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Chinese – back to one’s rootsand beyondSandy Shibata, Assistant to the Director inthe Field Operations and Technical CooperationDivision of the Office of the HighCommissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR),went on mission to China in 2001 and itchanged her life. She had grown up in theUnited States at a time when China wasRed, communist, and she never dreamedshe would travel there. She was so takenwith the people and the country she discoveredthat she decided on the spot to learnChinese.Shibata, of Japanese descent, initiallythought learning Chinese would help herget back to her linguistic roots; some Japanesecharacters originated in Chinese. However,things were not as straightforward asshe had anticipated. Chinese proved to bevery different acoustically from the Japaneseshe had heard as a child though, luckily,the grammar was not too difficult. The bigchallenge was to learn the characters – nowthat everyone uses computers, recognitionrather than production is the norm. Inspiredby the summer programme (sponsoredjointly by the Chinese Government and theUN) she followed at Nanjing University twosummers ago; she is now in Level 7 at Bocage.She hopes to return to China, “a veryexciting place at the moment”, for furtherstudy in summer 2010.discussed the China /Africa connection withthe founder), and seeing the many friendsthat studying Chinese has brought her.Sandy, who studied French and Spanish inher youth, considers language-learning tobe a gift and has some realistic advice forthose tempted to study this challenging language:persevere; if you lose motivation,take a break if you have to but come backto class, find people to practise with (shealways goes to the same check-out in her localsupermarket because the cashier is Chineseand they chat and she even admits toSTOLLfollowing Chinese-speaking people aroundin stores to listen to what they are saying!),spend time in the country and watch Chinesemovies. ❚For further information on the languagecourses offered at Bocage, consult the StaffDevelopment and Learning Section (SDLS)website http://learning.unog.ch/Design, ergonomie, écologie…pour une nouvelle culture émotionnelle du bureauSiège OPEN-MIND dès CHF HT 970.– Siège OPEN-UP dès CHF HT 1397.–Sandy dreams of using Chinese more extensivelyin her work and hopes that OH-CHR’s technical cooperation programmewith China will be renewed. For the timebeing, at work, she contents herself withgreeting visitors and making small talk withtelephone contacts. Outside of work it’s adifferent story. Chinese has made her “verybusy” – both studying the language, networking(a recent MYC4 www.myc4.com)presentation on micro-finance at which sheSiège visiteurs / conférence NETWIN dès CHF HT 467.–Siège CROSSLINE dès CHF HT 1055.–11 – UN Special – Décembre 2009