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
Lorna Bergner is a 2020 CIUS Center People-to-People alumni and an educator who has recently gotten back to the United States from living in Chongqing for the past 11 years. Her story is about being a successful traveler and how to handle culture shock.
Reflection Questions
Lorna began her presentation sharing how she struggled to learn French in high school. Part of this struggle could have been being required to learn the language instead of being motivated by personal goals. Beyond external requirements, write down your “why” for language learning.
The “immersion method” to language learning is something Lorna describes. For her, it was speaking the language every day to interact with neighbors and friends and finding the spaces where native speakers communicated. Write down some ideas for how you can “immerse” yourself in Chinese, or any other culture you are learning the language of, even if you aren’t able to travel to China or the place the language is spoken.
Culture shock is a real challenge for many people traveling to new country or learning a new language. Lorna had some good tips for getting through culture shock, such as stepping away, taking a break when you need to, and finding familiarities. Have you ever experienced culture shock before? How did you react and how did you find ways to manage it?
Resource
Lorna needed “survival Chinese” when moving to Chongqing. Here is a great article on a list of “survival Chinese” words - www.fluentin3months.com/core-...
25 янв 2021
