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A hotel receptionist demonstrated taichi on the grass while the foreigners struggled to replicate her calm contortions to the delight of grinning photographers. An unassuming traditional Chinese doctor was asked about sexual dysfunctions by an Italian classmate, but the translator was too embarrassed to convey the real meaning to him. We mastered colors by playing UNO and got a glimpse of how addicts fall into the mahjong habit. We studied two songs, one of which was far too sappy for some peoples’ tastes because for them, the moon definitely doesn’t represent their heart and they would never tell their girlfriend such saccharine untruth. Amateur hands got dirty rolling jiaozi (dumplings) for dinner, and although it had nothing to do with Chinese, we mixed sangría and danced salsa on the side. Winners of the treasure hunt were rewarded with Dove chocolates for quickly decoding the given clues in Chinese characters, with the activity culminating in a rush to pile atop a "mountain that's not a mountain" for a Facebook-perfect group picture.
一位酒店接待员在草地上演示太极，我们这群老外怎么也做不到他那么镇定自如，摄影师在旁边忍俊不禁。一位意大利同学向一位中医请教性功能下降的问题，可是翻译实在不好意思向中医实话实说。通过玩UNO纸牌，我们掌握了颜色的说法，还知道了玩麻将是会让人上瘾的。我们学了两首歌，其中一首对有些人来说可谓不知所云，因为月亮显然代表不了他们的心，而且他们也决不会跟女朋友说这种甜言蜜语。
我们一群生手学着包饺子，弄得满身都是面粉。我们往馅儿里掺进西班牙火热果酒，还在旁边跳萨尔萨舞。寻宝大赛的赢家如果能根据提示猜出中文字，就能得到几块德芙巧克力。高潮部分是我们一群人堆成一座小山，这是一张绝佳的集体照。
And what about the language acquisition, you ask? We had kouyu (speaking) in the morning and writing in the afternoon in three levels of classes: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. We had plenty of homework, exercises, and speeches to work on with the help of our young volunteer teachers who were burning the midnight oil every night in the conference room where we congregated. We kept ourselves awake with stories, wedding pictures, card games, chocolate mushroom, beer, wine, and anything else that might chase the sandman away. Proof of the pudding: Sebastian Bujnoch, an absolute beginner, was proudly trading human body parts in a classroom dialogue purely in putonghua（Mandarin Chinese）!
你一定会问，我们有什么收获？我们上午上口语课，下午上写作课。课程分为三个等级：初级、中级和高级。在年轻老师的帮助下，我们要做很多功课、练习和演讲。有一次我们一起在会议室里熬夜。为了保持清醒，我们讲故事、看结婚相片、打牌、吃巧克力、喝酒，只要是能把瞌睡虫赶走的我们都做了。怎么证明我们的成果呢？有一个叫塞巴斯蒂安的学生绝对是个初学者，他已经能在课上用纯正的普通话玩买东西的游戏了。
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