Why Chinese?

[roddy]

As mentioned elsewhere recently, I'm looking to have a handful of topics which pretty much anyone registering will find relevant in some way, to give new users somewhere obvious to make their first few posts. These will be highlighted in the initial emails the site sends out. 

 

Naturally, it falls to me to start them. So let's get going on this one: 

 

How / why did you start studying Chinese?

 

I have to go back a full decade and a half for this one. Way way back in 1998 I was graduating with no particularly clear idea of what I'd do next. But I had spotted a poster on the wall at university inviting people to "Teach in China." That seemed like a decent way to put off any major career decisions, and back then was a pretty unusual thing to do, which also appealed.

 

So I applied (this was CIEE's Teach in China program. CIEE also run JET in Japan) and they let me (and, I suspect, everyone else who applied) in. Several months later, and after the most superficial of orientations in Beijing, I landed teaching in a private elementary school on the outskirts of what was then the provincial backwater of Wuxi, Jiangsu. 

 

I didn't arrive in China with much hope of picking up a lot of Chinese. I think I told anyone who asked that I'd probably come out with a survival level just by virtue of being there.

 

I did a bit better than that, I think for... three reasons...

 

1) I was being chucked into classes of twenty or thirty (can't remember exactly, blacked it out long ago) six year olds, on my own, with no idea of what I was doing. Terrible way to teach, great way to very quickly learn some Chinese. Wasn't long before I was getting other teachers to tell me how to demand silence, and then very quickly getting to try it out. 

2) We were way out of town, with no English TV channels and only four native English speakers. There wasn't much to do bar study, watch Chinese TV, or talk to Chinese people. I don't think I even had a VCD player. 

3) Unlike a lot of places, the school split the foreign teachers up and put them in offices with Chinese teachers. Even if I couldn't participate much, that meant a ton of passive input. 

 

So with a very pressing need to speak Chinese even beyond the everyday demands of a provincial city, plus full-on immersion, I made relatively quick progress. That spurred me on to study more, and I think for that first year I got into a virtuous circle. I wouldn't claim spectacular progress (an amusing disregard for tones certainly came back to haunt me years later) but when I met up with other people on the same program in bigger cities with students who could actually speak English the contrast was clear and in my favour.

 

So it really was kind of accidental. If I'd been assigned to a university in Beijing it's very likely I'd have learned a lot less. 

[Yorin]

I fell in love with a Chinese girl a few years ago. Naturally that got me very interested in Chinese culture and language, and I started to learn as much as I could. While it never worked out with her, my interest in China is still alive and well, and I feel that being familiar with the attitude, with the sorrows and joys of such a different culture and it's people helps to put my own view of the world into perspective. I put my slowly increasing language skills to good use on my tourist trips to China, as well as for entertaining (i.e. amusing) and helping the Chinese friends that I've managed to make.

[haoyu]

Hi Roddy,

 

Thanks for starting this!  I'll gladly be the first (or not by the time I finish writing this) newcomer to hop on the thread!

 

My interest in China (and Chinese) began my 3rd year of engineering school.  I had recently switched from engineering to business (that's another story), and needed to select a senior design project for my new major.  Not knowing where to start, I went to talk to my new academic adviser (who happened to be Chinese).  She encouraged me to consider doing my project abroad with our school's new China center (oh, and she happened to be the co-director of this center).  I hadn't given much thought to China before, but it didn't take too much convincing to enroll me!

 

My university didn't have any language courses other than German and Spanish, so I tried self-study with Rosetta Stone (no comment on the results or lack thereof...).  Of course, a year after I graduated, my university started offering Mandarin...

 

My project took place over about eight weeks in Changzhou (Jiangsu Province) and Beijing.  I worked very closely with two students from Beijing Jiaotong University who ended up doing a lot of translating for me and the other English-speaking students.  Besides feeling bad about all the translating my Chinese friends were doing, I felt that I was missing out on much of the experience since my interactions with people were highly limited by my lack of language knowledge (and some other constraints of our project).  (I think I was kind of embarrassed by my total incompetence in the native language of the country in which I was staying.) 

 

Since that time, I've wanted to develop conversational fluency (and competence in other areas, too) in Mandarin.  I've tried many inefficient learning methods (for me), and am slowly learning how to learn...  I'm also hoping that I'll be able to go to China again this fall on a CSC scholarship...

