November 18, 2010 - Beijing, China
that only leaves you guessing
guessing about a thing
you really ought to know..."
~Led Zeppelin, Over the Hills & Far Away, Verse VI
Within minutes of the Beijing plane departure, it quickly became obvious that I am one of only a few, out of over 400 people, who is not fluent in Mandarin. This program is sponsored by the HanBan Institute, a Canadian based People's Republic of China outreach office. The educators in the program teach China, but mainly Chinese. The majority of participants are native Chinese speakers who come from San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, New York, Toronto, Seattle, and other densely populated Chinese communities. More interesting, many of these Chinese men and women have never previously visited China. Even more interesting, many of the Hispanic and white participants are Mormons who served their mission in China and now teach Mandarin state-side. There are no translators, so I'm working hard to keep up.
In China fashion, our living quarters are located at a water amusement park called Beijing Lognmai Hotspring Hotel. Beyond the reception building and massive glass solarium, housing the water attractions, stretch out miles of housing developments and villas. My hotel room is located in a three-story villa, with multiple rooms on each floor, and overlooks some kind of field. There is no hot water, Internet, or reliable heat.
And sometimes magic ensures. When ready to have a personalized name in China, a family member, teacher, or someone of authority presents an individual with a fitting title. In traditional China, my birth name would be First Daughter. While waiting in the Beijing Airport, a Chinese teacher named, Li li (Lily), from California, and I began to discuss Mandarin, China, teaching, and other typical pedagogy of educators. Later this interaction with a petite Chinese woman in a red jump suit revealed itself as mystical. Li li expressed it is time for me to have a Chinese name. A little nervous since we don't have a personal relationship, I hesitantly wrote out my first and last English name, and handed it to her. Based on pronunciation and then placing the family name first, she devised my Chinese name - Shi Xue Na
Shi (historical)
Xue (snow)
Na (graceful)
When the characters are placed together, my first name becomes Xue Na, or Graceful Snow. Amazed, as a mountain girl who lives for snow, someone who knows me well could not have come up with a better title. She pointed above her head and said, "intuition."
Mandarin: Nee how. Waw seeng Shi Xue Na.
Translation: Hello. My name is Historical Graceful Snow.
