Advertisement
Published: June 23rd 2017
Dinner with New Friends!
Went to dinner with my roommate, another CLS student, and his roommate on one of the first nights here. We ate something that strongly resembled hotpot.Hey everyone!
好久不見！(hǎojiǔ bùjiàn — long time no see!)
Well, it’s been a couple of years since I studied abroad, and I’ve officially graduated from college. I’m a real person now! Actually, I’m not sure how I feel about that part. Like a real person job? Yikes. For that reason, I’m planning on taking a year or two to teach English (hopefully in South Korea). I still don’t have a job, but hopefully that will change in the next month or so.
Anyways, as many of you already know, I am currently in Xi’an, China, on an intensive study abroad program. I am studying through the Critical Language Scholarship, which is funded by the US Department of State*. I arrived in Xi’an last Friday, and have now officially completed my first week of classes. In addition, we had our first exam this morning, so one exam down, six more to go, woo….
I tested into the second highest class level here, which is both good and bad, so far. Of course, it’s nice to see that all of my hard work is paying off, and truthfully I’m kind of shell-shocked, because I feel like all of my
Exploring with the Language Partner
We're to meet at least twice a week for 1.5 hours. This last time, we ended up just walking and talking for two hours, and found this cool statue of one of China's previous emperors. classmates have very high levels of Chinese, so it’s an honor to be in a class with so many smart people. And I do think the class is suitable for me, because the work isn’t too difficult, level-wise. On the other hand, we are going through the textbook really quickly, because it is a higher level, and as a result, we have a lot of homework every night. The Chinese teaching method is such that students are more or less expected to teach themselves the new words and grammar, and class time is more for review than actual teaching. While I understand the philosophy behind this teaching method, I’ve found that I definitely don’t learn this way, and it’s really difficult for me to find the motivation to teach myself 40-60 new words a night after an hour or two of homework (and classes from 9-2:30/4), in addition to preparing for the next day’s classes. I’m also quite slow at learning vocabulary, so that definitely doesn’t make it any easier to find motivation!
Aside from the homework load (which hopefully will be lighter this next week, as the teachers have definitely caught on that we all feel like we
More Dinner, More Friends!
Had dinner with my roommate, another CLS friend, and her language partner. We ate dumplings and I was very happy :P are drowning in work), classes are going well.
We start the day by going through the new grammar, and practicing pronunciation and sentence structures. After that, we drill the new grammar for the next hour. The third class of the day is more conversational, and we have a different teacher who comes in and leads a discussion about our current textbook topic (which so far have been “Changes to China’s Healthcare System,” and “Global Warming”). After lunch, our fourth class of the day is an elective class, which are intended to be more about culture, rather than focusing solely on the language. I’m in a class on newspaper reading, which has been interesting so far, but I feel a bit bad since none of us prepare for it beforehand, as we have no time.
Switching gears a bit, one of the requirements for this program is that we had to sign a language pledge, so we are only allowed to speak Chinese with one another, with anyone on campus, and with our language partners and roommates (who are Chinese students). After a week of only really speaking Chinese, I think our weaknesses in speaking have all become quite
Roommates
Aren't we the cutest? clear (mine being vocabulary), but we’ve all gotten quite good at talking around the vocabulary we don’t know, and miming whatever we are talking about. Most of our sentences are kind of randomly thrown together and I’m sure we seem crazy. I feel like this is especially true for me and my friends, as I have befriended the other Asian looking students, so I’m sure we confuse everyone with our Chinese looks and terrible Chinese proficiency.
Both my roommate and my language partner are great. My roommate is studying to teach Chinese, so she’s super helpful when I have questions about word usages or anything culture-related, since she is really good about grading her language, or giving examples. She’s also super approachable, and we have a lot of common interests, so we get along really well; I got very very lucky. My language partner is also great, but she’s not studying to be a language teacher, so I probably understand about 10% of what she says. However, she really likes talking, so we don’t have awkward silences, and I am getting a lot of listening practice, since she also speaks very quickly. She is also super approachable, and honestly
Taiji (Tai Chi)
We started Taiji class today, and then found this statue. Great timing! they’re both adorable people and I really just don’t understand how so many Chinese girls/women are so cute. The image people try to portray here is so different than in the US.
I think that’s probably enough for now, and hopefully I will have stories to share by the next time I find time to post a blog! It’s definitely not going to be a weekly thing, but since this program is only eight weeks long, I will do my best to post at least every other week, and more if I end up having the time.
Until next time, and welcome back!
PS. The mosquitos here are insane. I get at least one new bite a day, if not more, and I’m honestly not sure if being inside or outside is worse. Inside does have the 空調 (kòngtiáo — air conditioning) going for it, though; Xi’an is crazy hot and humid. Okay, maybe the humidity is really not THAT bad, but compared to Colorado weather… I’m dying. And insanely smelly, yuck (and to think, I’m one of the lucky Asians who doesn’t normally really sweat).
Advertisement
Tot: 0.058s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0368s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Terry May
non-member comment
Mosquitoes like Yiwu Girls
Hi Katie, Glad to hear you've settled in and are working way too hard! We're in Costa Rica - the mosquitoes are especially attracted to Lianne. Talk about your hot and humid.....nothing ever dries here, including us. I know that's part of what we all like about Colorado. Lianne is our Spanish translator here. Enjoy Xi'an and post whenever you can! Terry