It takes discipline to learn any language but, for me, Chinese has been above and beyond a challenge. Over the past month I've learned more things than I can count but I still can't tell the taxi driver which way to go when he loses his way.
In spite of my failures, there are many reasons to love Mandarin. Let me count the ways:
1. Extra brain power just for trying to learn. It has to be increasing my mental abilities. I can't imagine that my thinking hasn't improved from all of this exercise. It's better than Sudoku and crossword puzzles could ever be.
2. Confidence from reading the characters. I honestly think it's insane to have that many characters in a written language. When I studied linguistics, I would just shake my head at the very idea. Still, there is a beauty to all of those lines and a sense of accomplshment that comes whenever I recognize them.
3. Leaping tall buildings by writing characters. If reading them is something to write home about, writing them is even better. I feel a little like superwoman when I write something and my friends here understand.
4. The crazy English spelling system. Those characters help me understand what it's like to learn to write English as a child or as an adult. Of course our alphabet has connections between sight and sound. But 100 or so sounds with around 1200 spellings isn't always enough of a connection.
5. Humility, humility, humilty. There is nothing so humbling as trying to say someone's name and watching them try not to laugh. Or better yet having your whole class snicker at you for your attempts. Every language teacher should remember that feeling.
6. The tones. I love the sing song tones. I don't love them when no one understands me but I do when I get it right. Or at least close enough to right that they're not laughing.
7. Facing my fears. I used to be so afraid of Chinese. So afraid that I wouldn't even try it. But I've found that, like anything else in life, if you take it one step at a time and believe that you can do it, progress happens.
8. The power of making a choice. I have so very many students who speak so very many languages. I wish I had the time and energy to learn them all. This used to stop me from really diving into anything but German, the language Frau Jones began teaching me in high school.
I'm so glad I've made an effort to dive into Mandarin. Even though it won't help me to speak with my Russian or Vietnamese students, it has benefited me and my classroom all the same.
And those, my English speaking friends, are the great things that can happen when you try to learn Chinese. Even if you're not a language teacher, you can still reap the mental exercise benefits.
If nothing else you should learn to write one character some day. You just might like that superwoman (or superman) feeling.
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