A New Language // Mandarin Update

Learning a new language is hard. Learning a new language that uses tones and characters is WAY harder. Last year, I decided that I wanted to learn how to speak Mandarin. I started watching Chinese dramas, and after some digging found that a lot of the translations are not exactly correct. So, I made up my mind that I would give it a go. While I knew it would be difficult, and challenging, it’s still a lot harder than what I originally expected.

Once I made up my mind that I wanted to try learning Mandarin I started to read a bit more about the people and culture. And while I’m not educated enough on either to speak on them, I did find several things to be fascinating. Their family units, customs, and traditions. And not just those of the Chinese people, but several other Asian countries as well. When my mom asked me why I picked Mandarin, I told her it started over some silly dramas, but I’ve learned it’s the second most spoken language. It’s also a very popular language within the business world. Did you know that there are “slightly more than 1.1 billion Mandarin Chinese speakers” worldwide as of 2023? So, my interest in Mandarin has increased substantially.

So far, I’ve just been using Duolingo. Most days I do about 3 minutes, and some days I’ll do 3 to 4 lessons. Yes, I’m aware I should practice more. However, I keep repeating a lot of the lessons. Repetition is key for me or I won’t retain anything. This is why I’m still in Section 1, though I have moved on to Unit 3, Lesson 5. Still, I keep going back and reviewing previous units. I plan to start treating these lessons like I did my college courses by dedicating about 30 - 45 minutes twice a week. My goal is to be done with Section 1 by the end of February. This means I need to start knocking some of these out in the next few weeks. Eeks!

Now, Duolingo is a decent app. When I watch these Chinese dramas I can recognize some of the words I've learned. I’m pretty proud of that! But in my opinion, Duolingo shouldn’t be your only source of learning. I feel it’s more of a helpful tool that you can pair with other sources like an actual class or tutor. In my situation, I feel like I need to practice having conversations and getting feedback or help with pronunciation. I want to feel confident when speaking, and right now, Duolingo can’t provide that. This is why I’m looking into taking a class or paying for an online tutor this summer. Finances allowing. I do have a friend who speaks Mandarin who has offered to help me but she’s a professor and has a lot on her plate during the semesters. And since I’m a big fan of work/life balance, I don’t want to bother her with more work.

 

For now, I plan to keep chipping away at the app. It’s not super difficult to make the time for it, and I get reminders every day. Thankful for those “streak freezes” that allow me to skip from time to time. Now, even though this has been difficult, it’s also been pretty fun. It’s such an interesting feeling to be watching a show or video clip, and hearing, “shénme” (什么) or “nǐ jiào shénme míngzì” (你叫什么名字) or “shuǐ” (水) and being able to understand what is being said or at least recognize words from the lessons. That said, my next goal is to start piecing sentences together on my own by the beginning of summer. Wish me luck! Until the next post, zàijiàn. ✌

A New Language // Mandarin 你好

When I watch movies and shows or even read books that take place in other countries, I’m always left with this feeling of wanderlust. I want to go visit these places, eat the food, and experience the culture there. I want to meet people who call these countries their home and learn more about their history and traditions too. Sadly, I don’t even have a passport. Still, a girl can dream, right? Anyway, with this wanderlust comes a desire to understand a little bit about the language in each of these countries. And my recent obsession has landed with Asian countries.

During the week that I was taken out by a sinus infection, I fell down the Asian Entertainment rabbit hole. I have since watched a ton of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Thai shows. I watched "F4: Thailand," "Meteor Garden," "Nevertheless," "Love Between Fairy and Devil," and "Business Proposal" - just to name a handful. I recently finished “The Smile Has Left Your Eyes,” and I’m currently on “Lighter and Princess.” However, this entire time, I’ve kept questioning the accuracy of the translations that I see with subtitles. Knowing firsthand that they could be wrong, from watching Spanish shows/films, I told myself that I wanted to learn Mandarin. I sat in bed one night as I started yet another show and I told Corey, “I want to be able to watch these without needing the subtitles.” He gave me a look and said, “Whatever you want babe.”

He and Emery both think I’m crazy, and maybe I am, but I wanted to give it a shot. Little did I know that I was picking one of the hardest languages on earth. I tried Coursera, but I wasn’t able to hear the pronunciations clearly in the recordings so it was super frustrating for me. And well, it’s been difficult finding a class - the closest one is about 2 hours away. There’s not a very large Asian community in our town either, so finding someone local that I could practice with has proven to be very difficult. In the end, I decided to give Duolingo a shot. I had previously used it for Spanish, as I was trying to build on what I already knew at the time. So, I decided to go ahead with starting the Mandarin Chinese lessons through the app.