[OneEye]

I've always been interested in languages and studied Spanish (classes) and Latin (self study) in high school. I majored in film music in college, so I watched a ton of movies. I believe it was reading about Tarantino's influences that led me to start watching Asian films, and shortly thereafter Hero (英雄) came out in the US. I thought the language sounded cool and was fascinated by the writing system due to the calligraphy in the movie and the scene about "20 different ways to write 劍" or whatever, so I started studying it as a side hobby. I used Pimsleur for a while, and then FSI, and then a video series called China Panorama. I never got very far, but I was proud of myself when I went to Chinatown in New York and successfully asked for directions and somewhat comprehended the answer.

 

After graduating in 2006, I moved to Texas and gave up Chinese in favor or dusting off my Spanish. I came back to it later though, and finally decided to learn characters. I wasted a good deal of time trying to cram characters into my head without actually learning the language, but I also did some studying from regular textbooks like the old PCR books and (I think) Integrated Chinese. I eventually worked my way up to "Intermediate Reader of Modern Chinese" by Zhou Zhiping, though truth be told it was a bit above my level and all I could do was try to decipher the texts. I also spent a decent bit of time at the local university library reading about Chinese linguistics and the writing system.

 

All the while, I hated my job (retail management) even though I was very successful at it. My wife had been encouraging me to try to switch careers, and we eventually decided I should pursue academia. I applied to do a BA at UT Austin but didn't get accepted, at which point I emailed a few professors to ask for advice. They all told me I'd be wasting my time doing a second bachelor's (looking back, this should have been obvious) and that I should move to Taiwan or China for a while to study. I really didn't think my wife would go for it at all, but she surprised me beyond belief by saying "OK, let's do it." We moved here and the rest is history. I worked hard, got a "job" (freelance, really) as a translator (she teaches at a local international school), and started an MA program here in Taiwan. I'm studying under well-known academics and doing research on the thing that got me into Chinese in the first place: the writing system. We're moving to Japan this fall because a PhD in my field requires one to know Japanese as well, and after we're done there it'll be back to the US for the PhD. I couldn't be happier.

[grawrt]

My High School offered Chinese as a Foreign Language but only to ethnically Chinese students.I understand why they did it that way now but I was so envious at the time. French, Spanish, and Latin were the only options available to everyone. I took French but always kind of wished I could have taken Chinese instead.

 

I pretty much forgot about this until I saw that my local library began to offer chinese classes (I think I was 18 or 19 then). It was really fun but I was really out of place. There were a lot of old people and when I say old I mean hard-of-hearing old. But I think it was a good environment to learn in. Everyone was so encouraging. Most of the group had taken the class the previous year so I was a fresh learner. I felt really embarrased because my tones and pronunciation were awful but I was really motivated to get up to the level that everyone else was in. I remember practicing on my stoop after class with my mom reciting the dialogue we covered in class that day. I think Chinese was the only language I learned that really made me work hard and enjoy working hard.

 

That was the first time I actually learned Chinese. I also think part of the reason why I wanted to learn Chinese was because my father was born in China (harbin) and so was my grandma(my mothers mom). Theyre not ethnically chinese but parts of chinese culture (particularly the food) is influenced by the food I grew up loving. Like Bao's and Jiaozi (in my language, Posa and Pilmen). None of them speak a lick of Chinese though. My grandma lived in China while Japanese had taken over so she speaks Japanese. And my dad was too young to learn. Still, China holds a special place in my heart.

[mikelove]

Middle school, 7th grade - they asked us to pick between French / Spanish / Chinese, Chinese having just been added that year. Would have probably picked it regardless simply for reasons of interesting-ness, but was particularly inclined to do so because I liked the teacher (he also taught 8th grade history - not a native speaker, learned it in college) and because my dad was the middle school principal and had gone somewhat out on a limb in launching a Chinese program for middle schoolers in the early '90s when most of the East Asia language attention was still focused on Japan.

[Yorin]

 

My High School offered Chinese as a Foreign Language but only to ethnically Chinese students.I understand why they did it that way now but I was so envious at the time.

 

I don't understand why they did that. Telling people what they should or shouldn't learn based on the way they look? Come on...

