Learning piano in China ~ lost in translation (help!)

[jbsinbeijing]

Hey guys, thanks for having me! (haha, first time poster)

...I'm 30 years old and i started studying piano about 4 months ago (after it being my dream for years).  The problem is i'm a Canadian living in Beijing.  I have a decent basic understanding of mandarin Chinese and my teacher has some basic English but that's about it.  So although she can show me how to play, tell my what i'm doing wrong, teach me songs, and check my progess..she can't explain any sort of theory.  So i feel like i'm missing out on a lot here and it could hurt me later on.  For example, i've been playing a Cmajor chord since the beginning but only today did i realise that this repetitive 1,3,5 fingering is a C chord.  I guess piano teachers would be teaching theory as you go along right?  And that's what i'm missing....

..so my question is where could i go (online) to find out about chords/scales/anything i need very simply explained to someone with zero musical background.  It's doubly-hard for me since i'm learning piano with my teacher, but gotta start research and learning piano theory on myself.  Imagine learning piano in chinese.  not as easy as it sounds. haha.. so any help on how I could go about learning chords/scales basically so i can get the jist of what she's trying to show me!
thanks
tim

[trumofo]

true

https://www.mediafire.com/?mfzgmvgznit

[i_am_joey_jo]

Maybe you should concentrate on learning more Chinese as it applies to music.  You are in their country after all.  Then you will be able to understand your teacher.

Alternatively you can get a teacher who speaks English.

[kookaburra]

Are you willing to pay for books? Because there are a few very good, ground-up theory programs out there. I like "basics of keyboard theory" series... they are very straitforward.