I’d Rather Have the Chinese
January 30th, 2006 by MarkLast night, I continued on my mad geeking spree. Robb, Lisa, Aubrey and Warren came over and we played Magic the Gathering. Geez, it’s been a long time since I played that game. It was pretty fun, though. Warren had never played before, so to save time we each made decks out of 10 random cards of each color, 7 lands of each type, and 5 artifacts. For the first game, we played with the whole deck. After that, we pruned our decks down (but kept the 40 card minimum rule). Somehow Warren completely wasted us, punk that he is.
I got my chance to gloat though, and it was a big one. You see, Warren’s Taiwanese. He moved to Colorado before middle school, and ended up living a couple blocks from me. We both went to the same high school and college. By the time I got to know him, a little in highschool and a lot better in college, his English was already great and he didn’t need ESL classes anymore. I do remember him reading Chinese books every now and then, though. Anyway, I still had some old Chinese study materials at my family’s house, from my last visit a couple of years ago. Warren noticed my flash cards and picked up a few stacks and started going through them, much like I did when I noticed them after getting here last week. Here’s the thing, though: he couldn’t read about 20% of them, and I knew them all. He couldn’t read my 國語日報, either. I could read about half the articles.
Yeah, baby! I knew my writing would be better, but I never imagined my reading would be, too. Ok, I have to admit I’m far from literate, his listening is still better, and his English and Taiwanese are perfect, but still! So what if he hasn’t lived in Taiwan or used Chinese in school since he was a little kid? I beat a Taiwanese person at something Chinese related and I’m going to cling to my moment of glory forever! Yeah, I got wasted at our geeky card game, but I’d rather have the Chinese. It means my 3 years of livin’ in “the ‘wan”haven’t all been in vain.
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February 5th, 2006 at 4:16 am
Oh yea, gaijin-pride!
heheh.. I just got done explaining to a Japanese women how she can transfer her money out of one bank account into another without actually talking to a soul - it can be all done at the ATM machine. gaijin-pride!
February 5th, 2006 at 4:18 am
there are a couple of corrections to be had…it was elementary school not middle school and you may have mistaken me reading chinese books…cuz that never happened. funny thing is that when you’re young and after a couple of years in the US and not having a full chinese education, you tend to forget a lot. anyway, living in taiwan definitely gave you an advantage cause of the whole immersion thing. keep it up.
February 5th, 2006 at 4:20 am
@Warren: Ha! Why is it that Chinese and Mexican kids can remember so much after coming here? If you were Korean or Czech or something you’d have forgotten it all for sure. Also, how do you know Taiwnese so well after just being in the US ever since being a little kid? Do you go back and study in the summers?
February 5th, 2006 at 4:21 am
an: you have to remember that with immigrants, people tend to speak their native language at home. the ‘use it or lose it’ adage is true here since daily exposure and usage of the language is the best way to not forget it. also, don’t forget that there’s television programming and radio stations here in the states that’s not in english! consuming media a good method to drill any language into your head.
for me, i speak min nan at home and not mandarin. there was a brief stint with chinese school here in CO, but that’s very basic compared to what the children study in taiwan. mark has a better knowledge of chinese since he has studied there and also has the chance for daily practice.
February 5th, 2006 at 4:22 am
Haha, good old MtG… Last time I went home I played a few rounds with a friend for old times’ sake. That was a fun game, but it was addictive as crack. You end up spending way too much money on it.