So one of the best things I've learned throughout my language learning is the difference in holiday traditions. Due to the time of year, I felt I should share a little bit about that.
One main difference is when countries celebrate the "new year". In America, we celebrate it between December and January, but in a lot of other countries they celebrate at a different time. The Chinese New Year is a really big holiday that causes a lot of workers to get at least a week off. Some people can get up to two weeks off for this day which they will travel home and spend with their families. This is pretty common to what we celebrate here as well.
My friend, Jing, was able to send me some photos from Tianjin.
Two different traditions they do involve cleaning out their houses. This is done as a way to remove any "bad spirits" that may reside from the previous year in hopes of starting the new year with only good spirits. There is also decorations that are put up. This isn't so much the way that we do to celebrate but instead to scare away. The decorations are meant to scare away any new spirits or ghosts that may be in the streets coming to bring bad times to your family.
Strawberries for Christmas!
Before you judge, remember that we are the people who grow up learning not to stop on cracks in the sidewalk for our mother's safety. We are worried of "jinxing" ourselves and believe the best way to rid ourselves of this is to find the nearest wood and knock on it......okay.
Most recently, I was talking to a few people about how Christmas is celebrated. As Christmas has turned into more of a holiday for buying gifts, it is partially treated that way in China. It isn't celebrated as a traditional holiday, more of a "Hallmark Holiday." The unique part is more around Christmas Eve. In China, this is celebrated by giving people apples, the fruit. It is common to give somebody an apple as a way of wishing them well on Christmas Eve. Sure, this seems truly strange as apple prices rise with the demand and they can even cost extra if they are pre-wrapped, but there is an extremely simple explanation for all of this. In Mandarin, Christmas Eve is 平安夜 (Píng'ān yè) which has the word for apple in it as well (苹果Píngguǒ). Basically, they use the name to determine what to do with it.
Apples at the office for all the employees.
For all my friends learning Mandarin, I wish an apple on you and your family today. To the rest of you, I wish you a happy holiday season, whichever you celebrate. We all celebrate our holidays differently, but what they all center around is family.
Yes, you read that right. I seriously just understood what I'm saying. It came to me yesterday as I was going for a run. My mind tends to wander a lot which leads to a common, "How did you think of that?" response from people when I tell them. Regardless, somehow while I was running I was just thinking about Arabic. Over the last few weeks I have been gaining a better understanding of the language including different possessive words.
مع السلامة
Go with peace (Good bye)
السلام عليكم
Peace be upon your day (Hello)
وعليكم السلام
And your day with peace (Hello response)
It may seem silly to see this written out but in Mandarin it is actually a more awkward saying. Most people are familiar with how to say hello in Mandarin but do they really understand what is being said? More importantly, when you ask how somebody is doing:
你好
You good (Hello)
你好吗
You good, yes? (How are you?)
Mainly, asking how somebody is in Mandarin can almost appear awkward. We have these types of phrases in English as well. Our typical greeting can range from, "What's up?" which likely would confuse any foreigner if that was the first question you asked them, or, "How are you doing?" How am I doing what? How am I doing in life?! Geez, the most awkward part about these questions is that when somebody asks you this, if you answer anything beyond, "I'm good." You'll get a bad response. Somehow, it is now part of our culture that we ask how we are doing but don't actually care to hear a real response.
Looking at how my Arabic has grown over the past month, I can definitely see some growth in what I can say. I may struggle at times to come up with the correct word, conjugation, tense, etc. but I know that I can say more than what I previously had done. Before, I was reciting things that I had memorized; now I am creating new sentences by combining words that I've learned and grammar that I've acquired. This has caused my speaking to slow down, but that is what I want to emphasize. I want to show the moments when I'm thinking on my feet. I don't want to prepare a nice memorized script to read to you because that doesn't really show how I would interact in a social setting.
My biggest weakness right now is my listening. I plan to attack that this week so hopefully I can have a better idea of how to actually listen to the language that I'm speaking.
