To the mostly-Western, no-Chinese-background language learner, Mandarin looks daunting. Seeing the two lines of Chinese subtitles on your pirated copy of “Avatar” is enough to turn any Roman alphabet-reading student off. Couple that with the fact that the same word said in different tones means a completely different thing, and I can’t blame you if you think that it would take a miracle for you to be able to speak, much less read Mandarin.

But when you start out with the right frame of mind, are willing to put in the work and have the ability to laugh at yourself every now and then, miracles can happen.

Suddenly, you can now tell your taxi driver exactly where to go, give directions and have an interesting conversation along the way.

Suddenly, when you’re shopping for clothes, you can ask to see other colors or sizes and more importantly, bargain for a price that would seem criminal (if you’re European or North American that is).

And when you order food at a restaurant, instead of just pointing at the pictures on the menu, you can now ask if there’s beef or pork in it and if they accept credit cards at their establishment.

Those are Mandarin Miracles. It’s pretty exciting when they start happening.  And it just builds up from there.

This blog will be exactly about these: the challenges, the attitude and mindset, tips, resources and even anecdotes (i.e. boo-boos and blunders, victories and achievements) as I strive to master what everyone says will be the language of the future. 

You can too. Believe it.

Through this blog, I’ll do my best to help you. Because you’ll also be helping me by forcing me to commit and focus on my sole purpose for coming to China in the first place.

Ready?

“我们开始！”(“Women kai shi! = Let’s begin!)