[roddy]

Sheesh, I only went to the supermarket and we've got half a page of posts and an embryonic discussion on ethnolinguistic politics...

[Yorin]

 

Sheesh, I only went to the supermarket and we've got half a page of posts and an embryonic discussion on ethnolinguistic politics...

 

What kind of admin are you, leaving us all alone for such a long time? 

[renzhe]

It was the girlfriend, obviously.

I'm a sucker for languages anyway, but after meeting her, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to learn about the language and culture in more detail.

The actual learning push came while writing my thesis, though. I needed something equally difficult to do to distract me when I got home from the uni, so I started practicing Chinese obsessively -- flashcards, TV shows, podcasts, newspaper articles, book, there is evidence of this binge sprinkled all over this forum.

Unfortunately, the early career blues are not leaving me with enough time or energy to continue with the same pace, but I'm doing my best to at least keep up my current level until I have more free time again.

[grawrt]

 

I don't understand why they did that. Telling people what they should or shouldn't learn based on the way they look? Come on...

 

I think it was because the class was focused on learning the characters and grammar with the assumption that Chinese kids know the language already and don't need to spend time on learning how to pronounce the tones and stuff. I know in my university they divided the chinese classes and there was a section for 'heritage' speakers.

 

It really sucks but I think it was just easier for them to do. I also believe that they made that class so that the chinese speakers who were in ESL (not saying all of them were) wouldn't have to struggle to work on their english while also learning another language like french or spanish. But this was just me. I didn't press too into it after I was told that I needed to be chinese to take the class. lol.

[Nathan Mao]

The Army decided I was going to study Chinese.

I wanted Japanese.

But I'm glad, now, they didn't care what I wanted.

[li3wei1]

I was on the rebound from French.

I'd taken a year off of university, which turned into two years. I had no idea what I wanted to do, and I got the idea of transferring to the University of France, in Nice. Why not? So I studied and studied, took the language exam, and failed by a small margin. So I went back to uni in the States, and decided that my new goal in life was to learn every language spoken on the planet, starting with the hardest and most different from English. The first day the professor was talking about how hard it was going to be, something about a 'long march', and I thought, yeah, sure, I'm ready for something like that.

[tysond]

My high school made Chinese compulsory (this was in the 1980s) and you had to do at least 4 years of it.  After settling on my objective to study maths/science I barely passed the last year of it and said goodbye to Chinese at age 16.  I remember the textbooks were all about the number 3 bookstore (that's changed, but not a lot), the friendship store (ok that's changed), and making dumplings together (hasn't changed).   Chinese study seemed useless as all the Chinese people in Australia spoke Cantonese - you couldn't use it at all, and my family was not rich enough to go overseas on holidays or anything like that.

 

Years later, my career had travel opportunities, so while living in Belgium I learned Dutch to a decent level quite quickly, and discovered that I actually quite enjoyed the process and the outcome.  Something about studying alone was very peaceful too.  So when I moved to Singapore and later Malaysia, I picked up learning Chinese as a hobby, with poor effectiveness and discipline, but a growing interest - it's kind of fun to speak in Chinese in these places, but you don't need it to survive.  To kind of repeat the experience of learning Dutch, I planned to move to China at some point (and fortunately my wife though that was a pretty cool idea too). 

[Koxinga]

Compared to everyone else here, my reason was very simple. It was somewhere along the lines of "What else could I do in life? Hmm, learning Chinese doesn't seem like a bad idea."

Been going at it slowly, but surely, for almost five years now.

[kdavid]

I started my travels almost nine years ago with the intention of bolstering my resume and experience for graduate school.

 

After a year in Europe, I realized that learning a European language, while certainly useful, wouldn't provide the same type of marketability/job security as an Asian language. Chinese seemed to hold the most potential for the long-term. I certainly made the right move.

[Tianjin42]

It’s a good question for sure.

 

My answer usually disappoints Chinese friends - I was interested in different cultures and it probably could have been another country: 

 

After spending a little time on the European mainland I found that I enjoyed experiencing different cultures. I was looking at getting away and spending time somewhere quite different. 

