Made in Japan, Outsourced Globally

I have the hardest time pronouncing "u" with the umlat in Mandarin. It's so frustrating that I'm going to tediously complain about it.

ju, xu, chu - but not shu. I am not tone deaf but completely hopeless when when it comes to language pronounciation. The sounds where you use your teeth and the front of the mouth are confusing. I just end up looking stupid with my lips trumpetting out making "Yuuooo..." noises.

I try to avoid ju, xu, chu words as much as possible because I can never do it correctly - but some words are inevitable.

chi = to eat (pronounced "choo" and lightly at the front of your teeth)
chu = to go (pronounced like a sneeze "a-choo" but shorter and with the dreaded umlat u)
xuyao = to want, demand (pronounced "shoe yao" and the freaking umlat u)
ri = day (also used in riben, which means "Japan" so I use it a lot. It's almost like a name, Ruben - but actually pronounced "zhru ben," with the sound coming from the back of your mouth and blowing a whistle - or you curled your tongue too far back and stuck it down your throat)

My colleague and I had our final Mandarin course today - it took us one full year to complete it. I must admit, though, an intensive training living in China would have done us more justice.

But we pick up interesting things every week. For instance:

yin tu wang = Internet ("yin tu" sounds like "Inter" and "wang" is literally "net")
xia wang = go offline (literally "get down from" the net)

This reminded me of how we say "ochiru"or "fall off" in Japanese, when people go offline. Modern Asian vocabularies are mostly literal translations from the Western world. It's as exciting as learning that "perro caliente" means "hotdog" in Spanish.

Zhongguo hen piaolian de yuyan, keshi wo yongyuan bukeyi shuo zhengque de. Suan le ba...