What made me Want to learn Chinese?

When people find out that I have been studying the Chinese language, specifically Mandarin Chinese, for three years, they always ask me “Why?”

Chinese is not a language we hear frequently mentioned in American curricula. We generally teach Spanish as our second language in schools, and don’t often consider the growing power that is China. It’s understandable for Americans to be curious as to why I am learning this language. Sadly, its not because it’s the most widely spoken language in the world, with more than a billion claiming it as their first language.

Nor is it for business opportunities, though that would make sense as China is quickly becoming the world’s most formidable economy.

But the reason I’m learning Chinese is because God told me to.

When I was 20 years old, I was sitting on my porch playing with my new born baby and praying about what I needed to do to prepare him for the world.

And as crazy as it sounds, I heard a whisper in my heart, “Teach him Chinese.”

(Side note-I don’t “hear” God’s voice booming down, I just truly felt this absurd command deep in my spirit and am 100% certain that it wasn’t some idea that I came up with.)

And so, when my son turned four, I began looking for Chinese tutor for the both of us. I decided to learn it as well, and to teach all my children the language.

Our adventures in learning Chinese are as colorful as the Lunar New Year celebrations we get to participate in each February with our Chinese friends. I have embarrassed myself more times than I would like to admit in choosing the wrong words, pronouncing the correct word the wrong way, and all around being a hopeless white girl trying to tackle the hardest thing I’ve ever put my poor little brain through.

I’ve been at this for three years, and I have a large Chinese vocabulary. But I am not fluent. I can usually hear what someone is saying in mandarin and get a decent idea as to what they are trying to convey, but I am at a loss as to how to reply in kind. I always wanted to be “fluent” by 30. Fluency here is fluid; I want an 80% understanding of the language and the ability to speak in a conversation without sounding like a total idiot. Did you know that you use the same word to call a waitress to your table as you do in addressing a prostitute? Or that if you say the word for number four wrong, you’re saying the word for death, a symbol of bad luck? Or that the number 250 is also considered unlucky, so you can royally tick someone off by using that numeral in a transaction? I’m hopeful that my 80% will help me know most of these nuances, so that I don’t look completely ridiculous when I speak Chinese.

I can’t tell you exactly why we’re learning this language yet. I see some fruit from this labor intensive project…my beautiful Chinese tutor “Joy” has become one of my favorite people in the world…but one day it will all make sense.  I’ll let yall know when that day arrives.

In the mean time, if you need me I’ll be watching movies in Chinese with subtitles. I’ll be reading Chinese children’s books. I’ll be hanging out at Chinese festivals and trying my darndest to reach this crazy goal by next summer.  It makes my brain hurt, so if I look like I’m in pain…its because I am!