One thing I learned that helps keep me going when I started learning Mandarin here in Beijing is that it’s the little “accomplishments” that give me a daily dose of joy.

Today, it was calling my favorite kao ya（Peking duck) restaurant near Chaoyang Park and making reservations for Chinese New Year dinner with my friends tonight.  

The first thing I had to do was look up the word “reserve” (yu ding) in my handy English-Chinese dictionary. And the word for “table” (zhuo zi). After that, it was a matter of taking a deep breath and summoning the confidence to place a phone call to the non-English speaking maitre d’ of the restaurant. Here goes nothing. 

Of course the next hurdle after making the call and announcing that I wanted to make table reservations for this evening was trying to understand what the reply was on the other end. And I guess this is where even more confidence and courage is required: having the guts to ask the person I was speaking with to speak more slowly.

Maybe it was an ego thing or an insecurity thing, but I used to feel shy about asking Chinese people to slow down for me. Maybe I had a fear of being thought of as stupid. Maybe I was being too hard on myself (as usual) and frustrated that after a semester of studying, listening was still a challenging aspect of the language for me.

But at some point, I had to make peace and get over these mental obstacles. Otherwise, it’s just going to be a one-way conversation. And those are never fun.

So in my most apologetic tone, I asked the fu wu yuan if he could speak more slowly.

He did. And I was able to understand that they were closing the restaurant early and would prefer to accommodate us at 7:30, instead of at 8:00 like I had first asked.

I agreed. And yu ding le a table for four people and one order of Peking duck.

Now, aside from daydreaming about that juicy kao ya on flat bread with the sweet brown sauce (yum!), I’m sitting here congratulating myself on having successfully conducted yet another conversation in Mandarin.

Too vain, you say? Maybe. But it’s little “victories” like this that inspire and motivate. 

Like every other endeavor in life, learning a language requires conquering your own shortcomings, even if that just means getting over that nasty little voice in your head that says you’ll sound silly. Celebrating simple achievements will serve as fuel when things get tougher later on, as they surely will. 

So love the little doses. And one day maybe you’ll find they aren’t so little anymore. Today, it’s a waiter in a restaurant, tomorrow it could be the Premier himself.

Hey, anyone’s free to dream, right?