Mandarin Monday: The “Chinese Challenge” of Learning One New Word Every Day

When my former managing editor asked me to write beijingkids‘ weekly web column, Mandarin Monday, I answered, “Wait, you know that I don’t speak Chinese, right?” I couldn’t remember what her response was, but I certainly took her challenge on.

In my very first Mandarin Monday article, I wrote about the ways to pronounce the very difficult Chinese tones. I enjoyed the intricacies of the simplified Chinese script (汉字 hànzì), however, because my visual memory has made it easier for me to remember the characters and their English alphabet spelling (拼音 pīnyīn).

That inclination had inspired me to follow that article up with a list of the first 100 characters every beginner needs to memorize. The version published on the Beijinger was a sleeper hit until a Facebook user shared it like crazy on online groups. Chinese news outlets picked it up and translated my musings: an expat who was so amazed that his Chinese name has the same 安 (ān, “safe”) in the landmark 天安门广场 Tian’anmen Square (tiān’ānmén ɡuǎnɡchǎnɡ).

Since then, I have written many Mandarin Monday posts, from learning the language in the viewpoint of a student, to cultural and lifestyle topics, to even participating in blogging challenges.

Now, I’m making this column bigger through the “Chinese Challenge” – a new weekly series where I document one Chinese word I learn every day. As I try to converse with locals, I expect to pick up many words; however, I will write down only the most memorable or practical word I encounter per day. Then every Monday, I will post a short summary of the seven words I have learned during the previous week.

The Chinese Challenge is inspired by the #30DayChallenge I undertook in January 2018, as part of my New Year’s resolution to further my Chinese. I completed the challenge and rewarded myself with 30 new words, though some of them I already forgot by now. Another inspiration was the #AtoZChallenge I joined in April 2018, in which I published 26 posts based on the letters of the English alphabet. In some posts that coincided with Mandarin Mondays, I used a Chinese word as prompt.

The challenge will run until June 2020, and hopefully, I will have passed my HSK level 4 exam then!

So, shall we begin the challenge?

Photo: Andy Penafuerte III