The New Student

2200 hours

That’s how long it takes to learn Mandarin fluently, at least that’s what l’ve heard. So, if I studied Mandarin for 8 hours a day (which I don’t), it would take me 275 days, almost a whole year, before I would become fluent in Mandarin.

Instead, I study Mandarin about 5 hours a week.  I have a private tutor and I get together to study with a group of friends.  So at my rate, it will take 440 weeks to learn the language, or around 8 years :).

Despite this statistic, I’m sticking with the language.  Taking the lessons has taught me so much about myself, and I’ve learned a little Mandarin along the way.

First, what I’ve learned about Mandarin….

• It’s HARD.  The language has sounds with no English equivalents, four distinct tones such that HOW you say a word can alter its meaning and sounds that are so close one another, they are tough to distinguish.  During some of my lessons, the only thing I can do is laugh and rub my forehead.
• I’m only meant to speak Mandarin, (not read nor write it). During one of my first lessons, my teacher informed me that Mandarin doesn’t have an alphabet. Wait, what?  Yup, no As, Bs and Cs to string together to create words.  So, when folks are writing words in Mandarin, they have memorized the unique characters for ALL those words. I quickly decided that was not for me, so speaking it is.
• Grammar rules differ, and that makes a difference-  This observation by itself wasn’t surprising – of course there are different grammar rules. But as I learn Mandarin sentence structures, it became clear to me why a native Mandarin speaker may make certain grammatical errors when speaking English. For example, in Mandarin, there are proper sentence structures that don’t include verbs.  So it makes sense that a Mandarin speaker may omit a verb when speaking an English sentence – they aren’t uneducated but they’re using Mandarin grammar rules to speak English.  I find myself doing the same thing from English to Mandarin; I can only hope the folks here aren’t judging me because of it.
• Mandarin does make sense, sometimes– We are so quick to judge new things by our own standards, that sometimes we don’t realize when new things are actually better!  As I learn more Mandarin, I’ve realized that some things make a more sense than the English counterparts.  My favorite are days of the week – in Mandarin, there aren’t separate names for different days – but rather the days of the week translate to Day 1 (Monday), Day 2 (Tuesday), etc.  And, the months are the same.  Pretty neat.

Now, what I’ve learned about myself while taking Mandarin…

• My brain isn’t what it used to be – I used to absorb information fast – really fast. Now, it takes a bit more time and repetition for even the most basic vocabulary to sink in.  I’m not saying I’m getting old (?!?)…but my brain just doesn’t work in the same way that it used to.
• Learning something new is rewarding – This experience has renewed my interest to constantly learn something new;  not incremental learning in areas that I have a basic understanding, but something completely new.  There is a unique pride I feel when I can let the driver know, in my most basic Mandarin, that I need him to take me to the school at 2:30…and we actually end up at the school!  I hope I always want to learn something new, even when we return to the US.
• Being humble isn’t so bad – the funniest thing about learning Mandarin is that my kids are learning along with me.  They take Mandarin 5 days a week at school, plus an enrichment course once a week.  And, their brains are like sponges. Rachel has a knack for pronunciation while Robby retains vocabulary very well. It’s so humbling when I am going through my flash cards and my 9 year old corrects my pronunciation while my 7 year old shouts out the word before it comes to me.  I think they love knowing more Mandarin than Mommy!

Despite my Mandarin challenges, I’m sticking with it.  I probably have the fluency of a 3 year old, but right now, I don’t mind being the new student!

PS – This week my tutor is giving me a test – I’m sure I will have a few more gray hairs by the end of the week! You can check out my tutor and study group on the picture page, plus a few pics from a recent trip to Macau – the Vegas of China!