14: An Interesting and Insightful Take on Chinese Language with Tristan McCarthy

Time Stamped Show Notes

• [1:18] – Tristan was born and raised in Tasmania, Australia
• [1:25] – During high school, Tristan became interested in aviation (flying), which he combined with an interest in engineering by studying aerospace engineering in Melbourne, Australia
• [1:51] – Why did Tristan learn Chinese?
  • [2:13] – Tristan went on a school trip to Russia in 2011 and found that he enjoyed picking up some of the language
  • [2:54] – A lot of people spoke Mandarin and Cantonese at Tristan’s university in Melbourne, which first gave him the idea to study Mandarin
  • [3:13] – Tristan chose Mandarin because he saw that it could be very useful with all the Chinese people in Australia
  • [4:01] – Tristan studied 3 units of engineering and 1 unit of Mandarin for 2.5 years until he completed his diploma
• [4:18] – What’s is Tristan’s biggest motivation in learning Chinese?
  • [4:23] – Tristan enjoyed the challenge of Mandarin and was interested by it
  • [5:04] – The further Tristan progressed, the more rewarding it was to be able to speak Chinese with people
• [5:45] – How did Tristan learn Chinese?
  • [5:58] – At first, Tristan focused on one character at a time by writing each out about 30 times until the stroke order and the character were memorable
  • [6:33] – Tristan also focused hard on tones in the start
    • [7:04] – Tristan shares a helpful technique to learn how to pronounce the tones in Mandarin that he learned from a friend
  • [8:16] – More recently, Tristan is working to improve his reading comprehension and speed by using flashcards
    • [8:42] – Tristan downloaded the 5000 most common characters and began studying them in order from most common to least
    • [9:10] – Tristan wants to recognise the character as soon as he sees it, otherwise he marks it as incorrect
    • [9:16] – Tristan uses Pleco software to create flashcards
      • [9:39] – This gives multiple options for grading yourself, not just correct or incorrect but based on how quickly and easily you know the answer
  • [10:39] – After the first 6 – 8 months of Mandarin, Tristan could start conversations but didn’t have much listening comprehension
    • [11:04] – Tristan applied for the Huayu (华语 Mandarin) Enrichment Scholarship (HES) from the Taiwan Ministry of Education
    • [11:33] – After completing 1 year of Mandarin studies, Tristan moved to Taiwan and found that his listening quickly improved by several orders of magnitude
    • [13:16] – It’s possible to get this scholarship even as a complete beginner, and Tristan highly recommends applying
  • [13:41] – Tristan’s class the first year in Australia had 4 hours of class per week which Tristan supplemented with 4 – 6 hours studying at home
  • [14:13] – Tristan moved to Taiwan from December – March and chose to take the earliest class so that he could explore Taipei during the day.
  • [14:48] – Tristan studied at the 国语教学中心 (Mandarin Training Centre) at 国立台湾师范大学 National Taiwan Normal University
• [16:11] – In 2015, Tristan’s professor approached him about participating in the Chinese Bridge Competition but he chose not to when he saw that the participants usually performed songs, danced, or gave speeches
  • [17:10] – The next year Tristan’s professor gave him the idea of presenting a poem so he joined, placed second in Australia, and went on to compete in China
• [18:13] – What has been Tristan’s biggest challenge in learning Chinese?
  • [18:19] – Listening comprehension was the most difficult thing at first
  • [18:33] – Don’t get discouraged, it took Tristan 1 year of studying and 3 months of living in Taiwan to really develop his listening skills
  • [18:48] – Tristan thinks it will be really difficult to develop your language skills without immersion in a Chinese speaking environment
• [19:51] – Tristan shares a funny story about being so immersed in Chinese that he actually struggled a bit more to speak English
• [20:58] – How did Tristan deal with accents and dialects?
  • [21:10] – Tristan found the Taiwanese accent clear and easy to understand
  • [21:20] – Tristan found the accent and dialect in Sichuan province to be much more difficult to understand
  • [22:10] – Tristan also thinks that the Beijing accent is difficult to understand
  • [22:49] – Victor shares an example of the difference between the accents with stir fry tomato and eggs: 番茄炒蛋(Taiwan) vs. 西红柿炒鸡蛋(Beijing)
  • [24:36] – Tristan shares some other differences between Mainland China and Taiwan
• [26:17] – Embarrassing moment: Mistaking a prayer tool for a kid’s toy
  • [26:23] – Tristan visited an ancient Chinese village and picked up a cool item that he started spinning and playing with. He asked the shopkeeper what it was and misheard the reply which was念经(chant scripture), not 年轻(young)
• [28:02] – Most rewarding moment: Competing and doing well in the Chinese Bridge Competition
  • [28:11] – Tristan talks about the amazing experience of competing in the Bridge Competition as a result of having learned Mandarin
• [30:17] – Life before learning Chinese vs. life after learning Chinese
  • [30:24] – Learning Chinese has opened doors to new life opportunities and hopefully to new professional opportunities as an engineer
  • [30:56] – Tristan is also married to a Chinese woman and being able to converse in both English and Chinese helps them avoid misunderstandings
  • [31:24] – Tristan met his now-wife just after he returned from Taiwan, and their relationship did motivate Tristan to continue studying
• [31:49] – Tristan’s favourite cities in China: 成都 Chengdu, 昆明 Kunming, 台北 Taipei
  • [31:54] – Tristan gives the various reasons he liked all three of these cities
• [32:34] – A difference between the Chinese culture and Tristan’s own culture
  • [32:42] – People take superstitions much more seriously in China than in Western cultures
  • [33:51] – Tristan shares an example with the 台北转运站 (Taipei Transfer Station), which means both change your transport and change your luck in Chinese
  • [35:02] – Another example is how, before the 2014 New Year, people in Taiwan talked about how 1314 sounds like 一生一世, which means “one whole lifetime”
  • [35:54] – Tristan explains how people don’t use Pinyin in Taiwan which makes it impossible to ask Taiwanese people how to spell Mandarin words with the English alphabet

Tristan’s Favourite Chinese Quote

• [42:12] – 笨鸟先飞 stupid/silly bird fly first
  • 笨(bèn)- stupid/silly
  • 鸟(niǎo) – bird
  • 先(xiān) – first
  • 飞 (fēi) – fly
• [43:02] – Victor’s school teacher used to say this phrase to some of classmates when he was going to school in China
• [43:25] – Tristan shares some encouragement related to this phrase
• [43:40] – Chinese people will also use this to be humble when they are complimented

Connect with Tristan

• Email address: tristan (DOT) mccarthy78 (AT) gmail (DOT) com
• Instagram: aeroplanter

Resources Mentioned:

• 37:57 – Pleco – Chinese dictionary app
• 39:28 – Du Chinese (iOS, Android) – Dialogue lessons from beginner to advanced with lots of helpful features
• 40:51 – Book: 当代中文 Contemporary Chinese (Textbook 1) (Chinese Edition) – textbook that Tristan started with that was very useful as an introduction