I am 任年泰 (Nikita Razinkov), an American student studying Information Technology at George Mason University (GMU). I enjoy a verity of hobbies including playing instruments, tinkering with and fixing electronics and anything mechanical, and of course learning Mandarin which I have been doing for over a year now.

I have just completed the first week of a 7-week Chinese intensive language & culture program in 高雄. For my first blog post, I’ll start with some of the highlights followed by some things I’ve learned, and finally some thoughts from my experience thus far.

After a few days in Taiwan, we visited an American restaurant called Arkansas diner. They serve typical American cuisine. From burgers to milkshakes, they have pretty much everything you would find in a rural American restaurant. Though not wooing, the food was pretty good and accurately represented American cuisine.

Unlike the United States 台灣is a native home to monkeys. As such, they can be found in and around the forests surrounding the university where I am studying (which is NSYSU). The monkeys primarily become a threat when they detect food nearby. They are alerted by the sound of grocery bags and plastic food packaging. Students are advised to eat indoors and to not have any open food or drinks in the outdoors.

Ok, so what did I actually learn? As I already mentioned, I have been learning Chinese for over a year. I started with a few YouTube videos, then a three-month Duolingo grind followed by an introductory Chinese class at GMU this past spring. At NSYSU, I am taking an “Intermediate Low” Chinese Course. This first week, we covered words related to movement. Let me create a table with some of the words I have learned and give a few glossed examples to help me practice. :)

General Direction Words

Cardinal Directions

His cat is beside the table.
他的貓在桌子旁邊。

The cat’s home is in the east of China.
這隻貓的家在中國東。

The Cat is hungry; it is waiting for you by the door.
貓餓了，它在門口等你。

To wrap up, I wanted to touch on some thoughts about how I thought this experience would go and how it is actually going. To start, I thought that I would be fully immersed in Chinese the minute I set foot in 台灣. Second, I thought my Chinese class would be very difficult and that I would be spending most of my free time studying. Neither of these have turned out the way I thought they would. First, though I am getting a fairly decent amount of emersion, it isn’t 24/7 or even all the time. The times with the greatest immersion I found are in class and with one-on-one interaction with locals. The rest of the times are spent conversing with my peers mostly in English. A friend shared that on their experience abroad, they would have interactions with locals using Google Translate as a means for learning Chinese. As for my class, smooth sailing! Though many times I don’t understand the expressions being said by my teacher, I have just enough knowledge of Chinese and enough context to derive their meaning. The homework isn’t burdensome at all, at least for now.

My takeaway, my experience requires no effort, yet full consciousness; no thought, but every ounce of comprehension. In other words, I don’t need to work hard, I just need to enjoy and absorb. Though there have been many times I feared I wouldn’t make the most of this trip. Something I read recently continues to remind me that just isn’t the case.

‘We also should have faith in God’s heart. Every Christian needs to know and trust both God and the heart of God. God’s heart toward us is always good. No matter what may happen to us or what we may experience, we should always believe in the goodness of God’s heart.’

— Witness Lee & Watchman Nee, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (2): Volume Four, p. 159.

No matter how much Chinese I learn by my standards, they don’t matter because The Lord will take care of everything, all I need to do is show up, take in, and enjoy. The rest will follow. Just like my next blog post.