Linguistic Victories | 語言勝利 

July 27, 2025

Chinese is hard. Even after nine (going on ten) years of studying the language, every day has its linguistic challenges. At this point, I’m able to navigate the daily functions of my life without issue. At work, I understand about 80% of what’s going on, most of the time. I’ve had two recent linguistic wins that show how much my Chinese has grown in the past year, and I’m really proud! 

This year at work, I’m in charge of our Thailand project. I’m leading a delegation of 10 Taiwanese startups to Techsauce Global Summit in Bangkok, Thailand happening one week from today. This project is under the Taipei City Government, and thus subject to an obnoxious amount of paperwork, report-writing, and scrutiny. Two weeks ago, I wrote and handed in the full proposal (60 pages) for the trip, and it got approved by the government last week! I’ve also been communicating and coordinating with our government contact window which has been a linguistic and strategic challenge!

When I came to Taiwan last August, my reading and writing skills were very limited. I still read very slowly, but I’ve expanded my vocabulary and understanding of formal written Chinese to the point that I can navigate these big proposals. Typing the actual Chinese characters has never been an issue, but the prose and stylistic choices needed for formal Chinese were uncharted territory for me before this job. I have to shout out my colleagues, Charles, Irene, and Dale who support me with proofreading and all sorts of questions about navigating the Taipei City Government’s needs and the actual writing itself. They kindly and graciously answer “yes” when I ask them, “can I borrow your Chinese?”

In preparation for our business trip to Thailand, we hosted a training course and trip orientation for the startups. I was tasked to present our trip itinerary and details and was able to deliver the full session in Chinese! At the end, there weren’t too many questions which was reassuring; I took it as a sign that they could understand what I was saying to them and that the details were clear and well-organized. 

So, I’m doing my big-girl job using big-girl Chinese and, despite a lot of stress and challenges at work, I am feeling pretty accomplished. Still, speaking is hard and reading is harder, as evidenced by a recent interaction at a bubble tea shop. 

I was ordering a drink for my colleague and thought one word but said a different word, resulting in her getting the wrong drink. She wanted the「蜜桃烏龍」(peach oolong) and when I ordered, I mentally said「蜜桃烏龍」(peach oolong) but actually said「蜂蜜烏龍」(honey oolong). Notice that both words have「蜜」in them. It’s also easy to mix up the word for “honeybee” in this jumble of「蜜」. To most of my readers, this probably all looks the same, so let’s break it down: 

蜂蜜 (fēng mì) = Honey

蜜桃 (mì táo) = Peach

蜜蜂 (mì fēng) = Bee (the same characters for “honey”, but in reverse)

So, I’m doing all these great and advanced things like writing proposals and giving presentations in Chinese, yet I still mix up a simple bubble tea order. Alas, this is the life of a second-language learner. Thankfully, my colleague was very gracious, and we laughed off the mix-up together. 

I put a lot of pressure on myself when I speak Chinese. I want to understand everything all the time and speak perfectly so that everyone can understand me, a rather exhausting mindset. I was having a conversation with someone recently, though, that changed my perspective. She pointed out that I would (and do) afford English-as-a-second-language speakers a basic level of effort to understand what they’re saying to me, despite the fact that they don’t speak “perfect” English. When we speak to each other, there is a mutual agreement to put in effort to understand. If something is unclear, we work through it together. 

So often, I worry that Taiwanese people will not afford me that same courtesy when I speak Chinese, that I must speak perfectly in order to be understood. That’s a lot of pressure to put on myself and diminishes the fact that I can communicate pretty effectively, most of the time. When I can’t communicate, I stop and look up some words or ask for help. I’m learning to trust that when I speak, people will afford me the basic courtesy of trying to understand what I’m saying. It’s hard, but helps take away some of the pressure to “speak perfectly” all the time. 

I also have to constantly remind myself of how far I’ve come in the past year. 8 months ago, I would not have even attempted to touch a proposal document at work, and I was somewhat skittish about giving presentations in Chinese, especially to people outside of our company. In my weekly Chinese classes, it would take me an hour to read two sentences. Now, I’m reading 2-3 paragraphs in an hour (with lots of new vocab), writing proposals, and giving presentations in Chinese, fulfilling the goals I set when coming to Taiwan in the first place.

Despite all of this, I still get nervous when I go to the bank. That one might take a while :D 

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