It’s been a bit of a slow start for me, but I’ve learned some phrases and numbers. I’ve just been repeating UNIT 1 LESSONS 1 & 2, until things stick in my brain. But y’all, this language is a whole other ballgame. They use tones, and their language is technically just sounds. They do not use an alphabet but rather characters that represent meaning. Then Pinyin is used to translate those characters for people who are learning to speak it. But the little I have learned, I’ve been able to pick out if I hear it in a C-drama. I’m hoping to dedicate some more time to it and put things down on paper once Emery switches over to off-season. If that goes well, I’ll consider the in-person class 2 hours away.

For now, I’ll keep trucking along with my app. Maybe next year I’ll invest in Rosetta Stone or something similar. And while it’s been difficult/challenging, it’s also been really fun! We’ve started branching out on some of our food choices - hoping to incorporate and modify Asian dishes to fit my current dietary restrictions. I’ve followed a few Mandarin-teaching Instagram accounts to help with pronunciation. And taking this on has allowed me to keep learning without the huge price tag or stressors that come with college courses.

When a friend asked me why I wanted to learn Mandarin my answer was, “So I can understand my shows without needing subtitles. Or at least not needing to rely on them so much.” She said, “Maybe you’re just not done learning. Once you get Mandarin down, you’ll want to learn others.” And she’s not wrong. I’d love to learn a little bit of a handful of others - French, Finnish, Korean, and Portuguese. For now, I plan to stick with Mandarin for at least a year - see where it takes me. Worst case, I learned a few things. Best case, I can actually communicate with someone who speaks it fluently. Either way, it's a win! Until the next post, zàijiàn. ✌

Spanish Speaking Child

In case you can’t tell, or if for some reason I may look as if I’m of a different ethnic background (people ask if I’m Asian all of the time) than what I really am, I’m stating now that I'm Hispanic. More specifically, I’m Mexican. My dad is from Mexico, and my mom is Mexican BUT she was born here in Texas. I was born here in Texas too.

I grew up speaking both English and Spanish. And according to my family, they were all amazed at how easily both came to me. Some family members spoke to me in English and others spoke to me in Spanish and I consider this as being one of the major reasons why I was able to catch on to both. Also, most of my summers growing up were filled with a few weeks spent in Victoria, Tamaulipas, México to spend time with my dads side of the family. So that helped. I was able to communicate with my family, and they all understood what I was saying. Even if I mixed a sentence up. My daughter on the other hand, well, it’s a different story for us.

My husband is half white and Hispanic. He looks and dances like a white boy though! Since his father was never in the picture, he wasn't taught how to speak Spanish. While I was pregnant though, he was very upfront about wanting our daughter to be taught BOTH English and Spanish. I was in complete agreement. We wanted her to be able to talk to her Spanish speaking family just as easily as she does with her English speaking one. But we both work full-time, and now I'm going to school full-time, so teaching her Spanish seemed like it would be difficult. Thankfully, our babysitter speaks only Spanish. So that solved our problem.

But now that Emery is saying words, we've both noticed that they’re all pretty much Spanish. Even her little “toddler mumbles” come out sounding Spanish! And this doesn’t really phase me because I can understand the words she’s saying, but my husband can’t. Sometimes he’ll smile, nod, then quickly ask me what she said. But the other night, he just smiled and said “Love, I wish I knew what you were saying.” His statement really got me thinking about how frustrating it will probably be for him. Emery will more than likely be learning the language she hears the most a bit more quickly, than the one she doesn’t. I was like that too. And who knows, she might even prefer Spanish over English? So it makes me a bit sad to think that my husband won’t really know what she’s saying half the time.

I've been trying to teach her the English words for all of the Spanish ones she knows. I’ve also been trying to help my husband out by telling him what her phrases mean that way in the future (or when I’m at school and they’re alone) he can understand what she’s saying/asking. She’s not speaking complete sentences yet, and most of her “questions” are one or two words. She knows a lot of English words too, so it’s not like everything she says is in Spanish. Still, I’m pretty sure even one word questions can seem confusing to someone who doesn’t understand them. And with her growing vocabulary in both languages, I'm sure it's only going to get more confusing.