As part of our cultural experience at the college/university at which I teach English, there are Chinese classes. An opporuntity to learn Chinese, understand students a little, and make one's own way around China without the essential aid of an interpreter.

We have a great Chinese teacher, and we all have come on in leaps and bounds. I'm probably the slower learner, but I insist on speaking English all the time with my students as I came here to teach English and I feel I have an obligation to do this when with students rather than waste their time helping me.

I can get around town, buy things, and do so without a great deal of problem - hand signs are good too.

One of the tools our class uses - in conjunction with our teacher, is Ask Benny. I recommend going to the website, and you too can learn easily in your own time. Click here to go to the website and try for yourself. It is FREE and very good.

When we arrived in China we had learned to greet people, and say thank you. Another word we use regularly is "tin boo dong" (sounds like - not exact spelling), but it means "I don't understand".

Written Chinese is interesting, but I am not concentrating on that. Our teacher will write the Chinese symbols for words, and then write it in Pinyin, which makes the words easier for us to pronounce.

There are many books, tapes, videos, etc on speaking Chinese, but the best is to try to find words that you can use in dail life, like we do.

Students will occasionally laugh at our clumsy attempts to say words, but mostly they are very helpful. The beauty of Ask Benny is that I can do it anywhere on line and even save to a MP3 or MP4 as well as download to the computer. (It is available via Youtube or Toudou)

Also at Ask Benny you can send a message if there is a word that you need to know, and Benny will respond. He lives and works in Shanghai.