Just finished Deborah Fallows book, Dreaming in Chinese: Mandarin Lessons in Life, Love and Language. Fallows earned a degree in Linguistics and so approached her time living in China, naturally, from the vantage point of language. The book wasn’t stuffy or scientific, in fact it read like a combination of travel narrative and personal essay.

Fallows systematically guides the reader through her three years in China, related to her three year study of Mandarin. She offers up her own struggle with the language with real-time observations and great first-hand accounts.

As for whether or not she found herself Dreaming in Chinese (a question I had upon entering the book) she never made any mention of the fact. Its a thing when you find yourself dreaming in another language. I have spoken Mandarin many times in my dreams. However, a few night ago while in a dream, I sat at a slot machine winning mountains of quarters. Finally, when I was literally, pregnant with quarters I looked around for a cashier. I had to approach a stranger who only spoke French and instead of dzai nar I had to do something like ou est…cashier etc. I will save the reader the details of the hairy security check that followed!

All in all, if your in love with language, read this book. Its short, easy to read, and who knows you might find yourself speaking in some new tongue in the middle of night at some strange etherial casino.