Learning Chinese

Before I arrived in China I said I wanted to learn the language but the truth is I doubted that I could - or WOULD.  When learning another language I (and probably everyone) have to put myself out there and put time into studying.  I didn't do that in Mexico and although I had every intention of learning Chinese I doubted myself.

No more doubting!  I'm learning Chinese.

I'm taking 4 hours of Chinese lessons per week at school.  I also have a private tutor 4 hours a week.  

Chinese is a tonal language.  English is not a tonal language.   There are 4 tones in Chinese and the tone changes the meaning of the word or the character.  Jiao shi means classroom and teacher depending on the tone on shi.  There are tons of examples of the same word meaning different things depending on the tone - that's another post on another day.

The written language is all characters.  The characters are foreign to us and without letters there's no starting point with pronunciations.    So Chinese is taught using Pinyin.  Pinyin is a way to represent the Chinese characters and express the sounds in the language.

The problem is, this is not written anywhere.  All the signs, maps, menus, boxes, labels, anything in Chinese - is written in characters.  That makes daily life very challenging.

I want to learn the characters but it would be like learning a completely different language.  Right now speaking is more important to me but I hope to slowly work the characters in.

Learning Chinese is also helping me teach.  I now know why past tense is tough for my students - they don't have tenses in Chinese.  They don't have plurals.  They don't have V, TH, ER sounds.  This helps me know what to focus on.

When I'm learning I need to repeat something a good 20 to (probably more realistically) 50 times before I remember it.    Once I use something in real life it usually sticks.  It's remembering to actually use it that's the problem.

I study a lot - mainly with flashcards or using Chinese in my day to day activities.  I find the hardest part is listening.  I might know the words in my head but when they're said to me they sound different and take a few seconds too long to translate in my head.

It's a beautiful language - especially written.  I'm learning more every day!