The other weekend I got back from 武汉 (Wuhan), where I was giving a 演讲 (speech).  Some pretty memorable things happened there.  I went with my host to a  偏远的农村 (very rural village), which was where he grew up before leaving to attend high school.  We dined on 农家菜 (countryside food) such as meatballs and noodles.  One of the strangest things that happened though was this woman ran up to me gesturing excitedly and pointing towards the mountains in the distance.  I’m normally in Beijing, so I don’t hear very much Wuhanese; after thinking to myself that I should really make a better effort to learn more Wuhanese while there, I looked to my host for an explanation of what she was saying.  He looks at me blankly and says “she’s a 哑巴 （mute)， I don’t know what she’s saying either.”  Another thing that happened was that we were at a restaurant and my host picked a spice out of the soup, examined it carefully, and called the manager in to the room where we were eating.  He pointed out that this spice was a complete fake and that they should check their supplier.  He indicated that this type of root grows at a height of 海拔2000米 (2000 meters above sea level) and can only be harvested in 3 places in China.  Everyone took his word for it, as he was an accomplished 专家 (expert) in the field of 中药 (Chinese medicine).

武汉 wu2han4 – Wuhan, capital of Hubei province in southern China
演讲 yan2(3)jiang3 – speech
偏远 pian1yuan2 – rural
农村 nong2cun1 – village
农家菜 nong2jia1cai4 – rural village food
哑巴 ya3ba1 – mute/dumb
海拔 hai3ba2 – sea level
米 mi2 – meter(s)
专家 zhuan1jia1 – expert
中药 zhong1yao4 – Chinese medicine