Saturday Morning Language Classes

When I noticed on the University of Alberta website that the Student Volunteer Campus Community (SVCC) offers free language courses every Saturday from 10 am - 12 pm, I figured that this was my opportunity to start learning Mandarin. I've always wanted to learn Mandarin; or at least know some basic phrases to be able to speak a little with Chinese patients. I was looking forward to the first class this morning!

North Education building

At 9:45 am I headed over to the North Education building, which is conveniently just a block and a half from my house. The lobby was crowded with students, lined up to register for the various courses available: Korean, Japanese, Spanish, English, French, Mandarin, and Cantonese. I filled out a registration form at the Mandarin table and was directed to a little classroom upstairs. The classroom filled up quickly and we shuffled tables around and scouted chairs from neighbouring rooms to accommodate all of the participants.

a treat from the registration table

Three enthusiastic Chinese university students introduced themselves as our volunteer instructors. We went around saying our names and they came up with a Chinese name for each of us that sounded similar to our English name. Some of the popular English names, mine included, already had Chinese translations. Other names, such as those of Spanish participants, challenged the instructors to be a little more creative. They wrote all of our new Chinese names on the board and we had a fun time trying to pronounce them.

my name in Chinese

Next we went over simple greetings, like nǐ hǎo (hello). We practiced introducing ourselves to our neighbours and asking for their names. After a ten-minute break we were introduced to the four Mandarin tones. These are essential for pronunciation, as the same word can have different meanings depending on the tone. For example, mā means "mother" while mǎ means "horse". We practiced pronouncing the four tones then moved on to pronouncing the six vowels (a, e, i, o, u, and ü), known as "finals" as they come at the ends of words.

tones are important!

I was surprised by the diversity of people who attended this Mandarin class; they were of all ages and nationalities, and most were not native English speakers. It'll be nice to get to know them over the semester. I'm so grateful that volunteers are willing to prepare for and teach these Saturday language classes. It's always interesting to learn something new and this is a fantastic opportunity!

today's new words