Chinglish

(this is a little bit of a rant post, but I think it's true of how I've been feeling lately) As I go about my time learning Chinese in classes and with friends, they are constantly trying to improve their Chinglish in favor of learning English. Because of that, I am constantly bombarded with phrases like these on QQ or conversation: "Are you came to the West Campus by yourself?" "did you lost your telephone?" "did you played basketball?" and quite a few others - some of which I could not even begin to figure out, but I am in NO position to judge anyone, because I have really been speaking Englinese...and that thought made me laugh a little bit. The students and I are really in the same boat - meeting a new person who speaks a little bit of the other's language, but sometimes not enough for either one to be able to communicate. Being here has made me realize how much there really is to a language - how many different types of words, tenses, situations, and more….it's crazy and really difficult! It is frustrating - really frustrating at times when I try to communicate with people. I am so much better at reading and typing, but my listening and speaking is basically zero - it is really embarrassing and makes me not want to talk to people, which is exactly what I don't need to be doing. It's a vicious circle…. I'm not really much of an outgoing person anyway; I don't like talking to people I don't know (how in the world do I make friends?), so when I get the courage to talk to someone, it usually goes badly...no fun. I guess I just have to keep working - one of my friends took me out to buy a radio to help with my listening, I think that's helping with recognizing the different tones and words (though I still don't know what they mean). When I was studying Chinese in the States, it was so easy because it was just something I did in my spare time for fun, but it's a whole different story here. This is WORK and it's completely necessary to do anything. If I were to give any advice to someone thinking about doing something like this, I would tell them to work on their speaking and listening and forget reading and writing. Those are what I focused on before I came here, and they've helped with my textbooks, but have pretty much done zero for my everyday communication.