Why Chinese?

[Mckk]

After we emigrated to England when I was 8, I stopped all education in Chinese. It's a miracle my level is as good as it is currently because it's certainly far higher than an 8-year-old's - I imagine probably because even as a little kid I used to read tonnes in Chinese, and later in England there was a lot of accidental exposure. Mum watched a number of Chinese dramas for a few years after we moved, we also watched our fair share of Japanese anime with Chinese subs, and thanks to the fact that I love to draw and write, for several years I drew my own manga. Somehow, even though I was already writing in English prose, and never thought to write Chinese prose - even so, I always, always wrote in Chinese when I drew manga. No clue why. Perhaps because all the manga I've ever read was either in Chinese or Japanese (don't speak Japanese but I was working out the story through pictures and kanji). All this Chinese exposure stopped in full when I was about 16, 17. I spent about a decade hating the fact that I was Chinese at all, wishing I could just fit in and be "English". Then I met my two ex-boyfriends, both of whom encouraged me to teach my children in the future Cantonese (at the time I was adamantly against it - when I was Chinese, I mean traditional script and it's Cantonese I speak lol) and one of the guys especially told me to be proud of my heritage (because he himself is quite patriotic - he's German). Watching him read German lit in its original made me jealous - I thought to myself, I wish I could read original foreign works. That's when I realised, wait a sec, aren't I technically bilingual?

 

So I started seeking out Chinese songs, translating lyrics whenever I find something I liked. I made an effort to speak to my parents in as much Canto as I could manage. I was convinced my Chinese was extremely poor, that I could "barely" speak it, and told my few Chinese friends so and we spoke exclusively in English still. I was just too shy still.

 

Then I met my husband, who loves all things Chinese. Chinese looks, Chinese food, he even liked HK. I share anime and manga with him and I teach him Canto from time to time. All the things none of my English friends were ever interested in, my husband would sit and listen to me share for hours, watch films I want to show him, listen to me explain Chinese stuff. He fits better into Chinese culture than I do lol, even though he's Czech. My parents adore him.

 

Anyway... I'm a writer and hope to publish someday - already have a novel finished. But of course I write in English. I've often thought how cool would it be if I could write like I do in English, but in Chinese. Sometimes I find myself wanting to write Chinese script simply because it's different. So, I'm hoping to brush up on it. So far, my attempts include reading a Chinese novel that my dad bought me from HK, and I recently finished reading the manga series of "All You Need is Kill" in Chinese (the book that the Hollywood Tom Cruise film, Edge of Tomorrow, is based on). Now I'm reading Bakuman, another manga, in Chinese. English translations exist for these books, but I'm deliberately going for Chinese. I find I'm not as slow as I thought I was and it's becoming natural to me very quickly.

 

And 3 years ago when I visited HK and met up with a HK friend I originally met back in England, and obviously chatted in Canto with her - she was amazed. She said, "But I thought you don't speak Cantonese?" Today, I asked a different HK friend, one I also met initially in England, if she could buy me that manga I'd just read from HK, and she asked, "But I thought you don't know how to read Chinese?"

 

It makes me question - just how much did I downplay my own Chinese back when I was a student? (when I first met these friends) And what happened that my confidence has grown so much, despite not having anymore Chinese friends than before and still not making a particularly special effort in speaking/learning Chinese? It's an odd contrast, and really shows me how insecure I must've been about ten years ago. Crikey, it's been about ten years... lol

 

Anyway, hey, looking for Cantonese exchange partners if anyone's interested Not sure what I could offer other than native English though! (Mod, if this is breaking forum rules, I'm sorry and feel free to delete the previous sentence) Technically Canto *should* be my mother tongue - it was certainly my birth language - but it's grown rusty and it's really English that comes most naturally to me lol, so I consider English my mother tongue.

[Travis_]

I want to learn more about Chinese culture. This is my first stop on that journey. On top of doing that this site has inspired me to start to learning. This is a very positive and friendly environment.

[deepaniginige]

The biggest population is chinese and it is that people's language. Chinese will be the most popular and essencial language than English in the future.

[Hood]

Why do I want to study Chinese ??

 

I want to read Chinese books esp. Romance of The Three Kingdoms, Journey to the West, books written about Tang era. I have deep interest in Chinese history. The best thing about Chinese History is easy names, I think. 

 

Besides this, I want to visit China, not the popular metropolis like Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou etc.  but less dense parts, to know more about the country. Now for that knowledge of Chinese is must, don't you think. I want to learn more about China, esp. the Pre-CCP era. 

