I watched the lady wildly swing a ribbon around in the air, incredibly confused. I, along with the rest of the graduating eighth grade class, did not understand what was happening before our eyes. We were sitting in the Morristown High School Auditorium, watching as the woman mumbled unintelligible foreign words, eyes transfixed on the flowing red cloth floating above her head. Eyes in the crowd glanced at each other with uncertainty, unsure how to react. Some sniggered in the back, others were just stunned and confused.
This was the presentation to convince incoming freshman to take Mandarin Chinese as their language at Morristown High School. Despite the lady (who I would come to know as Ms. Meng) and her ribbon, many were put off by the show and would go on to continue their ventures in Spanish and French. I went home, determined to convince my parents to let me take Spanish like everyone else. Despite my best efforts, my parents won the struggle of my language choice; I would be learning Mandarin my freshmen year. One could say I was not very enthusiastic.
When I first entered the classroom, I felt my stomach sink. There was a perfectly good alphabet that I could utilize, yet I was here, being thrown into a world of squiggly indiscernible characters and rapid, speech that was impossible to understand. I didn’t want to be thrown into this uncomfortable environment; I wanted to be cozy in the land of see and estar. I spotted Ms. Meng, the infamous ribbon waver. I put my head down at my desk, ready for the worst.
To my shock, the worst never came. Despite my qualms, I soon found that there was much more to learning Chinese than I thought. After experiencing eight years of learning Spanish, discovering a completely foreign culture was extremely enlightening and surprisingly fun. We painted Chinese characters with real ink and brushes, and learned about the history of the country. I found a greater appreciation for the putting a lot of hard work into something new; the obscene amount of characters and tones proved to be quite a struggle at first. Each character had a distinct meaning behind both its translation and its shape, and I found it very interesting that so much thought had gone into designing each stroke.
I was extremely worried about Mandarin Chinese, but it ended up becoming a fantastic decision. Not only is the language and the culture interesting, but it’s also very relevant in today’s world. By engaging in an activity that I had little interest in, I became a more cultured individual and learned a skill that could help me in the real world. Taking risks is the scariest and most rewarding thing you can do. I was ready to hate taking Chinese, but it ended up being an incredibly rewarding experience.
