In what ways has learning Chinese improved your life?

[AdamD]

Inspired by this post by imron:

 

The most fascinating experience is yet to come - that's when after the result of all your hard work, people start to tell you that your language ability must be because you have a natural gift or talent for languages.  That's when you roll your eyes and look back at your 400 day chain and know that it was more because of consistent hard work rather than natural ability, and then you start to realise that people you consider talented in other areas have probably just put in many, many hours to get that good rather than having some innate talent, and then you realise that you can apply the same principle (consistent hard work) to anything you want to learn.

 

The realisation that almost everything is a learned skill is mind-blowing because it frees you up to learn anything you desire.

 

That post has got me thinking about all the ways in which studying Chinese has changed my life for the better.

 

In 2009, when I started learning Chinese, I was a different person from what I've become in some pretty fundamental ways:

 

• I used to give up on things pretty quickly, but I now work hard to achieve my goals and I don't give up easily.
• I also maintain focus on a goal for months or years, where once I would get distracted after a few days or weeks.
• I now have enough confidence in my abilities to take on important responsibilities, a quality which has paid off immensely in my work life.
• I'm less inclined to waste time on simple pleasures because I derive greater pleasure from achievements that really matter. I hardly ever play video games any more, for example.
• My ability to remember chunks of information has skyrocketed, probably because learning how to learn hanzi has taught me practical ways to memorise complex things.
• I can travel to China alone and get myself around without any issues. I would absolutely not have had the guts to do that six years ago. (I'm guessing this would apply to other countries too.)

 

I've now seen first-hand how persisting with a famously difficult language reaps rewards. Also, surrounding myself with other Chinese learners has rubbed off on me: they're all determined and hard-working people, and I've become that too.

 

How has learning Chinese changed your life beyond your study of Chinese? What can you do now that you previously couldn't have done, or wouldn't have had the confidence to do?

[Angelina]

How has learning Chinese changed your life beyond your study of Chinese? What can you do now that you previously couldn't have done, or wouldn't have had the confidence to do?

 

I would rather not say it. Let's just say I feel special. Will the feeling go away if I move back home? It's not nice to feel too special. 

[Guest realmayo]

I've never 'got nothing to do' anymore.

[querido]

Studying Chinese led to making Chinese friends. These friends have made me and my life better. Since I think highly of them, if they think well of me then that is enough specialness for me, Angelina.

 

This destination was very far from my mind when I started, then about three years into my studies I suddenly realized that I had to have a tutor/friend. I set out at that by necessity it seemed, for the sake of my Chinese studies, but this quickly turned around, to *Chinese speaking people* being the end, these in particular of course. In my case, this latter state is the more persistent and runs deeper. (So let this be advice to someone studying alone.) 

[Shelley]

I have discovered I now have the ability to write English with my left hand (normally right handed). I think this is because learning Chinese is one of those things that used both halves of your brain, artistic side for the actual physical writing of characters and the language side for the speaking, grammar aspect.

 

I found because characters are written in a certain order and there are components parts, I was able to "deconstruct" English letters and was able to write quite legibly with my left hand.

 

Oh and yes I also "never have nothing to do" and look forward to it being like that for the rest of my life.

[Xiao Kui]

I have studied Chinese very casually ( an average of 5-6 hours per week over the last 17 years including 8-9 years of actually living in China.), and have attained to a pretty advanced level. Through this I have learned that you can accomplish big things a little bit at a time. This principle has helped me to complete many large projects that otherwise seemed daunting such as creating a comic book.   

[Touchstone57]

It has given me a unique perspective that can only be obtained by living, and thinking in another language. This has enabled me to be more confident in the way I communicate, to be more empathetic and sensitive towards other people, and to better interpret other peoples behavior. Not to mention the experience of being outside of your self. All of that, just from learning Chinese! 

[xuefang]

Learning Chinese took me to China to become a Chinese teacher, in the process I met my husband through a classmate of mine. So no matter work or love, learning Chinese has completely changed my life.

