Part 5: Through the Spring...

     At about this time last year, I began to see the end of school quickly approaching. It was also the same time I began to seriously consider studying Chinese as a major, trying to visualize what it would be like. If I studied Chinese, why would I do it?

    Before that moment of consideration, I hadn't given much thought as to WHY to study Chinese. I had just been immersing myself into everything chinese that I could get my head and mind into. For the first time, I began to think about if I were able to speak Chinese (with the understanding Chinese = Mandarin), where would I live and work? Hehe... Everybody wants Chinese speakers. Governments, banks, schools, large companies, little start-ups. The reality is, the United States is very intimately connected to China. Our futures are one and the same, so that for better or worse, we need each other. If anything, the current economic challenges highlight this reality. Our government is paying for the bailout using Chinese money. If we do not shop, the growth in China declines. Ipso facto: Chinese= very useful language. That meant there would always be some type of work related to Chinese. Still, money isn't everything.

     The more that I talked with my friend, the more that I saw of the differences between Chinese culture, and western culture. As I tried to read about modern culture, and began finding more about the story of change, that conflict of traditional values struggling, trying to find balance with the modern, widely interconnected world... That story fascinated me (it fascinates me all the time, actually), and drew me even further toward Chinese history and culture, ever changing, terribly violent and terribly beautiful all the same. 

     So I was going to learn chinese, out of respect and awe of its history, culture, and grammatical aspects. But what about all the funny looking shapes in chinese writing? And isn't Chinese supposed to be "the hardest" language to learn?

Well... That was something I would worry about later. At that moment, I had to find a job.