We're back for another season! In this episode, Xiao-Li (小李) comes back to Taiwan.
Learning how to digest (and even to be entertained by) material that you don't completely understand is an important skill for learning a language. In this episode, we introduce a new dialogue, but don't translate it all at once like we did in Season 1. Instead, I'll introduce some of the key words and phrases, and we'll let your language intuition work to try and figure out the rest. It's ok if you don't get all or even most of it; it's the challenge of grappling with the exercise that makes us grow, not simply knowing the right answer.
Tomorrow, I will release the dialogue on its own, so that you can start to practice and master the material more and more over time. Repetition is important; each time you listen, you are reinforcing new connections in your brain, and you may notice things you didn't notice during previous repetitions.
And in the next episode, I will translate this dialogue completely, line by line, so that you can fill in whatever gaps remain in your comprehension, possibly enjoying many "Aha!" moments.
Today's Lesson Outline:
As a visual cue and for reference, here are the words we learn in the lesson, and example phrases:
Chinese characters only (scroll down for pinyin and translation):
With pinyin and translation:
Language as collaboration
Many years ago, before I starting to learn Mandarin, I took a trip to Italy. Though I spoke basically no Italian, I found that just trying to imitate the way people there spoke went a long way towards generating good will, and seemed to make many people want to try harder to communicate with me, despite the language barrier. I began to see speaking a language as a collaborative act, almost like making music, where listening and imitating are important parts of playing in rhythm and staying in the same key.
What I take away from this is that learning to speak any language, including Mandarin, is more an attitude than a technical skill. If you're willing to listen carefully and really open yourself up to the language -- to try your best to sound like a native speaker, even if you're a total beginner -- then you can go a long way with very little. You'll have more chances to practice, and you'll form stronger connections and make friends, which is what it's really all about. And, of course, you'll actually learn the language a lot faster.
Thanks for listening!
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