Inspiration from Chinese Language Learners: with Doug McDonald

Описание: The “Inspiration from Chinese Language Learners" series aim to share stories, advice and reflections from Americans who have years of experience as language learners and travelers. For each presentation in the series, reflection questions and resources are provided based on the themes covered. We hope the presentations and reflection questions will motivate language learners, whether Mandarin Chinese or other languages, and support the continuation of their educational goals.

Introduction
Doug McDonald is a 2018 CIUS Center People-to-People alumni. He is a retired judge, newer to Chinese language and culture, but has also learned Arabic, Latin, German, and traveled far and wide. His presentation focuses on how to pragmatically immerse yourself in Mandarin Chinese, even as a beginner!

Reflection Questions
As a beginning Mandarin Chinese language learner, Doug explained how it was important to not only learn the language but learn about the culture. He was immersed in the culture by learning how to make Chinese knots and painting. Do you have places, teachers, peers, who can help you learn about Chinese culture? Write them down and reach out to them.

Doug reminds us to not take for granted learning a living language, with native speakers who you can practice with and make connections, and you can either “use it or lose it”. How do you want to engage this living language, beyond the classroom, and “use it” in order to not lose it?

Doug shares a story when he was traveling in Iraq and someone told him “If your government and our government want to fight, and have a war, that is up to them. But the people, we can be friends”. What are your thoughts on this story? Write down your reflections.

Resource:
Doug mentioned the HSK test. Here is information on the HSK exams - http://www.chinesetest.cn/index.do
Taking the exam could be a good goal for the future!