Today, I have been in China for 11 months and 20 days. While the last month of school was a struggle, the last 2 months of working have been – as usual – intense and interesting.

But rather than talk about the challenges my current job poses, I’d rather report about the progress I’ve made over the last few months with my Mandarin skills.

I am still far from the level of speaking that my friend Andreas has (still my benchmark for fluency). And I am still not satisfied with my listening. But, what I do notice is that I’ve had increasing abilities to communicate. Which when I put side by side to where I was almost a year ago when I first got here – of course, gives me a sense of achievement.

How now, Pingyao?

I guess one of the best tests of any person’s language abilities is being able to travel on your own. 

I finally got to travel for the first time by myself in China – well, first time since studying Mandarin – last weekend when I booked a trip to the ancient city of Pingyao. Pingyao is one of China’s best preserved cities and was home to the country’s first banks. In fact, Pingyao’s famous West and South Street were known as China’s original ‘Wall Street’.

The city itself is extremely touristy, as any famous place in the world will be, and vendors and hotel staff know a spot of English. So I deliberately looked for something a little more off the beaten track and was so grateful when Mr. Deng of Harmony Guest House suggested I take a tour of a nearby farming village.

I hired a car for the day and my non-English speaking driver and I chatted about basic stuff on the way: the weather, his family, my family, before arriving about 20 minutes later at a really quaint and charming little village with houses built into the hillsides. Effectively making them ‘cave dwellings’.

Together with my driver Mr. Xiang, I spent the next two hours going in and out of houses of different people, taking photos and chatting up with the locals about their life and the climate. I was very curious and impressed because their cave homes were refreshingly cool inside in the midst of the searing summer heat. I had to ask again and again as I couldn’t believe it, how they stay warm in the winter. After showing me the features of the ‘kang’ bed (kitchen furnace and bed rolled into one), the large stacks of firewood they were storing for the colder months, and Mr. Xiang demonstrating the thickness of the cave walls, I realized how incredibly efficient and environmentally-friendly these homes were.

Every conversation was conducted in Mandarin – even though the locals spoke their own dialect, they gamely switched to putonghua and were very appreciative and delighted with my efforts to talk with them and learn about their life. One couple even loaded me down with various fresh produce from their garden – including apples, tomatoes and a small yellow-orange pear-like fruit with a sweet-salty taste. They were so generous that I finally dredged up the nerve to ask them if I could come back with my ‘foreigner friends’ for some kind of ‘immersion’ programme. It was pretty cool.

And the scenery was spectacular. These farmers, like most in Asia, also use terrace farming, but instead of rice, they planted corn and vegetables on them. It was also incredibly peaceful and quiet. I noticed only the old folks were at home and was told that the younger, more able-bodied were all out in the fields working. “On a Sunday? Don’t they take a break?” I incredulously asked. Mr. Xiang laughed and said to me, “For farmers, there is no such thing as a ‘rest day’.” I felt so grateful that even with the little Mandarin that I know, I was somehow able to get a slice of understanding of Chinese life not usually accessible to foreigners (or city dwellers) like myself.

Living the Language

Of course, getting to Pingyao, I already had a test of how much I can somehow get by already, traveling by myself in China. They are all little things, such as buying the train ticket to Tai Yuan city, with me being able to READ the train chart and choose the departure time and make sure its last stop was Tai Yuan (thank you, Ting Li class!).

On the train itself, I managed to ask the older Chinese gentleman next to me if I could switch seats with him as I wanted to be next to the window. He agreed.

On the 2-hour bus ride from Tai Yuan to Pingyao, I was able to ask the guy next to me to help put my backpack on the aisle as there was hardly any space in our very cramped row.

I also boldly asked the ticket lady in Pingyao to give me the student discount even if my student card from Tsinghua had already expired (I told her I hadn’t gotten my new one for the Fall semester yet as it was summer break) and only paid 50% of the published price.

And of course, there was the usual bargaining while shopping, ordering at restaurants and bars, and being able to instruct cab drivers.

Pretty sweet.

I definitely still have a lot to learn. Just the daily barrage of Chinese words I need to learn for work is already pretty overwhelming. And admittedly, studying takes a back seat when faced with looming deadlines. But I’ll keep going. Somehow.

There is a nice quote I found on a friend’s website some time ago that said, “The greatest reward in becoming a millionaire is not the amount of money that you earn. It is the kind of person that you have to become to become a millionaire in the first place.”

I think learning Mandarin is the same. As Andreas always says, studying Mandarin is a test of character. Only the most dedicated push through with learning and adding to their knowledge and skills. It tests determination, passion and patience.  And in the end, the reward isn’t just the fact that you have acquired a language skill that will carry you successfully when pursuing professional opportunities; it’s also developing yourself as a person to become better than ever, which is what happens when you persist in learning and growing.

And that perhaps, is probably the most meaningful milestone of them all.