Chinese and Spanish

I can read in Spanish more quickly and with greater comprehension than I can in Chinese. Seriously; after three years of study and one year of post-college life focused on China, I am able to comprehend more written Spanish within a few months of my first visit to Spain. (for oral communication my Chinese is still far stronger than my Spanish)
 
It is disheartening considering how much time I spend on Chinese, and encouraging as to what it suggests about my potential achievements with Spanish. It is also encouraging that I may be able to find books I want to read in Spanish at the public library in Albacete.

Thor... in Spanish

I had an interesting experience the other night: on the WWOOF farm we watched Thor. That's right. Normally we have dinner at 11:00 or so, (with plenty of red wine) and I sleepily go off to bed as soon as I finish eating while the Spaniards chat, smoke, and drink until God knows what hour. That night, however, we started dinner ludicrously early; perhaps 10:00 in the evening. Edua set up a computer and some speakers next to the table in the yard, and we all stared at the small screen for the duration of our meal. There were plenty of jokes about how (SPOILERS) naturally when Thor comes to Earth he lands in the United States, about how easy American girls seem in Hollywood movies, and something Remi said upon his seeing an Asian actor that unsettled me (due to my unsureness of what constitutes racism) about how the Chinese are everywhere, even in Asgard.

The film itself was nothing memorable; in fact, I would consider it to be less entertaining and of lower quality (in terms of an engaging story/plot that I could not predict) than most American blockbuster movies. Since the film was in Spanish, I didn't catch a good deal of the dialogue, but it wasn't too necessary to understand what was going on. I was, nonetheless, surprised by how much I did understand. Perhaps it was so clear form the context, perhaps, because I could have guessed the lines anyway, or perhaps due to it being spoken very clearly and without any think regional accent. I guess that it is a possibility that most of what I understood (linguistically) was not due to my Spanish language skills, but rather due to my childhood passion for mythology. I guess it just gows to show that not all of my childhood was wasted!

Americans Learning Languages: Spanish and Chinese

A few weeks ago Nicholas Kristof wrote an opinion piece about Americans learning foreign languages. First, I want to say that I am immensely pleased that I can understand what this article’s title means without the use of anykind of a translation program or intermediary to change it into English. This makes me feel very cool. I am always thrilled when multiple languages that I can understand are present in a single environment.

I agree with Kristof on a lot of points, such as the overblown importance in the U.S. of having children learn Chinese. I also agree that more languages should be learned, period. The U.S. has done plenty over the last few decades to prove that it's education system is not globally focused enough. With the way the world is changing, if Americans want to prepare their children to be leaders they had better make sure that their kids know about the world outside of the Unites States.

As someone who has studied Chinese up to a level where I can use the language to live, as well as as someone who lives in China, I have a couple of things to add to this. One big benefit of Americans learning Chinese is the ease of working in China. Like myself, other fresh college grads with no special skills or qualifications can easily spend a few years teaching English in China. If you don't believe me just look at the classified adds on Craigslist for Beijing or TheBeijinger to take a look at the demand: (As of February 3rd, 2011, a category labeled "English Teaching" has over 800 adds, whereas the number two is "Acting, Modeling & Voiceovers" at just under 120 adds)

A VERY strong point why one should first study the Spanish are the "meta-skills" one gains about language learning, as well as the confidence gained from having sucessfully learned a foreign language. For instance, after a year of studying Chinese in Beijing, I knew that I could learn vocabulary from other languages, I just had to spend a certain amount of time in front of some flashcards, and then use the words in conversation to reinforce them. Both of this are (for a native English speaker) much easier  to get from Spanish than from Chinese. From the personal experience of studying both, I can honestly state that I could speak more Spanish from less then one year of study than I could speak Chinese after two years. Kristof lays it out nicely when he says

Spanish is easy enough that kids really can emerge from high school with a very useful command of the language that they will retain for life, while Mandarin takes about four times as long to make the same progress. Chinese has negligible grammar — no singular or plural, no verb conjugations, no pesky masculine and feminine nouns — but there are thousands of characters to memorize as well as the landmines of any tonal language. 

Benny the Irish polyglot writes at some length about the benefits of confidence (from the vantage point of learning Esperanto as an easy way to gain said language learning confidence), and from my own experience of studying foreign languages I can confidently say that I now view it as a much easier task than I did four years ago, precisely due to the fact that I have some under my belt already. Indeed, a good part of my desire to learn more languages is due to knowledge of how easy it is. If I devote two years a language, that gives me plenty of time to reach at least a conversational level.

So for students in the U.S.? I would recommend starting to learn Spanish as early as the Germans start to learn English. Public schooling can always be supplemented with trips to Spanish speaking locales, special summer camps, or local cultural/language events. Once Spanish is at a good level, then I would suggest providing the child with a second foreign language, which could vary depending the priorities and interests of the parents and the child, although I would certainly recommend Chinese or Arabic.

