Before I came to Taiwan more than a year ago, I wrote in my prayer journal and asked for a 'supernatural ability to speak Mandarin'. At that time I knew that I was pretty good at languages , however, Mandarin seemed to be a different game to me. I had attended private courses for a period of time in 3 different times and none of them seemed to bring much results in my Mandarin learning. Actually, I didn't know why I would ask God of this thing called " the supernatural ability to speak Mandarin". I guess, it was a prayer that was led by the Spirit Himself.
Faith without action is dead. Sometimes, we need something to remind us to cling onto the promises that the Lord has given us, or to continued praying for the things of our hearts. I was only here for like 3-4 months when I started to buy Chinese books. It was rather ridiculous actually since I could only read around 40-50% of what they were saying and the rest was purely guessing game. But in my heart, I have resolved that one day I will be able to read all of those books with no difficulty whatosever....
My listening was the first to experience the miracle from the Lord. I am currently attending the young adult service in a local church called Bread of Life Church. Although they do have an Indonesian ministry, I felt called to stay in their Mandarin site. When I first started to attend the service and small group I could barely make it what they were saying. I was completely depending on the title of the sermon, the scripture the sermon was based on and trying as best as I could to understand what they were preaching. Every weekends I would feel like my head was going to explode with the overflow of information in Mandarin coming my way.. But what's funny is entering the fourth or the fifth month of my stay in Taiwan, I could make up about 80-90% of what they were saying. Now, I could listen to any sermon without any difficulty... But of course, there's always an exception. Some speakers are more well-spoken and will use much less common words than the others, then I might have to try harder to understand what they are saying.
About 2-3 semesters ago, I took a class called " Intermediate Chinese Readings" and this course really helped enriching my vocabularies as well as my reading speed. I knew more Chinese characters and read more quickly than before. I still thanked God that He led me to take that course. Not only that, I think that course also helped me improving my writing. These days, I could write simple essays of 600-1000 characters with no difficulties though of course,there are still grammatical mistakes here and there. But I am getting better in expressing my thoughts through written means.
I guess, the one thing that I am still struggling is my spoken Mandarin. The hardest thing about Mandarin is the 4 different tones. A word my sound the same, but when it's pronounced with a different tone will mean differently. There's also the difference between " zi" and " zhi" that needs to be paid attention to. Actually, attending the Bible course really improved my Mandarin.. ahahha.. I mean, how could you not improve when I have 6 hours of class, all in Mandarin? It's far from perfect though...
I guess, you can say I am a bit ambitious. I told God that I want my Mandarin to be as good as a local. I don't know if I can eliminate my accent, but I will be satisfied enough when I am as fluent as the native and could express more complicated thoughts, could communicate effectively in many different areas, and could write with no grammatical mistakes. Hahah.. I really don't know how much time would I need to achieve this goal. Maybe 4-5 years in Taiwan will do the trick..
Anyways, for some reasons, I have such a great faith that God will help me in my Mandarin learning. Realizing that my Mandarin sucks and is still far from perfect only motivates me to learn even harder. The greatest thing is, I know that God's blessing is upon me. Lately I've found myself started to have the confidence to buy some Christian books in Chinese. These books are not that hard, but it's definitely not that easy either.
Tonight, as I looked at the piles of books that I have bought and I have yet to read, I realize that without even realizing it, I have given myself a reminder of the faith that I have in the Lord in my Mandarin learning. That He will give me that " supernatural ability to speak Mandarin"... Not only to speak it, but to master this language...
Faith without action is dead. Give yourself a physical reminder of your faith in God and the promises that He has for you. He is a God who will not back down from His words.
-gRaCe-
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