In this episode we talk to 沃维薇 (Wò wéi wēi), also known as Liz, about her dual Mandarin Chinese-English language experiences. Liz grew up in Shanghai, China with a passion for books and languages, which explains why and how she was reading English Sci-Fi at 14 years old. She is now a Simultaneous Interpreter, which is someone that is translating one language to another during a conversation at regular conversational speed. Yes, wow is the correct response to that.
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In this episode we talk to Matthew Boyle, who started learning Mandarin Chinese thanks to an administrative error in his Arabic class registration at university. In 2011, he moved from the East Coast of the United States to Southern China and started to “play with the language” immediately.
Since then, he has progressed from learning Mandarin Chinese to making games so other people can learn the language with his company, Language Card Games. In this conversation, Matthew shares his experience with tones, language teachers, phrases to use as a vegetarian in China and so much more.
In this episode we talk to Ziwei, who is originally from China’s Hunan Province. He is hands down one of the most intelligent, motivated, and hard working people I have ever known. We met in a Natural Language Processing class (taught by Sowmya, guest on the Virtual Expat Podcast, episode 63 ) in Iowa State University’s PhD in Applied Linguistics and Technology Program.
I always admired Ziwei's kind, determined and focused demeanor. Since I left the program in December 2016, he has gotten married, had a child and taken on a Statistics Degree along with this already challenging PhD research. I am in awe with him and I think you will be too when you hear his views on the differences in learning Mandarin Chinese versus English, French and German.
The first time I met Ian we were walking around Shanghai for a work event, talking about the challenges of learning Mandarin Chinese. When he casually described the Mandarin Chinese script (cursive) book he had to special order, my mouth dropped and I made a mental note to ask him to be on the podcast later. Thankfully he agreed to do this.
Because of our similar learning method of focusing on reading first and speaking later, this conversation was a turning point for me. Hearing how far Ian has been able to get with this strategy, I finally could envision my own future success in the language, which to that point felt very illusive. (Thanks Ian!) Fair warning, you will want to dig into the show notes for this episode to save some of his learning recommendations. 8: Language Identity & Translation with Writer, Translator, Global Linguistic Soul Jeremy Tiang10/9/2018 As a Writer, Translator and Playright; words are what Jeremy Tiang uses to share his ideas about the world and all of its ambiguity. In his prose he addresses issues of identity, culture, and the boundaries of what we think these things mean. His upbringing in Singapore was multicultural and yet it was not. So much so that when asked what his first language is he replies, “It is complicated” and it is easy to see why. Singapore, very much like Jeremy and very much like most curious, discerning people such as yourself (yes, listeners, I am talking about you), is in a state of constant change. This change includes how it shares itself with the world and Jeremy plays a part in how we see both Singapore and its people, especially, if I understand it right, those who are not often portrayed in the national narrative. In this podcast episode, we primarily dig into Jeremy’s language experiences from early childhood to the present day. But those cultural tones are impossible to remove from language, so we did not even try.
Eric Olander, co-host of the China in Africa Podcast: https://chinaafrica-podcast.com/, has been studying and using the Mandarin Chinese language for over 30 years. With this linguistic longevity comes language wisdom, a realistic perspective and sensible tools to give those of us studying the language a boost.
Lucy grew up in Shanghai, China speaking both Standard Mandarin Chinese and a local Songjiang dialect. She later learned other languages both as a child and an adult. Her descriptions of both the Chinese and foreign language classrooms in China are fascinating. She is now working in an English language workplace in Shanghai in the Social Media arena of a local publication, Sixth Tone: http://www.sixthtone.com/ .
Liv is in an interesting language experience right now. She grew in New York City using Cantonese with her Southern Chinese mother and some Mandarin Chinese with her Taiwanese father. She then picked up Spanish and English in her diverse NYC environment. She has traveled extensively and has learned a few more languages along the way. But it is now, while living and working in Shanghai, China, that she is faced with a myriad of language AND cultural obstacles that she feels the most challenged by.
Eric (his English name) grew up partly outside of Shanghai, China and then in Shanghai. He is now a Software Engineer that maneuvers through his Shanghai life in a multitude of languages including Mandarin Chinese, Shanghaiese, English, Japanese and French
This is our first group chat about Simplified Mandarin Chinese. In this episode we have Yifei, a Chinese college student in Shanghai and Phil from episode 2 fame (he's British), who is a Master's student and also works in Shanghai. They share their own language learning stories, their successes and challenges in an open, blunt and friendly group conversation.
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AuthorSerial expat who loves diving into the communicative messiness of a global life. Archives
June 2021
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