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Speech, speech, speech!/ 言语 / yán yŭ March 15, 2008

Posted by mandarinchinese in Chinese, education, language, linguistics, mandarin.
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Keeping in line with my belief in linguistic diversification, I’m entering a Mandarin Speech contest, which will be held at the end of April.  I have some idea as to what I’ll speak about, but I’m looking forward to challenging myself in this fashion.

This week I haven’t had a chance to give my 10 minutes chinese lesson of the day, but last week, we introduced the favorite:  你好， 你好吗， 我很好， 你呢

No  characters, just pinyin, as characters aren’t a goal in this case.

In my Chinese class, we’re also diversifying.  I’d like to think I had a hand in suggesting practicing calligraphy 书法 and using 毛笔 （writing brush) while we listened to KTV (karaoke TV videos) DVDs.  It was very fun.   That’s important.  Remember to have fun!!!

It begins again/重新开始/Chóngxīn kāishǐ January 16, 2008

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I’m back/我回来了/Wǒ huí lai le！

I guess things got a little busy for me around the turn of the new year. In spite of some good ideas/好主意/hǎo zhǔ yi/ I got off track with my studies. I’m still “busy” these days and I don’t have the energy to pay attention to being diligent, so I decided to take a class.

The class

Well, it was Day 1 of Chinese 220. In some ways 220 will be easy, but in a lot of ways it will be hard. Why?

  1. Traditional characters. The 老师 said that we can write in 简体字 but the book is 繁体字.
  2. I haven’t studied characters in a long time. I can recognize some (500?) but can’t write that many.
  3. Lots of 人 from different places (well, mostly 香港).

So why is #3 on my list? Well, I lived in China for a while and had a wonderful environment. But in class there will be a lot of different accents. Get this, the class demographic breaks down something like this: 85% from Hong Kong, 5% from Taiwan, 2% from mainland China, 2% from Korea, 2% from the US, 4% other. So when others speak, I won’t have the pleasure of hearing “correct/native” accents. In other ways, though I think my listening will improve more because I’ll be more focused on the context of what’s being said. I’ve talked about context before.

Anyway back to the point of this post. I’m taking this class for 2 reasons. One is to give me a schedule to follow, and 2 to approach this class form a language acquisition point of view. I want to comment throughout the semester on what works, what doesn’t and what to do when something’s not working the way you think it should be working. Remember this, though:

When you are your own teacher, the world is your classroom.

It’s All Supplemental/所有的都是一种补充/Sǒuyǒu De Dōu Shì Yízhòng Bǔchōng December 12, 2007

Posted by mandarinchinese in Chinese, education, english, language, linguistics, mandarin, tools.
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There is no Holy Grail of language learning (yet). Believe you me, I’ve tried looking. There is no shortcut, no guaranteed one thing that will get you there.I’m a finance guy. One think you learn in basic investment classes is that you should diversify your holdings. That means don’t put all of your money in an ice cream business. Put your money in an ice cream business and an umbrella business. That way whether it’s summer or winter, you’ll have income all year long. Diversification reduces risk while often times maintaining a similar overall return. That’s why mutual funds are so popular nowadays. They allow common (and uncommon) investors to hold a diversified portfolio of assets without the hassle of manging dozens or even hundreds of securities on their own. Diversification. Maybe this is why colleges make you take all these breadth requirement classes. The higher-ups want you to be a well-rounded citizen upon graduation. So I guess I should have complained about having to take … I forgot what I took, but I remember taking classes I wasn’t to thrilled about. Maybe they were classes for my major…anyway.

So back to diversifying. I realized that in order to learn a language, you really need to diversity your inputs. Chinese 101 will not cut it, nor will your own self-study of Practical Chinese Reader, nor will listening to Berlitz’s “Mandarin Chinese in 30 Days.” Having a private tutor isn’t enough either.

Total Immersion?

Is Total Immersion the answer? Yes and no. It is an answer, but ______ (hint: see title). TI can be frustrating, but can bring spurts of progress, followed by more frustration, followed by progress. Sounds great right? It is. But you also have progress in the classroom. And with your tutor. And with your book. And by listening to that “Teach Yourself Chinese” CD you have in the car. So what is the answer? Total immersion. Not total immersion as in a total immersion program, but your own, total immersion program. Don’t get me wrong, total immersion programs work, but the problem with them is that they last for finite amounts of time. What you need to really get going is a diversified portfolio. Here’s a small part of my own portfolio:

And a lot more.

So by now, I hope you get the idea. You need to attack your limitations from a number of different angles. Consider it like guerrilla marketing for your mind. Got it? Good.

Why Language? Why English? Why Mandarin Chinese? December 11, 2007

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Greetings/你们好/Nǐmen hǎo

Language. So useful, so complex, so sought after; yet, it’s only a tool. A tool for communication. When I decided to go to China to teach English (an altruistic endeavor), I thought to myself “why English? Why is English so special? Why not Chinese? After all, there are 1.3 billion people in China and apparently a sixth of the world’s population speaks Chinese (1). I struggled with the for a few months until I realized that English is not so important. What is important is communication. Ah yes, the ability to exchange information by means of a common system. Then I felt better. I wasn’t going to China to convert Chinese people into English speakers, but I was helping them put another tool in their toolbox. It all makes sense to me now. I wish I had realized that before earlier. Seeing how the “tool of English” expanded the opportunities of the Chinese also renewed my passion for language.

I did my 4 years of high school Spanish. I even went to Mexico a few times. But in no way was I really communicating with anyone using Spanish. Honestly, I feel that all the time I spent was kind of a waste, but French would have been even worse, I think. In college I took a semester of Mandarin Chinese. I went to the computer lab once. I also too Japanese 101 (twice). And Chinese again. Then in grad school I actually took a year of Chinese. At home I have DIY language kits for Korean, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, French, Greek (and I also have “Conversational Thai in 7 Days” from the local library just for fun right now). I’d say that I have a passion for communication and whatever it takes to communicate more effectively, I’m willing to entertain the idea.

That brings us to Mandarin Chinese.

I have a few objectives.

  • First, I want to improve my own Chinese. I’m an ABC and grew up speaking only English. What a shame not to have a firmer grasp of the language (albeit Cantonese) of my ancestors.
  • Second, I want to promote Chinese as the “Japanese of Yesterday.” If you want to do any global business, you can’t ignore China.
  • Thirdly, I want more people to communicate more effectively. Chinese is a tool and I want everyone to have more tools in their pocket. English is like a flat-head screwdriver and Chinese is the Phillips screwdriver. The flat can usually be used with both kind of screws, but the Phillips is a bit more specialized.

So without too much thoroughfare, I begin this blog with this trinity of objectives. In future posts, expect to see Chinese lessons, cultural notes, language acquisition strategies, and other miscellaneous ramblings.

Of course, your comments are always welcome.

Bye!/再见!/Zài jiàn！