Isabel is originally from the United States. She worked as a teacher in Florida until she met her husband, who accepted a job offer in Hong Kong, which is what brought them to Asia. Isabel has been studying at Mandarin Inn for two of those years. Currently, Isabel is taking the beginner HSK 1 course. Let’s see what she has said about her Chinese learning journey!伊莎贝尔是美国人。遇到丈夫以前，她在佛罗里达州当教师，后来丈夫接受了一份香港的工作，于是他们来到亚洲。Isabel在Mandarin Inn学习了两年。目前，她正在学习HSK 1级课程。让我们一起来听听她学习中文的体会和经验吧！
Q：Why did you come to China?
A：My husband and I lived almost our entire lives in Florida. One day, he came home from work looking a bit shocked. I asked if everything was alright, and he told me that he had just received a job offer in Hong Kong. We love traveling, so he decided to accept the job offer. It was easy for me to find a job in Hong Kong as an English teacher, and we spent three years traveling and enjoying ourselves. Living in Hong Kong was amazing, and our daughter was born there in 2020. At that point, my husband was offered another job in Shanghai. We had another discussion about it, and after looking at the opportunities present in China, we decided to continue our adventure here.
我和丈夫几乎一直待在佛罗里达。一天，他下班回家，看起来有点震惊。我问他是否一切都好，他告诉我他刚收到香港的工作邀请。我们喜欢旅行，所以他决定接受这份工作。我在香港也很容易找到一份英语老师的工作，于是我们花了三年时间旅行和享受。住在香港太棒了，我们的女儿于2020年出生在那里。在那一年，我丈夫在上海得到了另一份工作。我们对此又进行了一次讨论，在考察了中国目前的机遇后，我们决定在这里继续我们的冒险。
Q：Do you think it is useful for foreigners to learn Mandarin? Why? And why you’d like to learn Mandarin?
A：My parents were both immigrants, and they always stressed to me the importance of learning the culture of the country you live in. They both spoke very little English at first, but learned by watching television and visiting the library. My husband is Brazilian, and when we met, I learned Portuguese to better understand his culture. Now that I live in China, I plan on doing the same. While learning Mandarin hasn’t been as easy as Portuguese, I find it a lot of fun. It’s been interesting being able to pick up a little bit of conversation and even participate. The people I meet whom I try to speak with are all quite friendly.
我的父母都是移民，他们总是向我强调学习所居住的国家的文化的重要性。他们一开始都很少说英语，都是通过看电视和参观图书馆学习的。我丈夫是巴西人，当我们见面时，我学习了葡萄牙语，以更好地了解他的文化。现在我住在中国，我也打算这样做。虽然学习普通话不像葡萄牙语那么容易，但我觉得很有趣。很有意思的是，我们能够进行一些交谈，甚至参与其中。我遇到的那些我试图与之交谈的人都很友好。
Q：As a good student, how do you learn Mandarin?（could you give an example） Would you like to share your tips?(like How you encourage yourself when you learn Chinese? How do you keep interest to learn Chinese?
A：During class, I take notes with different colored pens. Then, when I get home, I make flashcards and transfer vocabulary and Chinese characters into another notebook. Rewriting it helps me remember as well as review my brightly colored notes once a day. I try to listen to music in Chinese as well. While at Disney, we stumbled into a Frozen singalong in Chinese. It was really cool to hear “Let It Go” in Chinese, and now we play it at home for my daughter (and also for me). I also try and practice with everyone around me. I’m very lucky to have an “ayi” who speaks English, and she loves helping me review and listening to me try not to mangle her native language.
上课时，我用不同颜色的笔做笔记。然后，当我回到家时，我制作小卡片，把单词和汉字转移到另一个笔记本上。重写它有助于我记忆，并且每天复习一次色彩鲜艳的笔记。我也试着听中文歌。在迪斯尼时，我们无意中听到了一首《冰雪奇缘》的中文歌曲。听到中文“Let It Go”真的很酷，现在我们在家里为我女儿（也为我）演奏。我也试着和周围的人一起练习。我很幸运有一个会说英语的阿姨，她喜欢帮助我复习，听我说，尽量不破坏她的母语。
Q：Would you like to talk something about your teacher, do you like him/her? And What kinds of teacher’s behavior will encourage you to learn Mandarin?
A：I feel very lucky to have Julia as my teacher. We connected right away, and I find it extremely easy to ask her questions and have her reteach me things that I should have remembered. Julia is always willing to explain things again (or three times). She has taught me the history of Chinese characters which helps me remember them, and how to sound hip in Chinese. She was very patient with me while I was learning tones and never discouraged me or made me feel embarrassed. I really like that she ties in whatever is going on in my life with my lessons. Julia makes learning Chinese a fun activity that I look forward to every time I come.
我很幸运能有朱莉娅当我的老师。我们很快就联系上了，我发现问她问题并让她重新教我知识是件容易的事情。朱莉娅总是愿意一遍遍地解释。她教了我汉字的历史，帮助我记住它们，以及如何发音。当我学习音调时，她对我很有耐心，从来没有让我气馁或让我感到尴尬。我真的很喜欢她把我生活中发生的一切和我的功课联系起来。朱莉娅让学习中文成为一项有趣的活动，我很期待每一次的课程。
Q：Do you have any interesting thing during your Mandarin study or the problems （details should be good）you meet in your daily life as the language to share to us.
A：When my daughter was younger, I loved taking her for a walk in her stroller around Jingan Park. There are quite a few older people who hang out there and dance or play games. Often, they would come up to us and start talking. I had no idea what they would say, so I would quickly walk away from them. It made me feel uneasy, since I wasn’t sure what they were saying and they kept trying to grab my daughter. One of the first things Julia explained to me was that older people here really love babies, and they probably wanted to know basic things about her. Julia taught me how to say how old she was, that she was a girl, and that I did not understand Chinese. This changed everything! We took a trip to Yangshuo, and, armed with this knowledge, felt confident enough to let some people hold her and even play with her while my husband and I had dinner.
当我女儿小的时候，我喜欢用婴儿车带她在静安公园散步。有相当多的老年人在那里跳舞或玩游戏。通常，他们会走到我们面前开始交谈。我不知道他们会说什么，所以我会很快离开他们。这让我感到不安，因为我不知道他们在说什么，他们一直试图抓住我的女儿。朱莉娅向我解释的第一件事是，这里的老年人真的很喜欢婴儿，他们可能想了解她基本的情况。茱莉亚教我怎么说她多大了，她是个女孩，我不懂中文。这改变了一切！我们去了阳朔旅行，有了这些知识，我觉得有足够的信心让一些人抱着她，甚至在我和丈夫吃饭的时候陪她玩。
Q：Finally, please say a your favourite Chinese sentence, and why.
A：Julia always tells me useful phrases to say for upcoming holidays, so it’s difficult to pick just one! For Valentine’s Day, she taught me to say, “Wo yao he ni tian chang di jiu,” which translates to “I want to be with you forever.” I found it very romantic!
朱莉娅总是告诉我在即将到来的假期里要说的有用短语，所以很难只选一个！情人节那天，她教我说：“我要和你天长地久”，我觉得这很浪漫！
