Practicing My Chinese at Worlds
Skatephile
I thoroughly enjoyed myself at my first Worlds and one of the aspects
I enjoyed the most was the chance to practice my Chinese on some
skaters, among others. Here's a summary of my encounters...
Du Yankun. I don't think she's a worthy successor to Lu (but who is?),
but I enjoyed her company briefly during Wednesday's men's short
program competition. I had wished her well in Chinese after her Sunday
(3/29) morning practice and asked her when she had started skating.
She replied "at six years old." She apparently remembered me well
enough a few days later to sit down next to me in the stands, parking
her rolling suitcase with her. She started jabbering away at me in
Chinese right away. I didn't catch everything she said, as my Chinese
is a bit rusty and I don't know much Chinese skating terminology! Her
favorite male skaters are Ilia Kulik and Phillippe Candeloro. She didn't
seem too impressed by Laurent Tobel's short, I remember. I was hoping
to run into her again later in the week and ask some nosy questions
about training conditions in China, what she thought of LuLu, etc., but
never had the opportunity except to wave to her from a distance.
Shen/Zhao. I went over to where they were sitting in the stands during a
late-night pairs practice session at the Target Center (the one where
Jason Dungjen was elbowed above the eye, leading to I&D's withdrawal).
I sat down next to her because I was curious to see if she would speak if
spoken to. I asked her how long they had been skating together and she
replied "six years." In halting Chinese, I told them that they were now
well-known among skating fans in the U.S. after their impressive
Olympics performance. I then had them write down their Chinese names
in my media guide.
On Monday night, I was wandering around the Marriott (skaters' hotel),
when I did a double take on two people leaning against a railing and
speaking in Chinese. It was Chen Lu (who looked fabulous!) and her
coach Liu Hongyun. They were in a deep conversation but I couldn't get
close enough to eavesdrop properly, drat! :-) However, when they had
finished and as Lu was leaving, I was able to catch up with her and tell
her (in Chinese) how moved I had been by her Olympic performance.
She graciously thanked me.
At the Parade Ice Garden practice rinks the next day, I observed Lu's
(now Guo's) coach solemnly trying to communicate with Yuki Segusa(sp?),
Chen's agent at IMG, in English. I think she was asking him when he
would next be in the States and he paused, then said "seven," to which
Segusa nodded and confirmed "July?" I later had a chance to speak with
both of them separately. I thanked him (in Chinese) for coaching Lu to
such success in Nagano and he seemed pleased. I asked her which
other skaters she imanaged besides Lu, and she replied Kristi and Paul
(I then told her Paul would be sorely missed). I wish I had asked her
directly about Lu's skating plans (although I doubt she would have
revealed anything of substance to little ol' me).
Stretching together before their respective practices at Parade were
the threesome of Anthony Liu (who once represented China, now
Australia), Guo Zhengxin and Lucinda Ruh. I found Guo's and Lucinda's
interactions to be very cute. At one point, she traced out a Chinese
written character or two for him and he seemed to understand what she
was trying to communicate to him. Anthony also served as Guo's
English translator, asking Lucinda if she wanted him (Guo) to fetch her a
drink while he got something for himself. She nodded and he (Guo) left
and soon trotted back with some water for her. I later asked Lucinda if
she knew any Chinese (in addition to her Japanese). She said no, but
that she did have a Chinese name, given to her by Lu and Guo when
they were both training with her in Oakland last summer.
At Parade, I finally had a chance to ask Anthony Liu why and when
China finally released him to skate for Australia at the Nagano Olympics.
He said he found out 3 weeks before the Olympics that he would be
going! He thought that China decided it just wasn't worth causing trouble
for Australia over him when their sports federations were supposed to be
working together for a future competition/games in the region (or
something like that). I wanted to ask him when he had actually started
training with Carol Heiss Jenkins, but he had to hurry off to practice.
His English is quite good (he's been in Australia for 4 years now) and we
spoke in a mixture of Chinese and English.
