Reasons I love Studying Chinese (New Series, by Ms. Schwalb)

In order to combat this blog’s heavy law focus of late, I decided I should contribute more often by starting a new thread to discuss what I have been up to lately, which is mostly studying Chinese. I have given myself some time off from working on my graduate thesis and now spend between 6 and 8 hours each day learning language. Chinese is difficult. Very difficult. Alternate titles for this post included:

• "Reasons Why Tonal Languages are Torture"
• "Every 5 Year Old in China is More Fluent Than Me"
• "Top Ten Least-Intuitive Grammar Structures"
• "咒, 我 还不会说 中文!" ("zhou, wo hai bu hui shou zhong wen")
• "You Have Got to Be Kidding Me, Another Meaning For ‘Shi!?!’"
• "Variations on '听不懂Ting Bu Dong'"
• "Please Speak Slowly, I’m From America"
• "Stuff I Think About While Micah is at Work"

In the end, I have decided to go with “Reasons I love Studying Chinese” – after all, I like a challenge. Moreover, Chinese really is a fascinating language, steeped with history and culture and wonderful imagery.

Today’s reason why I love studying Chinese, however, is a bit more pedestrian: his name is Jay Chou. Recently my language teacher told me that when I can understand Jay Chou’s singing, I’ll know I have mastered Chinese. Apparently, the Taiwanese pop star has a reputation for being somewhat of a mumbler. Despite this flaw, he is pretty much universally loved in China. He has written (not just performed) some pretty catchy tunes, plays the piano quite well, and was named as one of the 50 most influential people in China by the British think tank Chatham House.

Although I suspect Mr. Chou is the Asia equivalent of Justin Timberlake, I can’t help but like him. Here’s one of my language teacher’s favorite songs, roughly translated as “Love Before the Century.”