TrippinTaipei

I have a good college friend who has been living in Hangzhou, China since November 2009. He has been teaching English at a small university there, and had no previous experience with Chinese language or culture. I asked him to write an account of his experiences with learning Chinese on the mainland through immersion. Below is what he wrote me (with some slight editing). I’ve added my relative experiences about these things in italics.

Hey hey hey,

Ok here goes, not sure what you are expecting with my perspective, but I’ve got lots of stories and can be happy to share.

Mandarin is a fascinating subject, rich in history, culture and subtle intricacies. It’s both simple and complex with some 1,000 phonemes comprising the entire scope of the language. However, HOMOPHONES are endless; and even more complicated is the fact that some characters can also have multiple meanings. The two most difficult aspects of the whole scope of the language are the tones and the written aspect. I’ll skip the basics, since you are probably already familiar with that much. The tones become even more complicated because different regions are heavily influenced by the local dialects and thus change some emphasis on the tones. Led Zeppelin’s Communication breakdown is a great theme song for most foreigners in China. Having patience, being diligent, and having the right methods will help get you around this issue, along with some tips below.

With all that said I must say that THERE IS HOPE! Especially with oral Chinese. Oral Chinese is incredibly simple (grammatically, and in volume). Maybe because Chinese people are not too verbose, the same types of  conversation and phrases are often recycled. An interesting story from a Russian colleague is that after studying Chinese for 7 years she became academically fluent in Chinese and even married a Chinese man who she only speaks Chinese with. Since being married, she took jobs as an English teacher, and says despite speaking Chinese daily and extensively, her Chinese has gotten worse simply because everyday Chinese is extremely simple.

Methods of learning: Use it or lose it. As soon as you hear a word, repeat it. There’s evidence in linguistics that people who can more accurately repeat a word phonetically (regardless of remembering it later) have great aptitude in learning language. Of course, using it in context is the best way to use it. This also goes with grammar. When you learn a new word from a person, try it in a few different contexts. For example: An1 jing4 (peaceful)…you hear, ‘zhe4 ge di4 fang1 hen3 an1 jing4′ (meaning, this place is very peaceful), you repeat and then say something like, ‘zhe4 ge yin1 yue4 hen3 an1 jing4….’ or ‘na4 ge sheng2 mao1 hen3 an1  jing4?’ (meaning, this music is very peaceful’ or ‘that panda is very peaceful’) for practice. For confirmation on whether your sentences are correct, you can ask your friends if you can use the word this way: “neng2 bu4 neng4?” or “dou1 ke3 yi3 ma?” (meaning, ‘can or can’t do this?’ or ‘can do both?”).

Test new words in all assortments of phrases. As a great coach and teacher once taught me, the only way to truly learn something is by trying it, and the more ways and different types of attempts you get, the more you learn both what is incorrect and what is correct.

Also, people on the mainland are desperately curious about wai4 guo2 ren2, which literally means “outside country person” (with the exception of small children, who on occasion will burst into tears). Take advantage of this! Even if it means you generally have the same conversation, you will become increasingly more capable with the same answers, and ready to ask more questions! Sometimes I like to bargain, simply to start a conversation, if the shopkeeper is friendly enough to keep up the chatter for several minutes, I will sometimes feel obligated to buy at least something small as an exchange for their conversation.

This is the part that really makes me want to visit the mainland. The people in Taipei just really aren’t all that curious about foreigners – and if they are, they insist on speaking to you in English. Every once in awhile I will get bombarded by several Taiwanese people who want to use their few English words on me. The typical question, “where are you from?” can be easily answered in Chinese (“wo3 shi4 mei4 guo2 ren2″, meaning “I am American”), to let them know that I can speak some Chinese. Then, undoubtedly, this will be followed with, “oh! ni3 hui4 shuo1 zhong1 wen2! hen3 hao3!” and can be a good opportunity to heighten their interest and provoke communication in Chinese.

A trick that I have learned from a Chinese friend…NEVER SURRENDER!
A) Never say, ‘ting1 bu4 dong3′ (meaning literally, ‘I hear, don’t understand’) it is an automatic conversation ender, and useful only when you want to minimize communication (which may happen, and you may want to do even if you do understand).
B) When a Chinese person asks you, ‘ni3 hui4 shuo1 zhong1 wen2 ma?,’ or, ‘ni4 de zhong1 wen2 zen3 me ya4?’ Always answer, ‘hui4, or ‘hao3′. Also, never say anything along the lines of, ‘wo de zhong wen bu hao’ it’s another conversation ender and an excuse for you to not communicate.

