No More English! (for three months)

I’m gonna be living in Taiwan for the next three months. I’ll be studying Mandarin. I’m super excited, and I’m determined to make the most of it. I want to develop some competence with the language, I want to develop some competence with the culture, and in general I just really want to do a good job. I want to really immerse myself in my experience there, to dedicate my work and my time to it, and that’s going to be reflected in my music listening here.

I’m still going to be listening to music, obviously. An album every day twice through, complete discographies, just the same as I’ve always done. But, all of that music is going to be in Mandarin, or at least it will all be primarily in Mandarin. When I finish my required album for the day, I’m going listen to my general playlist, but only the songs that are in Mandarin. I won’t be starting completely from scratch; I’ve got a (very) small handful of artists I’ve already listened to who write their songs in Mandarin. That said, it’ll still be a big shift from what I’ve been doing the last couple years, so it’s worth noting.

I’m excited, though! I think it’ll be good for my Mandarin, and it will be a good use of my music listening. I plan on asking the people I meet in Taiwan for recommendations and sticking mostly to that. I have a small stockpile of noteworthy artists I pulled from the internet I can start with, hopefully give myself a bit of a cushion while I get those recommendations, but I’m hoping to mostly stay with the recommendations. They’re a good way to get to know people and connect with them, to show an interest in them.

That’s all. Gonna be living in Taiwan for a little while, and while I’m there I’ll be listening to music in Mandarin. It’ll still be a (hopefully) big range of genres, but it’ll all be in Mandarin. Wish me luck.