Re: Happy now!!!

[MLM]

Rob if that were true then there would be peace here, but there is not I'm sorry to say.
We returned to Babas house today after visiting with relatives, I didn't know Zhou had so many Auntys and Uncles but I guess that if a country has 1.8 billion people in it then some of them are bound to be related huh.
Peter maybe your new wife will give you a son, things happen :icon_cheesygrin:
Zhou likes to sit with me and she sits with her back against my chest and has me rub her tummy, she has started talking to the baby all the time, she tells her what she or I are doing and explains every thing to her, I wonder what she will do after the baby is born if she is doing all this now?, oh well, sister in law is always bringing Zhou fruits or something to drink, I have to get off my lazy butt and get my own :icon_biggrin:, sisterin law is always yelling at me and her husband to go do something and leave the women alone to talk :huh: I was in the other room playing Mah zhong ( I think thats how to spell it ) I don't play it very well eather.
I tired, I'm going to take a nap with Zhou :sleepy:, oh, sorry guys I don't mean to make you  :icon_mrgreen:.
have a good day there to all of you.
Sly, how are things going for you brother?, better then last week I hope, God will give you what you need so don't give up the search, IMHO, I think maybe you should give up on Ting find some one else my friend, but you do what you feel is right.
Gotta go Zhou is calling me, bye.

[Irishman]

Nice update Michael thanks.
Do you speak Mandarin well enough to converse with your extended family over there?, if so how long did it take you to get to a level where you could hold a decent conversation with them ?

[MLM]

Hay Irish, yeah I can make myself understood to some degree, I still get a lot of laughs thoughbut, I do okay I still have trouble with tones, lets see it took me about 5 weeks with " Pimsleur " and a few months with Zhou and Lili, but now like I said I can get by, this is a hard language to learn although it does seem to be getting easier to learn more as I go, I guess the best way to learn is when I am here, submerssion ( spelling ?), writing and reading the simbles is out of the question for me but I am learning to read and write pinyin, guys, I think it is easier to learn to speak first then write, doing both at the same time is to hard.
All in all Irish I would say it took me a total of4 months of hearing nothing but in my home so I had to learn, and yes both my ladies speak English very well they did this to teach me Mandarin, Kevin sounds like a native speaker and is starting to learn Cantoness, the little sh*t head show off:icon_biggrin: .
All I can say is you have to practice every day and try to talk to some one that can understand you in both Mandarin and English until you learn enough to hold a basic conversation, good luck guys, it's not easy at first but it does get easier the more you use it, I promise.
Gotta go shopping for lunch and dinner, have a good one . :icon_cheesygrin:

[Arnold]

See , I look at it this way . Learn all the Character's , then you can put it on paper what you want to say and no need to worry about Tones . Added benefit , everybody understands you , no dialect's to worry about either .:idea:

[MLM]

Arnold thats not a bad way to look at it, but I just seem to be wired wrong to learn the characters.
I had a bad night, I kept dreaming that something would go wrong with the baby on the trip here, now we now that all is okay because we are here and nothing went wrong but I still have this feeling deep inside and it kept giving me bad dreams all night.
When I gave up and got up about 4 this morning I almost stepped on Lili laying on the floor by my side of the bed and then at the bottom of the bed on the floor was Kevin, I opened the door to find my way to the bathroom and triped over the dog and the bum nipped me on the shin, didn't break the skin put I almost broke my neck and also ALMOST wet myself.
My time here is almost gone and I will be coming back to the States in two more days, Zhou and the kids will be staying for another 6 weeks, I really don't want to leave home to return to the States but, I need to get back to work, I think I will know how some of you feel when you say you wish you could comfort and hold your ladies, God, 6 weeks with out my kids ( could be fun ) and with out my Zhou, this is going to be hard to do, I don't know how you guys do it. :huh:
Going to try laying down for a little while, later guys.

[MLM]

Thanks Arnold, I know that I will survive, Hehe, now maybe Mike MPO could help me out here, who in the spiritual world did I happen to piss off, My flight from China to Japan was 5 minutes late, no problem I thought my flight from Japan to Detroit was in 1.5 hours, by the time I got through costums I still had an hour, yeah right :dodgy:, I went to a shop in the airport and bought a salt and pepper set for my Mom and placed them in the suitcase,( here it comes ), I then went to check my bags and was informed that my flight had left a 1/2 hour early :huh:, so I asked what can we do about this and the young lady helped me a lot she got me booked on the next flight going to Detriot, problem, 4 hours from now, I will now also miss my flight to Philadelphia, I think its going to be a loooong day not counting the flight from Japan, so I must have pissed some one off really good:fi_lone_ranger:
Already wish I was back home in China.
I guess I'll go sit in the Bar :icon_cheesygrin:, no not for 4 hours, I'll miss that one too if I did that, I see some other guys from the Sataes, or some place that speaks English, I think??
Later brothers will write after I get back in Philly and have some sleep.

[Danny]

I just seem to be wired wrong to learn the characters.

Michael

You just need to think about them differently.

There's no way of remembering them as a combination of lines and dots and dashes and squiggles. You'll never do it that way.

