我听说你们会讲国语

Those were the first words I said to my cousins when I arrived in Sihanoukville at my third auntie's house. I couldn't speak Khmer, and my cousins couldn't speak 潮州话. English was also a difficult choice as well, they had a hard time understanding American English. But both of my cousins can speak Mandarin. In fact, they are Mandarin teachers!

In January of 2008, it was my first real attempt to use Chinese with someone outside of the US, and with someone whom could not speak good English. If I didn't try, I wouldn't be able to learn anything about my cousins. And honestly, that was the main purpose of my trip to Cambodia. Not only to see where my parents came from, but to see my mom's side of the family. In the United States, it's mostly relatives from my paternal side. I needed to see my mom's side for a sense of closure with family.

My youngest aunt also lived in the area, and I met her daughter. I had to speak Mandarin with her as well. At first it was all very hard because I was only comfortable speaking with my teacher. And even then, my brain still still took some time to process my sentences. It didn't quite feel natural yet. I struggled, and they could tell, but since they were teachers they were quite accommodating. They did everything they could to help me. I was quite encouraged.
I think what was really cool is that I spent this entire trip speaking mostly Chinese languages. English was only used with my sister.

在柬埔寨我跟我的三姨妈说潮州话。而且，我跟我的两个表妹说国语。他们的英文不好，而且我的柬埔寨话非常不好。所以，我只有一个选择：中文。如果我说英文，我只跟我的姐姐说。我觉得我的姐姐的情况比较难。她只能说潮州话和英文。我的小表妹会说英文，但是她的英文不太好。所以，她听我的姐姐说英文的时候，她经常听不明白。

So most of the time, my sister sat there and was on her own. When my brain was up to it, I took any opportunity I could to speak Mandarin. By the time I returned back to the US at the end of January, it was clear that my Mandarin had significantly improved.

How did I know? 我的老师告诉我 :-). From that day on, my enthusiasm for Mandarin jumped dramatically. It did so because I had reached a milestone in my progress. I spent September, October, November, and December constantly struggling just to keep a consistent conversation going with my teacher. Every other word that came out of my mouth always needed some help from her. But this time...it was different.