Say What?

Learn Chinese!

Easier said than done.  Before leaving the States I arrogantly assumed that after one year in China I would come back conversational in Mandarin at the very least.  It’s been seven months now and I still have trouble pronouncing my Chinese name correctly. 

It seemed like it would be so easy; I would be in a country where everyone spoke Chinese, all the signs would be in Chinese and I was guaranteed Chinese lessons in my Aston contract.  One of the things I quickly learned about China is that things seldom turn out as planned.  I didn’t get Chinese lessons as promised in my contract.  The bulk of my time was spent at the school where everyone spoke English, and what little spare time I had was generally spent in front of the TV watching movies and programs in English or hanging out with my English speaking roomies.

That’s not to say I haven’t tried.  I bought a book before I left home entitled “Chinese in 10 minutes a day.”  The book is roughly 100 pages long; if I had simply opened the book for 10 minutes each day since I’ve been here I could’ve read it twice by now.  I am currently on page 40.  At my request my mom has generously sent me a plethora of books on learning Chinese.  I wish I could say I’ve made good use of them.  A friend got me a book from Shanghai on teaching yourself how to speak Chinese; this one claims it will only take me three months.  My employers here in Huangshan bought me two children’s books on Pinyin and on learning characters; I have yet to open either of those.  I had a friend in Hefei who ran a kindergarten, and much to the delight of the little kiddos I even sat in on a few of their Chinese lessons.  I also recently got Rosetta Stone on my computer and still haven’t tried using it.  Moral of the story?  Teachers are there for a reason; if you want to learn something they are the ones who not only guide you down the easiest path, but they also stand behind you and make sure your feet keep moving when you can’t seem to get yourself to take another step.

Summary: If you come to China and you want to learn Mandarin, get yourself a tutor.  Also, remember to cut yourself some slack; learning to speak Chinese and learning the characters is like learning two languages at the same time.  On top of that, though Mandarin is the official language of China there are more than 20 dialects of Mandarin alone, and more than 200 different languages and dialects spoken in China today.  Hence, when you travel about, what little Chinese you think you may have learned is pretty much useless anyway because wherever you’re going probably uses a different dialect or language than the one you learned or are currently learning.  On the up-side, no matter where you go you will get the joys of encountering the unofficial second language of this great nation: Chinglish. 

• For your reading pleasure: the Chinglish I've encountered