Brain Activity

Previously, I wrote about realizing that almost everything in my life now is tied to what my life was like in China.

Both times I returned from China, what hit me the most stepping off the plane was how little my brain had to work. All the signs were in English. All the conversation was in English. I could understand everything going on around me with only the smallest amount of brain activity.

It was mind-numbing, really. So what did I do to cope? My mindset became that if I’m not learning something, I’m wasting my time.

I notice this in getting caught up with small projects I have at work. I recently edited a program that was done in Russian with an English translator on the set. I had to piece it all together, with a cut every 10 seconds or so. I got this project because no one else in the world wanted to touch it. The host of the program even considered it a lost cause. But I eagerly threw myself into editing it - even studying some Russian at home, and I learned a lot of Russian in the process (mostly things like “for example,” “in the whole world,” and “first of all,” but you have to start somewhere!).

As for outside of work, I don’t even know where to begin. I read continuously. My current projects are learning about economics and the histories of both world wars. I’m not trying to be an expert; I just don’t want to be an idiot.

I mentioned in one of my media posts that I don’t listen to music. That’s a lie! When I’m not listening to NPR, I’m listening to Chinese music. Musically, most of it is horrible stuff. But it’s good for my Chinese. I feel like I’m living in an ABC (American-Born Chinese) household: English in public, Chinese at home. I force myself to think and sometimes write in Chinese. It’s becoming more of a challenge since I haven’t been immersed in so long.

I just miss the learning environment I had in China. As I explained before, my mind was inundated with new information to process all the time. And the Chinese language itself – who could ever learn all the characters and completely master it? Even native Chinese with college degrees don’t know every character. And then there are the traditional characters, ancient characters, and dialects. The dream world of someone who loves to learn, right?