The Joys of Mandarin Chinese

I arrived in mainland China two months ago well aware of the fact that Mandarin Chinese is considered one of the most difficult languages in the world to master.

Studies have shown, that for a native English speaker, it takes 8 times as long to master Mandarin as it does a romance language such as Spanish. The US Department of State designated it as one of the five most difficult foreign languages to master among 63 major languages analyzed.

I was hoping to prove the experts wrong, but after two months of intensive study, I must concede that it's reputation is well deserved.

My usual approach to a new endeavor is one of brute force. I find that if I spend enough time approaching a task from many different angles, eventually I will latch on to something that works for me.

In my attempts to tackle Mandarin Chinese, I have been:

• Listening to Pimsleur audio lessons on my IPhone
• Listening to ChinesePod online audio lessons
• Systematically looking up and recording new words that I learn on the fly using my Pleco Chinese dictionary for IPhone
• Testing myself using various combinations of Chinese characters, pinyin, definitions, and audio using the Pleco electronic flashcard software for IPad
• Watching Chinese cartoons with English and Chinese character subtitles
• Spending as much time as possible hanging out with native Chinese speakers
• Studying both a beginners and intermediate textbook
• Taking five hours a day, five days a week of one-on-one language tutoring from a variety of language teachers

Not to mention moving halfway around the world, so that I could immerse myself among native Chinese speakers.

Sadly, I feel that my language skills are still about on par with that of an infant. Although I can speak in simple sentences and carry out some basic smalltalk, I am still pretty much lost when a native speaker starts speaking to me in normal speed. At this point, I am still unable to follow along with even children's cartoons.

It doesn't help that I look Chinese and that native speakers naturally approach me speaking a mile a minute.

Learning the characters is another matter entirely. Unlike the Roman alphabet, which has 26 characters, the Chinese use individual characters to represent ideas. Conservative estimates place the number of Chinese characters at over 50,000 (in fairness, most of these characters are not in regular use and you ONLY need to learn a few thousand of these words to reach adult level literacy). These characters are then combined with each other to form an untold number of words.

Despite the Sisyphean nature of my task, I remain cautiously optimistic.

I just picked up a copy of Remembering Simplified Hanzi by James Heisig and Timothy Richardson. Heisig is well known for his approach in studying both Japanese kanji and Chinese hanzi. He comes up with seemingly ridiculous, yet highly systematic and effective, mnemonic devices to associate characters with their meaning. Since starting the book, I have been picking up hanzi at a dramatically increased pace.

Hopefully, once I have the basics of the written language under my belt, I'll be better able to read and write on my own time. From there, I will be able to build a firmer grasp of sentence structure and grammar. It will also help me in picking up new words as well as consolidating my new vocabulary.

I'll likely be moving to a different locale next week and continuing my studies on my own time. My intermediate goal is to be able to watch children's cartoons by the end of summer.

The bottom line is this... there are 1.4 billion people that speak this language fluently. How difficult could it really be? :)

Rock Climbing in Yangshuo

My current city of Yangshuo, in addition to its natural splendor and laid back style of life, is also known as one of the rock climbing capitols of the world. Rock climbers from all over the world journey to Yangshuo for the opportunity to climb its scenic limestone karst formations.

Always looking to venture outside my comfort zone, I decided to give it a try last weekend.

The basic idea is to try to scale a vertical rock face using nothing but your toes and fingertips. Kind of like Spider-Man. You are protected by a cable strapped to your waist and run through a few tiny metal anchors attached to the rock face. It is actually quite safe, though it doesn't quite feel that way when you are hanging by your fingertips 40 meters from the ground.

I am told that many people become addicted to the sport of rock climbing from the very start and, after trying it for the first time, I can see why. There is a distinctive rush of adrenaline as your body instinctively tries to tell you "Get back on solid ground, stupid!". I've never been one to experiment with cocaine, but I imagine it's pretty much the same concept.

If nothing else, rock climbing is actually a great workout. In addition to using your forearms and calves to propel yourself up the rock face, you are also constantly tensing your core muscles for balance. I previously considered myself in decent shape, but the rock climbing dudes I went with looked like Men's Fitness cover models next to me. I will spare you the pictures of me with my shirt off.

On Learning Chinese...

I have been living in Yangshuo for six weeks now, taking intensive language classes and working toward one of my original goals of learning Chinese.

I am often asked the question "Why learn Chinese?"

After explaining to people that I am a half Japanese/half Korean fourth generation American that only speaks English, many people are puzzled that I would choose to move halfway around the world to learn Chinese.

Well first and foremost, I consider myself a pragmatist. If I am going to spend the time and energy to learn another language, it only seems logical to learn the most useful language possible.

And I think I can say unequivocally that the most useful language for me to learn right now is Mandarin Chinese.

Mandarin Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the world and it’s not even close. Over 1 billion people speak it as their 1st or 2nd language. That's twice as many as English, which comes in second.

Beyond mainland China, Chinese is widely spoken in many locations that I would like to travel to or perhaps settle down in someday such as Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Singapore.

