Thursday, June 12, 2008

Awaiting the 'easy' experience

My throat is killing me today (unusual huh?) so a bit of lack of inspiration. I'm starting to wonder if it's somehow easier to get sick in China? I tend to get sick so often.. stomach this, throat that, and a cold every here and there. It's happening a little bit too often to be honest, and I still believe I live kind of healthy (or OK, I have been much healthier than this ...)

I better get well soon, coz my final exams are coming up, and obviously I have to score well in order to move on to Mandarin level 4. Hm.. I wonder what level 4 will be like. In level 2 it was only me, 2 Japanese and Koreans (a Russian girl appeared and disappeared). In level 3, it's been me, many Japanese, even more Koreans and one Brazilian girl (oh, and one Indonesian!). Very clever people. In level 4 I assume it will be the same. The higher the level the less western people. Although in level 1 (and sometimes 2) there are loads of European/American exchange students. I suppose it is understandable why people don't continue on level 3, 4, 5 etc... The amount of reading/writing that u have to do in those classes is kind of insane. For my mid term exam I had to write an essay... Yeah, not the best piece I've written but still. I wrote it. (Although I should add that the only reason why I managed was because we were allowed to use our dictionaries. Otherwise I would have been screwed). I wonder what's coming up at this exam? Unprepared presentation on the development of China? Nah, just kidding. Or? Well, I certainly hope it won't!

I still find it hard to believe that before I moved here 2 people (on French and one Finnish girl) told me that Chinese was easy to learn. Easy!? Yeah easy they said, because there is basically no grammar.. hm... I don't really agree with that. And again, EASY?! When, exactly is this feeling of 'easy' going to appear in my learning curve? In level 6, when I can (hopefully!) speak fluently? Or, did they refer to level 1 where you spend a lot of time going 'ooooooooo', 'boooooooooah' 'poooooooach' to nail the pronunciation? Well, to be honest, I didn't even find that that easy... If anyone who has learned Mandarin and has experienced the easy ride, would u then please share your experiences? I need some inspiration.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Jonna! I can't believe that you called Japanese students Japs. Didn't you know that this word is a very offensive derogatory to Japanese? Oh, well. It's only Japanese. It's not like they speak English or care.

When you don't have enough sleep, you would be prone to get sick. Get more sleep.

Jonna Wibelius said...

well obviously I need sleep as I am offending ppl w-out even thinking twice about what I am writing. Changed. Thanks for pointing it out.

Hang said...

Interesting post. From my experience of learning English, I would say there is a threshold on your way to achieving fluency in a foreign language. Once you've crossed the threshold, you can improve very very fast. At that stage you even don't need a teacher. All you need to do is to read, listen and speak more.

Anonymous said...

The only way to improve your mandarin is to dump your current BF and start dating Chinese guy who doesn't speak English at all.

Jonna Wibelius said...

Hang -I know I know.. it's just intimidating. Also, sometimes I feel Chi ppl fast turn to English if I make mistakes in Chi... I sps I should get out of Shanghai/Suzhou and travel to more... Well, Hunan is my next travel destination so that will b cool! (I hope!)

Anonoymouse -Nah.... dumping my BF isn't an option. I just have to do it the hard way :)

Anonymous said...

Jonna, this is the first anonymous on this page writing again. When I started learning English a few decades ago (I am much older than you), I picked up my spoken English from several nice American ladies (they were my teachers). Years later when I came to live in the States, I started to realize I had talked like a lady linguistically. The problem was that I am a guy. There are always subtle gender differences in every language in terms of choice of words, colloquial expression, and tone in spoken language. My suggestion to you for enhancing your Chinese is to make some Chinese female girls to practice your Chinese.

Anonymous said...

Or You and your boyfriend speak Mandarin only to each other. Whoever started speaking English does the house cleaning that day.

Jonna Wibelius said...

Anonymouse with the old lady English... :) That's quite funny! I know another Swe girl who studied Chi for 1 year and then worked at a kindergarden for 2 years... after that her Mandarin was fluent, however, she spoke a bit like a little kid, and her Chi friends sometimes laugh at the childish expressions that she's using, teasing here for her 'baby language'... but her Chi is great now. I have actually been thinking about trying to get a job w kids as they r normally easier to understand and more forgiving... But let's see!