I’m opening a new category (Chinese) and this will be my first post. This is to commemorate the Spring Festival.
New Year! New category! New blog post! New Challenges! Welcome to new beginnings!
Have you ever noticed this when you want to add Chinese language in your Keyboard settings or when you want to translate something in Google Translate?
Which is which?
Which is which?
On my trip to Taiwan, I met new Taiwanese friends. I noticed that when I greeted them in chat “早上好!”(zaoshanghao), they replied me “早安!”(zao an). At first, I thought they just wanted to make it short because it was a chat. Like we greet each other “good morning” to “morning!”. I also thought maybe its their culture. After some time, I observed that some of the text I read from them was different from mine (based from what I learned in China). And it’s true for all Taiwanese that I chatted. My curiosity went high and I didn’t hesitated to ask a question.
Mandarin is a Chinese language, but not all Chinese language is Mandarin
The official language of Taiwan and China is Chinese Language. Mandarin refers to speaking the Chinese language. Mandarin is only one of it thus there’s a lot of way to speak Chinese. Although they speak both Chinese language, there’s a slight difference between China’s and Taiwan’s languages. If you observe it carefully, the tone in Taiwan is more tender thus as my Taiwanese friends said “You can hear more “err” sound in China.” I have been to China and I haven’t aware of this until they said this to me.
Simplified vs. Traditional
Now, that I found out that I can use my Chinese language skill both in Taiwan and China. This is where my confusion starts, as I said earlier, I found out that they have different writing system. Taiwan use Traditional Chinese while China use Simplified Chinese. Example:
Traditional
馬
Simplified
马
Both have same meaning with no difference in grammar. The difference? I could say that the Traditional Chinese is more complicated in writing (though I find it beautiful) and Simplified Chinese is, from the word itself, just simplifying the Traditional writing system. So with Simplified Chinese, expect to have a less stroke.
One time I asked my Taiwanese friends what they have typed and asked how to pronounce it, like in Romanization. So my friend sent me a cheat sheet and told me that they don’t use Pinyin. (What!?) That was time that it cause me more headache (Kidding!). It’s because while China uses Pinyin system (easier for me), Taiwanese uses Mandarin Phonetic Symbol (MPS) or Zhuyin.
What was that?
So just what I guess, I bet you also guessed, so base from the symbol is you make a sound.
That’s all information I have for now. I just thought before, learning Chinese is hard. But, now it’s even harder (Haha!) which makes more interesting. 🙂
Bonus item:
While chatting with them, I learned that
Taiwan = Republic of China (ROC)
China = People’s Republic of China (PRC)
And in Taiwan most of them use LINE while in China they use WeChat.
“Do difficult things, it’s how they become easy.” – iwtfy
Studying different language is not easy. Learning Korean language is difficult.
The beginning
I started studying Korean language when I was ill last January 2017 and the doctor advised me to stay at home and take a rest. Other than sleeping or staring the ceiling blankly, I can’t do anything. I was so bored. The year just started and here I am, doing nothing. Instead of wasting my time, I wrote Korean Alphabets (Hangul) and tried to familiarized and memorized all characters. On that very same day, I decided to challenge myself. And it was to study Korean Language. My fifth attempt to study new language.
Learning Korean language is difficult. Did I already said that? Oh yes! It was really difficult. It will not be a challenge at all if it was so easy right?
I started from scratch. Like a new born baby who’s learning how to speak and trying to understand new words. Like an astronaut assigned to newly discovered planet, trying to figured out how to communicate with aliens or like an archaeologist who’s scratching his head on how to decipher an ancient language. Apart from that, I have a busy schedule. I have a work 9 hours a day. In addition, the traveled hours to work and going home consumes not only my time but also my energy. I can’t even attend formal Korean language classes. Even I wanted to, I believed it will be putted in vain since the class was very far from my place and I have sometimes work on weekends. Not to mention other extra curricular activities. However, like a popular Filipino sayings “Kung gusto, maraming paraan. Kung ayaw, maraming dahilan.” (If there’s a will, there’s a way). Despite of these reasons, I accepted the challenge and chose to continue.
