Best Gift

The 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, who issue the Emancipation Proclamation abolishing slavery once said, "My Best Friend is a person who will give me a book I have not read". Of all the gifts that I have received from friends and relatives this year, I treasure the gift that I received yesterday the most. It is a Chinese book with easy to follow stories. My desire to read Chinese and study the language has rekindled with this valuable gift. 
 

Chinese reader for 5th grade

The book is actually designed for young Chinese national staying overseas and fitting for a fifth grade level. I feel this level is perfect for me. It is not too hard, and nor too easy. Even without assistance at hand, I can still move along the stories and chapters with good comprehension. Many of the words, expressions and sentence are refreshing my past memory of studying Chinese.  The fact is I have studied Chinese up to middle school. Even though it was not the subject I have excelled, still my standard of the language is in par with mediocre Tibetan students or even little better. But after leaving Tibet in early 1990s, I hardly have a chance to brush up my Chinese language skill. My schooling in Tibetan refugee camp and later in college  in India deprived me the opportunity of pursuing Chinese studies.  Consequently what little I know have been faded away and lay dormant owing to lack of its usage.  As the saying goes, use it or lose it. So my competence in Chinese language has not only deteriorated, it has reached to verge of extinction or total self annihilation. 

Thanks to my work at RFA, my interest, as well as the language demand coupled with plenty of exposure to Chinese culture, has reignited my yearning to improve the language and an opportunity arrived to revive it. 

As  I have firmly established the worthiness of studying this language in the U.S. then I have not given it up.  Despite of tremendous challenges and time constraint and resources availability, I have slowly and steadily aimed to improve the language through all possible means in my daily life. 

The social network sites, and all the language apps, including Chinese dictionary is a added advantage for a language learner ardent like me.    So far I have been trying to have a routine study of the language. But my enthusiasm and passion did not march with the existing learning environment and resources availability.  My progress was slow and the frequency of the effort and time spent on the study was not consistent and regular.  Therefore, my language skill in Chinese mandarin remains stagnant and not to my satisfaction. 

Fortunately, this book a friend  brought me is the perfect launching pad for me to study the language on a systematic and consistent way.  At a summer reading class program for my daughter Kunsal, the teacher emphasized  on the importance of choosing books that fits with the kid's level of understanding and ability. I totally agree with that insights on effective reading and learning. So this book that my friend gifted fits me  like a glove . I immediately fell in love with it and after reading several chapters and doing all exercises, I couldn’t believe what I will be able to achieve with so much excitement and love for it. 
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This book opens the gateway for my successful communication and comprehension of ancient language and language that is rich and beautiful and spoke by one fourth of the world population. 

 I wholeheartedly appreciate the thoughtfulness of my friend for picking such a treasure, and particularly the sincere motivation to help with my mandarin studies, which  has deeply moved me. 

The simple reason for my interest in Chinese language is that I have a good foundation, that the language is in demand and it makes me more marketable in the world of work, and that  knowing the language is the best way to know the culture and mind set of the Chinese people. Besides it is the language by which a true Tibetan Chinese dialogue would be possible.

With this auspicious gift of wonderfully illustrated reader friendly Chinese text book of my level, I am committing and pledging to study hard, without any excuses. This is a god given opportunity to reinvigorating my studies of Chinese language with a strong conviction that I can do it. After all, the best way to repay my best friend who gift me this book that I have never come across  is to maximize its uses to further improve my proficiency in the language.