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Hello Friends,

I know that lately I have not been very loyal to you my readers but I promase that will change. For those who did not know I returned home for a period that was meant to be a month but turned into 3. My son Jonathan was born on August 30th, 2009. That was over 3 months ago but of course everything has changed since then. I am now a daddy.

Baby Jonathan

About 6 weeks ago I left my wife  Shlomit and Jonathan at her parents house in Jerusalem and came back to Shanghai by myself to get back to work here in Shanghai and prepare the appartment for their arrival. About 10 days ago they joined me here and we have officially, as a family, moved to Shanghai.

Happy Family

Shlomit has been settling in here and spent most of her time taking care of Jonathan, decorating the appartment and searching for her future employment. We have also began the tedious search for the perfect “Ayi” (nanny in Chinese) who will be qualified to take care of our precious son.

Regarding my Mandarin skills, they have undoubtfully improved. However I am starting to realize that it may not be enough and have slowly begun making effort to learn the local dialect – Shanghainese otherwise known as “Shanghai hua”.

More to come.

Hello friends and followers. I know my updates aren’t as frequent as before but I’ve been very busy as you will read.

Recently much has happened. As you know I’ve been working in Shanghai for a few weeks now. The job includes sales, management and frequent traveling around China. Since I began work I’ve been to Hangzhou, Wuxi and Chengdu on business. On one hand this can be weary but on the other much more interesting than just sitting in an office all day.

fast train to pudong airport

On my last trip I was in Chengdu which I really enjoyed. Of course I didn’t have much of a chance to see the city as I was busy with work, but I found the people to be very friendly and the food was phenomenal.  We went out for dinner to an excellent restaurant well known for its “Ma Po Dou Fu”. This is an excellent dish which has cubes of tofu in a red slightly spicy sauce.

ma po dofu

Since I lived in Changsha for 6 months I’m already relatively accustomed to spicy food. Sichuan is also known for its spicy food only they use a spice called “麻辣 – Ma La” (numbing spice). This spice when eaten instead of burning your mouth – numbs it. The first bite is kind of strange, it reminded me of when I was young and used to eat that candy that pops in your mouth, but once you get used to it its very tasty.

From Chengdu I boarded a flight to Changsha, my old home town. I was invited by the Hunan TV station to participate in the opening ceremony of this year’s Chinese Bridge competition. For those who don’t know I participated in this competition last year and received a 6 month scholarship for Chinese studies in China. I was invited to sing (or more like rap) a Chinese song along with another former contestant and a famous Chinese boys band of four guys called 至上励合 (Zhi Shang Li He).

Dave in the 8th Chinese Bridge opening ceremony of the 8th Chinese Bridge on Chinese Hunan TV Rapping with Chinese boy band 至上励合 (Zhi Shang Li He):

Hey guys, untill I get the site up and running I’ll give you all updates on my status. Three days ago I landed in Shanghai with my wife and we settled in. Immediately the next day I started work here at Bashari Diamonds. I hope to settle in as fast as possible and to quickly become a successful diamond dealer.

Shanghai is nothing like Changsha. This is a massive, modern and overpopulated city, Shanghai is said to have a population of around 20 million people. Unlike Changsha’s oily and spicy food Shanghai’s is sticky and sweet. Most important of all the language is something else entirely. Of course 99% of the people speak Mandarin when neccessary but amongst themselves the people of Shanghai speak Shanghainese.

Last night was Shlomit’s birthday so we went out for pizza and salsa dancing. I was amazed, this city has everything! The pizza was great compared to previous pizza I’ve had in China and the Salsa Bar was really nice too. It wasn’t the biggest but it had a great hardwood floor, good music, draft beer and some really good dancers. We had a very nice evening and hope to have more like these in the future.

So far although I’ve been working quite a bit, Shanghai seems great. I’m expecting that things will get even better with my son on the way and am looking forward to living here.

Keep you posted…

Fellow Chinese learners,

Welcome to the first post of learntospekmandarinchinese.com!

I’ve established this site for two main reasons. First to provide resources and material for those of you who are like me and have taken an interest in the Chinese language for whatever reason it may be. Second, to provide you with insight on life in China and the Chinese culture from what I have learned through my own experiences.

A little about me: I personally studied Chinese for 3 years in a University in Israel. In my third year I was invited to participate in the Chinese Bridge competition held in China where I received a 6 month scholarship to study Chinese in Hunan province where I am now. Next week I am moving to Shanghai where I will begin work with an international sales company.

I plan to provide you, my readers with info on learning Chinese, Living in China, Studying in China or any other related subjects. If possible I will post short Mandarin Lessons for you to enrich your vocabulary.

If this site feels like its right up your alley, feel free to subscribe to my RSS feed so that you can see when I’ve posted anything new. You can also subscribe by email and the new post will be sent right to your email box – promise you I don’t spam.

Also feel free to make comments or ask questions about any posts, I will do my best to get back to you ASAP.

Hope to see you here again!