Language!

So I have decided to conquer a language that I'm extremely unfamiliar with.  I chose Chinese.  This is  a language that at one time my sister could speak and read but a Chinese language learner will never have the correct dialect.  I have borrowed some of her books that were in Chinese.  I tried to learn some characters so that I would become more familiar with the shapes and what they meant.  This did not help at all.  The smallest addition or change from the initial shape was a whole different word or meaning.  It was difficult to remember which way to turn the pages and to red up and down verses left to right.  This is probably one of the hardest languages I could have chosen due to its complete difference from my native language.  There is not any hope for me to train myself to read Mandarin. 

If there was a key or something that I could look at to know what each character meant that would help.  But each shape is a phrase and means something different depending on the words around it.  I also feel that if there were some pictures that went along with what I was reading it might help me to use clues to solve my reading.  This activity really helped me to realize that patience is necessary for all learners  of any language.  Also it is  important to provide many opportunities to use the native language while learning the new one.  I found myself trying to relate to the context of the story and comprehension really got messed up when I couldn't relate to the topic.