mandarin – Tien-Jen

Improving Your Mother Tongue
It’s common for those who grew up in a different country to their parents to lose some or all of their mother tongue. It’s natural to want to speak the language that is largely spoken in your environment as it helps you communicate with the people you interact with. This is one of the struggles of maintaining your mother tongue when you grow up in an environment where you largely use one language in your daily settings.

Language allows us to connect with other people and have a deeper understanding of our culture. It allows us to tell stories, understand different perspectives and express what’s within. My parents were the only people I spoke Mandarin regularly with when I lived at home. The lack of learning the language and improving my grammar meant my Chinese level was like a primary school student. This was most clear once I left home and so the desire to improve began.

Surround yourself with the language. If you’re working, you can listen to podcasts and music in the background. At home, you can watch videos, TV shows and movies in the language. You can try to even think in the language. This can be tricky but it can force you to be more active in using the language.

Write down words that you don’t know. Learn new grammar by writing down words that you don’t know and practice them in your daily life. This can be a word from an article or video. You can practice using them during a conversation as it will help solidify them in your memory.

Read articles and books in the language. Find content you’re interested in yet is a little bit challenging to read. There’s so much content online with specific topics that you can read according to your personal interests. Reading allows you to slow down and helps you recognize more words.

Engage, use and speak the language. This is one of the most important tips. If you don’t use it, you lose it! Take any opportunity that you can to use the language. I’m still encouraging myself to do this as a big part of improving a language is having confidence. If you’re watching a video you can copy the native speaker and mimic their pronunciation and accent.
It’s important to remember that improvements take time and daily practice. I’ve found using a language app can help with speaking to other language learners. Practicing with cue cards on apps like Pleco can also help. Learning and improving a language is much like learning an instrument or practicing sports. It takes commitment, focus and daily practice. Remember, practicing a little a day can go a long way.

Art by Kate Pugsley
July 31, 2024

chinese, Culture, Daily Thoughts, language, mandarin, mother tongue
The Importance Of Keeping Your Mother Tongue Alive

Growing up as a bilingual child, I remember my Father telling me that I would speak to the neighbours in Mandarin with a Kiwi accent! It was before I started learning to speak English, and I could only get a grasp of what English sounded like. Mandarin is the first language I grew up listening, reading, writing and speaking. It’s also common that some Asians that grew up in New Zealand may prefer speaking in English with their friends. Language connects us with one another. It allows understanding, embracing one’s culture and communicating with more people.

The most common Chinese dialect is Mandarin (Putonghua), and it is the most widely spoken language in the world with over a billion speaking Mandarin. Growing up in a Western country, it’s easy to speak English for predominantly most of the time. Exposure is important. When I was younger, my parents would read books to us, and my favourite were the ones by 幾米. They had these beautiful, colourful illustrations, and moving stories. The more we speak a language, the more we connect with those who speak it. Your mother tongue can strengthen your cultural ties and allows you to communicate freely with your family.

English was one of my favourite subjects growing up, as I’ve always loved reading and writing. I like to joke that English runs in the family, as my grandfather and Uncle were English professors in Taiwan. In the article by Amy Tan titled Mother Tongue, she talks about her experiences of the Englishes she grew up speaking. I highly recommend reading it, as it allows us to understand the power of language. I truly feel that if we don’t keep our mother tongue alive, we may risk losing a part of ourselves.

What is your Mother Tongue?

Photography by Sun Jun

October 14, 2018

Asian, chinese, language, mandarin, mother tongue
When You’re Asian And More Fluent In English

English was one of my favourite subjects at school as I loved writing essays and reading novels. Although there’s still many aspects where I can improve (note my use of grammar and structuring). My mother tongue is Chinese, as I grew up learning Chinese first before English. We used to go to Saturday Chinese school as children, but I was quite lazy and didn’t feel any motivation to learn it since I was speaking English at school. Perhaps it was because all my friends spoke English, and I wasn’t living in a place or going to a school that had many people speaking Chinese.

However, now that I’m older I embrace the fact that I’m both Taiwanese and Kiwi. They are both important aspects of my identity. I realise how important it is to keep your mother tongue alive. It’s important to remind yourself what a blessing it is to speak Chinese and English. When I look back, I am incredibly grateful that my parents only spoke Mandarin to my sister and I, because language is such an important part of us. I appreciate growing up being surrounded by books and building a huge interest in reading. Now that I’m older, I put more effort into writing, reading and listening to Chinese. I used to feel a sense of guilt and shame because my Chinese wasn’t fluent but my physical identity says that I should be.

In high school, my English teacher said that it’s okay that my essay had a few grammar mistakes, because English is my second language. The trouble was that she was more lenient with me even though I was keen to improve my writing. Most of my classmates said I’m lucky I had English as a second language as an excuse, but to me it seemed quite stereotypical, because I was more fluent in English and when other classmates made grammatical mistakes it wasn’t focused on what ethnicity they are.

The beauty of language is that it allows us to communicate to different people. I’ve been asked many times if I’m an international student or what country I moved from to New Zealand. It’s understandable, because Auckland is quite a multicultural city and there are people from a vast majority of different countries. However, it does remind me of my identity and being asked these sort of questions many times has made me more assured of my own cultural identity. I suppose in writing this, I’d love to encourage you to embrace your mother tongue. Having that is such a precious part of you that can never be taken away from you. If you are also an Asian that is more fluent in English, know that you can improve your mother tongue through self motivation, practice and patience.

Artwork – Modern Girl by Bodil Jane

December 21, 2017

Asian, chinese, Daily Thoughts, english, fluent, language, mandarin

Improving Your Mother Tongue

The Importance Of Keeping Your Mother Tongue Alive

Photography by Sun Jun

When You’re Asian And More Fluent In English

Artwork – Modern Girl by Bodil Jane