M A N D A R I N S U P E R S T A R
M A N D A R I N S U P E R S T A R
M A N D A R I N S U P E R S T A R
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Oliver Blaom
ACG Parnell
When did you start learning Chinese and what inspired you to take up the language?
I began learning Chinese at the start of Year 9. I chose Chinese because I wanted to become bilingual and experience life in China. With so many Chinese speakers not only world wide but also in my community, it was an easy decision.
Tell us about your Chinese language learning journey. What has been the most unexpected or rewarding part of the experience?
One very rewarding part of my language learning journey is being able to access a wider variety of information sources that would otherwise be inaccessible due to the language barrier, such as tutorial videos or news articles written in Chinese. I love exploring these sources—it really helps improve my Chinese.
What opportunities have opened up for you as a result of your Chinese-speaking ability?
I’ve had the opportunity to travel to Wellington as an ambassador for New Zealand Chinese Language Week, which is a great honour. I’ve also been invited to participate in the International Chinese Bridge Competition in Beijing and Tianjin, where I’ll meet and compete with other Chinese learners from around the world. Both of these opportunities were unexpected, and I never anticipated such opportunities when I started learning.
Why do you think other New Zealanders should learn Chinese?
I think other New Zealanders should learn Mandarin because of the large and increasing population of Chinese speakers in New Zealand, and also world wide. Mandarin has the most native speakers and the second largest total speaker count in the world (after English). Mandarin is also a beautiful language with a rich history, and provides good job opportunities both domestically and internationally.
Do you have any tips for anyone thinking about taking up Chinese?
I recommend diversifying your learning methods. Different approaches often complement each other—for example reading articles can help solidify vocabulary from word lists, podcasts can improve conversational skills, and of course, while speaking Chinese can be scary, it’s important for building confidence and ‘thinking in Chinese’.
Another tip is to learn the characters. Learning characters is absolutely essential for progressing past a beginner level as Chinese has many homophones, and it provides a visualisation for each word which is helpful for recall.
Do you have a favourite Chinese word or expression? Why do you like it?
Although hard to choose, I think my favourite Chinese expression is 螽蟁蟊蠹 (read zhōng wén máo dù). It refers to people who are harmful or have bad intentions. It’s interesting because all 4 characters contain two of the radical 虫（insect, chóng)!
The first character “螽” means grasshopper, known for damaging crops.
The second character “蟁” is a variant of “蚊”, meaning mosquito.
The third character “蟊” refers to a classification of insects that often eat crop seedlings.
The fourth character “蠹” is a variant of “螙”, a compound idiograph (会意字). This means that the meaning of the character can be roughly understood through the meaning of the character’s components. In this case, “木” (wood) and two “虫” (insect) refer to insects that eat wood.
All of these animals are classified in agriculture as 害虫 (harmful insects/pests).
Interestingly, the word “虫” is sometimes written as “蟲” in Traditional Chinese.