Linguistic conundrums
This past week, professors and administrators from UVa came to observe CET, and when we had dinner all together, we began talking about the cultural differences between Italians and Americans. One of them asked if and/or how we were getting to know Italian individuals, and we had to admit that it is a pretty difficult task.
Unless you have the guts and lack of inhibitions to naturally walk up to a group of Italians on the Campo in the middle of the day, the only opportunity we have had to talk to Italians one-on-one has really been while we are out at bars at night. And there is a limited level of friendship you can garner with a random person at a bar late at night, unless you are looking for more than your average, platonic friendship. If you know what I’m saying.
Thankfully, our program is small and we have the opportunity to live with young Italians who naturally become our friends. Furthermore, as we explained to our university visitors, we have Christina. Christina, our resident director, set up a casual language partner program, where she asked us all to list our top three interests, and she found some Italians from around Siena who wanted to improve their English and matched us up according to our interests. The idea was to have someone new with whom to converse for about an hour a week. After the initial meeting, it was up to us to set up our language lesson appointments, if you could call them that.
My language partner’s name is Angelo, and he is a law student at the University of Siena. I know sometimes it doesn’t work out so well, and some students find that situations such as these can feel a bit awkward or forced, especially if you fundamentally lack things in common, but we get along really well.
On the first day, I felt kind of like Christina had assigned us new friends. In a good way. Whenever I had class group projects in school, I always liked having the groups assigned randomly by the teacher, so that I would be forced to meet and get to know (possibly make friends with) people I might not otherwise have gone out of my way to talk to. I also like assigned reading, because I often find that I really enjoy what I would not have otherwise made the time to read.
I saw this opportunity as the same kind of thing. Christina manipulated the social structure obstructing our entry into Siena social circles and voilà: we had Italian friends.
I think within our group of CET students and our Italian language partners, the sequence of events went in a pretty similar manner. Get coffee together one time, then an aperitif the next, become actual friends, then maybe make dinner at one house or another in a group or something.
In some cases, when the language skills of one partner are better or worse than the other, it might happen that you tend to speak more in one language or another. For example, two of the language partners both study Finance in English as their major in college, so much more English is spoken than Italian.
For my part, as Angelo and I actually just discussed the other day, I can understand him when he speaks at a normal pace in Italian, but he can’t perfectly comprehend my mile-a-minute English. It all evens out, though, because he can speak English far better than I can speak Italian. In the end, we speak a pretty equal amount of Italian and English.
I think one of my favorite parts of the language partnership is that our conversations aren’t based in academics. In an academic setting, there are certain linguistic boundaries that are very difficult to cross, and as, in the end, you’re getting a grade for your verbal performance, there is pressure to speak cleanly with what you know, rather than diving right in and getting dirty. When you are talking with a language partner, the only necessity is communication. Messing up isn’t as threatening, especially when you know that they will just laugh at you, correct you, and then mess up in your own native language a few minutes later, at which point you can return the favor by laughing and correcting their mistake.
The mistakes are sometimes the most amusing part of it all. By messing up and having a good laugh at the silliness of language, you can enjoy the fact that the past participle of “to make out” and the word for “lemonade” are the same. Or that it is very difficult for Italians to pronounce “air” versus “hair” versus “ear” versus “hear.” Or you can have a good chuckle when one of you confuses “pants” and “shoes.” (Please, make yourself comfortable! Take off your pants and stay a while.)
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
Learning about Vietnam in Vietnam
Here is a picture of all the kids on my program at the Fairy Springs in Mui Ne. From left to right: Sam, Anna, Ali, myself, Tara
Hello again! Time is flying by here and every day is an adventure. A lot has happened since I last wrote you, so I will try to include everything.
I am becoming more acclimated to the culture and I am even enjoying some of the local foods (shocking right?). My roommate Khuyen and I have done some cool stuff together. One day we went to a spa with some free vouchers to get massages and we also went to a famous local rice restaurant. Khuyen and I have such busy schedules so its nice when we are able to spend some more time together. She has also continued to help me build my grasp on speaking Vietnamese and lately I haven’t called anyone cake. (Although I have called myself stupid instead of saying I am sleepy, minor problem) Otherwise I am improving everyday and it is satisfying to be able to understand the locals when they talk to you.
