I studied mandarin with Rene Wu, a woman who translated for our Chinese guest when he came to visit Smith Vocational. It became clear that it was the most important preparation I did. Although most Chinese students learn english, the lessons tend to be reading and writing not conversational. Many people were shy to speak as they felt their english was not very good. I would speak my very limited mandarin and people no longer felt they needed to speak perfect english and were happy to help me learn to pronounce words a little better. Many places I traveled, I depended on my limited mandarin, pantomime and smiling. I really found we understood each other very well. People are people. I do want to learn more mandarin. One tool that I found very useful was a “Lifescribe, inc.” pen. It records what is said as you take notes. When I left my tutoring session, I could play back the words and hear again how the tones sounded. The tones in mandarin change the meaning of the words and it takes much work for english speakers to hear and use them correctly.
I sat in a Chinese writing class with a guest teacher Mr. Wang De Ping, who is a master artist of Chinese caligraphy. He had won national prizes for his work and he was instructing students on the art of more traditional chinese that has been since been modernized to a more “Simplified” Chinese so that it is easier to learn and use computers to write. From this experience I also want to learn how to write chinese. I never thought I would want to try either of these skills, never mind work at actually using them to communicate.
Northern Wells Superintendent Scott Mills reviews a little Mandarin he learned for the trip to China. Check out this link:
