Wednesday, September 22, 2004
The achievement of Daniel Carruthers -- mastering Mandarin despite having 80% hearing loss -- is a remarkable story of courage and overcoming adversity.
The 29-year-old, who has two degrees and is working on a third, is the winner of the inaugural Quest For Excellence Scholarship from the National Foundation for the Deaf.
Mr Carruthers was born with severe to profound hearing loss, but he did not let it stop him earning a bachelor of commerce degree in marketing in 1997. He then went to Israel for 18 months to do volunteer work at the Bahai World Centre. This was followed by a six-month stint on St Helena, a remote island in the South Atlantic, where he was involved in community projects on conservation, teaching and promoting tourism.
A holiday in China inspired him to move there and learn Mandarin.
The task proved difficult at first, so he came back to New Zealand and enrolled in a beginners' Mandarin paper at Auckland University. He earned an "A" grade and returned to China, enrolling in a university in the north of the country and studying the language for 1 1/2 years. He taught English to pay for his course fees and living expenses.
Mr Carruthers wears hearing aids that improve his hearing but do not allow him to hear all sounds. He said learning Mandarin was particularly challenging because it uses rising and falling tones. "All of them have different meanings." He overcame the challenge of not being able to hear everything by practising saying words as much as he could. "I would just keep trying."
Graduates of Chinese-language courses at the university helped him.
Mr Carruthers also learned to read and write Mandarin.
The 29-year-old, who has two degrees and is working on a third, is the winner of the inaugural Quest For Excellence Scholarship from the National Foundation for the Deaf.
Mr Carruthers was born with severe to profound hearing loss, but he did not let it stop him earning a bachelor of commerce degree in marketing in 1997. He then went to Israel for 18 months to do volunteer work at the Bahai World Centre. This was followed by a six-month stint on St Helena, a remote island in the South Atlantic, where he was involved in community projects on conservation, teaching and promoting tourism.
A holiday in China inspired him to move there and learn Mandarin.
The task proved difficult at first, so he came back to New Zealand and enrolled in a beginners' Mandarin paper at Auckland University. He earned an "A" grade and returned to China, enrolling in a university in the north of the country and studying the language for 1 1/2 years. He taught English to pay for his course fees and living expenses.
Mr Carruthers wears hearing aids that improve his hearing but do not allow him to hear all sounds. He said learning Mandarin was particularly challenging because it uses rising and falling tones. "All of them have different meanings." He overcame the challenge of not being able to hear everything by practising saying words as much as he could. "I would just keep trying."
Graduates of Chinese-language courses at the university helped him.
Mr Carruthers also learned to read and write Mandarin.
