Learning Chinese-Personal Narrative Essay - 1933 Words

Learning Chinese-Personal Narrative In 1995, I decided to volunteer as a missionary for my church. On the application form, there was no space for suggestions as to where in the world I would like to serve as a missionary. Church leaders assign missionaries to the place they feel we should go. I was surprised with the assignment to serve in Taiwan, speaking Mandarin Chinese. I had no previous experience with Chinese people or their language, so I felt fortunate that the church provides 2 months of intensive language training before the missionary even gets on the plane. During my 2 months in the language-training center, I found out just how different Mandarin Chinese is from my native language. The time went by quickly, and†¦show more content†¦I found, upon returning home a year ago, that I still hadnt picked up many of these items. While my speaking ability had reached a point that native Chinese people clearly understood my pronunciation and tones, my mastery of those items that had not been clearly taught to me sometimes caused major communication breakdowns. Frustrated, I decided to isolate these parts of speech that were giving me so much trouble, look them up in reference grammars, and figure out once and for all how to use them like a native Chinese person. It was this search that raised the questions that I will attempt to answer in this paper. The part of Chinese I chose to examine for this paper is the perfective aspect (PRV) -le particle. I will analyze and compare how various grammars, textbooks, and studies describe and explain this particle. Because most of the descriptions and explanations of this particle seem to be based mainly on the theories and ideas of the authors of these analyses, it seemed that a survey of native Chinese speakers would provide a good standard by which to judge these theories. Li and Thompsons book, MANDARIN CHINESE A Functional Reference Grammar (1981) is widely used to teach learners of Chinese how to use the PRV -le particle. That is why, for this paper, I chose to put Li and Thompson up against the standard a surveyShow MoreRelatedReview of Peter Hesslers Oracle Bones1541 Words   |  6 Pagesincorporating personal and social commentary. Hessler (2006) also weaves personal stories of individual Chinese people into Oracle Bones, to provide both a broad and an intimate narrative. The t hree core personal narratives are vastly different, to capture the diversity of Chinese culture and society. 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