In the 80’s, due to the strength of the Japanese economy, there were an upswing in interest in the Japanese language. Consequently, high schools and colleges began offering language classes. Just to try to keep my brain fresh, I attended some of those classes near the end of that era, the early 90’s. It was always interesting to see the composition of the classes:
- One or two business majors who felt it would improve their job placement opportunities
- At least one person who just “had a thing†for Japanese women
- Several who just wanted to be English teachers in Japan (honestly, most of them fell in the “just had a thing†category and were hoping the hunting grounds were more fertile over there.)
- The occasional person who’d lived in Japan and either (a) didn’t learn the language and felt guilty or (b) did learn the language and just wanted to meet people with “similar interestsâ€
- The Japanimation/Anime fans (The stupid ones actually told the teacher that was their motivation and subsequently were treated like lower life-forms whether they realized it or not.)
- Japanophiles
- Finally, the mysterious, “no good reason to be here†group.
Why was I there? None of the above. 🙂
Anyway, ultimately, through my association with the students in these Japanese classes I met my wife who is Taiwanese and basically has nothing to do with Japan whatsoever. (Unless, of course, you consider that her maternal grandparents and ancestors would have been citizens of the Japanese empire prior to 1944.)
Now, from the earliest time of our dating and marriage (8+ years ago) I have abandoned Japanese study in favor of Mandarin Chinese. Learning Chinese is Arizona is no easy task. At the time only 2 avenues were available: University courses and “Chinese schools.â€
University courses were out because they are 4 or 5 days a week, 1.5 hours per day, right in the middle of the day. Not an option for someone who works for a living.
Chinese schools are a different beast altogether. These are schools, often held in churches, that are for immigrant parents to send their American-born children to learn Chinese culture and language. I attended a couple of these and, of course, most students are ages 5-16 or so, but, if there’s enough interest, they’ll hold a class for adults in conversation. Almost invariably these would be spouses of Taiwanese or Chinese wives. The largest of those classes I ever attended had 5 students, and one of those was a ringer I’d convinced to join just to bring the class enrollment up.
Fast Forward 5 – 8 years and now that everyone is blindly trying to hitch their wagon to China’s star, Chinese language courses are in demand. High Schools are offering them, people with too much money are hiring Chinese au pairs to raise their children, and that last bastion of cheap education, the community college, has even gotten into the act.
Since there’s one just a mile from my home and they offer an evening Chinese conversation class, I decided to enroll. I won’t pretend like I don’t have an advantage over most of the rest of the students.
I’ve attended three of the weekly classes so far, and I’m amazed at the size of the class. We started with 20 people and, although class was down to 16 today, that’s still huge all things considered.
So far, I have not been able to classify most of the class. My impression is that about 3 students are actually “students†at the college, the rest are adults.
One student is clearly an MBA student elsewhere that is trying to learn Chinese for that competitive edge. Another has a Chinese-speaking parent. But the rest are, as yet, a mystery.
We’ve spent most of all three classes working entirely on pronunciation. The necessary precision of the pronunciation is so critical but fiendishly difficult. It’s a tough slog and the students are rapidly getting discouraged. It even seems to me like an almost impossible task.