You Never Know...

Just a week into my trip to the States, I was able to use some of my language skills I thought I would never use in person: Chinese (Mandarin)! We met this nice Chinese couple in the streets and I was actually able to communicate with them although their English skills were even worse than my Chinese language skills. The best thing: They understood me! Now you might ask why that is such a great success for me...ok, let me explain: Chinese pronunciation is - well, difficult, to say the least. Each and every syllable has four or five ways to be pronounced, and every different pronunciation has a different meaning. So, when I talked to them and they weren't offended but responded in the proper way, I knew I had got the pronunciation right and actually had said what I had wanted to say.

I was really disappointed, though, that I wasn't able to talk to them about more than just the basics. I definitely have to get my Chinese skills polished and extended. All I was able to say is "How are you?" and "I am from Germany" ... not really the greatest of al conversations, huh? This incident has shown me once more the importance of language skills. I mean, they both only knew rudimentary English and my Chinese was hardly any better so I wasn't able to talk to two fascinating and nice persons although I wanted to.

My conclusion: You never know when you might need language skills so if you're interested in learning a different language, don't let anything deter you from it. Make time for it, even if it is only five minutes a day. Learn a new phrase or word every day and stick to it. Take your list of new words or phrases with you if you have to take the bus or train, or if you need to wait somewhere. Make sticky notes with the foreign names of furniture and other stuff and stick the notes to it. Talk to yourself in the foreign language. Yes, just do it! Yes, even if other people think you've lost your mind, just do it! Because, you never know...