Mysterious Letter H, And How I’m Losing It

The Sichuan* accent of Mandarin is famous for dropping the ‘h’ in the consonant combos ‘sh’, ‘zh’ and ‘ch.’ They become ‘s’, ‘z’ and ‘ts’ respectively. When I started learning Mandarin, I swore I would never drop my h’s! Never! Last winter, I noticed I was dropping my h’s. I was yi ping sui (yi ping shui - a bottle of water) and sang zoumo (shang zhoumo - last weekend) and haotsi (haochi - delicious) –ing all over the place. Oh well, so much for my pure Mandarin.

But then…last weekend at dinner…I said, “I really love sellfish.” SHELLFISH, I MEAN. I got a good laugh out of it, but it’s a little scary that I’m now pronouncing English with a Sichuan accent, as well as Mandarin. Maybe it’s a good thing I’m leaving China soon. My English is crap.

I’ve also noticed there are some things I like to say in English, other things in Spanish, and some things in Chinese. For example, I sent T. a text that said, “Tu quieras 吃饭吗?”(“Do you want to eat?”) I’ve also told him in a text, “中人 be loco!” (“Chinese people are crazy,” in response to everyone still wearing their coat on a warm day, while we are in shorts and shirtsleeves.) I like that I can choose which language to use; I’m going to miss that about talking to other volunteers, we switch it up all the time. Some things are just easier to say in Chinese or Spanish than in English.

*Chongqing used to be in Sichuan province, until it separated into its own municipality a few years ago. So the people here have the Sichuan accent.