Nihao well yo eBay roomie she Chinese
speakers how was my pronunciation let me
know in the comments did I completely
butcher it did I get the tones right
kind of right understandable let me know
in the comments I'm Julia Northbrook
from doing english.com and hello from
Matt I want shenanigans part number two
or rather I say update number two I've
had eight Arab League busy terribly
stressful day here in Taipei today
walking along the streets of the city
eating lovely food having a wander
around Memorial Park getting a history
lesson it's not been too busy or
stressful at all it's actually been a
very relaxing pleasant day then I had
two key goals the first of which was
really just to get over the jetlag which
I think I've actually quite successfully
done I slept pretty well last night all
things considered I went to bed at my
normal time I woke up once in the night
wondering where the hell I am and who I
was but apart from that I slept through
till morning today I haven't really felt
tired at all so I think this time I am
blissfully jetlag three my second goal
was the one account how to order a cup
of coffee in a local coffee shop which I
now feel equipped to do
thanks to Leeds myyy and gang
putting together a Facebook group called
the awesome gang dedicated to teaching
me chinese pronunciation and how to say
basic thing is that I need to say
including boyo eBay rummage she how to
order a cup of black coffee I have
forgotten what it feels like to be
totally and utterly incapable of
communicating even in the most basic of
situations I mean when I went to Japan
I'd already learned enough of the basics
that I could do simple things like you
know buying something in a shop asking
if you can try something on in the
changing rooms I've just been to the
shop Uniqlo to buy some room where
because it's
chillier than I expected and I didn't
bring any with me and I mean it feels
weird going up to somebody saying the in
the fitting rooms or on a cash register
in the shop board saying the convenience
store and really not knowing what to say
at all so going up to the woman in the
in the fitting rooms not knowing whether
Niihau just kind of saying like the what
I believe to the generic hello is the
right thing to do and then not being
able to say things like could I try
these on or I've got two items but
having to instead just to hold the two
things up
of course they understand what you mean
and what you are doing and then then
talking at you and not having a single
clue what they are saying that was the
same on the cash register I knew that
she was telling me how much it was
because I can see it on the cash
register but everything else just sure
yesterday I was in the convenience store
and it was late at night I couldn't be
bothered to eat properly so going to the
convenience store and I bought a a cup
ramen and a burger and I assume what the
guy said to me is would you like me to
heat this up I've been in the family
mark convenience store a billion times
in Tokyo and I know that that is part of
what they asked but I didn't actually
have a clue whether that is what he said
or not and I didn't really know how to
respond in the end I said shake shake
and whether that was the right thing to
say or not I do not know the guy didn't
speak to me again
and when he was done with my stuff he
handed them to me without words not even
looking at me so it might not have it
but it's it's a bittersweet experience
on the one hand I enjoy throwing myself
into the deep end of a culture in a
language and just kind of having to do
it in that kind of way but on the other
hand it makes you feel like an absolute
idiot it reminds me of when I was in
Japan like I said when I was in Japan
when I first went there had already
learned enough the basics that didn't
really have a problem with things like
that but for example when I was first
working full-time in a school
think there had probably been some kind
of administrative mistake because the
school had no english-speaking teachers
and they had wanted a Japanese speaker
which I quite certain wasn't really at
that time and even after several months
of really pretty intensive study and
learning I would have to sit in meetings
and I'd either have no clue what was
being said at me meaning I just had no
way to respond whatsoever or I'd get the
gist
and I'd have ideas and I have things
that I wanted to say input that I wanted
to give but I wouldn't be able to
actually express that myself so that
really the only thing that I could ever
do in those meetings whether it
understood the person or not would be to
nod and just say yes yes yes yes I just
remember feeling like an absolute idiot
all the time like what I was actually
able to do was severely crippled by my
communicative ability and that's of
course the same as how I feel here and
the things I'm doing here are much much
more basic I'm probably not going to
need to do anything beyond go to the
convenience store buy something but it's
it's that the barrier is is very very
clear almost tangible it's almost like
you can reach out and touch this kind of
barrier between me and the other person
caused by all this just again a bit of
inability to communicate I've got a
couple of weeks here and I'm going to
learn as much as I can I had said that I
was gonna learn the basics before I came
here which is what I really should have
wanted to do but I decided to prioritize
my PhD thesis and get that written
before I came here instead and the whole
learning Chinese thing went out of the
window again meaning basically when I
arrived here yesterday the only things
that I could say was associated me how
it's like Jim that's it I think that was
my entire repertoire it hasn't increased
much today it's it's a fascinating
language the tones are a barrier to me
it has to be said I find it hard to even
hear them or make a distinction when I'm
listening to people's
you can load alone while I'm actually
doing it myself so that even things that
I have learned things like an equation
you can win MA which I know means do you
speak English as my very rightly said to
me today I can understand you but it
sounds like because as an English
speak my tendency is to just frighten it
but you can't do that in Chinese the
tones carry meaning and unless you get
those tones right what being understood
is being understood that sounding like
is almost also sounding like
you can't come into this game the
language learning thing with an ego with
pride pride will seriously get in your
way you you have to kind of throw that
away and be happy to look like an
absolute for a while I think
because if you if you go into this with
a sense of pride wanting to be perfect
before you actually try to do anything
in the real world
well you'll either never do anything in
the real world or you'll just have that
pride trampled to death by people kind
of giving you confused looks in extreme
cases laughing cattle terrible
pronunciation all the stupid things that
you come out with but it's all fun like
I said it's a bittersweet kind of fun I
think because on the one hand it is it
is enjoyable throwing yourself into the
deep end on the other hand it is it's a
it's a pride destroying process but
there we have it anyway I think that's
enough for this video this was Taiwan
shenanigans part 2 head over to the
English comm sign up for my free daily
emails of course if you are in Taipei
you're willing to travel that far we
have the gala party event on December
7th and we have my my master class
seminar workshop whatever you want to
call it on December 11th if you head
over to doing english.com slash Dec 11
Dec 11 in the description you can find
information for that
I think that's about it for today I'll
be back to more about another update by