It’s been a secret, which I’ve given indications of at edgeways, but I’m finally going to set the record straight. I’m a student of Chinese who is secretly in love with the Korean language.
Jokes aside, I have actually had nightmares about the circles in Korean orthography chasing me. Because they truly are the X-factor of Korean. But I think the circles actually are symbolic of the friendliness of the people who most commonly use Korean, the Korean people.
When will I have time to study it? Not sure. But when it does happen, I think I will be studying it with my heart, because that’s where it lies now.
A lot of people think that if you live in a forign country you will just naturally pick up the language.
I really don’t agree with this idea.
Living in a foreign country gives you the opertunity to be more exposed to the language and requires you to be able to say things in the language at certin times if you want to make things happen.
However, what I have found is that to actually live a comfortable life here in China the amount of chinese I would actuall need to speak is very small. There are probably about 15 forigners in this town [ed: Heilongjiang] . Of all of them I am the best speaker of Chinese [Ed: Damn straight].
Many of them cannot speak any chinese or just have learned the phrases to say when they go to a restaraunt or need to buy something. They spend most of their time hanging out with each other and are more limited in what they can do here.
I think that while being in a foreign country to learn a language you still need to seek out experiences to improve your language.
I have made many friends with people who dont speak English. I also make time every day to go and speak to the local people. Everyday there is the oppertunity to be lazy and not learn the language. I could just hang out with the americans all the time. Or spend my time reading and writing English. But I don’t because I need to speak Chinese.
高兴/Thomas Gorrie
我的QQ号码：2417603713
The way we think about a language has a big influence on our ability to learn it. I remember a racist woman insulting one of my Chinese friends and saying “ching chong, ching chong!” to her as a way of insulting my friend. This woman will never learn chinese. The reason is that she just sees it as a series of jiberish sounds.
The language learner, aims to see what is behind the sounds.
The language learner understands that these sounds are the keys to an understanding of the world that is as ritch and meaningful as the English language. The most amazing thing for me is when using this language actually changes your life.
Every day here in china so many good things happpen in my life. But so many of these things would not be possible if I didnt speak Chinese. I wouldn’t speak Chinese if I hadn’t made the choice to think of chinese as more than “ching chong” like the racist lady.
From Gaoxing an ex-participant who now lives and works in China 
高兴/Thomas Gorrie
我的QQ号码：2417603713
Yang Wang
Human Resources Officer
Languages: Chinese (Mandarin), English
Yang came from China in early 2011 and now studies the master of International Relations at the University of Melbourne. When she first came to Melbourne, she was quite struggling with the English language. Soon after, she joined the Language Connection (GHT), which has offered many good opportunities to meet language learners from different backgrounds and practise her English. Through different kinds of events, she has started to contact with and know more about the local society.
People who come to the language exchanges for the first time, don’t really know what to expect, and this is very understandable. Over time though, people understand the reasons why the exchange is useful according to their goals. There are different reasons why people come though:
- Basic level learners who aren’t able to have a conversation yet, but are really interested in meeting native speakers and love the opportunity to hear the langauge spoken even if they don’t understand everything.
- Intermediate level learners who are looking for new words, new grammar, help with their pronunciation. These participants often prepare the night before or in the hours before the session so that they can use new words in conversation
- Advanced level speakers who just want to make new friends and keep using their language
How will you ever know when you have crossed the line? Language learning is an ongoing process, its not like earning a degree, where you get the certificate and you are now qualified. If language maintenence doesn’t happen, then its possible to lose some of that ability – although, often it isn’t much and can be regained quite quickly.
Here were my goals from 2011:
Chinese:
Be able to have 30 minute conversations and remain relaxed the whole time
Be able to read Balance sheets in Chinese.
Japanese:
Be able to understand a whole episode of a drama without subtitles.
Finish all 2000 standard characters and be able to write and read all of them.
With each of these goals there is a number or a specific point in time when I know I have completed the goal. When I am able to go through all of the flashcards, and know how to write all of them, then I have completed the goal. When I get to the end of a conversation, and they say they have to go, and I actually want them to stay because I was enjoying the conversation – then I know I’ve done it. The only goal that was a bit harder to quantify was the balance sheet, but there are only so many characters there.
Unfortuantly I only achieved half of these goals. I got up to 1200 Japanese characters, and I decided that I don’t care about business afterall. But I felt great when I could tick those goals.
For all Chinese speakers and Learners,
Please check out the Australia China Youth Association. We have worked with them in the past and they have a lot of really great opportunities, especially in terms of networking with Chinese businesses, and getting interships overseas
They are awesome
Dan Ednie
For most people learning languages, there is a degree of uncertainty around how quickly the language should be acquired. Many people who have been learning for a long time consider themselves to be untalented, but on the other hand other people get discouraged after only a week of excellent progress.
To get to a conversational level, there are so many influences that it is impossible to say what the ‘right’ rate of acquisition is to be ‘on track’. But as a VERY general rule of thumb. If you are doing it right, it shouldn’t take more than two years to learn the language to the level that you can have social conversations in that language.
1st- 6th months – summarise text books, take a class, make friends socially and watch movies with subtitles. Try to learn all of the most common grammatical phrases. Don’t get bogged down in learning more and more nouns because these will come later – focus on the structure of the language.
6th to 12th months – concentrate on speaking and listening, this is where you start really making ground on all of those nouns. Your study time should be mainly with native speakers who you also help with their second language. You will make a lot of mistakes, quite down as many notes as you can during the conversations.
12th to 18th months – revise your structural knowledge, read more advanced text books. Watch more movies and try watching with subtitles for the hearing impaired. Read as much as possible. Maintain a few really strong friendships with native speakers but don’t do as much networking. Concentrate on accuracy.
18th – 24th months. Network like crazy, speak to people on the phone, try to work in a restaurant or do volunteer in a community organisation that speaks the language you are learning. You are covering content now, rather than just talking about the language. You will feel uncomfortable as soon as the conversation moves from casual chat to ‘we have to do something’. If you can help with the running of an event for example, you will really get the right language ability to “do” things, and this is the thing which makes you successful conversationally.
Andrea (Yue) Lou
Communications Manager
Language: Chinese (Mandarin), English
Andrea has been volunteering in Language Connection since July 2011 and has been very responsible and keen on the job. She is an international student from China at the University of Melbourne doing Bachelor of Arts. She used to major in English-Chinese translation and interpretation in Shanghai and is highly interested in language learning. She likes the multicultural city Melbourne and enjoys working with people from diverse cultural backgrounds.
I had a friend in high school who spoke Chinese at home, but really loved learning French. His English was fluent. He ended up getting 48 as the Raw score for French, where the highest possible mark (semi native level) is 50. He had never been to France, and had no French speaking friends in Australia. It sounds impossible. But this is what Aaron did.
1. Searched for French speakers on MSN Messenger
2. Added them with the message that he is learning French and is happy to help them with their English (or Chinese)
3. Spent two hours a night typing in French on MSN, but adjusting his settings so that only people on his “French speakers” list could see him.
4. When he encountered words he didn’t understand, he wrote them down, when he encountered grammar he didn’t know how to use himself, he wrote it down.
5. After he turned off MSN Messenger he revised the words for another thirty minutes, and would try to use the words and grammar the next day.
He stopped learning French after Year 12, but the results he got from focussed use of MSN Messenger were incredible. Language learning can be a profoundly social phenomenon, where “study” is actually not that boring or intense.
Dan