Just as importantly, the Chinese do business with people all over the world. I happen to be one of those people that believes that China will one day overtake the United States as the world’s economic superpower. Even conservative estimates project the Chinese economy to overtake the US in size within 20 years. Any way you slice it, the economic opportunities here are undeniable, and will only increase as China’s role in the global economy expands.

One of the primary inspirations for my travels are the writings of former hedge fund manager Jim Rogers. Rogers whimsically circumnavigated the globe on two separate occasions, once by motorcycle and once by Mercedes convertible, writing extensively about the cultures and economies of the countries he visited. He chronicled his adventures in his books Adventure Capitalist and Investment Biker. His books were what originally sparked my interest in travel.

Drawing on his traveling experience, the most useful piece of advice he could think of to give young people today was to learn Mandarin Chinese. He deemed it so important that he moved to Singapore and hired a Chinese nanny to rear his infant daughter so that she would grow up learning Chinese.

For someone like me, with the broad goal in doing something interesting and important with my life, but with no specific plan or focus, I believe that learning Chinese is as worthy a goal as any.

The Dragon Spined Mountain

I've been wanting to visit Longji since I first saw pictures of its spectacular rice terraces. After visiting this past weekend, I am happy to say, that this is one tourist destination that lives up to the hype.

The Longji rice terraces date back over 500 years. They are carved into the sides of the mountains and kept watered through an intricate network of irrigation ditches. When filled with water in the spring planting season, the terraces are said to resemble the scales of a dragon. Hence the name Longji, which means "dragon spine" in Chinese.

The area is home to several Chinese ethnic minorities. Small farming villages are scattered through the hillside, with guesthouses and restaurants to accommodate travelers. There are well defined hiking paths, paths that date back hundreds of years, to all the well known scenic spots.

After first arriving in the village of Ping'An, at the base of the rice terraces, we journeyed by foot to TianTou, a more remote village with less tourists and better views. The hike took four hours, at times through rain and mud, but was well worth the trouble. There was lots of spectacular scenery along the way, such as a secluded mountain lake, farmers tending to their crops and animals, and an ancient cemetery, not to mention all the rice terraces.

In the village of Tiantou, we stayed at one of the local guesthouses. To my surprise, other than the wooden houses and fresh mountain air, the amenities were much like those found in any other city. We had hot water, a western toilet, satellite television and internet access. In the lobby of one of the guesthouses, a local kid was playing Counter Strike. The cost of our double room for the evening... 25 yuan, roughly $4.

For dinner, the owner brought us a special treat - a wild bird captured by the village's eldest hunter. Half an hour after displaying the bird for our approval, the bird was sitting on our dinner plate, fried with garlic and served alongside freshly picked organic vegetables.

The next morning, we ventured out from TianTou to all of the most renowned scenic spots. The views from the top of the hillside were breathtaking. There were several guesthouses and locals merchants scattered along the way, where you could sit and enjoy the view. We sat and drank a bowl of fantastic local tea at one scenic spot, and had some delicious freshly picked taro at another.

After another day of hiking, we caught a bus from the village of DaZhai back to Ping'An, and then returned to Yangshuo.

I felt that one day was enough time to experience Longji and to hit all the scenic spots, though I wouldn't mind returning to stay for a week or two. Maybe when I get tired of unwinding in Yangshuo, I can head over to Longji to unwind from all this unwinding.

If you ever wondered what camel meat tastes like...

It's delicious.

It tastes like a chewier, fattier version of pork. I'd have to rank it right up there with crocodile. Here's a picture from tonight's menu:
The stir fried donkey meat I had last week, on the other hand, was nothing to write home about:

An Afternoon in the Countryside

Yesterday, I went for a bike ride through the countryside around Yangshuo and had lunch at an inn along the side of the road. The inn had its own adjacent farm with fresh, organically grown vegetables and livestock.

We ordered garlic chicken and got to choose the chicken ourselves. They first brought out a live chicken for us, but Jesse (one of the Chinese students that I went with) thought it was too big and wanted a different one. They let him choose the one he wanted and gave him the net to catch it with. LOL!




We also got pump our own water from the well out front.

After lunch, we visited the Li River, taking in the scenery along the way.



I saw a lot of interesting sites such as rock climbers climbing the karst rock formations, people riding bamboo rafts down the Li River, and farmers taking their cattle or water buffalo for walks along the road. It's definitely not something you see in Irvine everyday!

NBA Finals

Well since I lost so much money on the conference finals, I figured why not lose some more on the finals?

According to the JJ Stats supercomputer...

The odds of winning the NBA championship are:

Lakers 54.2% or -118
Celtics 45.8% or +118

This is using regular season stats only, which rates the Lakers and Celtics neck and neck, the difference being home court advantage.

After watching the Celtics handle both the Cavs and the Magic (who were statistically hands down the best team in the NBA this year), one has to consider the possibility that the Celtics are a better team than their regular season stats indicate. I don't really like to speculate on reasons why, but it is logical considering that Kevin Garnett may have played injured for much of the season.

If I incorporate post season statistics into the model, I have the Celtics as the superior team.

The odds using post season statistics:

Celtics 54.5% -120
Lakers 45.5% +120

Either way, there is significant value on betting the Celtics at +180. The added bonus, of course, is that it gives you yet another reason to root against Kobe and the Lakers.