If there was anything I learned while working in a restaurant, it was the saying “girls support girls.” So when a female customer came to the restaurant who refused to speak and whose only voice was the guy ordering for her, it ignited concern. Acting upon alarm bells, I inquired if she was alright.
To my relief, I discovered her decision not to speak was not a choice, but a language barrier. I found out she was from China and was visiting America for the first time. After nearly seven years of learning the Chinese language and culture, I decided to put it to use that night. The most remarkable moment I remember was the way her eyes lit up and her posture suddenly changed when I started speaking Mandarin. This connection based on a mutual language spoken allowed her to feel more welcome in a new environment and it made what could have been a mundane night for me much more exciting.
However, this remarkable connection may be becoming more infrequent. According to recent news reports, the value of learning a language seems to have decreased significantly. A report by BBC news in the United Kingdom in 2021 discussed how the removal of language requirements in the UK has become more common, with the consequence being the closing of doors from the inability to speak more than one language. Reflecting on my personal experience, I came to realize that my previous college also made learning a language an option and not a requirement, and that at that school, not taking language classes could have been the easy decision to make. However, that is not the path I chose. Another article published in 2023 also found that fewer college students are learning foreign languages, with enrollment in Mandarin Chinese specifically dropping 25%. The question is why then, is it worth it to learn a language in a world where learning a language is becoming increasingly optional?
DEEPENING CONNECTIONS
When thinking about learning another language, there are doors that open up to new cultures. Learning a language enables a person to travel to foreign countries, gather new perspectives, and simply gain a world-wide network of friends. Learning a language other than our own, can make us more welcoming to a more diverse demographic of people, and it can even integrate us into new communities.
However, the connections that can be made may not be evident until we explore a new skill, such as learning a language. For me, learning a language unexpectedly fostered a new connection between my grandfather and I.
My grandfather spent the majority of his childhood and adult years in Singapore until immigrating to America. One of the four official languages spoken in Singapore is Mandarin Chinese and my grandfather, having spent so much of his life in Singapore, is well-practiced in the Chinese language. While my grandfather and I have connected in many different ways, my decision to pursue a language, specifically Mandarin, allowed us to have an additional interest to bond over. While our conversations in Chinese do not occur at great depth, they do include minor exchanges of phrases and greetings. It’s not grand gestures or deep conversations, but it’s more like an inside joke or secret that only we are in on. It is a small thing we cherish, which is enough for us to kindle the bonds that come from a grandfather-granddaughter relationship.
Another bonding experience that I did not expect was the care, support, and companionship I experienced with my Mandarin teachers. My first ever Chinese teacher, Jane Chen, was the first teacher who so passionately supported her students. She supported us in obvious ways like academically or when we were suffering through typical student viruses. However, the most impacting memory of her support comes from a time where we had an unexpected fire drill in thirty-two degree weather, and she provided us all with proper coats, gloves, and blankets to battle the cold. Beyond events like that, I have witnessed how all my Chinese teachers have an undying passion for teaching the language, which translates to a warm radiation toward their students. Those connections I’ve made with all my teachers are one of the most unexpected, but also most incredible connections I have found from learning the language.
A LINGUISTIC PUZZLE
One of my favorite things about learning Mandarin is that it feels like a puzzle in my brain, and I simply have to arrange the pieces into a coherent string. However, learning the language hasn’t always been this way. I will never forget the first time I had to learn to write three simple characters: My chosen Chinese name , 季安娜 (Ji An Na). 季 (jì) was given to me for its similarity to my last name “Gill”. 安娜 (Ān nà) was given for two reasons. The first being because my full name “Arianna” has “anna” in it. The second reason being that 安 means peace, and my Chinese teacher felt that could be a beautiful addition to my name. Thus, with that combination of symbolism and mimicry of sound, my Chinese name was born.
While trying to learn how to write my name, I recall wondering how I would ever learn to read, write, and speak the language. I will never forget my first homework assignment, where I had to write the characters for my name over and over. I was unsure I would ever be able to remember every character I needed to learn because, at that point, the amount of characters I still had to learn seemed like a large mountain to climb. Learning Mandarin was so much more than just rote memorization of the characters. Each character has a specific stroke order that must be written with absolute precision. Every character is made of building blocks of symbols that are carefully mixed together to support a word’s overall meaning. Understanding each character was so much more than memorization. It was understanding every stroke, dot, line, and symbol to further tell a story. But, almost seven years later, through slow dedication and perseverance, I have far exceeded the expectations that the younger version of me could have expected in my proficiency.
