I try and try, but the tones in the Chinese language are impossible. I think that it may have something to do with musical ability. Naturally musical people can control their pitch while talking and have the advantage when learning this language. I, and many people who are not harmonically gifted cannot sing on key. I can only sing in the shower. Maybe I could speak Chinese in the shower, but that doesn’t do me much good.
Ma - ma – ma – ma it all sounds the same to me.
If you try to speak Chinese and use the wrong tones, then the meaning of what you wanted to say may be lost. When I say “good morning”, in Chinese, I may be saying “soap” by mistake. This frightening prospect is just another thing that holds me back from attempting meaningful conversations in Chinese, but it is not the only thing.
I studied Chinese in the US, and was discouraged by trying unsuccessfully to use my schoolhouse Chinese in Taiwan. I would try to put my newfound language skills into practice and nobody would understand what I was trying to say. After repeating several times I finally would say what I was trying to say in English and then everyone would say, “Oh I see. You speak Chinese very well!”
I know a lot of words, but it’s the putting of them together that is the difficult part. People talk so fast that the words pass me like an invisible freight train at 300 kph. They could be talking Chinese, Hakka, Taiwanese, or any other local language. My brain gets tired from trying to understand Chinese for any appreciable length of time, and I end up staring off into the middle distance.
To this day I continue to study on the hope that improvement will occur for me at some point. I sometimes think that I can understand more than my brain allows me to think that I do.
As they say in Chinese, “sia jing”, or is it “tsai jin”, or maybe “tsai dian”, or just “see you later”. There will be another article soon.
【作者介紹】
Richard 是一位台灣女婿，在台灣生活15年，喜愛台灣文化，以風趣幽默的文筆，細膩獨特的觀點，介紹在台灣生活的趣事，一起跟著Richard探訪外國人的台灣世界吧！
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