[672wolf]

After having spoken Japanese for a brief amount of time, I decided to make the switch to Mandarin. While I still have not learned to speak any, I have looked into which Chinese language to learn (and chose mandarin) and which type of characters (I hope to start with simplified). I think it is very interesting to see how mandarin and Japanese compare.

[mangcadovn]

 

Dear friends,
I was in Thailand, I had 2 years of living and working in Shanghai, where I know and love with a Chinese girl. She is very beautiful and charming, we had a beautiful relationship that perhaps this life it will print on my heart strings. Now I have returned to Thailand to live and work, we have split up because she could not follow me about Thailand, because she is the daughter, and the parents have arranged for her to take a college real Estate in Shanghai rich ... To be away from her I was sad.

[haojun]

Well, it began actually a long time ago (about 40 years from now). I was about 13 years old. The German TV showed a movie series “Kung Fu” with the American actor David Carradine. I was bewitched by the words of wisdom the monks in the series were saying. Shortly after that my journey into Chinese philosophy began. At the age of 18 I dreamed of going to China. I bought some textbooks and tried to learn Chinese by my own. That was quite hopeless. But, instead of going to China, destiny had other plans for me. I joined the military and went to Denmark, where I am still are.

 

In 2009 I met a Chinese lady through the Internet. We have got married and we live together in Denmark now. Occasionally we go to China to visit our family there. But only the younger people speak English and it is quite irritating not to be able to speak with the other members of the family.

 

Therefore I picked up studying Chinese again 2010. However, with a full-time job, a stepson (Chinese) who needs quite some help with Danish lecture and the disadvantage of the age (learning/remembering is not that easy anymore) the progress is slow. I hope that I will be able talk to the family directly in a year or two.

 

Who knows, maybe one day we are going to live in China. For the time being, my wife prefers to stay in Denmark and our Chinese friends are a very thankful and motivating audience to my limited Chinese language skills.

 

I wish you all that you will succeed with your learning of the Chinese language and all the other things you are going to do in live.

 

Best regards,

HaoJun

[Tina_Kim]

Growing up in a multi-lingual home (Hokkien, Cantonese and Vietnamese). I grew up speaking Hokkien because my grandfather raised me when my mother worked to support my sister, grandfather and I. When I was younger, I understood Vietnamese and Cantonese growing up because everyone in my family spoke a different preferred language and could understand each other regardless of which language they spoke. I remember being asked questions in Cantonese and Vietnamese and responding in Hokkien. Although I speak Hokkien, I never learned to read and write in any of the languages.

 

I've always loved languages. I started formally learning languages when I was in middle school, where I had the option of choosing French or Spanish. I chose French because I felt it had a more International appeal of the two. Progressing into high school, I maxed out the French classes that were available and decided to take Spanish and Latin for fun in the allotted time I had before graduating. I've always had an interest in learning how to read and write but whenever I asked my mom, her response always was: "It's too hard." or "You need to learn when you are younger." This is literally the response I receive from all of my family members when I asked them to teach me.

 

When the opportunity to learn Chinese arose I took it, starting with a partial immersion program for high school students to learn Mandarin at a local university. Entering college, I chose a STEM field because it was, "practical". Having faced various forms of adversity growing up I wanted job security because of the limited opportunity my mom had without an education. While attending my university I was finally able to take Mandarin and start studying Chinese. I only took the two beginning levels of Chinese because my major classes conflicted with the formal courses I bought the books to try to self-teach myself when I had spare time. Sadly being a STEM major takes up a lot of time especially when balancing home life such as interpreting for family members. Not to mention, sometimes, as I have come to discover choosing the practical option does not correlate with happiness. 

 

In response to, "Why Chinese?" For me, the better question is "why not? why now?" March 21st marks the first year since my grandfather passed away. The devastation of not having someone to talk to and keeping his language alive is a realistic fear, especially when my mom's preferred language is not Hokkien. Other than practicing on my own, I have not had a conversation in Hokkien and my biggest fear is losing the ability to speak and understand the language, especially when I would receive complements from my grandfather's friend that I did not sound like an "American person" talking in Hokkien.

 

This is the first time I've used a forum but I am hoping to use this site as a resource to help me find what I am looking for such as resources, books and information I need to help me move forward in my search. I am about to graduate college, like most students the question "what happens after" keeps replaying itself in my mind. I've decided to take a year off before going back to graduate school and I hope to find potentially new opportunities to help me improve my language skill or explore a new experience elsewhere. For me, continuing to learn Chinese keeps happy memories alive.

[Lu]

If you want to speak more Hokkien, try finding a Taiwanese community near you. Not all Taiwanese speak Hokkien (or speak it well, or like using it), but many do. If you're in a big city or at university, there are almost certainly some Taiwanese nearby. Good luck and I hope you find the forums useful!

