1000 Days!

Hello, friends! 

The joke that I like to tell is that growing up, my parents were multilingual but their other languages didn't overlap so had to speak in English at home so that when one of them yelled at me, the other one knew what I did wrong. My mom grew up in Indonesia so she knows a few different languages. My dad grew up in St. Louis but his parents spoke a dialect of Cantonese. I grew up speaking English and eventually studied Spanish in high school and one year in college.

During elementary school, I took one year of Chinese school but I didn't like it. I have a distinct memory of being in the car one time and absolutely nailing a recitation. I don't remember if it was in Cantonese or Mandarin. I have no idea what I said. What I do remember is that instead of going to the recital at the end of the year, I went to a friend's birthday party and never looked back. 

A few years ago, I decided to try studying Chinese again, as a way to do a little ethnic identity development work. I was always uncomfortable at church when some of my friends would be able to talk to older aunties and uncles (or each other) in Mandarin or Cantonese but I couldn't. It was also uncomfortable tagging along with Megan at international student events and the Chinese students being disappointed that I didn't speak the language. So, I downloaded an app, and slowly but surely, have started to pick up a few things. 

Yesterday, I reached my 1000 day streak of practicing my Mandarin lessons (I chose Mandarin because that's what the app offered). Can I speak a whole lot? Some but not much. I'm only doing 10-15 minutes/day, so I knew the learning would be slow. I'm still figuring out some of the tones but my listening is getting better. Because of the nature of the app, my reading is way ahead of my listening and speaking but we're making progress. Also, I think there was a day in there somewhere when I was sick and didn't do a lesson but I had a "Streak Freeze" that got used, so maybe it's 999 out of 1000 days. Still, not a bad accomplishment! 

My question that I asked myself yesterday as my 1000 day streak image came up was, "has studying Mandarin for 1000 days straight done what I wanted to do? Has it given me a better sense of my own ethnic identity? Do I feel any closer to my "Chinese roots""? I don't have a good answer to that. On the one hand, it's been fun learning and I've been able to pick up bits and pieces from my niece and nephew in their Chinese competitions. On the other hand, I really don't have anyone to practice with and I'm way less immersed in the Chinese community than before. Either way, I'm happy I did it. 

Now would normally be the point where I say something like, "onward to the next 1000 days!" but the truth is that I probably won't last that long. Eventually, I'll run through every level of the app and will move onto something different. Maybe it'll be a new app. Maybe it'll be a conversation partner. Who knows? What I do know is that for the past almost 3 years, I've practiced my Mandarin, and I learned at least SOMETHING. That seems important. 

Have an excellent day!

~Adam