晓说 or Char Chats in Chinese: The Travel Edition
Traveling. Is. The Best. Yes, I know I’ve harped on it before. But I’ll say it again anyways: it’s so worthwhile and rejuvenating to get out and around. Going someplace new, I feel as I did when I first got here—excited and thrilled at the very fact that I’m in China. Case in point—our group trip this past weekend. While the Middlebury/CET program is certainly a grueling academic program (as our mountains of daily homework kindly remind us), we are also provided with a number of opportunities to explore China. In fact, CET gives us two weekends off (in addition to spring break) for school-sanctioned/organized trips.
This past weekend felt a little like summer camp, or like those long ago elementary school overnight trips to places like Jamestown and Williamsburg. Or maybe it was more like one of those company bonding retreats we’ll all have to participate in when we finally find jobs five years after graduation. I don’t know… all I know is that the weekend was fun. We went hiking, played in waterfalls, swam in dirty rivers (on second thought, we probably shouldn’t have done that), and stayed up all night playing cards. We all—American students as well as Chinese roommates—became much closer on the trip.
To be honest, before the trip, my fellow students and I had started to get into a groove. Our daily schedules—what we were doing, and who we were seeing—were becoming, in a sense, normal. Our new routines felt comfortable, especially when we didn’t think that life so far from home could ever feel normal. The weekend was a break from that though, and it gave us a much needed reminder as to why it’s important and incredibly awesome to travel and to keep trying new things. Traveling, or just deviating slightly from your standard activities, can be exhilarating. When you come to China, try to make baozi (and discover after six attempts that you’re embarrassingly bad at rolling them). Or teach your fellow students and their Chinese roommates to play Hearts (and then turn that into a ginormous 12 person tournament where losers have to sing, dance and declare undying love to each other). Life here is more than studying in the traditional sense of the word. We’re in China not just to learn Chinese, but to enjoy the experience and to gain a greater cultural understanding as well. It was lovely that we really got a chance to do that this weekend. Plus, since it was so much fun, we’re all now newly inspired to study harder to master the language. Bonus points all around.
Baozi we made
Until next time,
Char
Ligers, Tigers, and Midterms – Oh my!
Since this is an academic program there’s understandably a fair amount of academics that go on up here in Harbin. With academics comes midterms and with midterms comes crying (before, during, and after). Let’s just say I know a lot of different ways to describe tears falling down my face in Chinese (none of which came up on any of the tests…all that studying for naught).
Due to (or perhaps, in spite of) the academic rigor, I have learned through in depth study that American study techniques and Chinese study techniques are wildly different. Most Chinese students (engineering students in particular) will go to the library, work for hours on end and have most, if not all of the material memorized, ready to ace the test. American students (sample size: me) will buy a lot of snack food, spend too much time trying to decide if Ritz crackers filled with yogurt are the best things or the worst things (they’re the best), and then take a four hour nap in the middle of the day.
This is not to say, of course, that I failed. Nay! I… think I did ok. Well enough, given the circumstances: second language and a recent, overwhelming desire to do literally anything else other than memorize Chinese vocabulary pairs. I had four tests: literature (words and made up analysis of words – these are my most essential personality traits), composition (not a lot of opportunity to make stuff up – this was my hardest test), computer application essay/speech (speaking about computers? I got this.), and then pronunciation. Pronunciation is a whole ‘nother ball game. As soon as I sit in that chair to read the passages I apparently lose all motor control of my mouth and all I can spew out are syllables that sound more like someone speaking underwater than “Chinese.”
Actually, I just have horrible pronunciation all the time. Examples:
- Asking the neighbor girls if they have sperm as opposed to a mirror (Jing1zi vs. Jing4zi)
- Say I just kissed a guy as opposed to having just asked him (Wen1 vs. Wen4)
But enough about school and Chinese. You’re probably here for the titular pictures of the ligers and/or tigers. Unfortunately, there aren’t any good pictures of the ligers (the bus driver wouldn’t let us get out, go figure).
Studying Chinese, a Love-Hate Relationship
I enjoy doing my Chinese homework alongside 50 other people in a cramped compartment. Chinese is dull and uninteresting when it is just me repeating the same poorly pronounced tones over and over again. But, when I go to the Beijing Zoo station and hop onto line 4, suddenly studying Chinese becomes a lot more interesting. I practice pronouncing my new vocabulary as I stand among throngs of people. My attempts are laughable at best, and inevitably lead to an interesting conversation with someone. I not only get a chance to correct my pronunciation, but I suddenly have the opportunity to see China in a more intimate way.
As a kind stranger lets me in on the real way to pronounce “relatives” in Chinese, I get insight on Chinese values as he explains the parts of the word to me. Soon our conversation wanders to where I’m from and then to what music he listens too. But every day, talking to people and meeting friendly souls in a completely different culture encourages me to continue learning. Connecting personally with others is an activity I passionately pursue.
Chinese is a challenging language to learn. There are those study-thrill seekers, like myself, who took the challenge of learning Chinese head on to fulfill those inner passions to master foreign tongues. Studying Chinese autodidactic fashion, or in a class room in the United States, is a completely different experience than studying Chinese in China. Study habits that I found very efficient in the U.S were completely ineffective here in Beijing.
I have certainly had my ups and downs in my newly fashioned, intimate relationship with Chinese. We have courted for nearly two years, and every day I surprise myself with how little I actually know after this amount of time. Just walking to McDonalds to buy a familiar Big Mac can humble the avid Chinese learner when only pictures are found to be familiar.
When Chinese food doesn’t quite hit that cheap for cheap American comfort food.
It can be disheartening, especially when you have days like these where the buildings across the horizon are hazy:
But, with that crushing realization that most days you can’t express yourself in a fraction as freely as you can in English, you also stumble upon the most joyous moments of legitimate speaking abilities. Like, when you learn a grammar pattern that perfectly encapsulates that one sentence you wish you could say to your Chinese roommate that you couldn’t say the day before. Or, when you realize that Chinese does have as many words to describe the world around us as English does and there actually is an equivalent word for “mitten” in Chinese. Now you can say the real word instead of loosely putting together other words you could comfortably say before like “thing to make hand warm.” Suddenly speaking in Chinese is a lot more enjoyable when you do not have to speak in riddles and hand gestures.
Despite the days where I find myself disappointed in my language accruement, I find myself completely amazed that I’m actually reading signs on the road now and knowing what they mean.
That’s the gaze of understanding there, with the disagreeing face of the wise Chinese instructor
When I’m buying a snack on the road and can understand the loud conversation next to me is exciting. All of a sudden, when the weird combination of sounds comes together to an understandable meaning, you can only stand astonished at your progress in the language. That is, until you have no idea what your teacher is talking about in class the next day.
Fun in Nanjing! One may look like a foreigner, but one day our Chinese skills will rival that of a not so foreign foreigner to Chinese
March Madness Ends in Prague
If you told me a month ago that I would be sitting outside in shorts and flip-flops, basking in the warmth of the sunlight, I would have laughed in your face. Coming from Dallas, the Prague winter was pure misery; snow, wind, and piercing cold made going outside almost intolerable. But this past week, Prague has decided to join the month of March and we have been blessed with beautiful 65 degree, sunny afternoons.
This past weekend I was, what I like to call, lazy. Saturday I slept in until noon, then met up with a few friends to walk through Letna Park, a large park near my apartment that overlooks central Prague and the Charles River. After relaxing for a bit we headed to Old Town to walk through the Spring Market where we got some refreshing zmrzlina (ice cream) and walked by all of the souvenir and craft stands while listening to the sound of the Czech children’s play that was going on at the top of the square. Although I tend to think that most children’s shows are simultaneously humorous and (mildly) creepy, these elements are both intensified when the play is being performed in a different language, specifically Czech. It was entertaining to say the least.
I spent even more time outside earlier this week, taking a walk along the Charles River between classes and sitting at a park across from FAMU with only the interactions of the dogs playing to entertain us. My friend and I were thoroughly amused for a solid 15 minutes when observing the dogs, and decided that we could probably spend hours watching them play in the park and never get bored. Dogs are actually hilarious.
Along with these lovely spring afternoons comes one of the greatest, most important spring traditions: March Madness. As I am not an avid college basketball fan, I actually have no idea how the tournament is going, but since a handful of my friends here are Syracuse University students we all gathered at a local sports bar to watch their game in the Sweet 16 round. Although they are now out of the tournament, their victory in the first game was exciting for all involved. Except maybe Wisconsin.
Surprisingly, this laziness has not filtered into my academics, and with shooting beginning in less than a month we will soon be kept occupied with location scouting, casting, storyboarding, and rehearsing, so that at 9 am April 28 we are ready to go! As a last weekend of recreation before the madness begins, a few friends and I are headed to Amsterdam tonight on an overnight (15 hour, probably uncomfortable) train to explore another infamous European city. I am excited for the weekend and the month ahead and am looking forward to beginning the process of making our short film. Should be an awesome experience.
CET Academic Programs