A look at Heaven/Speaking Mandarin on the Train

Today I went to church in Shanghai. This is the second time I’ve been, and this service was a more standard service (the last one focused on Men’s ministry, and didn’t have a real sermon.) All I can say is I think this is a very real picture of heaven… where people of every tribe and tongue are gathered together to worship.

I’m not sure if we will go to this exact location, as they have (this week) opened a new satellite branch much closer to where we will live. This is truly amazing, and the leaders of the church are openly saying they see this branch as the first of many – the government is opening doors that were previously closed.

People need rhythm and routine in their lives. Singing a Gaither song today was one of those routines that I’m glad we will be able to continue in Shanghai.

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Now for the other cool thing that happened today. I was solo – no driver, which means I was taking the metro (trains/subway) wherever I wanted to go. When going home from my dinner at Tony Roma’s, I had to interchange lines at a station where two lines share the same rails. Getting on the wrong train would not have been the end of the world, but it would have made things a bit more difficult.

So, I’m up on the platform, waiting for the train. I’ve learned how to read numbers in Chinese, but the digital sign didn’t list the train number, just the terminal station. I gather my courage and ask the gentleman next to me in Chinese (for those who are interested, I’ve put the pinyin of the conversation in parentheses):

Is the next train line number 3? (Xia ge hou che san hao shen ma?)
He nudges the girl with him, perhaps is daughter and she says:Line 3. (San hao shen.)
I then say: The next train? (Xia ge hou che ma?)
And she says: Correct, the next train is line 3. (Dui, xia ge hou che san hao shen.)
I say: OK, thank you. (Hao, xie xie)

Now, this exchange looks simple on paper, but given the fact I’ve had to synthesize this grammatical form and some of the vocabulary my time here (not from my training DVD) I was thrilled that the exchange when along without any questions of “what (shen me)” or “I don’t understand (ting bu dong)”. A simple exchange that tickled me pink…

Now about the guy who I originally asked. After all of this was done, he looked at me and grinned. I think he was surprised/impressed that a foreigner (lao wai) could speak at all! I didn’t think that he was that old, but my guess is that he was old enough that he did not speak standard Mandarin (pu tong wa). Rather, I think he spoke the local Shanghai dialect, which is close, but the way they say numbers is different.

This leads me to my final conclusions for the day. I know that Chinese people appreciate the effort to speak the language – just as most Americans appreciate the effort by foreigners to speak English. So, I’ve got to keep up my efforts to learn to speak the language. Today, however, reinforced my thinking that simply learning to speak will not be sufficient – I’m going to try to pick up reading the simplified form of the language. That way I can communicate anywhere in the country (the spoken language varies, but the written language does not). Anyway, that is a major task, so don’t expect any quick results….