We have a lovely student Simon who has just completed a Certificate in Intermediate Proficiency in Mandarin Chinese and is now starting French. We asked him some questions so he could tell us about his language journey, here are his responses:
Bonjour, Hola and 你好
What do you do for a living?
Je suis un clown, yo soy un payaso, 我是小丑。 I am a clown.
What languages do you speak?
I speak Spanish, Chinese, just started learning French and I speak fair dinkum Australian aka bad English.
What do you do for a living?
Je suis un clown, yo soy un payaso, 我是小丑。 I am a clown.
What languages do you speak?
I speak Spanish, Chinese, just started learning French and I speak fair dinkum Australian aka bad English.
Why did you start to learn Chinese and how quickly did you get to your goal?
I started learning Chinese because my unicycle coach was Chinese and he didn't speak any English. So I quickly learnt some bare basics of counting to 20, if something I did was good, bad or average "马马虎虎“ in pinyin.... ma ma hu hu. If you say this to a Chinese person and follow up with the English of "horse horse tiger tiger" which is what the characters mean. They will laugh and tell you your Chinese is very good.
I graduated from the National Institute of Circus Art (NICA) in 2012 in Prahran, which is a 3 year bachelor degree in circus. I was cast as one of the main characters in ABC kids TV show Hoopla Doopla. Which was a co-production with ABC and China Central Television (CCTV). It was filmed in Beijing for 7 months and there were only ever 4 other native English speakers on set who were all older than me, so I would end up hanging out with the Chinese film crew, who would teach me the important things in any language, how to swear, how to order beer, how to order food, more swearing. By the end of the 7 months I had what I call "survival Chinese" I could order a bus ticket, I could order food but not being exactly sure what kind of chicken and noodle dish I had ordered, I could ask where the nearest toilet was and I knew when people were talking about me when they said "老外" Lao Wai (outsider). Then I would respond to them with a cheerful ni hao and tell them I was Australian which would lead into a conversation and usually some tea or beer.
I started learning Chinese because my unicycle coach was Chinese and he didn't speak any English. So I quickly learnt some bare basics of counting to 20, if something I did was good, bad or average "马马虎虎“ in pinyin.... ma ma hu hu. If you say this to a Chinese person and follow up with the English of "horse horse tiger tiger" which is what the characters mean. They will laugh and tell you your Chinese is very good.
I graduated from the National Institute of Circus Art (NICA) in 2012 in Prahran, which is a 3 year bachelor degree in circus. I was cast as one of the main characters in ABC kids TV show Hoopla Doopla. Which was a co-production with ABC and China Central Television (CCTV). It was filmed in Beijing for 7 months and there were only ever 4 other native English speakers on set who were all older than me, so I would end up hanging out with the Chinese film crew, who would teach me the important things in any language, how to swear, how to order beer, how to order food, more swearing. By the end of the 7 months I had what I call "survival Chinese" I could order a bus ticket, I could order food but not being exactly sure what kind of chicken and noodle dish I had ordered, I could ask where the nearest toilet was and I knew when people were talking about me when they said "老外" Lao Wai (outsider). Then I would respond to them with a cheerful ni hao and tell them I was Australian which would lead into a conversation and usually some tea or beer.
Since this first encounter with China, I was enraptured with the people and the culture. They were always so excited to speak to someone who was foreign and knew more than Ni Hao and Xie Xie. Even if I knew not much more. I continued to study it online, and I tried a couple of different Apps. I also returned to China for different Comedy or Clowning Festivals. Physical theatre is very big in China and Chinese audiences are very rowdy, like to laugh and if you are not careful you might get pinched on the bottom by some old 奶奶 nai nai (grandmother). And with each tour my Chinese would get a little bit better. The last time I was there I could hold basic conversations about politics and the environment etc. But I didn't know how to read or write characters.
