I started studying Mandarin last fall. I live in Vietnam now. Everyone is surprised that I'm continuing my study of Mandarin after moving out of China, and my response is simply that Mandarin is a good language to know as long as I'm living anywhere in this part of the world. I believe that.
Now that I'm here, it would be so easy to quit.
I see a few shops that have Chinese characters on their outdoor signage so I know there's some Mandarin presence. I don't have any way to practice it daily.
It would be easy to quit.
But I won't. I know so many bits and pieces of other languages, I want to finally become fluent in one. I can count to 10 in 10 languages. I had the Japanese exchange students at my high school teach me an impressive sentence (while my classmates were learning curse words). Often, common sayings pop into my head in German instead of English. But I can't converse in anything but English. I'm getting there with Mandarin.
Quitting is always an easy option, isn't it?
I have no set "job", although I am still doing bits of work for people I worked for/with in Beijing. My business idea is just that. I am learning/deciding how to set it up, and trying to find information on business laws here. I want to do it properly from the get-go, and that will take time. I know that, for a professional business with a professional webpage, business cards, etc., there will be a capital outlay, and we don't have that yet.
Knowing this, when we planned this move, Brett based our financial expectations on his expected income. He started working this week, but won't see a paycheck until next month. He did not figure any income from me into the plans, because we don't know when or how much that will be.
He believes that we will be able to live comfortably on his income.
I don't need to work. I don't need to start a business of any kind.
It would be so easy to quit.
But I won't. Not only am I not used to not working, I believe what I have to offer has serious value in my new home city! I have certain skills and abilities that I need to exercise. If I fail, I fail, but I won't quit.
I'm curious to hear of your almost-quitting stories. Have you ever been tempted to quit something, but stuck it out to a positive result? Have you stuck it out, but realized you should have quit while you were ahead?
I don't quit things either. Well, not usually. There was something I quit, and I gave myself permission to quit it, and I was proud of myself for not sticking it out. But that's the exception.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean. Mandarin will be useful. I hope you do become fluent.
It's a fine line, isn't it? Knowing if quitting is just laziness or is the right thing for you and your goals and your life.
DeleteI quit smoking several times. And then one day I decided I have to quit and I did. But it was the hardest thing I have ever done in my entire life. Except for this widowhood thing! Good for you. Keep on with the Mandarin!!
ReplyDeleteMy hat goes off to everyone who successfully quits smoking. I am so glad I never started. Good for you! I can't imagine comparing anything to widowhood. That was not a choice. I'm sure it hits you out of nowhere at odd times. Hugs!
DeleteYou have more tenacity toward things than I do. I can quit and walk away from things easily.
ReplyDeleteYou have tenacity of reading books you're not into. I don't do that anymore!
DeleteThat is very true. I feel like I have somehow done something wrong if I don't finish a book I have started.
DeleteThere was one time I almost quit a one-day temp job. I stuck it out and did the best I could, and when I got home the temp agency called to tell me I'd been fired. I described the conditions and the person said, "We've gotten so many of the same complaints we're dropping that company as a client," which would have been nice to know before I was fired.
ReplyDeleteAnd you're kind of following Jean-François Champollion, who used the Rosetta stone to translate Egyptian hieroglyphs. He worked so hard on that at one point he was hospitalized for exhaustion and wrote to his brother, "I am so bored here. Please bring me a Chinese language book."
Haha! Nice to know I'm in good company, although I'm not really doing it out of boredom.
DeleteGood for you! Mandarin sounds incredibly hard to learn but what an achievement it would be to become fluent in it. I don't think quitting in itself is a bad thing, it depends on the situation. Sometimes quitting is the right thing to do if the reward/outcome isn't worth the effort. I left university after the first year when I was suffering with depression and transferred to the OU to complete my degree-that was one of the best things I ever did. However, I did force myself to complete the first year so I could transfer my credits.
ReplyDeleteA good example of a calculated quit!
DeleteAnd there are definitely cases where quitting is NOT a bad thing.