You have to change the way you think about them.

Stop thinking about them as "letters". Each character is a picture and tells a story.

Make a little story about each one. In that way you never forget them.

It is like the character for good is composed of the character for a woman and child. For a man like me, it does not get any better than to have your wife and child with you. And so I could never ever forget how to write that character. Or the character for stream, is composed of three little streams of water. It doesn't matter how dumb they are. So long as they are meaningful to you, that's good enough.

Just learn one every day. That's enough. If you try to learn a lot, you just end up confusing yourself.

Also you need to have a book or friend that teaches you how to write the characters. You need to do it each time the same way, so after a while your hand remembers them as much as your head.

Danny

[Arnold]

I started out with the number's , which I think are easy , ones you have writen them a few dozen times . Than I went on to North , south , east and west . Left and right . Exit and Entrance . Then I added City's I have been to . on and on . Wo ai ni and started to lengthen the sentence's by adding more character's . Added names and so forth . I can write the ones I do know , as fast as Qing can , which we had a lot of fun over . It has to be Fun not Work and it will come sooner or later to the point where you know hundreds and maybe even more . I never set my Mind to know them all . If I could just get a couple thousand in my Head to read a Newspaper somewhat , that is a big accomplishment for me and one my Wife will be proud of .
The language will come talking and using it with your Wife , the character's is something that has to come from you , to be willing to do it .Oh , and what also help's with the character's , is knowing how many strokes on has . example : MiFeng has 27 strokes , so as I do the character's .. I count my strokes as I write them . If I come out at 27 , I know I've done it right .

[MLM]

Hi all, Iiii'mmmmm Bbbaaaacccckkkkk!!!!! :icon_cheesygrin:
Wow talk about jet lag, I feel like I was road hard and put up wet, if I sit to long in one place I fall asleep, was talking with my sister and while I was listening to her tell her son what I had said I fell asleep, and for some reason I can't get enough water to drink.
I think I'll just wait until Zhou is home to teach me to write Chinese, more fun that way, hehe.
Mike, you are prolly right, all things happen for a reason and not just to screw with me personally.
I hear tell that a person on the flight I missed had a case of swine flu sooooo, I'm happy I missed that plane.
Peter is now married, so is Scott, looks like we can add two more brothers to the married mens part of the brotherhood, hey Mods this married section will need a bigger room soon, we will prolly have Vince, MikeMPO, Danny, Jo-Mo, and a few others in here soon also.
Arnold, I remember when it was just you, Maxx and myself and maybe 1 or 2 others that were married, now look at us all, feels good to know that some of the other brothers are joining us and that others are looking, finding and going to meet with thier ladies soon.

[Skip]

Some of you may know about Melatonin.  It is an over the counter supplement.  When I Googled it, I got 5.5 Million hits.  

It is supposed to be excellent for jet lag.  In other words, when you travel to China and days are nights, you can take it at your new  bedtime to reset your body's clock.  The same would be true for your return.   When you return to local time, take it at your normal bedtime.

I'm sure the degree of success will vary from person to person.  I take it for a sleep aid nightly.  It also aids in really revving up your immune system.  There is plenty of research, so skeptics can read about it into perpetuity.

[Scottish_Rob]

HeHe so thats NOT Viagra then?.........LOL:icon_cheesygrin::angel::blush:

[MLM]

Thanks Skip, I don't have a problem when I go home to China, its just when I get back to the States my nights are all messed up, I'll have to try that.

Rob, brother you make me laugh, the only Viagra I need is seeing my Zhou.

I don't know if any of you other guys have noticed this yet but, My Lao Po and I have our own language that only we understand, we have words that mean nothing to other people but, means a lot to us, even our kids can't understand what we are talking about.
For ex; when she is feeling frisky she will say a few things and I will know just what she is saying but to anyone else, it sounds like just a regular conversation. :blush: :heart:

[Scottish_Rob]

Funny you should say that Michael....On talking with Keren a couple of months ago, I happened to mention that we would have our own 'secret' language, and she said yes we will, we will just have to 'look' at each other to know when we are ready for making love hehe.:icon_cheesygrin:

Well that was the end of her sentence hehe, she also said yes I will tell you things in Mandarin and you will know what i mean, :sso I told here "I don't think I will learn it, in case you are shouting at me..." hehe,:icon_cheesygrin::icon_biggrin: her reply, "You naughty boy hehe":huh::s:angel:

[MLM]

Rob thats cool, she won't have to yell at you, the language of lovers will come to you both very naturally you two will invent your own and no one will know any better, even other couples.
This woman seems to love you so very much Rob, I wish you good luck in all you do with her.

[Scottish_Rob]

Seems that way mate........I know I shouldn't think something like this>I am really excited about going there, and I know deep down we should be fine, but i am also dreading going, in case she turns out like Sly's Ting.... Or Ronans adventure....:huh:

Tell you one thing, IF that happens and she didn't write the letters I WILL be getting arrested for arson and Murder...heheheh:icon_cheesygrin::icon_cheesygrin::angel:Glad I made you laugh mate, that's my aim in life to make people happy....:icon_biggrin::icon_biggrin::angel: