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Subject:Learn a new language? From:"Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 13 Jun 2003 09:02:05 -0400
John Posada wonders: <<has anyone ever made the effort to learn even a
rudimentary level of language used by your peers and if so, what was the
effect on them toward you?>>
I visited [mainland] China this past October as part of a delegation invited
by the Chinese government, under the aegis of People to People Ambassadors.
Given that I'm getting old and lazy, I thought this would be a perfect
opportunity to get the old grey cells ticking over again, and decided that
learning a bit of Mandarin would be a good way to do so. Given that I only
agreed to participate in the delegation fairly late in the process, I had to
power-cram: picked up a good book and some language tapes and spent a month
forcing 200+ words and phrases into my brain.
Also spent that time learning Chinese formal etiquette. Didn't "waste" my
time on the written language: only so many mental resources available these
days, and being able to speak a tonal language would take more of them than
I had. Writing comes next, hopefully; it's not a comfortable situation for
me to be "illiterate".
I couldn't carry on a conversation in Chinese, but I could introduce myself,
explain that I was the only Canadian on the delegation, state how pleased I
was to be there, correctly pronounce the names of my hosts, say hello and
goodbye, order tea (and not a fork*) in a restaurant, and so on. Our hosts
were almost unbelievably pleased that this big hairy weiguoren could speak
any of their language at all, and it was a great icebreaker. It was also a
great pleasure to learn that this old dog could learn new tricks. I took a
break from Mandarin for several months, but my goal this summer is to regain
what I learned and eventually be able to carry on a conversation.
* Same word, different tone.
In short? I highly recommend learning another language if you have the time
and the ability. I already speak French, and deeply regret not having
learned more languages when I was young enough for it to be easy. Even a few
polite words and conversational phrases show respect for your colleague.
It's also good mental exercise.
--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada
Vah! Denuone Latine loquebar? Me ineptum. Interdum modo elabitur. (Oh! Was I
speaking Latin again? Silly me. Sometimes it just sort of slips
out.)--Anonymous
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