Unique Challenges American-Born Mandarin Speakers Face When Speaking Mandarin

Were you born in the US (or generally outside of "The Motherland") but grew up speaking Mandarin in the house with your family? Do you say you're "fluent" but often feel at a loss for words when you're trying to express your opinion about real things, even to your parents? Yeah, me too.

Hi there, I'm Angela and I'm a second-generation Taiwanese-American who founded Real You Mandarin, which offers online Mandarin courses designed specifically to help us American-Born Chinese (ABCs) and American-Born Taiwanese (ABTs) express ourselves in Mandarin on real life topics in the same way we're able to in English. Our first full course offering is called "Real You Mandarin: Beginnings"

Why did I create this course? Well, let's lay out some of the common challenges a lot of us face. Let me know which ones you resonate with:

1. We grew up speaking Mandarin at home with our families, but what we actually speak is Chinglish - a mix of English and Chinese. I don't know about you, but my mom was super strict about speaking Mandarin when I was growing up, so we knew that if you wanted to talk to Mom, you had to do it in Mandarin. When I look back on that now as an adult, I'm actually really grateful for that rule because it meant that I grew up with a fairly strong speaking foundation.
   
   But when I really think closely about the Mandarin we spoke at home, the reality is that because we grew up in the west, what we actually ended up speaking was Chinglish - a mix of English and Chinese - where maybe you're mostly speaking in Mandarin but you throw in English words here and there for things you don't know how to say. And even though your parents may have been more comfortable engaging in Mandarin, because they also now lived in the west, they could more or less understand what you meant and the conversation just continued without any teaching moments on how you would have said that missing vocabulary in Mandarin, especially when it was about meatier, more "adult" conversations.

   
   

2. We were forced to go to Chinese School as kids, but it was only once a week so by the end of it, our reading and writing skills were at best the level of 3rd graders back in the motherland. I KNOW I'm not the only one who dreaded going to Chinese School. While all my friends got to just be kids and played on the weekends, I was stuck inside yet another classroom learning Chinese?! I hated it. And yet, again looking back on it now as an adult I'm grateful I went because hey, being able to read and write SOME Chinese is better than NONE, right? And on that note...

   
   

3. Even if we wanted to improve our Mandarin skills now, we simultaneously know too much and not enough to fit nicely into standard Mandarin language classes. Beginner classes? Give me a break. I don't need to learn pronunciation, tones, or how to say "I like apples." Intermediate and above? Okay, now it's getting dicey because I don't know enough Chinese characters, more formal grammar rules, or frankly anything non-conversational. Also, maybe more of a niche problem, but most Mandarin classes are taught in Simplified Chinese only, and I grew up learning Traditional Chinese. As an ABT, I don't easily recognize Simplified characters even if I know the corresponding Traditional character. It just doesn't "click" for me like it does for native speakers.

   
   

4. We always had our hands held whenever we visited the motherland because we'd go back with our families, so we never had to plan our trips, order for ourselves, or act as functioning adults using Mandarin. When's the last time you were the one who called a restaurant in Mandarin to make a dinner reservation, booked a doctor's appointment, or even bought your own train tickets? I never had to handle any logistics when I went back to Taiwan all the way up through high school because my family would always step in to take care of it. It was only recently in the past few years when I started visiting as an adult - without my parents - that I realized I had so much I didn't know how to say in Mandarin. I had so many clunky interactions even during "easy" interactions like with the 7-Eleven employees, and I finally realized how big the gap was between the Mandarin I thought I knew and the Mandarin I actually needed to function like my true self in the same way I'm able to with English.

   
   

5. Standard Mandarin learning resources are geared towards helping you sound like a native (of the motherland), but what about when we want to talk about things that are specific to growing up in the west, like media representation or mental health? If you grew up in the west to parents from the east, I know you've experienced culture clashes on so many different levels in your life. Because at the end of the day, language is not just made up of words - culture is inherently baked into language as well. So when we're trying to express to our families that we want to find meaning and passion in our work even if it doesn't command the highest salaries, or when we want to share how supported we feel going to therapy to maintain our mental health, we're often at a loss for words trying to talk about these things and the conversation may quickly end in frustration because we're not able to convey what we actually think.

   
   

Does that sound like you? If so, I encourage you to check out Real You Mandarin: Beginnings, an online Mandarin course I built with a Taiwan-based Mandarin teacher to help you express the real you.

The premise of the entire course is to teach you the relevant vocabulary you're missing in the context of real life conversations you'd actually want to have - everything from dating & relationships to pop culture, to filial piety vs. individual free will, to media representation, mental health, and so much more.

All the lessons are video-based, realistic dialogues mimicking these real life conversations, giving you a chance to not only learn the relevant vocabulary in context, but also practice speaking yourself by shadowing the dialogue (basically mimicking in real-time...more on this technique in a later blog post!).

You can check out the full course syllabus HERE to see what topics are covered, preview a free lesson HERE to see exactly the format of each lesson to see if the course is a good fit, and if so, join the course and unlock all the content instantly. Let us help you unlock the real you when you speak Mandarin.