i start chinese school next month
Gonna write about learning Cantonese this time - surprise! You thought this was a tech blog?! Think again, bitch!
Next month I start taking classes at the local Chinese school. Not a university, but a real brick-and-mortar language school. They teach both Mandarin and Cantonese, but I'm studying Cantonese. It's going to be an extremely small class of either 2 or 3 people (including me), and I am sweating it big time. I will admit: when go to bed, I start having a mini panic attack thinking about it. I also have to wear a whole-ass uniform, which I'm going to pick up tomorrow.
English is the only language I know. However, I've burned through 30 Cantonese lessons and about 45 Spanish lessons from Pimsleur, while I was in my "walk 10,000 steps a day"-phase last year. And even though I stopped my walks, I retained a good chunk of those lessons! But I don't think any audiobook-based course is going to prepare me for being thrust into a classroom setting, where I'm going to actually have to practice conversational Cantonese. Plus, the class is weekly, so I'm going to have to practice at home and really take it seriously.
The weird thing is (and I know this is totally counter-intuitive to what I just said), I do think Cantonese seems like an easier language to learn, compared to the Italian I studied in high school. Cantonese doesn't have any gendered words, and it doesn't seem to be very concerned with articles, conjugations, and other annoying-ass rules that appear in languages like Spanish and English. Granted, Cantonese has tones, which are extremely challenging, but I find that part easier to wrap my head around than all the crazy stuff in the Latin-based languages.
I'm learning so I can connect more with my girlfriend and her family, but more importantly, I'm doing this for myself. Since turning 30, I've been making an effort to do new things, which is why I'm also learning to play piano. I'm done with trying to find self-worth in my career because work fucking sucks and is cringe. And if you haven't realized this yet, consider this your sign to stop caring so much about your stupid company.
So wish me luck! I'm mostly writing this so I can look back on this blog post and hopefully laugh at myself for being scared. I also would like to freak my girlfriend's mom out with my ability lol. And then maybe actually talk to a real-life stranger in Cantonese.