懒惰的茶 – Lazytea
In April of 2019 I turned 60. This is auspicious in the Chinese lunar calendar because it is the completion of one life cycle through the zodiac and elements. 12 signs, 5 elements. It is considered the age of 100. Supposedly we are disconnected from the birth karma and now make karma for the next reincarnations. This feels good. But, how to commemorate it properly?
I wanted a random challenge. Something new and different and unrelated to anything else in my life. So, I downloaded Duolingo app on my phone and began to study Chinese. I’ve studied Russian, German, & French but only knew a few basic words in Chinese. At first it was counting and simple phrases of greeting. I struggled as it became more difficult trying to memorize the Hanzi and Pinyin and reproduce the pronunciation. Then, while attending the National Qigong Association Convention in Rochester, Minnesota, I met Mark Reinhardt (ThreePureRivers.com) and a few others who told me to learn to read, write, and understand Chinese but not to worry about proper pronunciation because to native speakers of English this is next to impossible without total immersion. That made my life much easier. I focused on learning grammar and vocabulary.
Two years and a few months later I can say that I do understand quite a bit of basic Chinese. Most importantly, I learned that their grammar doesn’t have a lot of nuance. Yes, there is please, thank you, and should. But, there isn’t much softness like “would you please give me a ride?” It is more like “Please give me a ride?” Direct translation seems commanding and demanding. Coming from Minnesota where the custom is to be overly polite and offer something three times or convince the person they want to indulge, I was taken aback by the apparent abruptness and almost rude demanding nature of the Chinese people I met. Frankly, I felt self-conscious and nervous around them. Even my ESL students from Taiwan and Cambodia who were desperately trying to learn English struggled with softening their language to be less politically incorrect. Telling your boss or a customer, “You take this!” Instead of offering it “Would you like to try this?” Or “here is my report/work” is not met with quite the same regard.
Chinese Grammar is much simpler than English. And, the language is very economical. The words and characters are more expressive and symbolic. In English we say “Relax!” The Chinese say, “Fang Song.” There is one word for he & she thought 2 different symbols. No articles at all! And, words don’t have a gender which makes it much easier to learn than French, Russian, or German.
I am just really starting to learn to write the characters. It takes more focus and I need to work from a book not the app. So, it will be a bit longer journey. I’m so pleased that I took on this endeavor. I have learned much. Though at my age, I may never get to travel to China in this lifetime, I do get to practice now and again with friends; and I am better able to understand Chinese speaking English. It has added depth to my Qigong study too.
You can teach an old dog new tricks and probably old dogs should keep learning. Now back to my C-dramas on Netflix.
再见 – Goodbye
PS Duolingo does a good job of motivating and gamifying learning. But, I would recommend HSK for someone beginning to learn with no prior experience with a non romanized language such as Russian which uses the Cyrillic alphabet.
Lazytea Times 