It’s an extraordinary sensation. I think I remember that feeling from 6th grade time at the states and how excited I was when I realized what was going on and how fast it happening.
Walking the streets of Taipei I’ve gotten used to isolation. I’m on one side and all the other people on the other side. A place where there’s rarely any English signage makes the isolation even stronger. You feel like an alien, a visitor, an outsider. You learn to focus within, get to know how to amuse yourself, sharpen your observation skills of human body language and physical gestures.
Third week of Chinese class, after finishing the horrible first week of practicing Chinese tones and pronunciation and gaining very basic vocabulary and grammar on the second week, it begins and there’s nothing you can do to shut it off. Words keep popping from all around you, sentences and phrases people talk on the streets drill into your head. You keep hearing “Zha ga… naga… kuai… dong xi… haobuhao… wo/ni/ta… yao mai…” and the brain tries instinctively to make sense of the new information received. I’ve also attempted to practice a few Chinese characters and ever since have found my self constantly trying to give meaningful interpretation to words I see and to understand how different combinations make out a word or a sentence. There’s little that has made excited lately as the first time I was able to converse with some foodseller in a market. It wasn’t a very deep conversation - just the regular “Ni hao” (Hello) “Wo yao chi jirou fan” (I want to eat chicken rice/meal) “Duoshao qian” (How much) and understanding his price response - but still it had me smiling for a few minutes. Getting an excited response to my very limited vocabulary or my Chinese PinYin skills in messenger has made me childish-proud like I won the Nobel Prize.
Starting out, I was far from being a good student. It seemed like I was falling in behind and not getting the whole thing as fast as the others. It was frustrating. I thought maybe I’m not very talented, language wise, and that I have to accept the harsh reality that Chinese doesn’t come naturally to me - at least not as other things do. Only after a few weeks did I realize that some students are taking this course for the second time, some have been here for a year and have picked up some Chinese vocabulary while some found the course too hard/fast and left for private lessons. It has now come to a stage where we’re all struggling, in a positive way, and finally it’s comfy for me feeling like everyone else. It’s working out, apparently, and the sensation is extremely rewarding. I think I just might be able to get this whole Chinese thing after all …