[Meng Lelan]

The German TV showed a movie series “Kung Fu” with the American actor David Carradine.

 

 

 

Heh. You have to be about my age. My current kung fu teacher and I grew up on that TV series. 

[NotChinese]

I was mega lucky.

 

The Chinese government offered two scholarship positions to my uni in the UK. It was part of the 'Chinese Government Scholarship European Window'. Basically they give a full scholarship to the successful applicant, who can then go to China to study. There are various options, depending on your own circumstances. At best, you can have a full year of preliminary Chinese language education, then move onto a degree of your choice and study in China for its full duration, all paid for by the government. Amazing, right? Sadly I have my own degree to get back to in the UK and at the time of application it was a bit confusing anyway, so I'm just here on the one year language program. Anyway more about why I'm lucky...

 

The scholarships were given at very short notice to my uni. An email to the whole campus was sent out, telling all several thousands students of its availability, but the application deadline was only about 5 days away. I only ever had a loose interested in Asia in general at the time, as I'd travelled to some places, and had a Korean girlfriend for a while, and had visited her country a few times too. I did learn a reasonable amount of Korean for her, but again the keenness dwindled after we split up and I became firmly embedded back into UK life. So, either way, my overall enthusiasm was something that I certainly don't think was particularly special. I just liked Asia generally, as a visitor and traveller. Great culture too, I must admit. China had never occurred to me as anything other than another (very) cool travel destination that I might one day go to. Anyway, I thought, "Sod it.", and applied, literally on a whim for the hell of it. I wrote a short introductory letter to say why I was interested, sent off the application and thought nothing of it.

 

I was then short-listed to the top 3. This means I actually failed as there were only two positions available. But then one of the others pulled out because it was too short notice to get everything sorted (medical checks and other documents to go to the Chinese embassy). Cue me having to make many short notice journeys, a £100 basic check-up from a doctor just so I could get an official stamp on a medical form, and a few days later I was accepted.

 

What's more, it turns out only 12 people applied from the whole university. This is definitely just because it was such short notice. I'm sure there'll be plenty more applicants in recurring years.

 

So that's how I got into it. Absolute pot luck and no extra special interest in it either! In hindsight I know how very, very lucky I was, and how lucky I still am!

 

I've now been at Sichuan University in Chengdu for about 7 months so far, learning Chinese, and am having the best time ever, I'm so glad I went for it and can honestly say that I've really, really achieved something out of this. Best random choice ever, and so very worth it. My Chinese has gone from zero to HSK4 in seven months and I have no intention of forgetting it when I return home in June. All fantastic, genuinely chuffed.

 

Sorry this wasn't a particularly good response to the thread as I don't really have a 'reason' for wanting to learn Chinese, it was more of a 'how it all started' for me.

[Shelley]

'how it all started'

 

This is good too, interesting. Thanks for sharing and i am really glad you are enjoying it so much.

[Lu]

Hurray for random luck! I've had my share of it too and am very happy with it. Glad you're enjoying your stay in Chengdu.

[LiMo]

It's all getting a bit fuzzy for me. The funny thing is it wasn't really that long ago.

 

It all started two years ago. It was the second year of my undergraduate degree in biology. Coming to university really made me wish that I could learn a second language; so many people could natter away in what ever language their parents spoke or just talk normally in a language other than English. Like the petulant child I shall always be I was feeling left out. My friend was learning Japanese so that was already taken. I knew my grandfather was Chinese but he'd left for Canada before I was born. Things are great in my family, we talk about everything and I have such natural curiosity that I never found out why my dad wasn't quite the same colour as my mother and the rest of us until sometime in my late teens. Talk about communication 

 

Anywho this combination of family history and vague language envy led me to buy a Chinese textbook off Amazon. I must stress that I knew NOTHING about Chinese at this point. All I knew is that they use characters. I remember excitedly telling my mum that they have these "tones" in Chinese and that depending on how you say a word it can have a totally different meaning. I was both awed and intimidated at the same time. For the next year or so I studied on my own. I had a language partner for a bit but we rapidly lost touch due to the usual difficulties and general stress around exam time. I still remember having trouble with so much of the pronunciation, repeating "才" over and over, getting both the initial and the tone wrong in the same breath  . I feel quite privileged in a way. I think my initial foray into the Chinese language was quite a personal journey, mostly free of naysayers and the like. I think this really helped lay a strong foundation for when I seriously began to study it. A year later I had to take a break from uni for personal reasons. I wouldn't say that I threw myself into Chinese as an escape, but it gradually became my hobby and a serious driving force in my life. I have really fond memories of the spring and summer of 2014 as I hit the language learning scene hard, going to many different meet ups and exchanges across the city, as well as attending the Chinese Visual Festival.

