Crow's Mouth

 

In the past month I’ve been taking Chinese lessons once a week.  Although I still feel like I’m in square one, my language teacher has a great amount of patience and is tremendously kind.  Having a good language teacher is not easy to come by.  Stephanie is more than worth her weight in gold.  Not only do I get vocabulary, grammar, and character practice, but also she occasionally throws in a side story. 

One lesson we were working on pronunciation and I came across the words:  Wūyā zuǐ.  Stephanie laughed a bit and explained this meaning of “crow’s mouth”.  “If someone speaks ill in a foreboding way and this turns to be true, you may say to this person ‘crow’s mouth’”.  For example, recently I was very sick.  Before I got sick someone told me that I was not wearing enough warm clothes and I would get sick.  I can now say CROW’S MOUTH to this person.

Not sure how wearing enough clothes relates to a stomach virus, but there are still many things here that I don’t understand.  Prior to this illness I was much more active in my explorations of Wuhan.  Over Thanksgiving my American neighbors, Ted and I went to a Hawaiian restaurant for an all-you-can-eat turkey buffet.  It was Ted’s first time trying turkey, stuffing, cranberry relish, and pumpkin pie.  The following weekend I attended a charity gala by the Women of Wuhan to raise funds for students whose parents have died from AIDS.  The night of dancing was well received and it gave me enough energy for my six-day workweek. 

After the Saturday morning workshop I was still feeling on top of the world.  I went with a friend to explore a natural park in Wuhan and watched Les Miserables.  Sunday morning felt fine in the beginning, but the rest of the day was gut-wrenching torture. 

The day of emptying my insides gave me my first taste of meeting a Chinese doctor.  Ted served as my translator and often his translations came across as an accusation rather than a question.  Instead of saying, “Did you eat too much on Saturday night?” I heard, “You ate too much on Saturday night”.  My quick negation helped me to realize the loss in translation.  The doctor gave me some powders and pills, and my quiet day at home will give me enough time to rest, relax, and avoid any more crows.