Why learning Chinese is important

I recently decided that I would like to learn to speak Chinese fluently. Mandarin, in fact. I came to this decision while reading many language tweets, Facebook posts and language learning articles (I spend the first 15 minutes of every morning posting about language news). Japanese will always my first love, but there is room for one more Asian language in my brain and heart, it seems.

I plan on going back to graduate school in 2012 and thought this was the perfect foray back into studying and getting that “mindset” on in advance.

In 2010, an estimated 509,965,013 people were using Chinese on the Internet (just under English at 565,004,126 and way above Spanish at 164,968,742, the first and third languages used on the Internet, respectively).

Many public schools in my area still offer the same choices as when I was in middle school-Spanish, French and German. I remember being immediately attracted to German because it is so different from English but decided on French instead (German looks absolutely nothing like English and is one of the particularly challenging languages to deal with in the localization industry due to its word length and complexity). I would have given up a kidney for a Chinese or Japanese language class offered to me as an option twenty-five years ago.

Here are just a few reasons why I think Chinese is an important language to learn:

1)      It’s good to challenge yourself and your brain: I can tell you after just a cursory look at what I will be studying, that Chinese is not easy. Even 1-10 is difficult to remember and pronounce, where I can blurt out 1-10 in about 5 languages after all these years that I do not even speak. The tones are harder to utter (it's difficult as a native English speaker to get the innotation correct; whereas Japanese was easier to learn.)

2)       The world is changing: Since China joined the WTO, it has become beneficial to all, globally, to interact with this country. How can we interact with a growing country without speaking their language? Of course, what Americans have done relied on in the past is the true notion that “they all speak English, anyway”. Isn't that the lazy way out?

3)      There are 1.3 billion Chinese speakers in the world: Think of all the people globally you can converse with and reach. Consider all the different job opportunities that will open to you.

One of the things adults in their 40s seem to say is, “Oh, I wish I had done that WHEN I WAS YOUNGER”. Guess what? It’s never too late to learn. College is not just for teenagers and young adults. The best time to recharge your brain and turn it back on is when you are in those middle years and you have children and responsibilities and life becomes more routine.

Instead, I say, “让我们学习中文!”

The Languages of Bermuda

The kids and I will hopefully take a cruise to Bermuda next April which started me thinking about the languages of Bermuda.

I knew, of course, that English was one of the main languages but during my research, I found that many linguists feel that Bermudian English has a similar lilt to the US English spoken in the southern United States.

A few other European languages are also spoken in Bermuda, including Spanish, Portuguese, and French; but English remains the language of daily life.  Portuguese is especially important due to the massive immigration from the Portuguese islands. Bermuda culture has retained the essence of Portuguese culture. The British culture also plays a crucial role in influencing the Bermuda culture.

Bermudian English has been referred to as "one of the most severely underresearched varieties of English". It displays a mixture of characteristics typical of British English and American English, and is generally classified as a form of American (rather than Caribbean) English.

Based on an extensive study made by Harry Morgan Ayres, unique features of the Bermudian English are a small number of lexical terms distinct to the islands.

Some interesting slang found in Bermuda:

• Ace Boy - best friend;
• Bermuda time - being fashionably late;
• Deck - accident;
• Horse - motorcycle;
• Jet - going somewhere quickly;
• Longtail - white women from a foreign country;
• Piggly - grocery store.
• Eez-sex;
• Girt-huge;
• Iggrunt-stupid

Meditating at Niagara Falls

In the world there is nothing more submissive and weak than water. Yet for attacking that which is hard and strong nothing can surpass it.-Lao Tzu

It has been exactly 2 weeks since I have returned from my end of summer trip to Niagara Falls, NY. I find myself thinking the Falls at least once a day. I now understand why it is known as one of the "seven wonders of the world”.

A few weeks ago, I was planning a “quick and dirty” summer trip for Griffin and Pyper and I heard the words "Niagara Falls” in my head. Originally destined for Williamsburg, Virginia, I quickly changed plans. Honestly, I had never thought of going there before or wanted to go there specifically. Those who know me well, know that I am always guided by my intuition (or "inner voice") and it rarely misleads me.

To sum the Falls up in a word, mesmerizing comes to mind. Once there, you cannot take your eyes off the gushing water below you, the mist above you or the sounds around you. As I stood in front of the American Falls, I closed my eyes, cleared my mind and just listened. Amazingly, I found it quite easy to meditate in the midst of a large group of tourists. The energy that emanates from this place is very pure, good and clean.

Niagara Falls was considered to be a very sacred space to Native Indian tribes
who used the Falls as a meditation site because of its tremendous power and energy. It is also considered, by some, to be a place where past life regression, intuitive guidance and healing can occur.

The word that comes to mind when I think of the Falls is “abundance”…abundance of water, energy, vibrations, people and joy. The water keeps falling, is replenished and never runs dry.