[Mr John]

1. During six months of unemployment upon returning to Australia from China, Mandarin was something which gave my days structure and purpose.

2. It has given me more confidence when attempting to master unknown subjects.

3. My interest in Mandarin, and the process of learning more generally, led me to enrol in a Master of Teaching this year.

4. It has also helped me to set more long term goals.

5. Some people mistakenly assume I'm a genius, just because I can read some Chinese characters.

6. It has helped to foster a more positive attitude in me regarding what we are capable of achieving.

7. I have developed a much more acute understanding of the difficulties involved in mastering another language.

8. I have developed a subtle appreciation for the highs and lows pursuing anything worthwhile entails.

9. I speak much more slowly and clearly than before I started learning Mandarin, and my ability to grade the way I speak has improved massively.

[Silent]

I'ld say it hasn't changed my life, at least not in any big way.

 

After the first year of study I felt proud and felt a sense of pride that I was able to read a novel aimed at native adults (no matter it was a simple novel and used a popup dictionary intensively). That pride faded since my progress has largely faded due to other priorities and lower immediate motivation (I drew that from my then still planned 2012 trip to China).

 

I do notice some added value of knowing a little Chinese in other fields too. E.g. it's easier to understand poorly translated manuals and as other Asian countries are strongly influenced by Chinese language and culture it eases understanding. I also feel I've a more balanced perspective, e.g. I discovered that a lot of what I used to consider western was invented a long time ago in China and at best re-invented in the west and views of Chinese people helped me reassess my view of the western ways and place it all in a larger worldview. I'm however not sure these are truely a benefits of learning Chinese. It's also an ongoing process, due to growing older and having a broader experience. As such I see it as much as related to my traveling as to my learning Chinese.

 

Overall nothing life changing.

[Lu]

Speaking Chinese has brought me places I'd never have come otherwise, from backstage at a Chinese opera to a water treatment plant to the Great Hall of the People. It's also allowed me to translate a book (almost three, actually, and counting), which was something of a lifelong dream. And the 'second life' I mentioned a while ago. A lot of things in my life right now that I am happy with have come to me because I learned Chinese.

 

(Although of course I don't know what would have happened had I learned Russian, for example. I do think I wouldn't have such good things had I studied history or such a more ordinary major, but it is of course possible that other good things had happened.)

[abcdefg]

Learning Chinese has allowed me to live and travel in China, experience a different way of life, to learn some new skills, to make friends with some special people who live there (live here.)

[stapler]

You know I don't think it has improved my life in any way. Everything I've done, have and can do would be the same without it. The only thing which comes to mind was discovering what diseases actually do (EG 霍亂), what makes mammals a distinct group of animals (哺乳動物), and what specific organs do (EG 腎) by looking up their definitions.

[renzhe]

It has literally taught me the value of persistent, continuous effort in contrast to heroic, suicidal bouts of extreme effort that I'm so fond of.

I tend to do things when I'm motivated, and then I ride that wave of motivation until the task is done. I often get quite far with that approach, but it was a total failure with Chinese. The fact that rolling up my sleeves and dedicating a set amount of time daily to repeating the same thing over and over produced such excellent results with Chinese characters has made me apply the same principles to other aspects of my life: martial arts, nutrition, guitar, languages. And I got much better at all of them.

Some of it has to do with getting older and more patient, which comes naturally. But for me, that was "it", that was the point when I saw that continous work pays off, and that inspiration an short-term effort alone is sometimes not enough. This change has positively affected most other things I do.

Which is why I feel that people who avoid learning characters are missing the point.

[Zev]

I think Chinese and the other foreign languages I study are more of an obsession than a means to any end (though I may try to justify them to myself as means to some vague end). I don't see many tangible benefits. Living in the U.S., I find that being conversant/functionally literate in Chinese is surprisingly irrelevant in the job market. That might be different if my Chinese language knowledge were paired with other salable skills, but I majored in a humanities field.

