★Listening to: Static X - Bled For Days
★
★
★
★
★
★
So I'm taking it upon myself and enrolled in some Chinese language classes. So vocally, it does not get rusty! Can't really practice it with family since everyone from my dad's side of the family is busy and I kind of don't want to bother my old af gramps to help me with my Mandarin. So I got classes for 1-on-1 learning and help. An classes I can schedule on my time. I stated I wanted beginners to advance, but the teacher was shocked I was picking things up so fast despite what I asked for as I signed up for her classes.
I let Xiaoyan know that the reason for me taking the classes was to keep up my cultural background with my other language, that I can not practice at home as much as I can my patois since my Chinese side speaks a lot more patois because of us kids they had. She said my pronunciation is amazing and I picked it up fast. I think its cause I already have a background in it as is with the basics. Which honestly is nice. Because of my fast learning, I got my first pdf textbook and got homework already.
I'm actually excited and have to do independent study until my next class that's on Wednesday. 
While learning with her, I also picked up some interesting things from her, with the Chinese in china and the Chinese that are in Jamaica. There is things I didn't know of my own people in china that vastly differ from the ones in Jamaica where my Chinese side is from. One thing will always remain the same....is the etiquette and respect and how I speak tone wise and that alone never left me even as a child till now. So it makes things super easy for me. It just feels so nice to finally be doing this with someone who is a native speaker and a university teacher of the language in china itself. She also made me super comfy opening up about myself to her which is different than my norm.
One thing I hate to explain to people is my background in terms of mix, in detail cause you get the real non asian fetishy folks that want to go "WELL ACTUALLY..." to someone who is asian. All cause they hopeless fetish pop media, anime, or fetish the people in an ideal that isn't real. Or from folks online that not everything revolves in one location in terms of language, dialect, or he people themselves. Americans are one of the main perpetrators. Then being in the art community you got non asian fetishy artists acting like they know it TF all about us, putting such insensitive shit in their content. Knowing damn well they don't respect us as people but we sure are a quick gimmick cash grab bag for em. So talking to them on shit I actually experience turns into a dick pump fest. An I'm like shaaaaduuuuuuuuuuuup. Not to mention my mix is insanely common in the islands I'm not remotely special, but a product of both populations on the islands being huge and interacting.
While learning with her, I also picked up some interesting things from her, with the Chinese in china and the Chinese that are in Jamaica. There is things I didn't know of my own people in china that vastly differ from the ones in Jamaica where my Chinese side is from. One thing will always remain the same....is the etiquette and respect and how I speak tone wise and that alone never left me even as a child till now. So it makes things super easy for me. It just feels so nice to finally be doing this with someone who is a native speaker and a university teacher of the language in china itself. She also made me super comfy opening up about myself to her which is different than my norm.
One thing I hate to explain to people is my background in terms of mix, in detail cause you get the real non asian fetishy folks that want to go "WELL ACTUALLY..." to someone who is asian. All cause they hopeless fetish pop media, anime, or fetish the people in an ideal that isn't real. Or from folks online that not everything revolves in one location in terms of language, dialect, or he people themselves. Americans are one of the main perpetrators. Then being in the art community you got non asian fetishy artists acting like they know it TF all about us, putting such insensitive shit in their content. Knowing damn well they don't respect us as people but we sure are a quick gimmick cash grab bag for em. So talking to them on shit I actually experience turns into a dick pump fest. An I'm like shaaaaduuuuuuuuuuuup. Not to mention my mix is insanely common in the islands I'm not remotely special, but a product of both populations on the islands being huge and interacting.
When I was talking to my teacher she was more excited and amazed how far our culture has traveled. If not full out amazed at even hearing my patois dialect mingle so well in Mandarin. Which growing up not being exposed early to non Jamaican Chinese I thought it was very normal to have the patois dialect in Chinese. As I got older I realized wait.. something is a bit different here lol. She liked my dialect, she hasn't heard it before and it sounds so pretty and soft yet powerful when I speak Chinese. I blush! After she asked if I've taken classes before when I picked up things so fast. An she's an elder, so it feels good man. Now I feel confident I can make my mandarin as strong as my patois which is nice. After mandarin I will be taking classes to work on my Koramonti, which is the tongue of my indigenous elders in Jamaica, they still talk today. Which I can easily find, since its still spoken in west Africa today! So there is bound to be an online teacher somewhere :P
What a great day and night... well I'm off to organize, do some homework, work on commissions then put my ass to bed.
