Topography of language in Book Two

I like the way that the Taiwanese talk. Specifically, I like the way they speak English. Everything is flattened somehow, which is interesting because Taiwanese is a tonal language - when they speak Taiwanese there is a lot of topography. A lot.

I find it especially funny when the Taiwanese try to imitate the way that I speak Mandarin. I know a lot of words and phrases but I get a lot of the tones wrong so when they mimic me, it sounds like rolling hills.

It used to upset me. I used to think that they were making fun of me and I suppose they are. But you have to have a thick skin if you are going to learn a foreign language. You are going to make mistakes and honestly, the more mistakes you make and the earlier you make them, the better off you will be in the long run.

I didn’t really learn that until I had been studying for a couple of years. I didn’t learn that until my vocabulary got to a point where I could just keep speaking and speaking, saying the same thing in different ways until I was understood.