All through their autumn romance, Susan had seemed so eager that Michael meet her parents, and the two of them had planned a joint trip home at Thanksgiving just for this purpose. Yet now that the date was upon them, her enthusiasm had changed into an almost brooding depression, forcing Michael to wonder what could possibly have gone wrong. Had something in their relationship changed? Was she upset at him? Or had her parents heard something about him and disapproved of them being together?

Learning Chinese? Dealing with relationship issues? Regardless of whether you have to meet the folks or not, we encourage you to listen to our lesson today as we stress the all-important point about how the Chinese language can sometimes be totally and utterly illogical, and how its easy to make amateur mistakes which will give you away as a non-native speaker simply by following all the normal rules outlined by your teachers.