Friday, June 20, 2014

The Language Barrier


Thursday, June 19 2014

It finally hit me! I am in China. It’s happening now! For the past several days my group and I have been walking the super busy streets of Kunming. Cars drive reckless and there seems to be no traffic control. The traffic light may be red but vehicles still go and it stresses me out a little bit as I walk through an intersection. Also, everyone dresses so nice! They always look ready for an interview. Also, a lot of people drive luxurious cars like Audis and Mercedes. It is not rare to see a couple of Audis driving next to each other on a daily basis. But it gets more interesting when I attempt to talk to people. Well I actually don’t talk to them because I can’t. I haven’t started my Mandarin classes so I haven’t learned much. But what I have been saying is “Ni hao” which translates to “Hello” and I’ll get a “Ni hao” in return, sometimes. However, if they ever do try to talk to me all I’ll be able to say is “Wo bu zhi dao” which I’ve mastered and translates to “I don’t know” and I feel is better than saying nothing. I’m determined to take my Mandarin classes here even more serious than organic chemistry (just kidding) because I really hope to be trilingual someday.
One of our activities as part of our study abroad program was a “drop off” scavenger.  My group was split into smaller groups and our task was to figure out what the Chinese symbols on the piece of paper meant. It turned out to be a location and we had to go there and take a picture for evidence. Most people around the area do not speak English, however, two in my group were semi-fluent in Mandarin and were able to help us find the location by asking for directions while teaching another group member and myself how to speak Mandarin. It was a learning experience riding public transportation and trying to learn pronunciation as I stood carefully hearing the people in the bus speak. Our destination was “The Golden Temple Scenic Area”. It was a nice place with all kinds of plants and flowers and nice temples. However, all I was thinking the whole time is “my Mandarin sucks!” I felt mute the whole time and I really wanted to have my first conversation with a native. 
I remember being at a souvenir shop just looking around. Something grabbed my attention but I could not think of a way of asking for the price. Not even with hand signals I would be able to get what I want because the number system is different too. These kinds of experiences have made me appreciate Mandarin more and pushed me harder to learn it.

No comments:

Post a Comment