learn Mandarin

sending me Rosetta Stone for several languages. I’m so excited! I think I will start with Italian and Mandarin. I’m not sure it’s a good idea to start with two. I might just start with the Mandarin first because I already know super basic (practically nothing) stuff and I do have a Cantonese background. I’ve tried to learn Mandarin before but have failed miserably. I might also want to add Japanese to this because I’ve studied it before but forgotten everything. :( So I’m hoping if I just review it, it’ll pick up easily. I can’t wait!

Maybe I should go ahead and ask people for Amazon giftcards this season so I can purchase Pimsleur CDs with that. I won’t know till I try…the sad thing is, I know I’m not good at languages.

The fear of failing is keeping me from getting started. That, and my lack of money. :(

I came really close to buying the Pimsleur set of CDs tonight. I don’t know…it’s 200+ bucks for the whole set of level I and I’m nervous. I’ve never been a good hand at languages but since I won’t have to put so much effort (if any) into writing/reading, this might be better. I’m always more interested in conversational learning anyway.

Any advice?

I keep hearing that the Chinese in China don’t like American born Chinese…and despite the fact that I know even if that were true, that there are nice people there who are more open-minded, I’m still a bit freaked out by it. I KNOW I stand out – I’ve visited before and everyone just stares. They know I’m foreign despite the fact my skin colour and my hair and features are the same….sigh I don’t know anymore.

But I really want to live in China to teach English (and then simultaneously learn Mandarin). It’s one of my goals in life. And I hope to do it in the the next 3 years.

What I really want is to learn Mandarin while I’m teaching English in China. It would be so awesome! I totally believe in language immersion – and in addition, cultural immersion that comes along with it. I would love the chance to learn about my heritage and learn another dialect at the same time.