International Affairs
My experience of learning Chinese:TAWHID
I am often asked by friends and acquaintances why I decided to learn Chinese. There is no simple answer to this question. However, in this post I will attempt to summarise some of the main reasons and describe my experience of joining as a student of the world’s most spoken language
A new challenge
I came over in China in 2019 at November the purpose of study in engineering sector ,after I came in China I noticed that for living in China & spending my spare time with new Chinese friends learn Chinese is very essential , it helps to make Chinese friends and knowing better to Chinese cultu-e . then I heard from my Chinese teacher in our university ( China Three Gorges University ) will teach us Chinese language besides my main courses . and I was excited to hear about it . She sent me classes schedule . and I started going to the Chinese class according my class schedule .
This initial classes was made on a whim – there were grand career ambitions in engineering sector , chase goals & planning travel another city in China. Part of my attraction to the challenge of learning a new language was the fact that it was not something I had previously done and I grew up in Cittagong city in Bangladesh ( The business capital of Bangladesh )my mother language is chittagonian ( The second largest language in Bangladesh ) my country’s main language is Bengali and in my school was teach us English so I was fluent in English and Bengali too and I was raise as trilingual but there is a huge difference between acquiring a language in infancy and learning one from scratch in adulthood. I was intrigued to find out how I would fare.
Making sense of the chaos
My first class took place in January 2019 and over a period of two months I attended one lesson a week, each lasting one and a half hours. My
Chinese teacher's Wang Bin was highly energetic and engaging. Each class she would teach us what seemed like thousands of new words and phrases, then get us to act them out in role plays simulating basic Chinese introductions and conversations.
“My Chinese teacher was highly energetic and engaging”
After each lesson I felt as though by brain had been placed in a deep fat fryer for a prolonged period of time – in a good way. Despite some initial misgivings, after a while I began to realise that the more my brain ached immediately after class, the more information I had taken in. Between weekl-y classes my mind would reorder and make sense of the chaos. I found that Chinese phrases or nursery rhymes we had covered would pop unexpecte-dly into my head at random moments, such as when in the shower or driving to work.
Learning outside the classroom
It helped immensely that in-between classes I regularly practised everything I had learned with my Chinese language partners. Finding Chinese
students who would like to practise English in exchange for Chinese is not difficult at the China Three Gorges University , where more than 1000
international students come to study every year. My new Chinese friends helped to consolidate what I had been taught and expand my vocabulary
with regular conversation practice, while also teaching me all about their fascinating culture and the more unusual or exotic aspects of their cuisine.
Is learning Chinese as hard as people say?
Found that learning Chinese was simultaneously much easier and much harder than I had thought it would be. It is much easier because Chinese
grammar – at least at beginner level – is significantly simpler than English ,chittagonian and Bengali . It is harder because reading and writing to a
decent standard involves the memorisation of some 3000 characters, a challenge which for the moment looks insurmountable but which I am nonetheless determined to conquer one day.
What’s next?
Within two years after I embarked on this journey I have now completed the Chinese level test 5 course and am able to hold conversations with
Chinese people on a variety of topics. I came to China for study in engineering sector, which was an exciting opportunity to test my language skills and expand my knowledge of Chinese culture. I have also been invited to visit most of my friends , those who was my school & college friends .
Tips for learning Chinese
“I would highly recommend learning Chinese to anybody who is interested in taking on a challenge, regardless of whether you have previously
learned a language or not.”
To anybody considering doing so I offer the following advices:
1) Don’t be put off if you don’t feel you are not taking anything in at first. Persevere, give it time, and remain faithful that your brain will make order out of chaos;
2) Find yourself a language exchange partner (or five) and practice your spoken language skills in between classes. There is no better way to improve while learning all about Chinese culture. And watch Chinese movie, TV show with subtitle and listen Chinese song ,and in China everywhere try to
speak Chinese.
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