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In today’s episode of the I’m Learning Mandarin podcast I tell a story in Chinese about bullying and language learning, based on personal experience. As usual, you can read the Chinese transcript below with the English translation underneath.
As I’ve mentioned previously, I’ll be posting these shorter Chinese episodes every two weeks, in between the longer interviews with Mandarin scholars, learners, and experts.
One of the things I’ve found is that setting yourself a goal to record and post podcasts speaking Chinese is a brilliant way to improve your speaking skills. When you know other people are going to hear your recording it pushes you to work harder on your delivery!
So that’s why I’ve decided to open up the podcast to listeners who are interested in recording and producing your own short monologues in Chinese. If you’re at an intermediate to advanced level and would like to have a go at recording an episode in Chinese please get in touch by emailing info[at]peakmandarin[dot]com.
You’ll be supported through the process of developing your idea as well as recording and producing an episode in Chinese to be published on I’m Learning Mandarin.
Finally, before you listen to the podcast, I recommend installing the browser plugin Zhongwen Chinese-English Dictionary (available on Firefox and Chrome) so you can look up any characters or words you don’t know by hovering over them.
Now on to the episode!
Chinese Transcript
哈喽，大家好，欢迎回到我在学中文播客。今天我想谈的话题，就是我比较少听别人讲的一个话题。那就是，霸凌。
霸凌这个词，它的来源是英文的Bullying。中文的话你也可以用欺负。我觉得大多数人都有自己关于霸凌的故事。要么你被欺负过要么你欺负过别人。 尤其是小时候，在小学或者高中的时候，至少在英国的话，这样的行为挺常见。
但今天的故事不是我小时候发生的而是长大之后发生的。 还有这个故事跟我学中文的经验有关系。因为欺负我的人也在学中文。。。
这件事是大概两年前发生的。 那个时候我很认真地学习中文， 每天都会比较早起床，花两三个小时学中文，然后下班后在华两三个小时学中文。所以听众们可以想象我那时候付出了多大的努力。
那个时候我最注重的方面就是发音和声调。 我每次上课的时候我都会让老师纠正我的每个错误。然后用回引发来模仿正确的发音。
有一天我在油管上看到了一个视频。这个视频里头一个外国人在采访另外一个外国人。 两个学生都在谈学中文的事。那个接受采访的外国人的中文真的超级厉害，他好像曾经参加过汉语桥那样的讲中文比赛。 真的是发音厉害到完全听不出来是一个外国人的程度。
看完视频之后，那个人成了我的偶像。我很佩服他，也很想把我的发音练到跟他一样好的水平。接下来的几个月我就继续付出很大的努力来练习我的发音。
然后真巧几个月后，我认识了一个中文学生，他跟我说那个接受采访的偶像居然是他的朋友，而且可以把他介绍给我或者给我他的微信号。我就用微信给他发了一条消息，邀请他参加我每个周日都举办的一个语言交换活动。就是线上的活动。
参加那个活动的人一般都是初学者，所以我觉得对他们来说这是一个非常难得的机会，可以去问他关于学中文的问题。然后因为他是我的偶像，所以我也很好奇想知道他是怎么学会中文的。
但在这个活动中我感觉他的态度有点不对劲。整个活动中他都没笑，还有，说实话，他的表情显得不太友好。有点傲慢的感觉。
起初我们都用英文讲话。 但过了半个小时我们开始用中文。我就用中文问他：你用什么方法来学会中文的发音和声调。但是他没有回答我的问题，而是用很残忍的口气来批评我的中文发音说： 你的中文发音不够好，很差。我听过你最近露的那个播客，能听出你的发音很多地方不对。
我从他的口气能感觉到他不想帮我而是想嘲笑我， 欺负我。让大家知道他的中文比我好多了。那个时候我真的哑口无言，没有什么好说的，真的不知道该说什么。还有因为其他学生都是初学者所以他们没有完全听懂他在说什么。
活动结束后我就把他拉黑了，再也没有跟他联络。谁都不喜欢被别人欺负的感觉，更别说被你的偶像屈服的感觉。
所以那个时候我觉得非常的沮丧。但是两年后， 回头看这件事的时候，我觉得那个人真的太可怜了吧。 他应该是因为什么原因才想欺负别的学生。 但这才是他的问题，而不是我的问题。
我觉得如果真的想帮别人提高他们的中文水平的话，你完全可以去给他们一些建议或者帮他们纠错。但如果你的目标是让大家都知道你是最好的中文学生，你的中文最厉害，这就不对了。
个人的看法，我觉得 你学任何一门外语的时候， 你不可以把这门外语当作一种比赛。你可以把现在的自己跟过去的自己做比较。但你要是跟别人比的话，这有什么意义呢？ 这完全没有意义！
好的，我们说的这里。如果你喜欢我的内容的话，你可以给我一个review。 你也可以用苹果软件，谷谷歌软件或Spotify 订阅我的播客。
下次再见！
English Transcript
Hello everyone, welcome back to the I’m Learning Mandarin podcast. Today, I want to talk about a topic that I haven’t heard many people discuss. That is, bullying. The word “霸凌” comes from the English “Bullying”. In Chinese, you can also use “欺负”.
