Learning Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan

Learning a language is difficult. It happens in stages. It is a gradual process that sometimes kills. I am at a frustrating point in learning Mandarin. I started studying Mandarin over a year ago. I took one class and then stopped, due to certain circumstances and the end of my semester. I gained a basic knowledge of Mandarin in my class, the grammar structure and a very small, limited vocabulary. This is an extremely frustrating point to get over. I started practicing the language again this summer. The material that I had previously learned came back to me quickly, but I am finding it hard to now progress pass that point.

I know some basic phrases that seem helpful, but can also be a burden. A woman who works at the dorms where I am staying tries to communicate with me. She seems very friendly and sweet and I wish I could tell her that. She asks me a lot of questions in Chinese and I wish I could understand her. I can’t. I try, but I can’t. I do know enough Mandarin to tell her that I do not understand. I wish I didn’t know how to say this. By telling her in Mandarin that I don’t understand, I am also ultimately telling her that I do speak some Mandarin. I feel like she thinks, can I just not understand her or what? It makes me feel like I am acting arrogantly. Like, she may think I just do not want to talk to her, maybe she thinks I don’t want to talk to her because she is Taiwanese or a maid or maybe her Mandarin isn’t good and she has a country accent.

I don’t want her to think this. I wish I could tell her all of this. I do not want to be culturally insensitive. I can see why people may view foreigners in a negative light. It is understandable.
Now I feel very shy when she is around, which also may be interpreted as being arrogant. I don’t know what to do in this situation. I think if I do not understand someone from now on it may be better to just shake my head rather than tell them in Mandarin that I do not understand. I don’t know.

Another problem I am having is that I know how to ask a lot of questions in Mandarin. I can ask how much something costs, if a store has something I want, or ask directions. My problem is that I cannot understand the answer. Particularly when I ask for directions, this is frustrating. They can say the directions all they want, but I will not understand. I just get confused and realized I shouldn’t have asked for directions in the first place.

I need to practice some more phrases in Mandarin and learn some more useful vocabulary. Hopefully I can break out of this stage of learning the language, and move on.