Measure words

So, I haven't blogged in awhile about the ongoing battle with Chinese. There are days that I feel that I am really making progress, but others where I struggle to speak and understand. Overall, I am encouraged because I can have a basic conversation, can tell a taxi driver how to get a few places, can order some things in a restaurant (I did it the other day in a place that had NO English, NO picture menu or anything.... I felt victorious!), and can understand more and more. My current nemesis (other than my limited vocabulary) are measure words. Let me explain.... In Chinese, when telling how many of something, you need to include the appropriate measure along with the number. Instead of saying I want an apple, you would say: yige pingguo (one apple). "Yi" means one and "ge" is a general measure word used for "pingguo" (apple). There are a few general measure words that can be used for lots of things, but often specific items have specific measure words. Long, thin things have one measure word while small, round things have another, flat things another, cylindrical things another, and the list goes on..... Have I lost you yet? Really in English we have lots of specific measure words for certain things: a strip of bacon, loaf of bread, pair of shoes, but they are so instinctual for us. For some reason, the measure words in Chinese get quite tangled up in my brain. Eventually, I am sure that I will get it. But for now, I continue to say the wrong measure word for things and get MANY confused looks. ;-)