Learning Chinese - One Year On

Tuesday October 13, 2009

Tonight I’m off to my intermediate Chinese class (with some trepidation – what does “intermediate” even mean?), and it occurs to me that I am now one year in to learning Chinese. I started classes last year for research purposes, as I’m working on a book that draws on several Chinese themes; and over the year, I’ve become entranced by the language. It helps, of course, that there are some superb tools out there – including the truly wonderful Skritter, and the dependably excellent ChinesePod – and that I’ve had the benefit of some great teaching here in the UK as well. Along the way, I’ve found myself getting increasingly interested in some of the possibilities opened up by Chinese thought, as a counter-balance to the traditions of thought with which I am more familiar. As a result, not only the novel but also the philosophy book that I’m sketching out at the moment seem to be taking shape with the benefit of a good deal drawn from the traditions of China.

Where this is taking me, I don’t exactly know. I’m hoping over the coming year – despite now working full time in the university – that I’ll be able to continue putting the hours (and hours, and hours…) into the Chinese, and at some stage, I’d like to spend a little while in China honing my linguistic skills. But for the time being, I’m happy to continue on with the process of attempting to metamorphose from a stuttering fool into somebody who can hold a thought, an idea, a conversation in Chinese. My previous class finished several months ago. Tonight, I’ll be able to see if I’ve been making any progress in the period in-between.

 


 


 

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