“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” — Jim Rohn
I resolved myself to self-study again. With that, I can squeezed my schedule and find a dedicated time to study Korean language. At first, it was hard to find a book or a source, my main reference. Yes, I know there were so many. But I only need one book/reference. This was crucial for me as it will be my solid foundation. So sometimes, during lunch break at work, I will go to the bookstore and searched for Korean language book. I spent some of my hours there, skimming, browsing, and looking for a book that will satisfy my understanding. Sometimes, I memorized some of the contents and when I got back, I will jot it down and took some notes. To maximize my time, I took advantage of the traffic. I studied vocabulary or listened to podcast while riding or queuing for the long line of train. Watching animes were replaced by watching Seemile’s Youtube videos. Reading novels and mangas were replaced by Korean textbooks. I switched my playlist to Korean Pop Music. My new video game was Memrise. These were my new hobbies. Also, I stayed late at night to study. Sometimes, when I enjoyed the lesson, I didn’t noticed that I studied for more than 4 hours. Sometimes, I can’t even get to sleep. It’s hard to stop when you are “in-the-zone”. Its like my mind thirst for more knowledge and my brain doesn’t recognized fatigue.
Funrun at morning, vocabs marathon at night.
Sometimes people may think I’m crazy. There were a times, I unconsciously uttered some Korean words in public. I also addressed and called my family in Korean. My Father as abeoji (아버지) and my older sister as noona (누나). (I still do it, Haha!) Most of the time, my response to my noona was in Korean. She will asked me what was the meaning of that and I will explained it in return. (Good for reviewing. Haha!). I even converted and labeled the names of the thing at home. When my friends invited me to go and hang out, I declined them and chose to stay at home and study. And then my friends thought I was kidding. What an alibi! LOL. And even when I’m on vacation, I still checked the Korean dictionary.
힘내요!Studying grammar
It hitted me one time, in the middle of the night, I asked myself. “Do I really need to do this? Maybe I was just bored on that day. I even don’t imagine myself to live and work in Korea. Maybe I was just hurt after I failed on N4 level in Nihongo. Why not focus on Japanese language? It was easy rather than trying to learn new language.” It was also frustrating. I invested too much time on this, and when I talked to my Korean friends, I can’t followed it sometimes. I also tried to watch a Korean movie without subtitles. I barely understood it and only minimal words were recognized.
“When you feel like quitting, think about why you started.”
I wanted to be positive. My dream is to become a polyglot after all- a person who knows and can use several languages. That was why I registered to TOPIK exam. So I can’t back out and to have a reason to finished this challenge. I’m so determined that my goal was to achieve and pass TOPIK (Test Of Proficiency In Korean). I don’t want to fail again. I don’t also to disappoint my friends, especially my Korean friends who became my tutor and also my family.
That’s why I said, for me, studying and learning Korean language was difficult. I don’t want to scare anyone who wished and wanted to study Korean language. My intention was not to discourage anyone. I was just saying that’s how I struggled. I bet some has even worse situation than me. Actually, it is really easy. If you have motivation, dedication, and you believe to your dreams. If you think you can face and overcome it, I think you will be just fine. If you chose to go with this path, by the time you are reading this, I wish you good luck and never give up! I wanted also to say like the common Korean phrase “Aja! (아자!), “Fighting! (화이팅!)” and “Cheer up! (힘내요!)” Well, if your situation was not like mine. Then good for you. You can forget what I said. Kidding! 🙂
In the end, it’s rewarding and fulfilling. It’s all worth it.
I passed the TOPIK 1 exam with a score of 155 and a grade of 2nd level
Of course, I can’t do this all by myself. I would like to express my gratitude to my KakaoTalk friends, especially my 선생님 주영 for their patience, my Noona for the support and understanding me, to my polyglot friend, Hannah, for lending her books and some materials and for the tips. For IU and Seohyun, my inspiration. (LOL!). And of course, to our Almighty God for giving me hope, strength and knowledge. 🙂
The Road to Polyglot Dreams 