The Chinese language is difficult. I've always known that. I lost interest in Chinese school so many years ago because I couldn't make heads or tails of all those characters. Reading a page in Chinese was like trying to separate every drop of water out of a lake - there were just too many for my mind to wrap itself around. But I grew up, thank God, and happily my brain capacity grew too so that in the 9th grade when I started at Stanford Chinese School I was actually retaining much of what the teacher lectured in class. I was older than the other kids in my class just as in all my previous years at Chinese school, but unlike then, when I was too overwhelmed by embarassment to learn anything, I found that, with my older age, my comprehension ability was naturally greater than the other students' and, though I had less Chinese vocabulary under my belt, I could pick up on meaning, themes, and morals much more quickly than they could. This gave me confidence I never had before and a newfound willingness to learn more. I participated in class, did my homework with the utmost of attention, and spoke (or tried to speak) more of the language than ever, no longer embarassed when I didn't know what something meant or how to explain something.
I've learned to love the Chinese language. Chinese words are like no other I've seen; they're like puzzles with many peices whose meanings one must decipher in order to figure out the meaning of the whole word. For example, today, I learned the word 忍. It means to endure or to bear. The top part, 刃, means blade and the bottom, 心, means heart. So 忍 is essentially a blade in the heart. What a meaningful meaning...
Anyways, these days wherever I go I read Chinese aloud. I'm testing myself and learning new words all the time. On the street I only see snippets of Chinese words together like in a sign or on an advertisement, which makes the task of learning the language overall much less daunting. When I look at a page of Chinese now, I no longer see a sea of black-inked strokes; instead, I see many little puzzles to solve which, like a code, will unveil new meaning when strung together. Chinese is difficult to crack, but for that same reason it is also so rewarding to learn.