 

So that's how it started. Why Chinese now, then? I love the sound of it, it can be so poetically rhythmic. I also love the way you can play around with homophones so much (double edged sword there). I think it will open up a whole new perspective on the world, just being able to read and listen to what other people think in a language that's not your own. And so many more reasons besides. As my have friends pointed out, they've seen me study much more Chinese, in just 2 years, than I ever did of biology in the same amount of time. This really opened my eyes and made me realise that it was my passion, and so worth pursuing. I like it so much I've switched career paths! Goodbye Darwin, hello something-to-do-with-Chinese-I'm-not-sure-yet-but-I-hope-it's-AWESOME!

[莱利89]

After my first adventure to China with my three best friends (one of whom used to be a local in 东莞), I fell in love with the Chinese culture and a girl of course... there's always a Chinese girl in these stories! Now I am purchasing an apartment in 东莞 (work purposes) and hope to open a business there as well, with the help of some influential local friends. It can be difficult learning 普通话 in 广东 especially when all my local friends speak 

广东话 but luckily my girlfriend is from 四川 (even though her accent confuses the shit out of me sometimes ah). I have always been intrigued by the Chinese culture since I was a young boy but after going there and experiencing it in person, I knew I would one day call China my new home. I still have yet to venture to many parts of China, but so far my favourite cities have been Chengdu and Hangzhou. Love that spicy Sichuan food!

[max_power]

It funny that read all you guys' stories ( well, not all of them, lol). I was born as a chinese (I am still a chinese now), so I would like to share my story about english.

 

In early 80's, I was born in a techy family, both my parents are researchers. So my english education started when I was like 5 or 6 years old. It is almost 10 years earlier than most chinese children get started.

 

After I finished my high school, I went to Austrailia for better college. And that is the place where I really got my english improved.

4 years later, I completed my bachelor course,  in 2008 I came back to Beijing where I am still living in. 

Well, I don't know why I started to learn english, even almost every chinese students have to learn. But I would say, the language helps me a lot in my career. And the 4-year time in AUS changed me a lot.

So after all, I am glad that I chose english as my second language( or say my parents chose it for me). And I am in Beijing, I am ready for more friends from all around the world.

[stapler]

I guess my story is rather mundane. I have a large amount of Chinese friends at uni, and I do a lot of extra-circular stuff with them: badminton, travel, but mainly eating/talking shit haha. Everyone speaks English when I'm around, but occasionally they'll slip into Mandarin. Three years ago I thought I'd start learning Chinese so I could try to listen in! In fact I remember my first full Chinese sentence was 我是洋鬼子. I spent hours practicing this phrase with my friends on a road trip to Melbourne. Paid off because it always got a laugh whenever we bumped into some new Chinese people. And that's pretty much it. I find that living in Australia Chinese is just very useful too considering the amount of Mandarin speakers around. Also, this might sound a bit offensive, but I actually find Mandarin an awful sounding language, I find large amounts of Chinese culture repulsive, and I could never imagining living in a Chinese country. For me the language is intimately tied up with my friends.

 

Unfortunately I've made a few a few north Indian friends lately and I've been considering dabbling in Hindustani/Urdu. But that's just too much for me to handle with Chinese. Gotta stay focused!

[imron]

even though her accent confuses the shit out of me

but mainly eating/talking shit

 

Just a quick heads up, as per forums T&Cs, can we try to keep unnecessary swearing out of posts.  The forums aims to be family friendly and while sometimes swearing can be on topic (e.g. talking about such words), in general please try to avoid it in regular discussion. Thanks.

[edelweis]

Ah but we also said that we would be nice to the native Chinese speakers

Welcome

[studychinese]

I had an interest in Chinese language for years. I was able to read Chinese characters in the Japanese way (meaning, with some differences) but never really had the opportunity to follow up. Work had me down and exhausted. 

 

Back in 2011 I left my job and was free to do whatever I wanted to do. One of my friends had been living in China for two years, just learning Chinese and having fun (he has sufficient means to do so without working). During those two years, he often encouraged me to visit him in China. So I decided to go for three months. I packed my bags and arrived in China. The day that I arrived, my friend told me that he was having a crisis with his business back in Australia, and it required him to return to Australia immediately. Thus, I spent the three months in China without my friend.

 

Now all alone, and not being able to speak any Chinese at all, it was a Darwinistic struggle of survival. Being already in my 30s I was struggling with learning Chinese (some of which I wrote about in my brain drugs thread). Ironically a lot of the Chinese that I learned in China really only sank in once I was back in Australia.