As a part of our venture to learn about and celebrate the Chinese New Year, one of the LUIP student ambassadors tried to teach us to say Happy New Year. I’m so grateful that she was so patient with us! It’s certainly not easy learning to speak sounds you’re not accustomed to hearing. I can’t say we all got it right, but the effort was a great reminder of the challenges others may face when learning a new language in a new country.
The video above was taken at Er Mei, a Chinese Restaurant in China Town, London. However, before reaching the restaurant , we were welcomed with an atmosphere ripe with celebration. The streets were crowded with people, vendors and performers. The lines for some restaurants weaved around the building’s corner and children ran around throwing “snappers”.
As I traveled through the street, I was given a red envelope. I usually wouldn’t take random envelopes from random people, but given the environment, I was certain that it was associated with the New Year Celebration. The only problem was that I had no idea how to read it ( see below). However, I later found that it meant something similar to, “ Welcome to the New Year, get ready for good luck”.
This of course fits perfectly with the New Year theme which is a time for ,”good fortune, happiness, wealth and longevity” (read more). In fact, the red envelopes traditionally are given with money included. However, that was not my luck. My envelope had a coupon to save money on kikkoman soy sauce!
We then went on to enjoy lunch at Er Mei and later explored the various performances throughout China Town.
Street performance from children from a local school that instructs in Mandarin
Finally, if one happened to forget that 2014 was the Year of the Horse, there were many people dressed to remind us of this!
So with that said, Xin Nian Kuai-Le !!!!
Learning English : My Fulbright year in England 