My First Day of Chinese Class!

I thought I’d write a quick note to let everyone know that I started Chinese classes today. In typical Taiwanese fashion, I was notified last Thursday that the school decided to open the morning class I needed. I was then instructed to come to the school that afternoon to pay the tuition. Thankfully, I had called earlier in the week and had been expecting this to happen, hence I had planned that time! Once there, I was then asked to come to the student orientation which was scheduled for the following day at 2pm….naturally. Of COURSE I had nothing else on my calendar!!! Obviously, I did not make it. I was told that I wouldn't need the book for 2 weeks, so I put off buying it. I was also able to find my classroom # and the time of the class from the website so at least I knew where to go and when.

This morning, I left with more than enough time to get to school, as I did not want to stress out about arriving on time on my first day. I found that I had enough time to walk from the MRT station to the school, which is about a 20+ minute walk. Given that we had celebrated Thanksgiving with friends the previous day, I could use the extra walk (I’ll blog about that later this week)!!

My class has about 8 students; 3 from Vietnam, 2 from Japan, 2 from Thailand, and me. Prior to today, I had been very proud of all the Mandarin I had acquired and had expected to breeze through the first week or two, until the class exhausted the few catch phrases I’ve picked up. Much to my surprise, the teacher asked (it’s all in Mandarin of course…no English spoken!!!!) everyone to come up and introduce themselves. She then asked a few questions of everyone. I was very humbled when every person there introduced themselves in Mandarin, said what nationality they were, how long they had been in Taiwan (most have been in Taiwan less than one week!!!!) and what their age is (except me…is this age discrimination??!!!). Needless to say, I KNOW I’m going to have a LOT of work ahead of me given where the starting point is!

I found out that I DID indeed need the book today, and yes, apparently, I was the only one who didn't know this, so I quickly ran up the 4 flights of stairs to grab one (like I said...gotta work off that dinner from yesterday!) Today we learned the basic Mandarin sounds…the ‘buh puh muh fuh’. Any Mandarin speaker can tell you the sounds used when first learning Chinese/Mandarin and identify the characters that are associated. This is how Mandarin speakers learn to pronunciate new characters. It’s the equivalent of phonics in English. I’ve often wondered how a Mandarin speaker knows how to pronounce a character when there is no alphabet. Now I know…they use the ‘buh puh muh fuh’ characters.

When I accompanied Brianna to Chinese school in California, I was introduced to what I thought was the 'buh puh muh fuh'; however, I soon learned that the school in California taught ‘pin yin’, which uses the English alphabet to pronounce the Chinese sounds. So, while I'm pretty good at the pin ying, one can imagine now how difficult it is for me to try and memorize the sounds using the Chinese characters! You can see my attempts at ‘drill and kill’ (sorry for the sideways picture)…I figure if I write the characters enough, perhaps some of them will be committed to memory? Personally, I’m praying that the teacher takes pity and lets us use the pin ying. If I have to use the traditional Chinese characters to pronounce and spell words, it will take me three times as long!!!

After the first hour of just practicing our new sounds, my jaw felt like I had been grinding my teeth all night long. I think I was so focused on getting a good accent that I held my jaw clamped tight nfor about 2 hours straight. As I'm writing this, I'm still sore!

The three hour class went by surprisingly quickly and before I could get a full-on headache from all the new characters, I was released from class. Knowing that I had my second job to go to (picking up the kids), I decided to relax and read a brainless novel on the way to the girls’ school…it was just what I needed. I found that I was mentally exhausted from the class. I did find the energy to do my homework tonight however, which was just practicing the characters, memorizing them, and looking at some of the words we’ll be learning tomorrow.

I must admit that I’m a bit more cautious about the level of difficulty I will face these next 11 weeks; however, I am excited and relieved that classes have finally begun. We’re already speaking more Mandarin at home and Terry is VERY encouraging. He has been helping out by asking more and more questions in Mandarin first and letting us squirm around to figure out how to respond. Brianna is the best at trying Mandarin. She has no fear and is quick to pick things up. Elaine tries her best, but doesn't quite seem to have the fearless attitude Brianna has. I personally think that Brianna and I may be neck-in-neck, and I expect to surpass her quickly, much to her disappointment :). I'm personally hoping that once we increase the amount of Mandarin spoken at home, things will begin to flow more naturally and this language won't be such a huge obstacle to conquer!

Who knows…when I come home this summer, perhaps I’ll be able to hold an entire conversation with the in-laws (when Terry, his brother, and his mom get together, it’s primarily in Mandarin)!!