Whew… it has been a long few weeks, glad it has finally calmed down enough where I can get back to writing posts for you lot. It’s been hard to keep up my Chinese practice once life gets hectic, but we all do the best we can, right? Well I met with my Chinese tutor this week and she brought up a point that I think many of us can relate to, the classroom dilemma.

I had noticed this in passing during my years of studying Chinese, and really only noticed it during my personal conversation daydreams, why aren’t we taught more everyday vocabulary? If you have taken Chinese classes in a school setting then you will most likely be aware of the order in which your learning progresses. The first ‘level’ (or whatever your school calls the different Chinese classes) is meant to teach you pronunciation and basic Grammar, getting a good introduction for yourself is usually the most important thing at this stage. After the first level, however, lessons become more complex, wanting to teach more complex grammar alongside more complex topics, such as the one child policy or our views on pollution in China. This is all well and good, and it teaches some of the harder grammar, but I have found that while using this method increases understanding of the language, many of us, after going through ‘school’ Chinese, find we still have difficulties in making everyday conversation, sure, we now know the grammar we need to use, but lack the Vocabulary.

Several Chinese students I have talked with have expressed how poor their English vocabulary is, for most Chinese people, they begin learning English very early on, but after having studied for 5+ years, still find themselves unable to communicate effectively with us 老外 (foreigners). Other attributing factors to this is level of interest and their teacher’s ability, but this lack of vocabulary seems to be the most widespread issue.

This holds true for many Western students of Chinese as well. I go to a Chinese restaurant and while I am able to discuss at some length the political situation in China, I am unable to say simple dishes and the like.

I bring up this vocabulary issue, not because I believe classes themselves should be changed, I feel that they do the best they can with the minimal amount of time given to them, but rather to stress the importance of going back and learning that beginning vocabulary.

Focusing on this ‘easy’ vocab, I feel is more important than some of the upper level stuff that you might want to learn about, this kind of conversation will come up a lot more than the economic crisis in Rwanda. This is probably an unnecessary reminder for most of you, but I feel it is a large problem in many learners of both Chinese and English.

For some of you who are more beginners in Chinese, my suggestion is to focus on grammar and pronunciation, vocab comes later, as a beginner you need to get your understanding of the language down, as well as learning the complete vocab for several topics you are interested in, so that you have something to talk about. As many more knowledgeable learners than I have told me, if you know how to talk about hiking, even if you hate hiking, for today, you LOVE hiking.