Mandarin Language Class

I wanted to learn to speak a new language. This and I was thinking of ways to prepare myself for my future plan of leaving my present company in 5 years time. So  I'm taking baby steps now in preparation for 2016. I was thinking of French. But a visit to a distant relative as well as advice from some friends (though I wouldn't call it unbiased counsel, because the one I asked is a friend who's "pure" Chinese), I decided to take up Mandarin first. French is still in the plan, but for now, it'll be Mandarin. 

I enrolled at Languages Internationale in Makati, initially for a 15-hour learning sessions of basic Mandarin. So far, I plan to enroll for another 15 hours to complete the 30-hour full course on Basic Mandarin. 

On my first class last February 22, there were 4 of us in the class; 2 Filipinas and 2 male Indian nationals. We were a funny group, all of us having zero-knowledge of this language. However, on my 2nd day, the 3 decided to switch scheds, so that left me on a one-on-one set up with my Laoshi. 

Mandarin is basically an easy language to learn. But one has to be careful with the intonations or tones, because accidentally changing the way a word is said, will give it a different meaning. Of all the things I've learned so far, I will say that I sill have a long way to go when it comes to tones. 

Since my 2nd day was a 1-on-1 session, it was partly tiring since there's no one else to do the recitations. :) But, I appreciated it a lot. I was taught numbers, time and date. It's kinda confusing, because as with all languages, Mandarin has it's own rules or principles, which I have to know by heart if I want to be able to speak this language eventually. 

And on a side note, this endeavor gave me that "something to look forward to" feeling again. Something which I haven't felt for quite a while now. It allows me to be busy and to use my brain again on things which are truly ARE NOT work related. I also know that some people are speculating as to the real reason why I took this class. To answer your question,  I am doing this for myself, first and foremost. Learning Mandarin will not make me a "pure" Chinese, so it doesn't have that much to do with him. 

Looking forward to more lessons and learnings! Until my next entry! 

Zai Jian (this is goodbye in Chinese, but I was told by my Laoshi that one doesn't really write like this, one has to really use chinese characters, otherwise, Chinese people won't understand what's written)