What’s Next?

Good question!  As I mentioned in my previous post, after 2 years in Yunnan Province my wife and I returned from China sooner than we had planned.  There are so many ways to approach the question: “What’s Next?”  For me, there are 3 key areas that are top-of-mind: Collaboration Innovation Mentoring One of the things I missed most while in China was the opportunity to collaborate with others.  Yes, it’s…

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What happened? Why return?

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve written (that’s putting it mildly!).  Here’s why: To recap: my wife, Gienah, and I went to Yunnan Province, China in August of 2014 to spend 2 years studying Mandarin language and Chinese culture full-time.  That part of the plan went well and our 2 years ended in late June 2016. The next part of the plan was to buy, start or join a…

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Top 10 Things I will Miss

As you may have noticed from my previous blog posting, we will be returning to the U.S. following our 2 year language and culture studies in China.  In fact, our departure date is today! While it would be foolish to believe I can anticipate exactly how reverse culture-shock will impact me, there are several things I “think” will be true.  Here’s my best estimate for a Top 10 List of…

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Why Learning Chinese is 3x Harder than English

Think about how long it took you to learn English.  Or, think about how long it typically takes an adult to learn English as a second language.  Now, triple that amount of time and you’ll have a good idea of how long it takes to learn Chinese…minimum.  Why so long?! 1. Vocabulary  and Grammar – and all the various rules, exceptions, measure words, and other language usage guidelines require a…

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Language “Study” vs. Language “Learning”

Is there a difference between language “study” and language “learning”?  That’s the question I’ve been asking myself more and more over the past few months.  Unfortunately, we have not had easy access to good objective measures of language learning, making it difficult to assess our learning progress (i.e., “where” are we on this journey of learning?).  As a result, I’ve become very interested in the standardized Chinese fluency exam called…

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Pecan Pie – A New Global Sourcing Challenge?!

What’s your favorite Thanksgiving dessert?  One of my personal favorites is Pecan Pie – Texas style.  However, as we learned from our language helper last night, it might be a long time before we get Pecan Pie in China. Turns out her dictionary (with tens of thousands of Chinese words) did not even have a word for “pecan”.  Our electronic dictionary also failed to find a Chinese word for “pecan”. …

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Dumber than a Dog?!

Imagine discovering your communication skills are below that of a common dog!  Well, that’s exactly how I felt recently.  The owners of a local dog (off leash) were shouting several commands to their dog who was straying just a bit too far.  The dog turned, looked at the owners, and I could just see the wheels turning in the dog’s mind as it considered whether or not to obey.  Then,…

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Learning ABC’s at 50?

Can you imagine returning to preschool at age 50?!  Well, that’s essentially what we’re doing, although with a lot more experience and learning tools than your average preschooler! Seriously, it’s a bit surreal to spend so many hours writing out ABC’s at my age (except in this case it’s a matter of practicing strokes, radicals, and characters the building blocks of Chinese written language).  It’s been over 50 years since I…

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