My Journal

This is the Chinese name for Mandarin. If you had asked me last year if I would ever need to learn another language, I would have laughed. I learned German in High School and College and have not used it in 20 years. (Most Germans speak perfect English, too)

I am now 10 hours into my Chinese language lessons and had to make a choice. Mandarin is a pictogram-based language. In the 50’s, a roman letter equivalent called Pinyin of each character was created with some symbols to show the tones. As I have adventured around Beijing with my dog-eared phrase book, Mandarin Hanzi characters are what people know. Very few people know Pinyin. I constantly have to show characters to communicate. So what is the choice?

Our language teacher shows the Mandarin Hanzi characters, says the word and does not write down the Pinyin equivalent. As more and more forms of the word “zuo” and “you” [Pinyin] came out, it was very hard for me differentiate which tone I should use. Second, I have come across very few signs and menus which use Pinyin (read: none). So, if you really want to learn Putonghua, the characters seem to be the right way to go.

With that decision, I now have to learn vocabulary, characters, pronunciation and grammar vs. Vocabulary/pronunciation and grammar. Over the past 2 weeks, I have committed more than 100 or so key characters to memory with pronunciation. I have also gained basic grammar principles. It is amazing how learning some key characters has opened up the world that surrounds me. Now, 100+ characters are .001 percent of the total characters in the language, but the basics are enabling me read and do basic communication at a survival level.

The picture of the Heinz Ketchup Bottle above is a great example. Of the 5 Hanzi characters, the last 3 say “ Tomato Sauce”. The first 2 perplexed me (and 2 of the wait staff at the restaurant) as to the meaning. “Hin Sure” is the pronunciation…which I finally got is “Heinz” picto-gramly in Mandarin. So the bottle is “Heinz Tomato Sauce” on the label…I wonder what a can of “Heinz Tomato Sauce” has written on the side of it????

I can now confidently get into a cab and tell the driver where to take me, order food in a full sentence, and say the names of most of my favorite restaurants.

What is also helping is a set of flashcards that I got at Barnes and Noble. They are instant ice breakers for wait staff and other patrons in the restaurants and shops that I visit. Our drivers have also gone through my flash cards to try and help my language skills and their English vocabulary.

When we first got here, you would get a standing ovation from Chinese people if you said “Thank You” or “Good bye” correctly. Using a complete sentence, instantly moves you to the center of attention…now if I could only understand what they say back to me….