I was texting my teacher today and this was the first time I’ve texted a semi conversation before!

Quite proud of myself.

PS: I want to thank all of you who checked in to see if I was ok, asked me if I’m better and to those that understood that recently, I’ve been stressed out of my mind. Even though most of you are busy (and some, stressed too) you let me know you care, you love me and I appreciate that. Xo

汉语很难。该学习汉语了。
Chinese is very hard. It’s time to study Chinese.

I’ve been studying for the past two hours in a coffee shop. Another 30 minutes and then dinner with a friend!

Oh my goodness! I had another intensive course of Chinese and my teacher was saying that I’m learning 3 times faster than her other students! I’m so happy and scared because she keeps giving me more and more to study and I feel stressed trying to learn everything in time. I have 2 hour lessons, twice a week and the intensive course is designed to pack what you learn in two and a half weeks into one. Then on top of that I’m learning 3 times what a normal student would and that is a lot of INFO. But I enjoy it and have an unusual talent for picking up languages, probably from being a musician.

I’m learning how to read, speak and write! So I’ve been emailing my MIL and FIL with the Chinese that I learn instead of English when I can. They are so impressed! I’m so happy because it would be my dream to be able to converse with my MIL without the language barrier. My FIL told me yesterday that he’s impressed with my speaking too, my MIL said that my pronunciation and tones are perfect. YAY!

I’m typing on my computer and iPhone with pinyin to type out the characters but I also know how to write them as well. So I will try to write some things, that probably won’t really flow well but I want to practice!

I texted my husband and I did great with the Chinese I wrote (above) except the last word I wrote was used incorrectly.

Me: I drink green tea. I learned Chinese.
W: wow that’s great!
Me: Thank you! Laugh. I am tired, I will rest today. I love you!
W: haha I love you!
Me: Do you understand? I’m fine, come home (soon)!
Me: Please
W: I understand! (english)
 
W told me after his last text (I couldn’t fit it all here) that the word I used “please” wasn’t correct in this context. lol Well anyway, it was fun! I have a feeling I’ll be writing more and more Chinese as I learn! Wish me luck.

Source

Being a musician has made it both easy and difficult to learn the different tones in Chinese. There are four main tones: really high, middle to high, middle-low-middle, high to low. The reason why I say it’s easy is because I can mimic pitches.. for instance, when I hear the teacher say something, I hear the solfège (actual pitches) and when repeating her it makes it extremely easy.

Example: Teacher: ba [really high]= G4

Repeating her is so easy since I have pitch. Basically, I hear something, my brain automatically knows what note and which register it is (as long as the instrument is in tune or as long as it’s a voice).

Here comes the problem though… The CD in the book she gave me has two voices on it. A male and a female. The male’s pitches are clearly different from the woman. Obviously, men have a different vocal range. But the woman who is speaking on it has different pitches than my teacher. The recordings, which help me with pronouncing the actual pinyin, doesn’t help with the tones.

Example: CD lady: ba [ready high]=Ab4 When I read along with the CD, I was saying the high pitch according to what my teacher’s pitches were. When I do the highest tone, it was a G4 for me while the lady reading had her high tone at Ab4. The pitches are a half step apart and it was giving me a headache! I switched to the CD’s pitches of Ab4 but my brain was using the original G4. Of course the other tones don’t really have actual pitches but more the inflection of your voice, so it’s easier. But that first tone (really high) is killing me. My mouth is saying Ab4 at the same time my brain is saying G4. 

I’ve been really listening to people when they speak and when they say things in that high tone, I’ve noticed that everyone has a different pitch even for the same word. It varies from person to person. 

I wonder how other musicians with perfect pitch have this problem with tonal languages. I remember around 2005, I had the biggest headache of my life… Two songs were playing at the same time: Beethoven’s 3rd symphony and a pop song. The two songs weren’t loud but I could hear them, it drove me crazy mainly because they were in different keys, different tempos and their clash made my brain hurt. The headache was so bad that I ended up crying and I threw up. That is the one and only time that music literally made me physically sick. 

English, Korean and most of the European languages I am familiar is more speech/talk than pitches. I find languages and music so interesting. Cantonese has tones too but I don’t know any of them, I just repeat everything I learn to the best of my ability. If you say the wrong tone, you could be cursing and completely saying a different word. I’ll never forget when I couldn’t remember which word was diarrhea or hungry. Those two words are similar but different tones… and I’ve embarrassed myself plenty of times by mixing up the two words.

I had my second intensive course yesterday (2 hours) and my teacher said her high tone at the exact same pitch as last time (G4). I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Chinese musicians have perfect pitch. I forced myself to not really pay attention to the pitch but the general tone and it was ok. I still say my high tone at the same pitch every time and I can hear by the way people talk what their own tones are. During my second lesson we were already having some basic conversations, even more words to write and more vocabulary. I do have to say, intensive is really intense! There’s a lot to learn and I have 4 hours a week that I’m learning Chinese. I feel like I’m in college all over again. 

I have my third course on Friday. I hope I can memorize all of this, she gave me more than double the amount of things to have ready since my first lesson. Learning languages is so fun, I really wish I could just speak fluently already but hopefully by the end of the year I’ll be able to speak at least half the amount that I can with Korean. *crossing my fingers*

I had my first Mandarin lesson today and I loved it! It was approximately two hours long and my teacher, Y, is amazing. We started off learning about pinyin (the tones for the Chinese language) and then she taught me the “initials” (b-p-m-f-d-t-n-l) and then the “finals” (which are the vowel sounds). She said that I caught on way faster than she expected since her other foreigner students have such a hard time with the beginning. 

It was so much fun to be able to speak, even if it’s just little words here and there. Y asked me if I was interested in learning to read and write. Most of her students only want to speak especially since the Chinese language is so difficult. So I told her I want to learn since I love learning languages! So we got through quite a few words that she’ll quiz me on next week and I am beyond thrilled with everything I learned today. I have a lot to study till our next lesson on Tuesday.

I even got to “read” my first Chinese/pinyin today and it was a serious tongue twister. I kept bobbing my head up and down with the different tones but after a few tries I got it. I really hope I remember everything the next time I see her.

After the lesson I went to the grocery store and guess what? I was able to use the Chinese I had learned earlier to ask questions and talk to the cashier. It was amazing. I finally feel more comfortable even though I only know a few things. 

Y was telling me that she found it so hilarious that I kept speaking Cantonese when she would ask me to say it in Mandarin. Then I said it in Korean, not knowing I said it in Korean. But eventually I got the hang of it. She told me that in a few weeks I should be able to speak conversationally, especially with how quickly I’m picking it up. I think a lot has to do with my excitement about learning… I think if it was something I absolutely disliked then it would be a lot more difficult.

I feel so happy.