So I mentioned previously that I was having a tough way of going about this. My initial plan wasn't working as well as I had hoped and my confidence was draining. There needed to be some direction in what I was doing. You can't exactly get to a final destination if you don't have a map.
I decided a few weeks ago to get some tutoring. It wasn't going to be too intensive, just help get a foundation that I could build on. My hope was that after a few lessons I would be able to start applying what I learned into expanding my skills.
I was able to find a "community tutor" who was able to work with me from Palestine and immediately I could tell a difference. The first thing we did was go over verb conjugations, which hadn't been explained to me yet, and suddenly I took off. Although I was struggling to get words out as effectively, I was happier knowing that what I was doing was actually correct. Previously, I was only memorizing phrases, but now I can manipulate a sentence to mean something different with just a few words.
So many notes to write in Arabic, in English, to listen, to say, bah! Gotta keep up!
The lessons have been difficult at times. Being as they are only an hour we try to jam as much information into that hour as possible, which usually leaves me overwhelmed by the end. Also, due to the time differences, the lessons are all at 5am. This has left me exceptionally exhausted at times but if I want to make this work, I have to make it a priority. It isn't just when it is convenient that I practice; I need to make time for this and put forth the effort.
One thing really struck me during my last lesson which was Friday morning. Whenever I am presented a new work, I am given both the English phonetic spelling as well as the Arabic spelling. With newer words that are being presented to me, I have been able to write them out in Arabic BEFORE I am even given the spelling. This was exciting knowing that I am starting to differentiate certain letters that sound similar. This was a small but happy win in the Alex column.
We're making progress guys! On day at a time.
I have one more lesson in a week before I have to decide to sign up for more lessons or to go back on my own. At this time I'm not sure which way I will go. Both ways have their benefits so I'm hoping after the lesson I will have a better idea of which I want to pursue. For now, I'll leave you with another Arabic video!
Accidentally used the wrong verbs when talking about my dog, so pretend I am talking TO him, about him, and it totally works.......
This goes out to anybody taking on something new. That can be anybody taking on a new language like myself, a change in your nutrition, a change in your exercise routine, etc. At some point we all decide to make a change in hopes for the better. That initial moment is exciting, you have a purpose and a plan and you're ready to go!
How long has it been? How long since you started? How long since it wasn't as easy to stay motivated? How long since you felt you like you were still doing it right?
The truth is, that initial moment is going to pass and following it will be a large place of uncertainty. When I first began learning Arabic I was excited. I felt like I was learning things and moving forward. After a few days I hit that first bump in the road and it slowed me down. Suddenly, things started to get more difficult. My motivation from before was still trying to push back but the obstacles got larger. Did I take a wrong turn? Why wasn't it as easy as before?
Honestly, that rut hit me for longer than I want to admit. I felt like I had a vague idea of the language for a while. I felt I could recognize the letters, but other than that all I could do was say, "Hello." This can really start to wear down on you.
Whenever we set out with a new goal, a new change, a new plan, etc. we always have the end in sight but we forget about the middle ground. We forget how difficult those times in between can be. So what happens when we get to those difficult times? We lose our path. We forget why we started. That's the time to really remember why we started.
For anybody who is striving for something more but struggling through the middle, take a second to remind yourself of why you started and where you hope to get to. You'd be surprised how often we forget to encourage ourselves to keep pushing for our own goals.
One thing that is important to do is to remind yourself of how far you've come. I can look at my video I made today and say, "Wow, I struggled to get out a single sentence. I had to stop and think for EVERY word." I could continually tell myself that I'm no where near being able to comfortable talk with people without a cheat sheet. Or, I can look at how far I've come. Most of the words and phrases I'm saying I didn't even know two weeks ago. This week I could actually say some phrases that explain myself and my family. Even though I look confused and lost in the videos I've posted the past two weeks, I am a lot more confident in myself and what I'm doing.
Stay positive and keep pushing yourself to reach your goals. We'll get through the rough patches together. Please feel free to contact me if you need any motivation for chasing your goals.
