Welcome to the start of my Chinese learning journey!

Why learn Chinese 8 words at a time?

First, I considered how many words I could realistically learn at one time. My goal is to expand my Chinese vocabulary. Each set of words had to be big enough to feel like progress, but not so large that it would take too much time to learn. So I used an entirely unscientific "Goldilocks" method of reasoning:1 to 5 words is too few, 10 too much, but 8 words is just right.

Second, in Chinese culture, the number 8 is regarded as a lucky number. The number 8 is pronounced "bā", which sounds similar to the word fortune, which is pronounced "fā". This is a Chinese themed blog so I thought naming it with a lucky number would boost my chances of learning. Again, note, the relatively arbitrary nature of this rationale! In my Chinese mind, I believe that auspicious numbers will lead to success!

So who am I? And, if I'm Chinese, why do I need to learn Chinese? Don't I know it already?

I'm MK. I am a 30-something Chinese-American living in the Midwest. My history with learning Chinese is a long and fragmented one. To my Chinese parents' credit, they gave me all the resources to learn. In elementary school, I had a tutor and in middle school, I attended a once a week Chinese language school. I picked up some of the fundamentals but was not a good student (read: lazy!) It was not until high school when I was given the option to take Chinese as part of my regular school curriculum that I began to make progress (read: finally motivated to be an A-sian and not a B-sian for the sake of college admission!) . At the end of high school, I was probably at an HSK2 level, but when I went to college the Chinese courses conflicted with my major requirements, and I stopped taking classes.

Fast-forward 15 years, 6 jobs, 3 cities and 1 master's degree later...

A lot of life happened, but I still want to learn Chinese. It's on my bucket-list to be multilingual. I used to think it was too late for me, but I've decided I don't care.

There's no time like the present! Having studied Chinese before I am not starting from zero. I know some of the fundamentals such as pinyin, tones, writing stroke order etc, but it has been so many years that I have forgotten many things. I'll start by increasing my vocabulary and logging it here.

Why make a blog?

I like to multitask. I'm setting out to learn Chinese, but this blogs also functions as a creative outlet for my inner writer and marketer. I enjoy writing and I consider this blog an opportunity to further hone my skills. I also recently acquired my Master of Science in Integrated Marketing Communication. I learned a lot in graduate school, but need a project to test out tactics. Up until now, I've only read about optimizing website design and SEO, but this blog will be my chance to experiment.

Lastly, and most importantly...

I am not a language expert. I am an ordinary late-in-life language learner that wants to jump feet-first back into Chinese. I'll be accumulating vocab lists, notes, and resources into a central repository with the hope that others like me find value in it. 

So there you have it! The origin "story" of 8 Chinese Words. This is the beginning of my journey, and I hope you come along for it!