The day Rome appeared

Ever since I was little, each birthday was accompanied by someone asking me, "So, do you feel a whole year older today?". While they stare intently at me, perhaps hoping for a witty response and finding none, I offer a nervous laugh and they go on half-scoffing and half-joking about the idea that someone could wake up and, over the course of one night, suddenly feel a completely different age. Thinking that the point of this joke is that it's ridiculous to feel a whole year pass in one night, they tell it not realizing that the curious thing is rather that the random day it will happen would also be your birthday. As I've grown older, I've discovered that this is exactly how time passes - not in day-to-day increments - I normally can't distinguish hardly anything between one day and the next, apart from a handful of new vocabulary words learned. Rather, it happens in phases that descend upon consciousness with alarming swiftness. Often, it leaves a feeling that is much greater than a year's worth of time passing. Now, having passed dozens of birthdays later, I can finally answer the question: "No, not last night, but maybe tomorrow", laughing with them, but not at the same idea.

Languages work the same way, but in a much less abstract way than simply "feeling age". Contrary to popular belief, you actually do wake up one day and realize you know how to read, to think in another language. It's the same in other fields, too - the same way a mathematician might suddenly make the right connections and solve a long-pursued proof, or a runner might be halfway through a workout and realize he is ready to run a 4-minute mile. This entire idea isn't popular because it implies that this learning is effortless. It isn't effortless - hundreds (thousands, even!) of hours went into making it happen, until one day one's brain or body makes the right connections and puts it all together. I can remember the day I learned I could read real Chinese - this spring, when we were studying the media in class. I woke up, realized I could browse through a couple of articles without too much hassle, and proceeded to spend the evening online, searching for articles in Chinese. I still couldn't read most of them, but it was a big step in such a short time.

I finally figured out my classes here in Taiwan, and have again stepped father than presumed. I'm taking one class called "Thought and Society" (that is at the appropriate level for me) and another class I just switched into that is simply called "Newspapers", which is difficult. The title describes the class - we find, read, and discuss newspapers from around the world in Chinese. It's with three other students who are more advanced than me and one fantastic teacher, so it will be a challenge to overcome. A few days ago I realized what I would have thought another year beyond me - that I could read not just selected, but nearly any paper and derive arguments from it. It's not comfortable yet, but it's there. Although it will be at times exceedingly difficult, this class realizes the last two years of learning. This, to stumble upon a new way of looking at Chinese culture, to see the metaphorical Rome suddenly built, is why we learn.

No, Rome wasn't built in one day, but the citizens inevitably woke up one morning and discovered that it was a pretty great place to live. I woke up this morning thinking not for the first time that Chinese was a pretty great language to study.