Wanted: 1 Babelfish

I have my Chinese visa from the consulate. The plane tickets are booked. My vaccinations are up to date. I'm all set to visit China! This is a big step in my re-asian-ification process. There's one small problem though. Mandarin! I've learned a little bit of it, but nowhere near enough to get by in Beijing.

When someone loses one of their senses, the other ones become more heightened to compensate. I've found that this is also the case with languages. When English is not the common tongue, I find that my lesser languages seem to improve slightly.

This was the case in Switzerland, where the common languages are German, French, and Italian. I really tried to learn basic German, but it was near impossible given my timelines. But after being surrounded by German for a week, I noticed that once I went to the French regions, the French I learned in high school really kicked in. I was extremely thankful of that.

In trying to learn Mandarin, I am noticing the same thing. My Cantonese is really stepping up to the plate, and helping me through the Mandarin. While the languages are different, there are still some similarities. Some words are almost the same... except the syllables are pronounced with "a Mandarin twist". The grammar and structure is almost the same in both languages.

Since babelfish don't really exist, I'm going to have to keep learning Mandarin the hard way. I just wanted to let you know that the best way to learn a language is to try to learn a second similar language that is harder. It will make the first language seem a lot easier.