 

At a more basic level, though, I think learning Chinese and other languages has changed my mental life, for better or worse. Not in any special "citizen of the world" sort of way, but at an everyday level, i.e. when I get songs stuck in my head, they are often Chinese, or when I am trying mentally to put something into words, sometimes Chinese is what works. I've developed different tastes because of having Chinese mentally available to me.

[AdamD]

Great responses! It's interesting to see how learning Chinese has affected people in quite different ways, and some in barely discernible ways.
 

Having spoken to a lot of people locally about this, I believe some English speakers who learn Chinese are actually higher achievers than they give themselves credit for. Could that explain why some people here don't feel improved or enriched by learning Chinese? Are they already at that level of strong personal achievement, and so have just folded Chinese into a longer list of similar challenges?

 

@renzhe wrote:

 

Which is why I feel that people who avoid learning characters are missing the point.

 

I love this and I completely agree.

 

When I compare my first failed attempt to learn characters in 2008—I couldn't remember four!—to the 2,000+ characters I've been able to remember since, it's proved to me that I really can do the most insanely difficult tasks if I put my mind to it.

 

As you indicated, in this case I think aptitude comes second to being interested enough to study like mad. People who don't learn characters miss out on the particular buzz that comes from picking up a random book or magazine, being able to understand most of what's on any given page, and knowing that you got there as a language learner, not as a native speaker.

 

These days I'll take on just about anything I need to do, with little fear or self-doubt, because I know what damage I've done to my progress in the past by erecting dumb barriers.

[anonymoose]

It's difficult to say how learning Chinese has affected my life, because I'm not sure what aspects of my life are a consequence of having learned Chinese, or how much learning Chinese is a consequence of my life (cf. chicken/egg).

 

Suffice to say, though, that my life has changed beyond all possible recognition since having started to learn Chinese. I have spent the best part of the last decade in China, which I would never even have imagined 20 years ago.

[Silent]

 

Having spoken to a lot of people locally about this, I believe some English speakers who learn Chinese are actually higher achievers than they give themselves credit for. Could that explain why some people here don't feel improved or enriched by learning Chinese? Are they already at that level of strong personal achievement, and so have just folded Chinese into a longer list of similar challenges?

I guess there are many possible explanations for the differences. Personally I think that why someone learns Chinese and when they learn Chinese are two important factors.

 

Why: If one learns Chinese as a hobby with little practical application it will have relatively little influence on your life compared to learning Chinese as a career choice or because your boss send you to China.

 

When: At a young age people have less experience. So experiences have on the whole more impact and there is more going on that has significant impact on life and thus more place where Chinese may have some impact.  Also if Chinese is the first foreign language there is the added value of bilingualism thrown in, where some-one learning Chinese as the 3th or whatever language has experienced that broadening perspective before.

 

Also something to consider. You don't know what would have happened if you had not learned Chinese. It was pretty much chance I choose Chinese. If I had chosen Japanese or Arab instead I think the difference with Chinese would have been limited as they all would help broaden my worldview and help in communication while traveling. Had I instead decided to learn C++ or painting that would have given me a completely different experience.

[Lu]

I believe some English speakers who learn Chinese are actually higher achievers than they give themselves credit for.

Perhaps it's also that thing where once you've mastered something, it's not so difficult anymore, and thus it doesn't feel like such an achievement to have mastered it. Your first article in X prestigious journal is something you call you mother about in the middle of the night, the second is still pretty cool, by the third it's routine. The first time you understand a word is awesome, but soon you mainly notice the words you don't understand.

[AdamD]

@Lu: That's true. I'm only ever annoyed that I don't know words or how to use them; it's usually other people who remind me what I can do.

 

@Silent:

 

You don't know what would have happened if you had not learned Chinese.

 

Fair point, but going by my failed attempts at other things, few alternative pursuits would have affected me to this degree.