I think most people have their own stories about bullying. Either you’ve been bullied or you’ve bullied others. Especially when you’re young, in primary school or high school, at least in the UK, bullying behaviour is quite common.
But today’s story is not about my childhood but about something I experienced as an adult. And this story is related to my experience of learning Chinese. Because the person who bullied me was also learning Chinese.
This incident happened about two years ago. At that time, I was studying Chinese very seriously. I would wake up early every day, spend two to three hours studying Chinese, and then spend another two to three hours studying Chinese after work. So listeners can imagine how much effort I was putting into it at that time.
The aspect I focused on the most at that time was pronunciation and tones. Every time I had a lesson, I’d ask the teacher to correct every mistake I made. And then I would imitate the correct pronunciation.
Then one day I watched a video on YouTube. In the video, a foreigner was interviewing another foreigner and both students were talking about learning Chinese. The person being interviewed was extremely good at Chinese; he’d previously participated in elite Chinese-speaking competitions like the Chinese Bridge. His pronunciation was so good you couldn’t even tell he was a foreigner.
After watching the video, that person became my idol. I admired him a lot and wanted to practice my pronunciation to reach his level. So over the next few months, I continued to put a lot of effort into practicing my pronunciation.
Then, by coincidence, a few months later, I met a Chinese student who told me that the guy in the video was actually his friend, and he could introduce him to me or give me his WeChat ID.
So I sent him a message on WeChat, inviting him to join a language exchange event I held every Sunday, which was an online video call. The people who participated in that event were generally beginners, so I thought it would be a great opportunity for them to ask him questions about learning Chinese. And since he was my idol, I was also curious about how he learned Chinese.
But during the meeting, I felt that his attitude was a bit off. Throughout the session, he didn’t smile, and to be honest, his expression seemed quite unfriendly and pretty arrogant.
At first, we spoke English. But after half an hour, we started speaking Chinese. I asked him in Chinese: “What methods did you use to learn Chinese pronunciation and tones?” But instead of answering my question, he criticized my Chinese pronunciation in a very cruel tone, saying, “Your Chinese pronunciation is not good enough, it’s very poor. I listened to your recent podcast and could hear many mistakes in your pronunciation.”
From his tone, I could sense he didn’t want to help me but wanted to mock me, bully me, and let everyone know that his Chinese was much better than mine. At that time, I was truly speechless, didn’t know what to say, and felt embarrassed. The other students were beginners, so they didn’t fully understand what he was saying.
After the activity ended, I blocked him and never contacted him again. No one likes the feeling of being bullied, let alone being bullied by your idol!
So at that time, I felt very depressed. But two years later, looking back on this incident, I feel that guy was really pathetic. I’m sure he had his own reasons to want to bully other students. But that’s his problem, not mine.
I think if you really want to help others improve their Chinese level, you should give them some advice or help them correct their mistakes. But if your goal is to let everyone know that you are the best Chinese student, that your Chinese is the best, then that’s not right.
In my opinion, when you learn any foreign language, you shouldn’t treat it as a competition. You can compare yourself now with your past self. But what’s the point of comparing yourself with others? It’s completely meaningless.
Alright, we’ll stop here. If you like my content, please give me a review. You can also subscribe to my podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Spotify.
See you next time!