One of the reasons we chose to live in Taiwan is because its national language is something other than English. Moreover, we wanted to learn a language that is going to be interesting and useful to us, and Mandarin Chinese was perfect.
Baba and I are ethnically Chinese, though I grew up speaking Cantonese and learned Mandarin in high school and college. Baba grew up speaking Chiu Chou, and also studied Mandarin in high school. But that was ~20 years ago and most of what we learned has been forgotten.
So there’s really no better way to re-learn Mandarin than to live in Taiwan, right?! Except compared to ~20 years ago, our middle-aged brains can’t learn fast enough. I go to Chinese class twice a week for 4 hours at a place called LingoLab in Da’an. I come out of each class thinking my Mandarin is pretty decent, but then I get a reality check when a 7-11 clerk asks me a question other than “do you want a receipt?”. Ugh.
Classes at LingoLab are small (there is only 1 other student in my class), focus mostly on spoken Chinese, and cater to busy foreigners. Tuition is also reasonable. National Taiwan Normal University is actually the gold standard for foreigners learning Chinese in Taipei, but the courses are like 15-hours a week on top of many written exams. I just didn’t want to make that commitment.
Because I have a foundation in Cantonese, I can understand quite a bit of Mandarin. My biggest obstacle is my limited vocabulary and due to that, a lack of confidence when speaking. It can be frustrating sometimes because I actually have a lot to say! 😆 But I don’t know how to express myself and so I slink away feeling defeated and embarrassed.
Baba self-studies at home for about 3 hours a day through a site called huayuworld.org. The site includes a lot of great resources to learn Chinese. Baba never kept up with any Chinese back home so he has to start from scratch. But to his advantage, he isn’t afraid to strike up a conversation with anyone, even in his broken Chinese (which is similar to C’s personality).
There are days when we feel like we’re making progress, and other days when we feel like we’re still so, so far behind. Despite all this, I still find learning Chinese interesting and enjoy the challenge. So, I’m setting small goals for myself: maybe it’s to confidently order a meal at a restaurant (which I think I’ve gotten 80% of it down now) or maybe it’s to ask more questions when shopping. But however slowly, I believe we’ll all get there one day!
Other useful Chinese online resources:
Hongs Abroad 