Why I learn: the things we do for love
Read about how learning Mandarin (and a little bit of boba) built and boosts a family.
Our Why I Learn series features stories from real people about why they decided to learn a new language and how language learning has impacted their lives for the better. Are you learning a language? We’d love to hear your story! Submit it here.
By Brooke Cox
I have always had a deep interest in languages of all sorts, starting with Spanish.
My mother is of Native Mexican and Spanish descent, and my father is British and French. They are both fluent in Spanish, but they didn’t teach me much. I learned Spanish by immersing myself in Spanish television and music (to this day, I still listen to RBD religiously).
I first started learning Mandarin when I began dating my boyfriend, Randy. Randy owns a boba chain, and we actually met on the boba truck. I was with some friends at Identity Music Festival in Plano, Texas, and he had just started his first food truck. I was complaining that I wasn’t a fan of boba. But he gave me some samples, and I was hooked. He gave me his card before I walked off and told me to like them on Facebook, and he eventually reached out to me. After one date, we really hit it off, and the rest is history.
His grandparents in Taiwan were completely taken aback when I was able to say hello.
He was born here in Dallas, but his whole family is from Taiwan, and he is fluent like they are. I’ve always had a lot of respect for Chinese culture, but being around someone I could practice the language with made it a no-brainer. I bombard him with questions, and he’s really great at explaining everything to me.
I’m very fortunate to have such an awesome teacher. But my biggest inspiration, believe it or not, is music. Because Mandarin is tonal, it isn’t always easy to decipher the lyrics, but I get really hyped up by my favorite Taiwanese artists like S.H.E. and Jay Chou, just to name a couple.
I came into the relationship with a pretty blank slate, culturally. I never really felt any sense of connection to the standard American holidays, food, or other cultural aspects, so when I met Randy and saw their traditions and how wonderful his family is, I fell in love with all of it immediately.
Randy first took me took me to Taiwan in 2016, and we went again in 2017. We are going this year in December to celebrate his grandma’s 90th birthday. Meeting his family was so fun, because the first time I met them, I didn’t know a thing besides “hello,” “thank you,” and “goodbye.” His grandparents were completely taken aback when I was able say those things. And the second time we went, I was expecting, and they treated me like a queen. They were so sweet and hospitable. By that time, I could at least listen in during dinner and nod or laugh at relevant times.
Me knowing Mandarin brings us even closer together because he is very proud of his heritage and loves that I am so eager to actively engage with it. His family loves that I embrace their culture, and it’s fostered a unique closeness between us.
We recently had a child as well, and it’s our top priority that he grows up connected to his Chinese heritage. Our son will definitely be bilingual if our efforts are successful. Randy only speaks to him in Mandarin, and he visits his grandparents several times a week, where he is immersed in the language as well. At 18 months, he will be old enough to start classes at a Chinese school, so we look forward to him learning about and embracing his culture.
Now, I operate the boba chain and speak to a lot of Taiwanese people, and once I’m able to speak Mandarin more fluently, I’ll be able to help keep up with trends and find reputable dealers back in Taiwan. I’m there nearly every day right now, and we’re opening our second brick and mortar location in a few weeks, so our schedule has been a little crazier than usual.
Eventually, we would like to move to Taiwan so our son can be immersed in the language, and Taipei is definitely more enjoyable if you are able to speak the language. It will also help with business connections, since many of our products and partners are from Taiwan. It’s definitely a long ways off, but if I somehow managed to become completely fluent, I’d love to be able to live and work from home there.
For all of these reasons and more, I study Mandarin.
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