Not only did my dedication in learning the language help me with learning to read, write, and speak Mandarin Chinese, but it also began to transfer over to other non-language based skills.
Mandarin Chinese is a lot of memorization, especially when it comes to writing. However, as I’ve worked on that skill, I’ve found it easier to memorize content in other classes. Memorizing five-hundred slides for a biology midterm would not have been as manageable had I not been fine-tuning my memorization skills for years before with Chinese.
Additionally, my ability to recognize patterns in disciplines like math and science has increased tenfold since learning Mandarin Chinese. The sounds of characters and sentence structures often have a certain pattern or commonality to them that becomes more evident while progressing in the learning of the language. While pattern recognition became more fine-tuned in the Chinese language and culture, it also became more fine-tuned across other disciplines. I found it easier to find similarities between math formulas and equations. Trends among certain organisms in biology or periodic trends in chemistry became increasingly easier to recognize as my skills became more sharpened, thanks to learning a language.
Beyond my personal experience, an increasing frequency of studies published examines that exact phenomenon I directly benefitted from. The International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences found that learning Mandarin contributed to the development of skills like organization, critical thinking, and resource management, thus translating over to benefit academic pursuits other than Mandarin. Thus the case for learning Mandarin, or any language, remains strengthened by more than just anecdotes, but also research.
While the benefit of learning a language may seem only relevant to the culture and inherent language itself, the process of learning one is so valuable to skills beyond that which is obvious. I could largely contribute my academic, and even social success, to skills that were practiced by learning the language that would not have been strengthened otherwise. Thanks to my choice to pursue a language, I became more well-rounded, which unexpectedly benefitted many other aspects of my academic career.
EXPLORING LANGUAGE AS AN ARTFORM
When we think of learning the English language, we often think about the dreaded essays and academic novels that dominated our time in those classes. Rarely was there time to explore creative writing, as analytical and academic writing were always considered the priority.
However, poetry is possibly the best example of language as an art form. Poetry is an abstract way of stringing together words that catches hidden meanings and embeds a multitude of interpretations between the letters and sentences.
Poetry exists in every language, as does the ability to make language into an art form. Exploring language as an art form, especially a foreign language, has the benefit of practicing art and expressing creativity in a less traditional way.
Personally, art is not my forte. In trying to find ways to decompress after a long day, art forms like painting and sculpting were tested and failed. However, learning and writing Chinese was an unexpected tool that I could use to relieve stress after a long day. The art of understanding the words and creatively crafting sentences felt less burdensome and more like an exciting task. I found that my time spent doing my Chinese language homework was more relaxing than stressful, and it left me feeling fulfilled rather than drained. Practicing Chinese was something that forced me to shut off my brain to focus on the task at hand. As I focused and my mind quieted down, I found I was often overcome with feelings of peace. While searching for creative ways to destress that I thought should have been traditional art forms, I overlooked the power of language, especially one that isn’t English. I quickly found that my choice to learn Chinese could be a creative outlet where other artistic pursuits failed.
REWARDED FOR LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE
If I had the choice, I would choose again and again to pursue a language. Even when I had to fight for a spot in the class or stay up late studying to understand the concepts, I would choose that fight a million more times for the incredible opportunities learning a language gave me. Had I not been so intentional in my pursuit of a language, I would not have had the joy of making a breadth of connections, the ability to fine-tune skills I was lacking, or exploring creative bounds beyond what I thought I knew.
I chose to learn Mandarin Chinese, but the previously listed benefits are not exclusive to that language. Whichever language one may choose to study has the ability to harbor the same, if not more, benefits. It is incredibly valuable to find a language that one may truly love, even if it takes trial, failure, and lots of learning along the way. Had I given up, or not chosen to pursue a language at all, I would have never experienced the great opportunities that propelled me to the social, academic, and personal successes I experience today.
But in the end, it’s not the academic gains or existing research that supports the reward of learning Mandarin, it’s the quiet ability to sit across from my grandfather and exchange words that belong only to the shared moments between us.
About the author:
Ari Gill is a sophomore majoring in human biology. She first started learning a second language at the age of four.
Ari with her Chinese teacher from South Carolina, Jane Chen
