hi，大家好。对不起，已经很久没来写东西了。现在我来教大家一些英文。

I've been writing in Chinese for so long… and I figure it's time for me to write in English now.  For many of you who come to my blog, you might not be able to read this so I'm helping you teach some English on it.  This is a funny story that happened to me.

I was recently in Beijing the other day for some filming when I found out that a childhood friend of mine from Seattle had recently moved out here to study  普通话 at 北大. Steven and I grew up a mere block from each other in the same small town.  It was pretty cool that he had moved to China to learn 普通话 because when we  一起长大, this All-American boy's only Chinese influence was his occasional visit to my house where he'd dine on my mom's home cooking. Seriously though, I remember it was me who first taught him how to use 筷子 and now he was out here learning 普通话.  What a strange twist of events!

Steven invited me to dinner at his apartment.  After knocking on his door, I heard a, “你是谁?” and I answered, “我是你的老朋友大维！”

Opening the door, he greeted me with a 熊抱, “Dave wassup! 好久不见!”

“好久不见yourself!  I can't believe you're in Beijing now and speaking 普通话.” 

After walking in his apartment, I noticed a sumptuous spread on the dinner table and some racket heard coming from the kitchen.

"Hey Dave, I want to introduce you to someone.  This is my girlfriend Wei Wei.  She's also a big fan of yours." 

“难怪 your Chinese has been improving so much!”

"Yup. Wei Wei is also my Chinese teacher!  She teaches me everything. It's really the best way to learn Chinese. Hey, Wei Wei, I forgot what this 水果 is called."  Steven said pointing to an orange and green oval shaped fruit.

"That is a 木瓜 (papaya)" Wei Wei answered.

"There’s also 西瓜 (watermelon)" I chimed in.

"And don’t forget 地瓜 (yam)" Wei Wei added.

"Also 苦瓜 (bitter melon)"

"And 南瓜 (pumpkin)"

"And 哈密瓜 (cantaloupe)!"

"Stop, stop, stop!" Steven blurted out!  "Man oh man!  So many瓜.  How do you remember all of them?"  He started repeating all of them over and over, “木瓜, 西瓜, 地瓜, 南瓜…”  He even started breaking into a special dance to get the 节奏right.

Then I whispered to Wei Wei, "But you forgot to teach him the most important 瓜 of all?" 

"What’s that?"  She asked

Pointing to Steven who was dancing and gesturing wildly around the room trying to memorize his newly learned words,

I yelled 傻瓜!”

Here's the English translation of some of the Chinese I used.

普通话  Mandarin

一起长大 grew up together

筷子 chopsticks

熊抱 bear hug

好久不见 long time no see

难怪no wonder

水果 fruit

节奏  rhythm/beat

傻瓜 fool/dummy

Hope this helps you learn some English!