说中文可以吗？

I had an interesting discovery today. None of my classmates (except Avo) know how to fold stars (image above). Avo and I taught half the class how to make these stars in 8th period today.

This is only one small difference between Asian people and American peopleJ. I lived in the US for almost 8 years now. But I still identify myself with China more than America for many reasons. Well, I eat Chinese food every meal. Chinese include more vegetables in their diet than Americans do so it’s probably healthier for me to eat Chinese food. I watch Chinese TV shows and listen to Chinese music more than I pay attention to American television and entertainment. Also Asian cultures are more a like than say European culture and Indian culture. I can identify more with Korean and Japanese life style and values. Geography is mainly responsible for the similarities among China, North/South Korea, and Japan. I still speak Chinese at home and with my Chinese friends so my Chinese is still better than my English.

The Chinese language is very difficult to master. There’s so many ways to express one idea. To express an action, there are usually one commendatory term and one derogatory term for it [like in English connotation vs. denotation]. For example, if you see a piece of art work and love it, you can say the artist塑造 [su zao; crafted] a really amazing piece of work. Another person might see the same art work and hate it, so he might say the artist捏造 [nie zao; which has the same denotative meaning as塑造 but carries a negative connotative meaning of randomly make it up]. This kind of thing probably exists in all languages. Connotative and denotative meanings make life more difficult but also more colorful. Like Newspeak in 1984, using “plusgood” for “excellent” is probably more scientific but not very interesting.