Then in 2020 when the first lockdown started and all my touring work evaporated in about a week. I decided to use the time to learn Chinese characters and begin studying Spanish. I asked a friend whose Chinese was really good and they recommended VLLC and I was hooked. I would use the slides to copy by writing out the characters with the pinyin under them so slowly I learnt to recognise the Chinese characters. I would hijack the Chinese class from my teacher Xiu Fang by elaborating about a topic we were discussing and keep running the conversation until I had ran out of vocabulary. Fast forward to 2022 I now have my intermediate certificate and can read and write text messages and maybe write by hand 50-70 characters. I am dying to go back to China to test out my new skills and vocabulary now.
Then in 2020 when the first lockdown started and all my touring work evaporated in about a week. I decided to use the time to learn Chinese characters and begin studying Spanish. I asked a friend whose Chinese was really good and they recommended VLLC and I was hooked. I would use the slides to copy by writing out the characters with the pinyin under them so slowly I learnt to recognise the Chinese characters. I would hijack the Chinese class from my teacher Xiu Fang by elaborating about a topic we were discussing and keep running the conversation until I had ran out of vocabulary. Fast forward to 2022 I now have my intermediate certificate and can read and write text messages and maybe write by hand 50-70 characters. I am dying to go back to China to test out my new skills and vocabulary now.
What other languages would you like to learn?
Na'vi, Klingon and Dothraki. Someone should talk to Jo about why we don't have these as options at VLLC.
What tools did you use to practice your language?
I am not afraid to make mistakes or to travel outside of the tourist hotspots, as soon as I can say half a muddled sentence I go for it. Despite my pronunciation. I also love just talking to people, market/shop owners are excellent targets because they cannot escape you and you can practice the same conversation multiple times just by walking from one shop to the next. I carry a notebook wherever I go and scrawl or get a native speaker to scrawl words and sentences for me. Plus, I like to listen to language podcasts when I am driving somewhere.
Where did you hear about VLLC and how did VLLC help you achieve your goal?
I heard about VLLC through a circus friend of mine who had studied at the Beijing Acrobatics school and has amazing Mandarin, she recommended it to me because of the excellent course structure. I thought the slides were weird at first but found that they worked really well for me if I wrote out every slide.
How effective was VLLC in helping you learn your new language?
The best thing for me was VLLC made sure I didn't take shortcuts in my language learning. Now I don't have huge gaping holes in my Chinese and now my sentence structures are more Chinese and less English. My teacher Xiu Fang was very kind but also strict with me to fix my bad habits. Plus now I can recognise a lot of characters which I would be interested in returning to China to test it out on some menus.
Na'vi, Klingon and Dothraki. Someone should talk to Jo about why we don't have these as options at VLLC.
What tools did you use to practice your language?
I am not afraid to make mistakes or to travel outside of the tourist hotspots, as soon as I can say half a muddled sentence I go for it. Despite my pronunciation. I also love just talking to people, market/shop owners are excellent targets because they cannot escape you and you can practice the same conversation multiple times just by walking from one shop to the next. I carry a notebook wherever I go and scrawl or get a native speaker to scrawl words and sentences for me. Plus, I like to listen to language podcasts when I am driving somewhere.
Where did you hear about VLLC and how did VLLC help you achieve your goal?
I heard about VLLC through a circus friend of mine who had studied at the Beijing Acrobatics school and has amazing Mandarin, she recommended it to me because of the excellent course structure. I thought the slides were weird at first but found that they worked really well for me if I wrote out every slide.
How effective was VLLC in helping you learn your new language?
The best thing for me was VLLC made sure I didn't take shortcuts in my language learning. Now I don't have huge gaping holes in my Chinese and now my sentence structures are more Chinese and less English. My teacher Xiu Fang was very kind but also strict with me to fix my bad habits. Plus now I can recognise a lot of characters which I would be interested in returning to China to test it out on some menus.
We are so excited to see where Simon's language skills take him.
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