{"id":3121,"date":"2025-09-19T17:22:39","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T21:22:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/llrc\/?post_type=cu_people&p=3121"},"modified":"2025-09-19T17:23:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T21:23:08","slug":"dallas-waldie","status":"publish","type":"cu_people","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/llrc\/people\/dallas-waldie\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Waldie"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Current Occupation:<\/strong> Digital Marketing Project Manager
Current Location:<\/strong> San Diego, California
Program:<\/strong> BIB\/13<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notable Quotable<\/h2>\n\n\n
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“…my language ability is still one of the most unique skills I have, and always a great conversation starter (sometimes literally, in Chinese). A second language expands your personality and way of thinking. It\u2019s one of my proudest accomplishments to be bilingual in such a difficult language.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Why did you choose this particular language?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I originally wanted to learn Spanish, and even took a semester in grade 12 of high school. However, the economic recession in 2008 when I started set Spain on a downward spiral, whereas China was on the incline. My parents and grandparents encouraged me to study Mandarin for better prospects, and gave me the encouragement I needed to take on this extremely difficult language. I wouldn\u2019t have done it without them, but I\u2019m so glad I did. These days I read books and write songs in Mandarin (and learn Spanish on Duolingo).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tell us about your learning experience<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Writing Mandarin Chinese is one of the most difficult things I\u2019ve ever learned. Professor Luo told us to repeat each character for at least 2-4 full lines in our notebooks everyday. I spent hours doing this, and it really is the only way to learn how to write. When I later went to Taiwan to further my studies, this habit served me well, and I learned quickly. 

I loved writing songs and participating in song competitions. I also did a speech competition and ended up at the national level who studying in Taipei! I believe my topic was: difficult\/interesting Chinese characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Travel as part of your degree<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I went to Shanghai as part of my exchange. It was amazing. It\u2019s the biggest city I\u2019ve ever lived in, and it gave me the confidence to go anywhere after that. 10\/10 recommend an exchange, no matter where you go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n How have you used the language since graduating?\n <\/h2>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n \n\n

I opened an entertainment business in Taiwan, became somewhat of rapping\/MC\/host celebrity in Taiwan. I got to host a travel show in Mandarin in Thailand. I founded the world’s first Chinese a capella rap battle league which now has over 22 million views on YouTube. In Canada, I helped get the Jade Music Festival off the ground, a festival that aims to make Vancouver the Chinese-language music capital of the West.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/div>\n\n

<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

Why study a second or additional language?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While I don\u2019t use my language in my work currently, my language ability is still one of the most unique skills I have, and always a great conversation starter (sometimes literally, in Chinese). A second language expands your personality and way of thinking. It\u2019s one of my proudest accomplishments to be bilingual in such a difficult language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your personal experience of studying a language at university<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My Chinese professor, Professor Luo, was my favourite. The students in my language course were also some of my best university friends since we shared the experience of learning and traveling . The one thing that is true, especially for a difficult language like Chinese, you need to go abroad to master it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":259,"featured_media":3122,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"cu_people_first_name":"Dallas","cu_people_last_name":"Waldie","cu_people_initials":"DW","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_people_type":[44,65],"cu_people_expertise":[],"class_list":["post-3121","cu_people","type-cu_people","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_people_type-alumni","cu_people_type-mandarin-chinese-alumni"],"acf":{"cu_people_job_title":"","cu_people_degree":"","cu_building":"","cu_people_office_num":"","cu_people_pronoun":"","cu_people_designation":"","cu_people_email":"","cu_people_phone":"","cu_people_phone_ext":"","cu_people_linkedin":"","cu_people_bluesky":"","cu_people_twitter":"","cu_people_instagram":"","cu_people_facebook":"","cu_people_website":"","cu_people_orcid":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/llrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people\/3121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/llrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/llrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_people"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/llrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/llrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people\/3121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3124,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/llrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people\/3121\/revisions\/3124"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/llrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/llrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_people_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/llrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people_type?post=3121"},{"taxonomy":"cu_people_expertise","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/llrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people_expertise?post=3121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}