2010 in review, and a preview of 2011

The new year has fully started, so I figure that I better crank this out before 2010 fades too far away. So here is my list of big things in my life during 2010.

SIP - I wrote what I considered to be an absolutely massive paper on the state education of ethnic minorities in China. This involved reading many (many) books and articles, and I distinctly recall feeling that I was probably one of the people in Michigan who knew the most about China's ethnic minorities. After all, such a narrow field doesn't have many scholars. Reading the field work and accounts of various scholars made me get interested in ethnology, and in anthropology more broadly. It made me think more critically about governments' decisions to make these labels, and how they were used as well. I have taken these ideas, and now apply them beyond China so that any time nationality or ethnicity comes up I look at it with a much different view than I did a few years ago. I also remember wishing that I had more time to do more extensive research, but the institution of the SIP didn't allow it. I recall this project taking up a great deal of my thoughts and time during the early months of 2010. 

Graduation - It seems like such a small thing in retrospect, but I have to admit that graduating from college is a big step. It signifies leaving youth and entering adulthood (not that I feel clearly like one or the other), the looming debt payments, and a bunch of goodbyes to college friends that I will not see as commonly and acquaintances that I will most likely never see again. The ceremony of it seemed a little pointless and silly to me, but it is nice to be able to claim that qualification. My strongest memory concerning graduation is how unconnected I felt to the majority of the people around me then. Sure, there were a few dozen people who I knew, and a dozen or so people who I valued highly. The majority of the faces that I saw at the special 'Senior events' and at graduation were complete strangers to me, though. Not just people I didn't know very well, but people that I swear I had never seen before in my life. Probably because of my extended study abroad and my hermit-like habits. If you didn't study in China, do circus or take Poli-Sci classes, there are pretty good changes that I didn't meet you.



Relationship with Sara - Since this is fairly personal I am not going to go into too much detail. I will just say that I had a relationship with Sara while I was at Kalamazoo, and it was a very major part of my life for the first half of 2010. We didn't have any fights or arguments, so we had a very laid-back and fun relationship right up until my graduation, when we ended it.

Improv - Since arriving in Beijing, I have gone to the Wednesday evening improv workshop almost every week. It has been great fun to do theater activities again, and the people that I have met there have turned out to be some major figures in my social circle in Beijing. Improv has become, in addition to the juggling club, one of my main social activities in Beijing. I haven't done this kind of thing since high school, but apparently I still have theater in me, because I seem to do it well enough. Even good enough that I was asked to perform for a corporate event once! It is also a good reason for me to be more social, as I would otherwise just hang out at home reading articles, writing more blog posts and watching movies.


Conversational Spanish - Although I started studying Spanish in 2009, it was in 2010 that I gained a new level of use with the language: I could have conversations. Realizing that I could already use the language to communicate was a thrill, and I remember using it to communicate with my suitemates and friends at times when English would have done just as well. I have no doubt that a great reason for this was the Spanish music that I got into, the BBC Mundo news that I listened to daily, and the fact that I had a great desire to use the language. These things all supported what I learned in class quite well. I was thrilled about this new ability that I had discovered. Since I didn't use it at all, my Spanish regressed a LOT during June, July, August and September, but in October I started up my weekly Spanish conversation night, and since then I have kept at a steady level and improves slightly.



iPod - Strange that a piece of technology should be on here, but getting an iPod really allowed me to do a lot of new things, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that it helped me learn language, study, know what was going on in the world, and generally get more information more conveniently. Indeed, having an iPod touch really increased the rate at which I could learn and consume information, and increased my general quality of life an amazing amount. This is mainly by turning dead time into useful time. Walking to class for 10 minutes, waiting for a friend to meet me for 5 minutes, riding the bus for 20 minutes, or taking the subway for 40 minutes... these were little bits of time that I could now use productively, and they added up over the course of a day. Podcasts are the way that I put it to the best use, although having music to listen to is nice as well. Flashcard applications helped me study language vocabulary on the go, turning a bus ride or any other waiting time into useful studying time. I can also use it to send text messages and make phone calls via Skype and similar apps. Buying an iPod touch was by far one of the best purchases that I have ever made.
  
RSS feeds and reading blogs -Another high tech thing, I started reading blogs in 2010. I immediately focused on China Watcher blogs, and this gave me a new level of awareness and a new breadth of knowledge concerning current China issues. My discovery of Google Reader made it even easier, and I soon made a daily habit of checking the feed. I quickly realized that I could go beyond China-focused blogs, though, and I began to follow other areas that I was interested in. Following a classmate's lead, I started to read some Foreign Policy Magazine blogs, and I have recently started to follow some Latin America and Brazil focused blogs as well. I especially enjoy that it allows me to easily enter a new field of knowledge. If I want to learn about X, I just need to start following and reading some blogs about X.


