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A hotel receptionist demonstrated taichi on the grass while the foreigners struggled to replicate her calm contortions to the delight of grinning photographers. An unassuming traditional Chinese doctor was asked about sexual dysfunctions by an Italian classmate, but the translator was too embarrassed to convey the real meaning to him. We mastered colors by playing UNO and got a glimpse of how addicts fall into the mahjong habit. We studied two songs, one of which was far too sappy for some peoples」 tastes because for them, the moon definitely doesn」t represent their heart and they would never tell their girlfriend such saccharine untruth. Amateur hands got dirty rolling jiaozi (dumplings) for dinner, and although it had nothing to do with Chinese, we mixed sangr?a and danced salsa on the side. Winners of the treasure hunt were rewarded with Dove chocolates for quickly decoding the given clues in Chinese characters, with the activity culminating in a rush to pile atop a "mountain that's not a mountain" for a Facebook-perfect group picture.
一位酒店接待員在草地上演示太極，我們這群老外怎麼也做不到他那麼鎮定自如，攝影師在旁邊忍俊不禁。一位意大利同學向一位中醫請教性功能下降的問題，可是翻譯實在不好意思向中醫實話實說。通過玩UNO紙牌，我們掌握了顏色的說法，還知道了玩麻將是會讓人上癮的。我們學了兩首歌，其中一首對有些人來說可謂不知所雲，因為月亮顯然代表不了他們的心，而且他們也決不會跟女朋友說這種甜言蜜語。
我們一群生手學著包餃子，弄得滿身都是面粉。我們往餡兒裡摻進西班牙火熱果酒，還在旁邊跳薩爾薩舞。尋寶大賽的贏家如果能根據提示猜出中文字，就能得到幾塊德芙巧克力。高潮部分是我們一群人堆成一座小山，這是一張絕佳的集體照。
And what about the language acquisition, you ask? We had kouyu (speaking) in the morning and writing in the afternoon in three levels of classes: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. We had plenty of homework, exercises, and speeches to work on with the help of our young volunteer teachers who were burning the midnight oil every night in the conference room where we congregated. We kept ourselves awake with stories, wedding pictures, card games, chocolate mushroom, beer, wine, and anything else that might chase the sandman away. Proof of the pudding: Sebastian Bujnoch, an absolute beginner, was proudly trading human body parts in a classroom dialogue purely in putonghua（Mandarin Chinese）!
你一定會問，我們有什麼收獲？我們上午上口語課，下午上寫作課。課程分為三個等級：初級、中級和高級。在年輕老師的幫助下，我們要做很多功課、練習和演講。有一次我們一起在會議室裡熬夜。為了保持清醒，我們講故事、看結婚相片、打牌、吃巧克力、喝酒，只要是能把瞌睡蟲趕走的我們都做了。怎麼證明我們的成果呢？有一個叫塞巴斯蒂安的學生絕對是個初學者，他已經能在課上用純正的普通話玩買東西的游戲了。
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