Finally, following the ladies' final and right before the medals ceremony, I
thought I recognized David Liu (of Chinese Taipei and New York City who
had been eliminated in the qualifying round earlier in the week) walking up
the aisle a section over from me. I hurried after him and called out his
name in the hallway. He turned around and looked surprised to see a fan
chasing after him! I told him how excited I had been when I found out he
would be skating at Worlds and that I would finally have a chance to see
him skate in person. I then told him how much I -- and others on the 'net --
enjoyed and appreciated his stylish skating (in between the jumps). He
seemed very touched. We started out speaking in English and switched
to Chinese in mid-stream. He mentioned something about doing some
ice shows in NYC, but I forgot to ask him if this meant he was finally
giving up his skating eligibility after 10(!) years. In any case, I was so
glad
I caught up with him in Minneapolis!
--Sylvia, who has a few more anecdotes from Worlds to share... all in good
time
Skate...@aol.com
MCleoMarie
Great stories, Sylvia - thanks!
Stefanida
In article <199804081407...@ladder03.news.aol.com>,
skate...@aol.com (Skatephile) writes:
>--Sylvia, who has a few more anecdotes from Worlds to share... all in good
>time
And those ones were great - best post on the ng today! And how on earth are
you able to speak Chinese? Did you do oriental languages at University?
OperettaJK
In article <199804081829...@ladder01.news.aol.com>, stef...@aol.com
(Stefanida) writes:
I agree - best post today (anyone else tired of Tara news? :-)). Keep posting
them, Sylvia.
Jas
Stefanida
In article <199804082019...@ladder01.news.aol.com>,
opere...@aol.com (OperettaJK) writes:
>(anyone else tired of Tara news? :-)).
So much so that I delete all threads with 'Tara' in them!
Fiona McQuarrie
Sylvia, this is great. Thanks so much for posting it (and tell us more
when you are ready!)
Cheers, Fiona
Pat and John Colpitts
Stefanida wrote in message
<199804082128...@ladder03.news.aol.com>...
And here I thought I was the only one ;^>
Pat C
skating ob: Victor Petrenko won olympic gold wearing one old skate
and one new skate.
Sarah Weinman
I lost the original post, but Sylvia (skate...@aol.com) please PLEASE
post some more stories! I too am getting tired of the endless Tara
posts.....
Sarah (who while tired, will probably keep contributing to the Tara
posts as long as she has something reasonably worthwhile to say...or so
she thinks :-O)
Wei Shen
I love your report !
I am so happy figure skating is gaining popularity in China (Thanks to
LULU:) and hope to see more Chinese skaters in the future.
Excerpts from netnews.rec.sport.skating.ice.figure: 8-Apr-98 Practicing
My Chinese at Wo.. by Skate...@aol.com
Shushun0va
>
>And those ones were great - best post on the ng today! And how on earth are
>you able to speak Chinese? Did you do oriental languages at University?
>
>
Maybe, or she could have just bought a book.
Jam
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Alexei Yagudin Tribute
http://members.aol.com/Shushun0va/yag.html
OperettaJK
In article <199804091543...@ladder01.news.aol.com>,
shush...@aol.com (Shushun0va) writes:
>In article <199804081829...@ladder01.news.aol.com>,
>stef...@aol.com
>(Stefanida) writes:
>
>>
>>And those ones were great - best post on the ng today! And how on earth are
>>you able to speak Chinese? Did you do oriental languages at University?
>>
> Maybe, or she could have just bought a book.
Don't know how much you know about Chinese language. There's NO way for a
westerner to be able to conduct a conversation in Chinese by just reading a
book. The publisher of the book may want you to believe that, but it's a lie.
Chinese is too different from western languages to learn by yourself.
Jas
Tee
Hey one can try, can't they??
:))
--
X-no-archive: yes
Shushun0va
In article <199804092221...@ladder03.news.aol.com>,
opere...@aol.com (OperettaJK) writes:
>
>Don't know how much you know about Chinese language. There's NO way for a
>westerner to be able to conduct a conversation in Chinese by just reading a
>book. The publisher of the book may want you to believe that, but it's a lie.
>Chinese is too different from western languages to learn by yourself.
>
>
Fine, she bought the tape to go with the book.