Confusing Words

I'm back after a week of being in Beijing. (We'll be sure to include something about Beijing in the next entry) It's nice being back. I missed my classmates, and I missed the regularity of being in Taipei. Although my days are quite free, there is in some way a regularity to it and it's nice to be back.

Today we started a new chapter about 一元能買什麼 (What can you buy with $1?). There was a lot of vocabulary about things you can buy (e.g. hardware, wool, toys, etc.) and then some other vocabulary words about calculating, income, economics etc. Well in one of the sentences they were talking about how school statistics show that about 1/2 of students use 保險套 which I directly translated to be "an insurance package". But I wanted to make sure that I translated it correctly so I asked the teacher. Well to my embarrassment the word actually refers to "condoms". Everyone got a good laugh out of that!

I've included below my first Chinese essay for you to read if you wish. It's about "My Ideal Family". It's not the greatest, but I'm improving slowly! (The highlighted words are vocabulary words from our chapter about family)

理想的家庭

現代的家庭越來越小。 以前，我祖父祖母這個年代比較流行有很大的家庭，生得越多孩子就越好。可是現代人比較注重他們自己工作發展， 而且覺得養小孩會有很多煩惱， 因此很多夫婦都只有一兩個孩子。

我的雙親都來自很大的家庭。 我爸爸有五個兄弟姐妹, 我媽媽是十個孩子之中最大的。 我爸爸來自很溫暖的家。 雖然我奶奶很注重念書所以比較嚴格， 但是對每一個孩子都一樣的疼愛。 因此， 他們的孩子全部都有很好的職業，而且會照顧對方。 我媽媽的家因爲比較大，而且我外公比較受寵他的兒子，所以很多時候他們的家都會吵鬧。 因爲我媽媽是最大，很多時候家裏遇到困難都要我媽媽幫忙。

由於我爸爸媽媽都來自很大的家庭，因此我們家裏只有我們三個人。 他們覺得有一個孩子已經很滿足了。我小的時候，雖然有很多堂親跟我一起長大， 但是 我常常都希望有我自己的弟弟或是妹妹陪我一起玩。 到現在我都很羡慕有兄弟姐妹的人可以一起分享生活。

我希望我跟我先生會有一個不太小， 不太大的溫暖家庭。有三到四個小孩，雖然可能會很熱鬧， 但是可以感覺到多一 點家人的愛心這就是真正辛福的家庭。