Mandarin Chinese

Call the airline with Lan at your side and cancel your ticket: say what you want, give your name, say which plane is yours, and say you're not going any more.

Missus Wang asks where you're staying and offers the room upstairs: ask the rent for a month, hear six hundred with meals included, try to pay more, and give in.

Lan asks how a day in the tea garden goes: say what time you get up, put the morning in order with first and then, say you sleep a little at noon, and say when you go to bed.

Master Chen prunes the bushes and you hold the scissors: bring them over, ask how to cut, hear too deep and a bit shorter, and go up to cut yourself.

Missus Wang brings water to the garden on the first hot day: say how hot it is, say you pull weeds and sing at the same time, accept a drink, and go and rest under a tree.

On the May Day holiday West Lake is full, and you call on Auntie Ma: say it's a holiday, hear people everywhere, answer whether you've been to the causeway and how often, and stay for tea.

Lan's boss calls about what she told a customer: say what you said, say the tea at six hundred a jin isn't West Lake Longjing, refuse to say it again, quit, and say you'll open your own shop.

Lan's shop streams for the first time and you are on camera: present the family's tea, answer who fried it and where, and hear Master Chen refuse to watch.

Your sixty days are up and you go to the exit-entry office: ask for an extension, say when you came, hear the date, and be told a form and two photographs.

Back at the exit-entry office with the form and Master Chen's letter: say they're done and brought, hear seven days, ask about before Friday, and learn the extension runs thirty days.

Set up Lan's first stall at the tea expo: say how small the table is, ask whether to take the tea out, put the business cards on top, and say what time the doors open.

A tea trader stops at the stall: hear what tea this is, let him have a taste, brew the tea, ask for a moment, hear that it is not bad, and give him a sample.

An American importer stops at the stall: hear him ask whose tea this is, praise his Chinese, ask which country he is from, and say that you are from Seattle.

Close the first deal with the importer: swap business cards, add each other on WeChat, scan his code, hear him take five jin to try, and keep in touch.

Master Chen hands you a letter for an old friend in the Wuyi Mountains: ask who he is, ask how to get there, hear that the fast train takes three and a half hours, ask which train, and hear who pays for the tickets.

Arrive at Old Fang's house in the Wuyi Mountains: hand over the letter, say how you came, be hurried in for tea, hear that it has been thirty years, and taste rock tea.

Climb to the old tea bushes on the rock face with Old Fang: ask how old they are, hear more than three hundred years, say they are much older than Master Chen's, and go up carefully.

Ride a bamboo raft down the Nine-Bend River: sit tight, ask the boatman where you are, say the water is as green as tea, say the hills are not as high as Lion Peak, and shrug off the rain.

Spend a night at Old Fang's charcoal pits: ask whether this is charcoal, ask how long the tea roasts, hear ten hours, hear that he roasts and drinks tea at once, and check that nothing is burnt.

Celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival at the Fangs' table and close your first oolong deal: wish them a happy festival, ask what the dumplings are wrapped in, order twenty jin for America, and hear the price.

Hear the forecast say the plum rains have begun, say it is raining again and has rained a week now, ask when it stops, and settle in with tea.

Walk the lake with Lan when the lotus opens: say it is pretty, answer which season you like best and why, and ask how hot the summer gets.

Go with Lan to find Old Zhou, who makes the summer's black tea: ask who he is, say what you have and haven't made, taste, and say it is sweet, like fruit.

Roll black tea leaves by hand with Old Zhou: ask if you are doing it right, ask how long, say how long you have been at it, and hear the leaves have turned red.

Hear how Lan's shop did in its first month: ask how much she sold and what it came to, compare it with the company, and look to next month.

Take a call from Little Wu: say you are still in Hangzhou, complain about the heat and the daily rain, and say how long you have been learning Chinese.

A letter from the university: say when classes start, say you will study Chinese for a year, hear that the student visa has to be applied for from America, and give your dates.

Missus Wang packs three tins of tea for the journey: hear whom each is for, thank her, hear take care on the way, and say you will be back in September.

Tell Master Chen you are leaving tomorrow, sum up two months of learning, hear his verdict, say you will come back in autumn to prune, and hear his one sentence.

Stand with Lan at the Broken Bridge in the rain: say you remember, hear about the first time you came, promise to call when you have arrived, and say see you in September.