In my last post, I explained my recent shift in priorities, which resulted in one of my hobbies, Chinese language learning, moving to number one position. I spent ~2 months studying Chinese in preparation for my vacation to Taiwan by myself, to test myself by seeing how much of a language one can learn in two months.

How did I score on my self-test? Not as good as I hoped, but still successful. While I was only able to understand a few words of each sentence, I wasn't able to grasp much meaning. I *was* successful in communicating on a few occasions. I was city-walking, trying to find the hiking path to the top of a large hill. I stopped a guy walking on the street with a "dui bu qi" (excuse me) and explained that "wo xiang qu zhe li" (I want to go here) and pointed to my map. Success! He spoke some fast Chinese that I didn't understand, but he also used hand motions! Straight ahead and left! Alright! I found the mountain, but got couldn't find the hiking trail to go up.

I saw another bored-looking guy, so I asked him "wo xiang qu shang" (I want to go up). I hoped my language didn't sound like a caveman with such simple sentences. I guess my tones were right, because he didn't look offended as if I had insulted his mother. He also used hand motions! Success!

I spent some time in Japan, and made a good friend who is from central Taiwan. I took the opportunity to meet up with her again, and I spent a few days with her family. Her family was very welcoming toward me. They had a car! This was so nice to see after city-walking in Taipei for 5 days. They took me to a few of their favorite restaurants. Real chinese food is not street food? Trip-changing experience! Home-made food is what? Noodles, rice, and veggies! So interesting! They drove me to a mountain where some of the best Oolong tea is made. How educational! I didn't know Oolong tea could be so delicious! And I didn't know what tea fields look like. Rows of bushes on hillsides in the clouds! Beautiful, educational!

I felt so bad about not being able to make fulfilling meal-time conversation. I wish I could have told them what my life was like, and what I found interesting about their lives. I wish I could have thanked them in better Chinese. I hope my gestures and thoughts of thanks were picked up by their sense of empathy. If I say "xie xie" (thank you) five times in a row, does that properly mean "Thanks! I owe you so much, and your home and family is so awesome! I had so much fun!"? I sure hope they got the message.

The one part of the language that I totally failed at? Ordering food. At most of the restaurants I visited in Taiwan, there are no pictures of food you can use to decide what to order. There's a sheet of paper with a grid on it. One column of the grid is filled with Chinese words for foods. The other column is for you to place checkmarks. This is broken up into categories. So, if McDonald's used this concept (they totally should), to order a burger, you need to take a sheet of paper, and put a checkmark next to 'hamburger', 'cheese', 'pickles', 'bacon', and 'lettuce', and don't forget to put a checkmark next to 'fries'. This is a very efficient way to order, I think, but if you can read *none* of the words, you just put checkmarks next random words that you like - Maybe a word has a simple letter or it's one that you recognize. More than once, I was surprised by what I got, and I still have no idea how to order it again. I need to learn more food words next time I travel to Taiwan or China.

Priority Change - Chinese Studies Promoted

Most of 2011 has seen me diligently studying the art of software development. It's a very deep topic that could keep me occupied for the rest of my life. I'm lucky to be able to work and stay interested in such a deep discipline. I've developed a few other interested in the second half of 2011, one of which is the Chinese language. A recent development has caused me to push my Chinese studies up to number one, ahead of software studies. This means that I won't be blogging about software for awhile. :( This kind of saddens me because I enjoy software, and investing time in it will help me out in my career as well. But, as with investments, it is smart to diversify. If the software industry dries up (can't imagine why) or my life changes drastically and I lose interest in it, my trump card will be useless. So onwards to investing time in hobbies.

Why Chinese? Why *not* Chinese? I've learned that you shouldn't have to justify your interests; it is an indescribable force that captures ones interests and it should be trusted.

Well, maybe I can find a small influence for the development of this interest. I had been building up vacation days, so I had to start thinking about what to do with them. While it would be nice in the short term, spending a week in a tropical paradise didn't suit me. I needed something that I could explore and learn about. After much thought, I decided on two ways to use my vacation time most effectively: a) Travel to a fun city that also has a software conference to attend, or b) Learn a new language and travel to a place that speaks it as a test for myself.

Which did I choose? Well, if I can decide on a good conference to go to, my company would pay for me to attend it - no need to spend my vacation time. So I decided to test myself. I bought a round trip ticket to Taiwan, scheduled for 2 months in the future, and attempted to learn as much Chinese as I could in two months.

How much Chinese did I learn before departing? I was pretty motivated during those two months. I may write another blog post detailing my strategy, which proved to be pretty effect, but I can summarize it here. I listened to many hours of basic Chinese phrases in situations. I had to listen to each lesson ~5 times before I was able to pick up any words. Separately, I started doing flashcards. It is pretty easy to find flashcards for all the basic Chinese, such as 'Thank you", "Goodbye", "This is delicious", and "Where's the bathroom". I tried to learn ~20 new words each day (probably more in reality). I think I had completed a deck of 500 words before leaving, and crammed another 200 on the flight to Taiwan (it was a long flight).

Read part two of this post here, where I tell stories about the few times that my Chinese studies paid off.