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Dreaming In Chinese: Mandarin Lessons In Life, Love, And Language (2010)

by Deborah Fallows(Favorite Author)

3.51 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0802779131 (ISBN13: 9780802779137)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Walker & Company

review 1: This memoir mirrored many of my own experiences in language learning and expat living. You really don't understand another culture until you've tried to learn its language and understand the workings of its society, even if just going to another Western country. As seen by Fallows, going to the "Eastern" side of the world is a different story altogether. I found her difficulties and successes in speaking Chinese and understanding China to be fascinating, if a bit glossed over. The book is quite short, so maybe there is some disappointment on my part that it was over so quickly. A nice read, even if the conclusions are not terribly surprising to anyone who has ever tried to learn a language or has lived in a foreign land.
review 2: This was a delightful book at ... moretimes; I especially enjoyed the discussions of language. My favorite chapter was Renao, for example, which dug more deeply into Chinese compound words. I have studied Chinese language and Chinese literature in translation for some years and have been to China twice. I still feel I have much to learn. This book reviewed some things, taught me some things, and made me laugh out loud. Still, I was troubled at various points by the over-simplification or generalizations Fallows makes about the Chinese. I have read other books about China (Peter Hessler for example), which really seem to have a less binary, us-and-them, orientation. Plenty of reviewers talk about this elsewhere. less

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