Day 17 – First tutoring session

Today I had my first one-on-one session with my Mandarin tutor. While it was a good session, I do have to say having to go through most of the initial sounds and final sounds (the base “sounds” that make up syllables and thus words) was pretty tough. One of the apps I have on my phone, Hello Chinese, does have all these available to listen to so I can replay the sounds and try to mimic them. Ugggh. It feels like I’m back in elementary school and going to speech class!

Tonight I think I’m headed back to Ligondi Road for dinner and a pint — ok litre — of beer. It’ll be interesting to see how that area is on the weekend. Instead of taking a taxi there, I’m going to attempt jumping on the #146 bus which should have a stop about 20 mins walking from where I’m staying and will save cash for the taxi ride home instead!