不错 (Bu Cuo) – Very Good

Chinese is an interesting language. Often it uses a negative statement to express positive feelings. The phrase 不错 (pronounced boo tswoh) is an example. 不 (bu) means not or no. 错 (cuo) means bad. In America “not bad” is often said when something could be better or is just adequate. Here, if someone says不错 to you it means that something is very good. Today, much to my surprise, our teacher said this about me several times. (For full disclosure, Amanda was not feeling well today, so she stayed home from school. Had she been there, I am sure that she would have been the one to receive the praise, but I am not complaining. I will take it however it comes!) She even at one point during class told one of the other students “Listen to 付伟国 (Fu Wei Guo)”. When she said this I thought to myself: “How bad does one’s pronunciation have to be for the teacher to tell them to listen to me”, I also thought: “Is this how Amanda feels every class”? Wow, 不错!
Yesterday, we went to another one of the nearby parks. China is a large united multi-national state, composed of 56 ethnic groups. Among them Han Chinese account for 91.59% of the overall Chinese population and the other 55 make up the remaining 8.41%. The park that we visited is designed to showcase these ethnic minorities. It was quite fascinating. Sometimes, when looking at the homes, the dress, or even at the people themselves, we were reminded of the Native American. In traveling, I am often astounded about the similarities of people, and cultures. How is it that cultures that are separated by thousands of miles and natural barriers can develop along similar paths?
We stopped to see a group of Bai, Wu, and Puzi people perform. As I walked up to get a better view, several people lost interest in the show, stopped me, and asked if they could take a picture of me. I felt really bad about that. I did not want to detract from the show but it seems that I fit right in. I must be China’s new minority.
Once I extricated myself from the paparazzi, I was able to enjoy the show. The colorful costumes, lively music, and energetic dancing gave us a look at a different Chinese people than the ones that have become familiar to us. One of the things that they have in common though, is their openness with foreigners. After the show, we spent a long times just talking with the performers. They were as curious about us as we were about them. One young man told us all about where he was from, how long he had been working at the park, and also how much he made. When I told him I was from America, he told me that he wanted to go there but that he would never be able to do so. He said that it is too expensive. (At least that is what I think he said. I recognized the words for “like”, “won’t go”, “America”, and “expensive”. The rest I extrapolated, which some might call a big word for “made up”.) I really enjoyed meeting them. I was impressed with how friendly and patient they were.
In this park, we were also able to see some animals, animals both domesticated and wild. There were peacocks, chickens, goats, and an elephant. The goats were doing what goats do best – eating. The peacocks seemed to want to perform for us. Several times they fanned their tails so that we could catch a glance of their brilliant plumage. The elephant seemed lonely. Now, I am not usually one to anthropomorphize animals, but I stood for a little while watching the elephant and he seemed a little agitated at first. When I approached him, he looked at me with huge mournful eyes and held out his trunk for me to pet. In that moment, the only thing I could think of was that he was lonely and just a touch sad. The elephant handlers then came over and told me that I could not touch because 他太大的, it is too big. So we had to go away. This happened at the end of the day, right before we left. Even if the day did end on a sad note, all in all, it was不错. – 付伟国
Trumpet in a herd of elephants; crow in the company of cocks; bleat in a flock of goats.
Malayan Proverb