Indeed – keeping at using your Chinese can be extremely hard when the person speaking to you assumes your level to be at near-fluency; if the sentence is too fast or complicated, instead of saying “ting1 bu4 dong3,” try saying “qing3 ni3 zai4 shuo1 yi2 bian4″ or “qing3 ni3 man4 man4 shuo1″ (meaning, “please say again once more” or “please speak slowly”). If you still don’t understand, in my experience, “ting1 bu4 dong3″ is not necessarily a conversation ender, just as long as you make it clear to the other person that you want to figure out what their saying. Sometimes, actually, saying “ting1 bu4 dong3″ seems to have the opposite effect for me, and the person (usually a cab driver) will continue on with what they’re trying to say, practically ignoring my statement that I have no idea what they’re talking about!

Next tip, GESTICULATION!!! Sounds raunchy, but it’s damn helpful. I teach my students to ‘talk with their hands’. It will automatically make you a) more fluent with less filler words and pauses b) more expressive c) more easily understood. Obviously, not everything you do with your hands is specically and accurately understood, but a majority of interpersonal communication is already non-verbal. So keeping your hands in your pockets is never going to help you be understood. Furthermore, gesturing the appropriate tone definitely helps pronunciation and the listeners understanding.

Ah! I never thought about that before – but gesturing the tone can certainly be most helpful for people who have trouble mastering the tones. In my class, there are a few peoples who seem to turn everything into 2nd tone. I imagine if they adopted the practice of gesturing the tone, even if they’re pronouncing it wrong, it would be much much easier to understand them

Also, I’ve decided to learn the language in what I call the natural ‘whole language’ approach. In the same way a child learns a language, first orally, with concrete objects as much as possible and now a half year later making an effort to learn characters beyond that of: men, women, toilet, north, east, south, west, and other basics. Another friend who is working here as a French teacher has decided to have regular classes focusing on the reading of lengthy stories and explanations of symbolism behind each character. Their lessons often break down into lots of English, which results in him usually forfeiting during real communication settings. Since then, he defers to me when we are together and need to communicate to Chinese. This too is important. If you are around foreigners who speak great Chinese all the time, you will not get a chance to practice authentically as much.

Also, learning language in chunks is essential. Chinese friends that speak great English will often choose to practice their English. What you can get them to do is teach you a set or idiom and tell the story behind it.
Examples (spelling maybe not correct): ma3 ma hu3 hu, lao san lao si, jin di zhi wa, qin yan suo jian, duo peng you duo tiao lu, tu xue, shen ting ping, and you mei you nao zi!!! You’d be surprised with how quick you can learn these phrases, and how impressed native Chinese people will be when you say them!

From my experience, Rosetta Stone has been helpful with pronunciation, listening, and vocabulary…minimal with communication in real context. Textbooks are only good with a teacher to implement them and verify appropriateness and tone. Having a conversation partner is very helpful, and a friend who became near fluent gave me a great tip. Just go to a nearby University and post a flyer for a conversation partner. Chances are you will need to take it down within days after too many replies. After that you can meet a bunch of people and discover some one who is a very able Chinese conversationalist (can speak slow, balance English and Chinese appropriately, and teach you useful words phrases, and culture.) I also use a podcast of Chinese. It’s incredibly dull, but ok for listening. Sometimes I use it for listening practice, sometimes I use it when I want to take a nap while riding the bus.

Yes, yes, and yes! Learning in a structured environment has been very helpful to me. I’ve tried Rosetta stone as well, and it is helpful for learning basic Chinese vocabulary, pronunciation and some sentence structure – but not much more than that. I haven’t done language exchange yet, but I’m starting one next week, actually!

-T

Thanks to my good friend for his input on this interesting experience he is having on the mainland in Hangzhou, China. He is a smart guy; I can’t wait to visit him there, if possible!

Keep on the look out for my next post – very soon it will be! On the topic of some of my impressions of Taipei culture.

88 ! (typing lingo for “bye bye” – the pronunciation in Mandarin of the number 8 is “ba1″).