Life on a Language Pledge

motorcycle - Madeleine
A scene from everyday life in Kunming.

Here in Kunming, I’m not just studying abroad in China. I’m studying abroad in Chinese. The Middlebury program I am on has a strict language pledge, essentially meaning we can’t speak anything but Chinese for the whole four months. It sounds intimidating, and it definitely was at first.

One complaint about the language pledge is that it makes it harder to make friends. Things definitely go slower with a language pledge. With limited vocabulary, you can’t readily express everything you want to. You’re a little more boring, a little less funny, a little less unique, a little less whatever-makes-you-you. You know that if you were allowed to speak English, you could really click with the other American students on the program, but instead you spend the first few weeks awkwardly stumbling around in Chinese, trailing off at the end of your sentences or finishing them with an uncertain “you know what I’m saying?”

Translating words and phrases is one thing, but translating your self into another language is definitely not easy.

But the way I see it, I didn’t come to China to sit back in my comfortable world of English. I want to place myself in a Chinese context – right smack in the middle of whole families on mopeds and street corner steamed dumplings and tranquil morning tai chi. Instead of constantly associating myself with foreigners, I’m speaking the same language as the other 1.3 billion people in this country. The language pledge opens up so many opportunities to not just observe, but participate in Chinese life. Chinese is now my first go-to language, and I’ve found myself unconsciously counting and sometimes thinking in Chinese. I’m hoping that by the end of the semester, I’ll be dreaming in Chinese too.

And of course, my Chinese is improving. I feel comfortable and confident speaking Chinese. Without my newfound language ability, I don’t think I could have taken a bus to the municipal pool by myself or gotten a vaccine at the international clinic or asked my dorm’s housekeeping staff to fix my bathroom lights. These are all little things, but they’re what matter in day-to-day life. It’s frustrating at times, but I’m doing my best to live in China, not just visit.

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Learning to play Mahjong with Chinese roommates.