Wow, been a while since I last came on this forum!
Hello all, as my title says, it's really been a while!
Just to fill you in, in the past year or so, I've been training hard in both my Gongfu and Taijiquan and also I've been learning chinese (mandarin) for the past 15 months or so. Also, I've been to Taiwan twice in 2006, once in January for 1 month and as I'm writing this, I'm here in Taipei with my lovely girlfriend!
My interest in gongfu movies (wuda pian in pinyin) and actual martial arts itself sparked my interest in the chinese language, back then my ultimate goal being able to watch a gongfu movie in chinese with no subtitles
But as I made progress with my chinese, I set my sights higher and my aim these days is to become fully literate in traditional chinese characters as well as being fluent in the language.
When I started out learning in England, there were basically no classes for learning chinese and the only class I knew of was one my chinese friend went to (him being from Hong Kong and already fluent in Cantonese) and the class he usually went to on a Sunday morning was for learning Mandarin chinese. But sadly, he stopped going and concentrated on specialist Cantonese grammer and essay classes instead to gain an A Level in it. So I never got a chance to go.
Then, looking around my local book store, found a book called 'Beginner's Chinese By Elizabeth Scurfield and Song Lianyi'. Starting out with this (no CD provided but available to buy) I quickly realised the need for the accompanying CD. Buying that from Amazon, I got learning.
Shortly after starting to learn chinese, I met my gf in London who is from Taiwan. Thrown in at the deep end (her not being so keen to speak english with me when we first met) I had to learn quickly and those 3 weeks in London with her boosted my chinese to a new level.
Anyway, back to the point. So, when she went back to Taiwan, I was gutted BUT I was invited to visit her in Taiwan- prime opportunity to learn!
So in January 2006, I headed off to Taiwan, all alone ( me then being 18 years old, pretty daunting!)
I can safely say that the previous comments on being surrounded by chinese speakers brings your chinese level up, totally right! You have no choice but to listen well and respond.
A guy selling 'chou doufu' a smelly kind of tofu popular in Taiwan, began having a full blown conversation with me about chinese cuisine and the differences between Mainland and Taiwanese food! I kept up pretty well
Anyway, someone previously mentioned a book 'Reading and Writing Chinese Characters by McNaughton and Li'--- This book has proven invaluable in me studying characters! I can now write and read basic and some intermediate texts in traditional chinese.
Also, (sorry to make this a long 'un) I remember someone saying having dreams in chinese or something along those lines? Well, I THINK in chinese these days. Oh yeah, I also sleep-talk in chinese (my family and gf have told me many a time!)
Anyway, I apologize for the long winded reply but its good to share experiences!
Much love, peace!
One Finger Zen
It's evident, my potential be infinite- The RZA