Preaching to the choir, or why Fluenz is so awesome :)
My first visit to China was while I was at about lesson 25 of Fluenz Mandarin 1+2. I found my way tolerably well in restaurants with a minimal "I want this, I want that, is this beef?" and the like. I also survived an interesting midnight excursion in a Beijing taxi (if you've not been here before, some of the drivers seem to regard actually taking people places as optional, and only do so when it suits them (not just tourists, they do that with locals too, I've found.)
Well now, with Mandarin 3 finished, I am just finishing up my second trip to Beijing (tomorrow, when I'm home, I can post about it on Facebook, but that's not accessible from inside China due to the great firewall). So I am once again struck by the incredible effectiveness of Fluenz. I've learned other languages before (something like 9 years of French in school, a decent amount of German on my own time, and seriously minimal tourist essentials of Spanish, Italian, Greek, and Hebrew--hey a man has to be able to order beer and find the bathroom!) but they all came much slower, and much less effectively than Chinese. Which is, frankly, counter-intuitive, since the other languages share some sounds and vocabulary with English, not so much with Chinese (unless you count "canteen" which appears to be borrowed from them).
But after 70 lessons, and perhaps another 50 hours of practice, along with a lot of "thinking about it" on a daily basis, I succeeded in buying clothes--negotiating price, asking about color, material, and size, along with getting receipts for the inevitable customs officer on my return. I've discussed the relative merits of food; is this fatty, does this have bones, what do you recommend, oh, and "I don't eat wheat products" since I went gluten free recently. Then, to round it off, I managed to find one of those little old shops that only the locals know about; this one was by Beijing Sports University, and specializes in marshal arts equipment. So, of course, populated with old (but probably incredibly agile and fast) ladies and gentlemen discussing the relative merits of different swords and their steel. (OK, I'm guessing about that, but there were hundreds of swords and weapons of all kinds, and they were discussing them, and running their thumbs along the blades.) I show up, and want to buy a matched pair of tai chi fans. Or should I say "taijiquan de zheshan". The thing is, these fellas sell both decorative fans, and the tai chi fans. I need the matched pair that come with one left and one right handed version. But they show me those, and they're not pretty, so I have to explain that I want pretty ones. But with a little back and forth, and to be fair a couple of impressively onomatopoeic gestures, I get exactly what I came for. And I get that all important receipt when I leave. And a grin that takes a couple of hours to even begin to fade.
It's hard to explain the thrill of succeeding at something that seems impossible in a thoroughly foreign language, some of us on this know it already. If you're one who hasn't got there yet, stick with it. With Fluenz, I firmly believe you're in the best hands in the business, and with you doing your part in providing consistent effort and practice, and then going somewhere where they speak what you've learned (and preferably do _not_ speak English, so you can't wimp out!) you will find out for yourself just how good this feels.
Thanks Sonia, thanks Yi, and thanks to everyone in the behind-the-scenes team; you did an awesome job designing really great language instruction, and I know you've made a lot of people very happy. That's worthwhile.
Status:
Open Nov 19, 2012 - 03:02 AM
Mandarin, Mandarin > Culture