hey, i am really good at babay-sitting. We can have a language pledge, who speaks an english word will pay a penalty fine 100rmb.
Can i also know your chinese girlfriend? I need to share some babysitting tips with her.

can you speak french?

final solution1: start to date ur ayi...
solution2: I can pretend not speaking any english if you speak French like a native speaker

OP, your avatar is cool!!! looks a bit like Nicholas Cage, I'm a fan of him!

Jesus, don't go near BJCat if you know what's good for you!

The ayi idea is a good one - although get a friend to road-test her before taking her on, because the wrong one will teach you farmer's Chinese.

Do you take many taxis? The Beijing taxi driver is generally a most garrulous sort once you get him going, and you (exceedingly) rarely find one that can say more than "hello" and "bye-bye" in English - despite pre-olympics claims to the contrary. Several friends of mine have told me they've learnt more Chinese from cabbies than they have from language partners...

You can speak English. Fail. (You look lovely BTW, if that's you)

Heres a good tip:

find tea shop (the ones that sell tea, not service) - in market place or a storefront type. Try to find one with a low and large tea table with a couple peeps sitting around.

plant urself on a stool, drink tea and intergrate

I used to sit around for 2-3 hrs at a time, once a week - conversing witj a sizable cross-section of society from lowly store keeps to busines owners. You can get into a lot of fun conversations (my fav being potency potency of diff sex pills) as well as learning about chinese culture and.......tea leaves.

usually cap off the day by buying a small 10-20dollar bag of puer for work.

Wow, I agree with Lodgerly. This is a dumb thread with a ridiculously obvious solution. I don't understand why your girlfriend isn't being more supportive - just tell her that it's time you and her started speaking Chinese around each other more often, and some lessons from her wouldn't go astray, either. Wouldn't she be happy to see you learning her mother tongue and help you out as best she can?

Dear, if an Ayi could teach good Chinese, then all language schools will close...Why not try learning with a school or a tutor since you think the language is important to you

Learning chinese is not difficult !
the key point is that u have to get a right teacher who is majored in teaching chinese for foreigners .
u foreigners always think that all chinese who can speak English can teach u chinese !!! totally wrong !this is in the same way that the chinese think that all foreigners who can speak english can teach them english ! language learning is not only chating with chinese partners , u have to settle ur plan and take it secious .

At very beginning , get the right teacher ,build ur good basement of chinese ,he will show u the way how to learn chinese .

My school only provides quality chinese teachers whose major is teaching chinese for foreigners , they are only from peking university and Beijing laungage university,at least 3 years teaching experience.
Maybe we can make a studying plan for u after ur chinese level is tested . u will improve ur chinese in a short time .

Remember , right teacher will lead u to the right way to studay chinese !
Contact me and let me know ur detailed studying requirements .u will see the difference between so called chinese teachers and professinal chinese teachers.

email:gerrimu@yahoo.com
msn:gerri1979@hotmail.com

Gerri
headmaster of Chinese Culture School