We are continuing to have a great time together exploring Vietnam. The other night we got to spend an evening learning how to cook traditional Vietnamese dishes at our program director’s apartment. Our roommates came and helped us cook the delicious meal. I am surprisingly good at making the fried banana dessert! Don’t worry I memorized how to make it so I will bring the recipe back to the states.
My classes are going really well. It is certainly special to be able to learn about Vietnam while in Vietnam. I have found that even in our Vietnamese language class that the learning here is much more interactive. We have language table lunches where we can only speak in Vietnamese and today our teacher took us to try different Vietnamese foods for the second half of class. We had Che, which is a sweet soup dessert. Mine was banana in coconut milk with peanuts and it was very yummy. The Vietnamese studies class also has us out and in the community. We are sent traveling around and learning about different areas of Vietnam. A lot of what we talk about in class such as issues with the economy you can walk right out on the street and see the problems. Of course our service-learning class has us working hard within the community and I am really enjoying working with the boys at the orphanage. It is certainly a challenge to create good and effective lesson plans, but I am starting to get the hang of it. It was also interesting to learn that some of the boys at the orphanage have families, but they were sent to live in the orphanage because their families could not support them at home. The boys who spoke with me said they were thankful that they were given the opportunity to live at the orphanage even though they missed their families because there are more opportunities at achieving a better lifestyle in District 12.
Starting to get adjusted to living in HCMC
Night market in HCMC
In the evenings we have explored Vietnamese night life! A lot of young people in Vietnam love to sit in the park and enjoy ca phe sua da (ice coffee with milk). We like to join in on the fun and for some nights we have gone and enjoyed sitting with each other and chatting. One night we went to the night market. We had gone during the day, but at night there is a different vibe. All the street vendors are out and all sorts of people are wandering the streets. Karaoke is a huge thing in Vietnam. They love pop music and they love K-pop which is Korean pop. One night the roommates and everyone went to karaoke to celebrate one of the girls on the programs birthday. Unfortunately I was very sick so I stayed in, but the next night we went to a nice bar atop a tall building called Sky bar. You had amazing views of the entire city! Other nights have been filled with studious activity or just hanging out at the dorm.
A lot of this program is based on individual exploration. A lot of the times it is up to us to research and wander on our own to figure out more and more about Ho Chi Minh. Our down time is ours and we have walked around and discovered cool places to hangout. One day we went to the local zoo. It was $1, but unfortunately not a lot of the animals are well cared for due to the little funding the zoo gets. Another day I went and saw the Jade Pagoda. It is a Chinese pagoda that is snuggled into the city. It is beautiful and a very popular place for people to go pray for contraception. These self exploration excursions have really gotten me familiar with the area and the locals. Using my broken Vietnamese has come in handy and I am starting to get adjusted to living in a city.
A huge part of this program is service-learning. So I may only be taking 3 classes, I am working the other days at an orphanage for all boys. These boys are the ones that other orphanages don’t want because they are troubled. A lot of them are mentally unstable and have serious depression. Brother Jerome informed me that a lot have seen their parents killed or die. While I toured the boys were all extremely well mannered and they really seem to love and respect Brother Jerome. My commute to work is an hour and it takes me all the way out to District 12! Out there there is a lot more poverty and the orphanage is tucked away in an alley. The facility his huge and brand new and Brother Jerome runs the entire orphanage. Apparently very recently, a German couple who visited before had donated this new building. There are 40 boys and their ages range from 4 to 18. They were incredibly gracious and I got a whole tour of the building. The boys sleep in bunk beds and they mattress is a small bamboo matt over wooden rails. I will be spending all of Tuesday and half of Thursday teaching the boys English. I want to be as active as I can and maybe plan weekend excursions for these kids so they have a chance to get out of the orphanage. The English book I was told to use was published in 1967 and it is set up like the popular book, Wordly Wise, except the passages for the boys to read are dense excerpts from books by authors like George Orwell. Let’s just say I have to study the lessons before I teach them because they are really difficult. At the end of my tour Brother Jerome had all the boys line up in front me and sing a song for my “Welcoming Ceremony”. They sang on traditional Vietnamese song and one English song. I was so touched and I cannot wait to start working tomorrow!
While it is daunting to have to figure out reading maps and asking locals questions in somewhat broken Vietnamese, it has been an amazing experience thus far. The kids on my program are great and the roommates are fantastic. Immersing myself into this culture has been an adjustment and I have been craving cereal, but I have loved every moment. I am sure there are some great adventures ahead and of course I will keep you posted.
CET Academic Programs