And the movies pay off.

[camwyn]

Wore my to be or not to be T-shirt to Mandarin class. Teacher took an hour to notice and then got very pleased with it. Told me after class that I'm producing the sounds we're practicing without accent. This is a combination of me being paranoid of sounding like a dork and imitating her exactly (on everything except the hanyu pinyin rendition of 'r', because I can't keep track of how many different ways she says it), and of me having heard all of these sounds before. Granted, most of my movies are Cantonese, but the Mandarin ones (The Emperor and the Assassin, Shadow Magic, and especially Farewell My Concubine) made it very clear how this all ought to sound.

I am pleased.

Now I must pack, for the train leaves tomorrow at 5 AM that will take me to the bus that will take me to the other train that will take me to Penn Station where the train will then take me to Canada. yay.