Learning Mandarin

Last week, I enrolled in Mandarin classes that started this past Monday. It is an intensive course. They have provided us with a text book, flash cards (to read in our spare moments), and a lined book for writing. I am in class five days per week, from 9:30 to 12:30. There are four of us, plus the teacher in the classroom. Coincidentallly, we are all women. Each one of us knows at least two other languages. All of us know English, and three of us know French as well. I'll know for sure when I take another class with people who have only one language, but I think that once you know two languages, the third is sometimes easier.

Of course, if your third language is Mandarin, that might not be the case. It is certainly different than what I have taken before. There are similiarities to Japanese in structure, and in the writing (I'm told). Incidentally, I am remembering more and more Japanese words and sentence structure every day (let the brain scientists and psychologist work with that one- and not that it is of any use to me in my daily life. I am doing fine with the memorization new words, but am having some challenges with the pronounciation of tones. Mandarin has four tones and if you are not careful how you intone each syllable, it is possible that you could be saying something that you would rather not. What I do know, is that my head hurts at the end of each class and I spend part of each afternoon, being a good student, going over my lesson for the day. What I really need is to go out to the cafes (and practice ordering), to the stores and ask questions about products and prices, and take taxis and give directions (today's class). Clearly we are learning the fundamental parts of the language by using practical situations.

I can't wait for the next levels! I may even consider taking courses on the written portion of this language! Ganbatte!!! (trans from Japanese (see, I told you that it pops up all the time): Fight on! )