I just got back from China Telecom trying to get an ADSL (broadband) internet connection installed. My end goal is to get a wireless router so I can have wireless internet and blog from the balcony as well as my desk. But I didn't tell the lady that, which is why I was so surprised when she said the 130 yuan per month included:

wúxiàn shí shàngwǎng

She rattled off some more stats and info that was lost on me, but I had to clarify what she'd just said. I'd been thinking of wireless routers and I thought maybe they were running some sort of Mid-Autumn special for wireless (wúxiàn 无线) capability for getting online (shàngwǎng 上网).After MANY clarifying questions I found that wúxiàn was really 无限 not 无线. She laughed and said:

mànmàn xué ba 慢慢学吧 = Learn slowly / Take your time learning

It was hard for me not to feel a little patronized especially when the words I'd gotten confused sound EXACTLY the same, and they can BOTH apply to getting online.The one syllable I was supposed to use to help me figure out which wúxiàn she was talking about was:

wúxiàn shí shàngwǎng

That shí turns out to be shíjiān de shí 时间的时. So that phrase meant "there is no limit to the amount of time I can spend online" and NOT "getting on wireless internet."What a hard language.PS: On the evening of Mid-Autumn Festival I ran into some of my students. I asked where they were going and one replied with only two syllables: "xiǎng yuè." At first I had no idea what she meant because I've never heard that phrase, but luckily I had predicted that she would say something about the moon. I ran her two syllables through the database of possible things I would have said, then deleted 2 syllables from my results and compared them to what she said. The result came up with the most likely candidate for what she'd meant being: xiǎngshòu yuèliang 享受月亮. MATCH FOUND! It was later confirmed by her. I've never heard those two syllables like that before. I consider it a minor miracle that I understood it at all.What a hard language.