Learning Mandarin
I started Mandarin 3 weeks ago. I’ve procrastinated in this area very badly, but once the Patty Bunch was gone, there were no more excuses. I’ve found the whole experience very very rewarding, and will therefore spend some time blogging about it.
Firstly, how I decided on the school. After a few individual classes with a few tutors, I narrowed down the school I liked. The tutor did not want to travel to my place on Saturday mornings (as I live on the dark side), so they offered me a hybrid program of tuition + internet + self-study. When I saw the podcasts, I was sold! What better way to use my ferry time than listen to my iPod and learn Mandarin. The woman who owns the school also runs her own blog http://learningmandarinpod.blogspot.com. There is no better virtual commitment to what you do then running your own blog. This is on top of her school website. She blogs about the Chinese culture, the outings with her students, uploads stuff for us to learn more.
Secondly, learning the language explains a lot of quirky things about my Chinese friends, colleagues and all strangers. You know how they always mix up ‘she’ with the ‘he’. This is because in Chinese ‘ta’ is for both ‘he’ and ‘she’ – the gender is figured out from the context of the sentence. You know how Malaysian and Singaporean English is peppered with the ‘lah’ and ‘mah’, like “Come with me, mah.”. Well, ‘ma’ is used to form a question in Chinese. Example, in a literal translation: “You are busy ma?” means “Are you busy?”
You know how you ask your colleague “What’s the contract worth?” they say “100,000”, then “no, sorry, 1 million”, “no, wait, correct 100,000”. And you think “You suck at your job!” Well, here is the discovery: Chinese people count in 10, 100, 1000 and 10000. The last one is called ‘wan’. So 100,000 is said to be “10 wans”. I sorta knew this, but thought I should remind myself to be more forgiving to my colleagues.
Thirdly, I’ve been highly motivated for the past 3 weeks, and making some good progress. I can say “You are my very good friend” “Ni shi wode hen hau pengyou” in one breathe. My tutor, April, says I’m a quick learner. She has no idea that I cram at home every Saturday morning for hours! She does not know that I stopped partying on Friday nights to have a fresh brain on Saturday mornings.
There are many reasons I want to speak the language. There are no better ways to connect with people than speaking their own language. There is no better way to enjoy a moment. The urge to master Mandarin was further fueled by the recent Johnson&Johnson media summit presentation I had to do in Shanghai. We got scored as the best presentation material and delivery, but I did not get the same audience involvement the other agency presenter did. I know, how childish of me. Only because he threw in a few Mandarin sentences, and the audience went ‘wow’. I came back hooked on the idea of being able to have a basic conversation in Mandarin by end of this year.
And for know, zai jian to my good friends.
Firstly, how I decided on the school. After a few individual classes with a few tutors, I narrowed down the school I liked. The tutor did not want to travel to my place on Saturday mornings (as I live on the dark side), so they offered me a hybrid program of tuition + internet + self-study. When I saw the podcasts, I was sold! What better way to use my ferry time than listen to my iPod and learn Mandarin. The woman who owns the school also runs her own blog http://learningmandarinpod.blogspot.com. There is no better virtual commitment to what you do then running your own blog. This is on top of her school website. She blogs about the Chinese culture, the outings with her students, uploads stuff for us to learn more.
Secondly, learning the language explains a lot of quirky things about my Chinese friends, colleagues and all strangers. You know how they always mix up ‘she’ with the ‘he’. This is because in Chinese ‘ta’ is for both ‘he’ and ‘she’ – the gender is figured out from the context of the sentence. You know how Malaysian and Singaporean English is peppered with the ‘lah’ and ‘mah’, like “Come with me, mah.”. Well, ‘ma’ is used to form a question in Chinese. Example, in a literal translation: “You are busy ma?” means “Are you busy?”
You know how you ask your colleague “What’s the contract worth?” they say “100,000”, then “no, sorry, 1 million”, “no, wait, correct 100,000”. And you think “You suck at your job!” Well, here is the discovery: Chinese people count in 10, 100, 1000 and 10000. The last one is called ‘wan’. So 100,000 is said to be “10 wans”. I sorta knew this, but thought I should remind myself to be more forgiving to my colleagues.
Thirdly, I’ve been highly motivated for the past 3 weeks, and making some good progress. I can say “You are my very good friend” “Ni shi wode hen hau pengyou” in one breathe. My tutor, April, says I’m a quick learner. She has no idea that I cram at home every Saturday morning for hours! She does not know that I stopped partying on Friday nights to have a fresh brain on Saturday mornings.
There are many reasons I want to speak the language. There are no better ways to connect with people than speaking their own language. There is no better way to enjoy a moment. The urge to master Mandarin was further fueled by the recent Johnson&Johnson media summit presentation I had to do in Shanghai. We got scored as the best presentation material and delivery, but I did not get the same audience involvement the other agency presenter did. I know, how childish of me. Only because he threw in a few Mandarin sentences, and the audience went ‘wow’. I came back hooked on the idea of being able to have a basic conversation in Mandarin by end of this year.
And for know, zai jian to my good friends.
posted by Magdalena Wszelaki @ 4:11 PM
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