中文 (Chinese)

As soon as I found out I was definitely going to China I knew I wanted to start learning to speak Chinese right away. Not only would learning Chinese aid in my survival, but it would also help me have real communication with my students and other Chinese people. I was blessed with an amazing gift of the Rosetta Stone software and have been studying for the past six months.

Now, I really like this software, and, I'm biased, but if you're going to learn another language from a software and you can afford it, I recommend it. The way it is structured forces you to learn from making inferences by looking at pictures rather than translating. That way if you see something or can picture it in your head, you can describe it off the bat (providing you've learned the vocab and grammar for it).

In the end, though, the lessons by themselves are still computerized lessons and lack some of the real-life communication aspects. That is why I love that each unit ends in a session with a live native speaker and other learners all in Chinese. Also known as real language learning.

For me, these sessions are terrifying because I'm a perfectionist and I fear making mistakes. I had scheduled a session for tonight (my fourth) which I almost cancelled because I didn't feel like I knew all of the vocab and grammar perfectly from the last unit. Then, a little bulb went off in my head and I thought “Erin, your students will probably feel the same way. If you don't practice speaking Chinese because you are afraid, how can you expect your students to practice English?” So, I did it. And I am so glad.

The teacher was so kind and patient with us, her two students, and we engaged in genuine, albeit broken, conversation in Chinese. The three of us laughed and joked our way through talking about buying different things, (or not buying, as our 钱包是空的 (wallets are empty) and things like 首饰很贵 (jewelry [are] expensive) :) ). I observed my teacher using foreign language teaching techniques which I only today read about in my textbook. And I got to talk to my teacher about how I am going to Harbin to teach English. At the end of the session, after she told us both how good our Chinese was, she asked me why I was going to teach English in China, as opposed to another country, like Japan. In my limited Chinese I told her all of the truth I could. “因为我爱中国”. Because, I love China. She was very happy!

And it is really so true.  I love China.  I love Chinese people.  I cannot wait to meet my students, or our dorm mother, or the school officials, or the guy who sells fruit down the street. I am so ready to go.

(So now it's just days of all the things I'm not ready in, like packing, homework, goodbyes, etc.) :)

13 days!!

～爱琳～