 

During the Smiths and Morrissey night at the Star and Garter in Manchester, I met a university friend by chance. He’d taken part in the British Council scheme – something I was considering at the time. His positive review prompted me to push on. I got the position and was sent to Tianjin.

 

I felt that obtaining a British Council teaching role would be a safety net but that first period in China was actually quite crazy. Though in Tianjin – we were quite far from the international sector and it could have been any number of distant cities. 

Also I distinctly remember the glass not fitting the window of the apartment I was given, and the contract I was handed by the school – hand-written on a ripped piece of paper. 

 

I suppose it could have been another culture and language equally at odds with my European roots. 

 

During that first year I did push on with language but didn’t have much spare time. My study was Pinyin heavy – something which cost me later on. 

After returning to the UK to study a Masters, I won a scholarship for one year’s Chinese study. By chance I was sent back to Tianjin my 第二家乡 and that is where my Chinese language started to improve somewhat.

[Silent]

For years I've felt some urge to learn a non western language (as non latin script). I made a few non-commited attempts at Japanese, Arab and Russian but never had the discipline and every attempt stranded within a couple of hours study time.

 

In early 2008 I was between jobs and I made a bicycle trip through China. I cut it short after 2,5-3 months for various reasons but the language barrier played a fair part in it. I was also a bit frustrated that I seemed to be unable to pick up the language on the way (in part to blame on the route Hong Kong - Chengdu through some minority area's). On cutting the trip short I decided that I would return to China (despite my travel policy to visit a different country on every trip) and to learn a bit of Chinese before returning.

 

Back home I made again a few half assed attempts to learn a little Chinese but again I had disciplinary issue's till early 2011 I came across Anki and started flash carding .first a character frequency list, but quickly switched to a HSK deck. That was very motivating as quickly a fair amount of a Chinese texts was recognizable and many texts seemed (falsely) to be within easy reach. Within a year I read my first Chinese novel aimed at native Chinese adults (admittedly I picked the easiest novel  I could find and used a pop-up dictionary extensively). By the end of 2012 I returned to China and made it the first country outside Europe I visited on more then one trip. I had little more then a few basic reading skills, nevertheless it made a huge difference in communication. I managed to do most of the basics in Chinese and instead of eating a completely random pick from the menu card I now had usually at least an idea of what to expect.

 

Despite I want to improve further, since my return from China I've done little to improve. That is only very occasionally I read a short article and got a huge backlog on my anki deck. Hope to spend more time on Chinese again after the summer. I expect to have finished my other studies by then so I'll have more time and I intend to return to China in 2015 or 2016 which may boost my motivation too. Also consider to sign up for a Chinese course to get a more balanced knowledge but I've not yet decided or that's a good idea. (the beginner course I probably will be bored and for the advanced course I will lack too much of the basics)

[lakers4sho]

I've always been interested in Chinese society and culture. I've been mostly around Chinese people, I grew up in a Chinese influenced place. I'm pretty sure my dad's got Chinese ancestry, I just got to dig deep enough (which I'm planning to do btw, once I get enough time). I love watching Taiwanese dramas and Chinese shows. Most of my friends in uni are Chinese, and my ex is Chinese. So yeah, pretty much I've been immersed in Chinese-ness since I don't remember when. The next step for me is to actually go to China and spend some time there.

 

Anyways, I took 4 years of Spanish in high school (they didn't have zhongwen), and in college we have a one year language requirement. So I decided to learn a non IE language (since my Spanish has gotten quite respectable already, although I must say I'm starting to lose it), and what better time to learn Chinese than now? At first I really thought that I was going to do it just for the requirement, but after a while I invested more and more of my time and effort into it, and before I knew it, learning Chinese became a passion. I signed up for a summer intensive course (year 2), and am now in my 3rd year. Yet, there's still so much more to learn, and I'm only eager to get there.

 

I think my future is going to revolve around China. After a graduate with my bachelor's (in a completely different field), I'm probably going to school in China. I'm very interested in studying the interplay between Chinese politics and economics, and how it affects the global balance of power. Wish me luck.

 

lakers4sho

[mandarina]

Being from a small (at the time I thought boring and uneventful) country myself, I was lured to studying Sinology once I read that the department every year sends a couple of their best students to China on a one-year, full-scholarship, intensive program in any uni in China. I worked hard and ten years later, I'm still here.