Living, learning, teaching... and rambling
I have never had an
alias or pseudonym, and if it’s good enough for deep throat, it’s good enough
for me. So, for the purpose of this blog
I shall hence forth be known as Hot Tea.
Reasons for this may become apparent as this blog progresses, on the
other hand it may not; we’ll both have to wait and see.
I began traveling six
months ago and set up this blog in order chronicle and discuss interesting
things. But to paraphrase a famous
Liverpudilan ‘life is what happens while you’re busy planning a blog’. The first stop of my adventure is year-long
stay in Taiwan (so I have time to catch).
I am currently learning Chinese and teaching English (American). Thus this seems like a logical place to begin
rambling.
At the risk of stating
the obvious, Chinese is a particularly hard language to learn. I’ve been learning for a little under six
months and I’ve (in theory) learnt around 500 characters. I have written each of these characters down
around fifty times in a book in order to try and learn and memorise them. This is the same as what Chinese, Taiwanese
and many other East Asian children have to do when learning their language. To put it bluntly, it is not a fun learning
process, and I am as of yet undecided as to how beneficial this practice is
(but it does give an insight into Asian culture, which I will become back to in
later blogs). I cannot state this with
complete confidence (as like many native English speakers I am unilingual), but
here is goes. As with any other language,
learning Chinese does have it fun moments, learning how to talk and express
yourself can be very rewarding and due to its difficulty, being able to read
and comprehend is most satisfactory.
Learning Chinese
should come with disclaimer to Westerners (Europeans and North Americans). As I have begun to allude to, learning
Chinese is a lot of hard work, it is not taught like a European language and
expectations are very different. If I
could pick the perfect person to learn Chinese, it would not necessarily be the
multi lingual language master (you know the one from school). I would choose that person from school who is
the hardest worker, they don’t necessarily aim to understand everything
perfectly, but you can bet they memorise it and can write or repeat it to you
perfectly.
Personally, I began
woefully underprepared. I did not know
what to expect, I did not do my research.
Having signed up for a two hour a day class, I expected that to be all
the learning I would require for a day (bar maybe a bit speaking practice with
people and maybe some homework). I am
unsure how to quantify just how wrong I was, but I was horrifically wrong to an
extreme degree. I remember two things
very clearly from my first week or so of studying. First, I’d written down all the new
characters we had just learned, about twenty five, and I was fairly pleased
with myself, I’d been to a lecture and I’d practiced my characters. Unfortunately for me, I had only written each
character once and my new teacher informed me I had a poor work ethic and
needed to fill a page for each character.
This was quickly followed by being informed that in order to learn
Chinese effectively I would have to study nine to ten hours a day out of class. I know university students have a bad
reputation for being lazy, but this was a new level of expectation that I had
not encountered before. I’ve studied for
four years at two different universities and now have a Masters degree, but I
do not get close to this number and I work much harder to learn Chinese than I
ever did at university. There is no
concept of time management it is full on all the time with no let up. At university you have time to let you information
settle, think, contemplate and, if necessary, relax and take step back. In Chinese, if you have a day (or two)
without studying you fall behind the required learning rate and as a consequence
do not have the basic understanding of key concepts. At University you are able catch up, in
Chinese there is no let-up; if you miss something you are doomed.
At this point in my
ramble, I’m feel it’s time to mention my first thoughts on teaching English. In arriving in Taiwan, I had never taught
anything in my life (I’d like to say doubling my learning, but it doesn’t bare
comparison). What I am learning is the
importance of listening and seeking advice from more experienced teachers/people
(it sounds obvious, but who of us ever listens; we know best and we know it!),
but to take your own path, within your current working limitations. I was handed two pieces of key advice very
early; A) ‘I’ve seen many teachers come through here thinking they’re going to
get rich, but they never do, and B) you don’t want to work more than six
classes a week and learn Chinese. The
first piece of advice, I was (as I assume you are) thinking ‘well duh’, but it
rings true. I never expected to become
rich, but it is hard to save, especially if you’re trying study too. I believed I was going have a good amount of
hours at a good hourly rate; this is unlikely to happen, just hope you have
enough hours to get by. The second piece
of advice is also wise and also means I am slightly grateful to have fewer hours
than expected and have time to study; I am working less than six lessons and it
is hard to keep up. It is important to
trust your ability and instincts to teach and motivate students your way; you
can’t teach like anyone but you. Just
remember not to get smug when things go well and believe your way is better and
you have become the master (it will bite you where it hurts!). If there is a student/class who other
teachers have warned you about, heed their warning. You may get lucky once twice and have great
lesson, but if I have learnt one thing; kids are unpredictable and each lesson
is its own unique challenge (at least for the inexperienced of us). One swallow does not a summer make; if you
have one good lesson count your blessings and run, it may never happen again!
To sum up this blog
post, Chinese is hard to learn, be prepared to work harder than you have in a
long time, if not ever. Remember to
consider your workload outside class and that you are unlikely to
simultaneously learn Chinese and get rich.
And, don’t get cocky kid.
Hopefully, see you
next time, when my rambles will become more cultural and maybe even
philosophical.
Hot Tea
