This Great Work

 Interesting signs cover the whole of China.  Translating between the two languages just isn't straight forward.  For example, at a swim meet we went to, when in English a parent would yell "come on", the Chinese parents yelled "add oil".  So signs reflect similar patterns.  Let's get going. This one took me a few days to figure out.  It's a typo.  It should say "barrier free", and somehow that means handicap accessible. This is in our local grocery store. I love the pun.  It's often a 'waiting station' because of the long lines to get your produce weighed. This one is still puzzling.  Quite poetic though!  So if you're ever lacking words, you could say this! This one says "Please leave the flourishing grass aside to have a detour."  You get to translate that one. Anyone, anyone?  Would you like to order it? This one made me laugh---"all rights reserved".  They have that phrase printed on many American produc...

 I've been asked on occasion how my Chinese is coming.  Let me show you instead of tell you.  These images are screenshots of my attempts to speak into Google translate to try to get the tones right as well as to have the Romanization to make practice easier on my brain (One of my lessons is only audio and I need visual help too).  I have no idea what I was suppose to be saying, but clearly it wasn't any of these things! The last one is hilarious because Wang Jian is our driver so this makes total sense, but that was NOT what I was practicing to say!  I was trying to say something about some street in Beijing. (The lessons are often as confusing as the language!) But I am trying.  I work on it every day on a couple of different apps, with a teacher and with a book.  I wish I could report more progress, but I can't..... I'm just slow. And old!