This is the story about a German guy who went to Taiwan to make his lifetime dream come true - mastering the Chinese language.

Montag, 6. September 2010

The Mandarin Project is Back!

Hello world!

Yes, it is true...The Mandarin Project is BACK! After a 3 year hiatus this blog is alive again! I am back in Taiwan and back at studying Chinese! And most importantly: back telling you about it!

In the last three years a lot of things happened. Before I start to tell you about what is going on NOW, let me just summarize what happened in the last three years... ;)

I earned my Master of Science degree, which was a big success: my thesis was published as an IEEE paper on a big conference! However, life had different plans with me than working as an engineer...I left Taiwan to start my own online business in Singapore. It was a good decision, I built up the business and I am still working on it :) In my private life, there were some big changes as well. The pretty lady that you saw in my previous blog entries is not my girlfriend anymore, but fortunately we are very good friends again by now :)

The time in Singapore was productive. However, it did not at all help me with my Chinese. Instead I learned how to append an "ah" after every English sentence and when to use "lah", "leh" or "Alamak!!!"... ;) Since everybody speaks English/Singlish there, I did not have to use my Chinese at all. It was really sad!

And I missed Taiwan dearly! Not just because of the Chinese language! The people, the food, the happy chaos...Taiwan is a very special place! And here I am, back in Taipei writing this article!

So let's talk about now. I am happy to be part of a great two year MBA program at the National Chengchi University in Taipei! And I have a new goal that I will pursue with all my energy: be totally fluent in Chinese by the time I graduate! This blog will accompany me on this exciting adventure!

I have signed up for a quite intensive Chinese course at NCCU as well. The Chinese Language Center there has a very good reputation as well and today was my first class!



Once I found my classroom and sat down next to my new classmates, all the memories came back! I had been in this situation before at ShiDa 3 years ago, and it just meant pure happiness for me...studying Chinese with people from all over the world, making great new friends, learning about this wonderful language and the Chinese history in the process.

And this first lesson was just fantastic! I directly liked my new teacher when I saw her. After just the first few minutes I knew that we will all have a great time in this semester! Just like my teacher at ShiDa, she is a very happy person and the first three hours went by like nothing. This time around, my classmates are from Korea (3), America (1) and from France (2 - cute accent).

I had so much fun in class...we were laughing away all the time. Looking forward to my next class tmr!

And this concludes my revival premiere blog posting of The Mandarin Project! :)

Looking forward to tell you more about my Chinese learning experiences!

Bye, Sebastian

P.S.: Here is a current pic of me, three years later! Caught in the Taiwanese rain! :)