Getting into the routine of class and study, time just seems to whiz by here. I think I have gotten used to the heavy study load and created a routine to handle it all that works for me. Next week I have my mid-terms for my classes and I thought it would be a good time to assess my progress and my various classes.
In a previous entry I talked about my struggles with “the linguistic straightjacket.” Though it remains, significant progress has come in spurts where, at particular moments, my increased fluency shines through. Last Wednesday night was a particularly special breakthrough moment for me. I was in our dorm kitchen eating some left over food when I got talking to a Chinese girl cooking dinner. Somehow a simple conversation about Chinese food and her hometown turned into a discussion about American history (Lincoln and the civil war) and current American politics. I then found myself telling her about Bernie Sanders and his political platform. In particular I told her about his desire to reduce college tuition and student loan debt which she found really interesting (she wants to attend an American university for graduate school). Though I didn’t always know the exact words to describe certain things, what I could say came out in a startlingly rapid, fluid fashion. Something just clicked and it just came streaming out. The hesitancy that has often plagued my Mandarin in the past was gone. After the conversation was over, a sense of pride and accomplishment washed over me. For the first time I could really see major progress in my Mandarin outside of the class. I had an impromptu, meaningful conversation in Mandarin about topics that interested me.
At the same time, there are certain social situations where I still stumble and feel tongue tied in Mandarin. This was especially clear when I learned, for the first time, to play Mahjong this past Saturday night . Learning through Mandarin, I felt dumbfounded trying to talk about the different rules and aspects of the game. I just didn’t know the right vocabulary for that situation. At the same time, the other Chinese people I played with tried to explain the game and give me guidance in rapid fire Mandarin. As a result, I muddled my way through Mahjong slowly picking up facets of the game by the end with plenty of assistance along the way (i.e. people actually making game playing decisions for me).
So while I have significantly loosened the “linguistic straightjacket” with heightened fluency, the constraints it places on me in certain situations remains. I am nonetheless very satisfied with the progress I have made and feel like I have turned a corner in terms of my Mandarin proficiency.
With midterms beginning tomorrow, I wanted to share my thoughts about my courses so far (aside from my research course which I already wrote about):
In a previous entry I talked about my struggles with “the linguistic straightjacket.” Though it remains, significant progress has come in spurts where, at particular moments, my increased fluency shines through. Last Wednesday night was a particularly special breakthrough moment for me. I was in our dorm kitchen eating some left over food when I got talking to a Chinese girl cooking dinner. Somehow a simple conversation about Chinese food and her hometown turned into a discussion about American history (Lincoln and the civil war) and current American politics. I then found myself telling her about Bernie Sanders and his political platform. In particular I told her about his desire to reduce college tuition and student loan debt which she found really interesting (she wants to attend an American university for graduate school). Though I didn’t always know the exact words to describe certain things, what I could say came out in a startlingly rapid, fluid fashion. Something just clicked and it just came streaming out. The hesitancy that has often plagued my Mandarin in the past was gone. After the conversation was over, a sense of pride and accomplishment washed over me. For the first time I could really see major progress in my Mandarin outside of the class. I had an impromptu, meaningful conversation in Mandarin about topics that interested me.
At the same time, there are certain social situations where I still stumble and feel tongue tied in Mandarin. This was especially clear when I learned, for the first time, to play Mahjong this past Saturday night . Learning through Mandarin, I felt dumbfounded trying to talk about the different rules and aspects of the game. I just didn’t know the right vocabulary for that situation. At the same time, the other Chinese people I played with tried to explain the game and give me guidance in rapid fire Mandarin. As a result, I muddled my way through Mahjong slowly picking up facets of the game by the end with plenty of assistance along the way (i.e. people actually making game playing decisions for me).
So while I have significantly loosened the “linguistic straightjacket” with heightened fluency, the constraints it places on me in certain situations remains. I am nonetheless very satisfied with the progress I have made and feel like I have turned a corner in terms of my Mandarin proficiency.
With midterms beginning tomorrow, I wanted to share my thoughts about my courses so far (aside from my research course which I already wrote about):
- Oral conversation-
- This is probably my most enjoyable class. Every class is engaging as the teacher is fun and there is good chemistry between her and the students in the class. We’re always joking around and laughing during the class. The teacher has a calm, relaxed demeanor and balances formal instruction with off the cuff discussion and related cultural insight and information.
- Each week we often prepare individual presentations as well as group performances to practice using our vocabulary and grammar.
- The amount of vocabulary we have to learn in that class can be overwhelming. Often we have to study 25-30 new words and phrases for each class which we are quizzed on through a dictation (so I have to practice and memorize writing out the words and phrases). So it can be tough keeping up with that load of vocabulary (especially learning to remember how to write the characters by memory) but we practice using many of them in class so much that I learn them pretty well. Also some of the phrases and grammar we learn to not be very useful or that applicable outside of the class (like a word we learned that means “to be fated to mourn the death of one’s husband’s death”).
- Newspaper reading-
- Though I like the content of this course (especially learning about words and phrases to talk about current events) and the teacher who explains vocabulary and grammar structure clearly and effectively, the atmosphere of the class can be somewhat rigid. Often we are just reciting set phrases she gives us on flashcards or that we come up with ourselves to practice new vocabulary, grammar and language structure. There is little space for open, in-class discussion about the topics we are reading.
- Each class two of students individually gives an oral summary of a news story he/she read and writes new related vocabulary from the story on the blackboard. This can be interesting based on the story my classmates choose but also difficult because newspaper language is also advanced. I’ve given a report about a variety of stories including the development of high speed rail in China, increasing foreign investment in North Korea (which I did not know at all), and China’s new national carbon emission trade market. I usually take my stories from a local Chinese newspaper that our program provides students in our study room.
- The language structure we learn is much more formal and written based so outside the class in social situations you can’t really use it. This makes it hard to practice using the language so that you can learn it better.
- One on two
- Each class I and another classmate meet with a teacher to practice our pronunciation and tones as well as language for every day use (like buying fruit at the market and purchasing plane tickets). I find this class frustrating at times. We often have to repeat words, phrases and sentences a number of times until the teacher finds our tones satisfactory. My pronunciation is far from completely “perfect” or “standard” (as Chinese like to say) but I have practiced my tones well before and already feel like I could confidently use them to effectively communicate with others. The constant repetition often feels like nit-picking over minor mistakes which makes me feel more self-conscious and hesitant about my pronunciation and tones. The honest truth about Mandarin which other Chinese will tell you too, even if all your tones are not perfect, depending on the context, people will still understand you. Chinese people themselves, since many speak a local dialect in addition to Mandarin, don’t always have “standard” tones and pronunciation either. So the overly emphasis of “standard” pronunciation seems to be a somewhat excessive.
- The teacher is nice though at times she laughs when you make a mistake (which is a huge no-no for language instructors, at least in the West).
- We also have to memorize a dialogue for each session (we have 4 sessions each week) which can be tiring as well. Though learning dialogues has helped my Chinese tremendously in the past, it can be tiring having to do it on an almost daily basis. They have gotten pretty long too.