on weight? But, why?" Of course [you've put on weight]! If you eat that much rice everyday you will surely get fat. I told myself, if you continue to eat that much pork everyday, you will probably turn into a pig!

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Btw, I'm not usually this serious [you will know this if you've been reading the posts], it's just because I'm concentrating really hard on not making any mistakes [which I do...lol]. Please don't judge me for my terrible Chinese - I did this in one take and I've only been learning for...ok, ignore the last bit, but seriously I only read it over once before recording. I will now never watch the recording again.

I'm going to check and double check this post now as my parents seem to have become the KGB of grammar, when what they should actually be doing is sorting out people's taxes...or making some sort of financial breakthrough...or something. What do my parents do? That's not actually relevant; until next time!

XxXx