As an ending, I am gonna go ahead and make some general predictions for my life for the upcoming year. This should be constant regardless of if I stay in Beijing or if I move to Spain (or even if I move back to the U.S., which is not a likely prospect). So here is what will happen for me in 2011:

Continued interest in Latin America & Brazil - Since I am basically adding a new track to my knowledge here, and since it works well with my desire to learn languages, I am pretty sure that I will continue to be interested in Latin America in general and Brazil in specific. My knowledge of these areas will increase, and I may even get more solid plans to travel there by the end of 2011.
 
Increase in juggling and dancing skills -This is an easy one to predict, as it is just a continuation of a natural progression that has been happening over the past few years. As long as I practice juggling once a week, I have little doubt that my skill will continue to increase at a slow and steady pace. Dancing is something that is a newer focus, but wherever I am I plan to learn salsa, hip-hop and break dance, or modern/contemporary.

Spanish skills will increase - Again, this is easy. I love the Spanish language, and I want to live in countries where it is spoken. I have managed to find a way to practice it in Beijing so far, and I have full confidence that through music, movies, self-study, reading Spanish language newspapers online and conversation my language skill will continue to improve. Especially since I am gonna live in Spain and in various Latin American countries in the future, my Spanish will definitely reach a new high in 2011. Even if I stay in Beijing I plan to take another course at the Cervantes Institute.

I will continue to move closer to vegetarianism - In great part due to an excellent debate on intelligence squared concerning eating animals, I have made a conscious step toward consuming less meat. I am not a vegetarian, nor to I have immediate plans to become one. I can best describe my current dietary identity as a flexitarian, meaning that I try to avoid meat when possible. For me and for my life I think that this is a realistic compromise between the extremity of veganism and the convenience of eating whatever is most easily available. I predict that this trend will continue and perhaps even become stronger throughout 2011.

On learning Spanish, and on being (thought of as) mixed blood

I took the level test at the Cervantes Institute today, and I tested into B.12, which is a lower/middle level of the intermediate level. It was a little shocking to realize just how much I have forgotten since June, but I think it is perfectly understandable since I have studied less than a dozen hours over the past four months. Although the Spanish conversation nights are going well and adding a few new faces each week, I think that nothing but sitting down and studying is gonna help me remember all of the verb tenses that I have forgotten how to construct. Anyway, since it would take me so long to get from my home to the Cervantes Institute I decided to enroll in an online course (for about 1/8 of the price of an in-person course). If I want to take a course in person, I can always give that a shot in January, when a new round of classes start. In the mean time I will use self-study, the online course, and the conversation night to try and improv my Spanish a bit.

Aside from actually registering for the class, the most interesting part was when one of the people working in the office asked me (in Chinese) "Are your parents both from the United States? Why can you speak Chinese? Are you a mixed blood child?" I told her that both my parents were born in the U.S., and I just happened to decide to study languages when I was in college. She said I looked like I could be a mixed blood child. It once again illustrated what I perceive as a common view here in China: foreigners learning Chinese is not normal, so if a foreigner (like me) can speak some Chinese (like I can) there must be some special reason or unusual situation for it (such as being half-Chinese, as I am not). I think the idea that people can learn any language they like without any special reason is quite foreign to many people's mindsets around here.

Netbook, iPod, Spanish

The best part of life at the moment is that I am still so excited about my new computer. Just so you know, it was not a frivolous purchase either. My previous computer was crippled by an internal hardware problem which caused it to freeze up after a few minutes of use. I was able to find, via NewEgg, a new laptop which fit my requirements for the lowest possible price. I got a netbook, so it is very small and very light. As a consequence, it is very portable. I am actually writing this into a word processing document while sitting on the bus. I am very pleased that I found a seat. In fact, the reason that I have my little netbook with me is related to the worst part of life at the moment: my iPod touch is broken. I am now the owner of a very expensive second hand Apple-brand paperweight. I normally wouldn’t complain a lot about a small piece of electronic equipment getting broken, but this is a piece of electronic equipment that I tend to use a LOT and which is expensive enough that I would want to think long and hard before purchasing a new one. I used the iPod for making phone calls via Skype, for sending text messages to friends in the United States, for keeping up to date on both world news and on China-specific news, as well as for mapping locations and routes, converting currencies, and the incredibly versatile English-Chinese and Chinese-English dictionary. Fortunately, my new netbook can perform most of these functions either at the same level of effectiveness or at a lower but acceptable level. However, despite how beautifully small it is, it is neither as convenient nor as portable as the iPod.

Why am I using my netbook on the public bus? Because this is a long bus ride! It takes more than an hour to get from my home (which is on the west side of town) to the Cervantes Institute (which is on the east side of town). I went to the Cervantes Institute for their Spanish corner, which happens every Saturday afternoon. I didn’t go just to practice speaking and listening though! I also came armed with several sheets containing details about my own Spanish conversation night that I am having over on the west side of town, near where I live. I got Professora Selma (the lady who taught the first Spanish class that I ever took) to correct it, and I met and told several Chinese students about it, some of whom I think are very likely to come!