Despite living here for many years, many expats choose to not learn Chinese in Taiwan. While many people around the world would love to learn Chinese, they aren’t able to do so effectively because they lack a Mandarin speaking environment. Here in Taiwan we have that, yet why do so many expats still not learn Chinese?
Reason 1: It’s hard
One of my main reasons for coming here back in the day was to learn Chinese in Taiwan. I figured that by living in a Chinese speaking environment, I would automatically pick up the language by osmosis. How hard could it be?
As you can probably guess, after a year or two living here with this (lack of) approach, it didn’t work. I only knew a few key phrases. What was wrong with me, I wondered. Why wasn’t I grasping this language?
A little research into it made me realize the issue. Most learning of new languages tends to come from reading. This is why most learners of English learn the alphabet very early on. Once they understand the 26 letters and how words are formed a LOT of their learning comes not just from books but from the environment. You look around and see a bakery. You know what that is and see the word “bakery” listed outside – boom! You just learned a new word!
Living in Taiwan though, we are surrounded by thousands of characters that our brain just ignores. As a result, a big part of our learning doesn’t exist to begin with.
Imagine trying to learn English without being able to use the English alphabet. See the problem there?
Reason 2: It takes work
Now yes, you could enroll in a local language center and start learning characters. That takes a lot of work though, especially since most language centers require you to learn how to write them as well. That requires you to develop hours of hours of muscle memory (if you’ve seen what local elementary students have to do for homework, you’ll understand the process).
The good news is that it is possible to learn Chinese without learning characters. At least for the basics. If you want to become fluent, then learning characters is a must. But if you want to get your feet wet, then start off by learning pinyin. This does require some effort, as not all sounds are what you’d expect in English, plus there’s the whole tone aspect. However it’s WAY simpler than learning characters.
Most Chinese textbooks and online resources use pinyin, so start with that. It will allow you to visualize what the sounds of Chinese are supposed to sound like (especially important for those of us who are visual learners).
If you want to get fancy, you can also try your hand at learning zhuyin bopomofo and using the many resources that kids growing up here use to learn Chinese.
Reason 3: It takes practice
Ok, so you have taken the time to learn pinyin. Now what?
Pick your favorite resource. Start learning the basics. You could get good at these, but it will all go to waste if you don’t put what you learn to use. This means greeting people in Chinese (even when you could do so in English). This means ordering your food in Chinese (even when you can just point at a picture).
If you want to take it to the next level, start learning how to do the things in Chinese that you currently do in English. It may seem awkward at first, but if it’s something you do regularly, you’ll find yourself getting the hang of it sooner, rather than later.
Reason 4: It’s frustrating
If you follow the above steps, you’ll make remarkable progress. But you’ll also encounter massive frustration. There will be times you say things that sound correct to you, that nobody will understand. There will be times you say things in proper Chinese, only to have your partner reply to you in English. And there will be times you’ll put find yourself in the deep end of the pool. You have to communicate in Chinese, yet don’t have the vocabulary to do so and can’t find yourself understood no matter what you try.
These are all parts of the learning process. This is where most expats give up and stick to their comfort zones of English. They can always find a local partner to handle the Chinese.
Yet there are a few among us who strive to make it to the top. They are the ones who understand the next rule.
Reason 5: It requires persistence
The ones who actually make it to fluency (the Gods among us, so to speak) understand that it’s a hard language to work, that it takes effort and practice and that they will encounter loads of frustration in the process. They are the ones who get back on the horse and keep at it and keep at it until they get it right. They see the light at the end of the tunnel when they are finally understood. They are shocked when they are able to instantly reply to queries with no preparation, even wondering where they learned that answer. They are the ones who aren’t satisfied with just being understood but want to take it to the next level – how would a native Chinese speaker have said that?
So how about you? Are you satisfied at where your Chinese is? Join CLO to take it to the next level.