It's a pretty odd feeling to be obsessed with language learning for several months only to return to the reality of graduate school, where unfortunately, Chinese language skills are not all you need for success. Why does it have to be so complicated? Some belated concluding thoughts:
Work hard at IUP, but also take care of yourself. But don't stress out about trying to avoid stomach problems, because it seems to happen to almost everyone no matter how careful you are. Bring Pepto-Bismol? The program is good, but you actually do have to think actively about what you want from it. The teachers will be flexible and make special arrangements according to your needs--especially in your one-on-one class--but you may not always agree with their pedagogy. Sure, you can complain, but you also need to be proactive in telling them what's lacking with the class and trying to work with them to change things. If you think their way of teaching is not helping you learn Chinese, think about reasonable ways in which the structure of your class could be modified to be more helpful for you.
IUP is widely acknowledged as possibly the best Chinese-language program in existence for advanced students of Chinese. However, I would recommend also looking into ICLP (its counterpart in Taiwan). The position of many students I met was quite interesting--many were incredibly invested in digesting all there was to know about mainland China, while it seemed to me that Taiwan, Singapore, and other Chinese-speaking places were at the very edge of their periphery. Obviously my perspective is very much shaped by my family background, but...really? It seems to me that Chinese-language students fall in danger of being pulled along with China's way of flattening the "Chinese experience" to reflect what works best for Beijing.
At the same time, China! If nothing else, huge, with a diversity that I can't begin to imagine. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to travel outside of Beijing at all this summer despite my original plans, but I definitely plan on returning at some point (when my cough is completely gone this time). I lived in Japan for two years but hardly traveled because of the cost--in China, you won't spend half as much in transportation but probably do need a lot of energy and good humor. I'm saying that since even Beijing required a lot more from me of both than previous places where I'd lived (Taipei, Tokyo, Boston, etc.). An exciting place with tons of things happening all at once, but not all of it necessarily fun or positive or easy to deal with.
Finally, I am now taking a graduate seminar in which I will soon begin to read one Chinese novel per week. While I'm a bit unsure of my chances for survival, I am sure that IUP helped improve them. Thank you, Light!
Friday, September 25, 2009
Saturday, August 29, 2009
New languages, new personalities
With Dutch, I felt terribly uncomfortable with the harsh sounds and no-nonsense aspects of the language--I don't think I really had time to develop a personality, and it would have taken extra time. In Japanese at first my voice went several decibels higher, and I sounded daintier with my careful enunciation like some sort of very feminine anime character (not my comparison). I still have problems expressing myself in Japanese--I can't make as many off-hand quirky comments that would normally round out my personality in English.
I think my personality with Chinese has been developing for a long time now--I've marked this personality of mine in the past as being awkward, terse, less specific, less expressive. Perhaps these characteristics seem obvious for someone with limited control over a language, although I'm sure that they are also tied in with the difficulties of my childhood growing up with parents fluent only in Mandarin.
After this summer, I feel that my personality in Chinese has [thankfully] become more confident and thoughtful. I have less of a problem with occasionally making mistakes, and I am also more aware of my usage of grammar and various problem areas. I used to take it really personally whenever I made any sort of mistake in Chinese, but being surrounded by other students who were all being constantly corrected was actually quite healthy for me. I ended up being in classes with other Chinese Americans, some of whom were more advanced in certain areas but had also taken more Chinese language classes before attending IUP. My rough edges have become more smoothed out in Chinese as I've grown to be capable of a wider range of emotions and thoughts. While I wonder how much actual grammar & vocabulary I've picked up (that's stuck), I feel more confident in general about Chinese, although we'll see how long that lasts once I start taking a graduate seminar in Sinophone literature this fall.
In the end, I never feel fully comfortable in any one language. Even when I speak English, there are always bits of Chinese and Japanese floating around the edges. When I'm with other students in the East Asian Languages & Literatures Department at Yale, I'm indulged because frequently I can move freely between languages according to my own sense of what the sentence or situation requires. It's really not to be obnoxious or some sort of East Asianist pretentious--sometimes another word just feels right. I could never be fully expressed in English, because I've been with these other languages too long. It would be interesting to try learning a new language now, while I'm already in my mid-twenties, to see whether or not I could grow into it in the same way.
I think my personality with Chinese has been developing for a long time now--I've marked this personality of mine in the past as being awkward, terse, less specific, less expressive. Perhaps these characteristics seem obvious for someone with limited control over a language, although I'm sure that they are also tied in with the difficulties of my childhood growing up with parents fluent only in Mandarin.
After this summer, I feel that my personality in Chinese has [thankfully] become more confident and thoughtful. I have less of a problem with occasionally making mistakes, and I am also more aware of my usage of grammar and various problem areas. I used to take it really personally whenever I made any sort of mistake in Chinese, but being surrounded by other students who were all being constantly corrected was actually quite healthy for me. I ended up being in classes with other Chinese Americans, some of whom were more advanced in certain areas but had also taken more Chinese language classes before attending IUP. My rough edges have become more smoothed out in Chinese as I've grown to be capable of a wider range of emotions and thoughts. While I wonder how much actual grammar & vocabulary I've picked up (that's stuck), I feel more confident in general about Chinese, although we'll see how long that lasts once I start taking a graduate seminar in Sinophone literature this fall.
In the end, I never feel fully comfortable in any one language. Even when I speak English, there are always bits of Chinese and Japanese floating around the edges. When I'm with other students in the East Asian Languages & Literatures Department at Yale, I'm indulged because frequently I can move freely between languages according to my own sense of what the sentence or situation requires. It's really not to be obnoxious or some sort of East Asianist pretentious--sometimes another word just feels right. I could never be fully expressed in English, because I've been with these other languages too long. It would be interesting to try learning a new language now, while I'm already in my mid-twenties, to see whether or not I could grow into it in the same way.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Thinking about the teachers at IUP
Sorry about the retrospective entries...I just left Taipei to return to Yale--maybe I will write a Taipei vs. Beijing entry soon.
For inspiration, I looked through the topic suggestions from the Light Fellowship--I thought about one related to contact with local Chinese people. Frankly speaking, IUP kept me too busy to meet that many local Chinese, so I couldn't answer the Light questions perfectly, but I'll talk a bit about what I did learn from associating with my teachers at the program on a daily basis, since they were the Chinese I had the most contact with.
In language class, you generally don't end up having full-fledged discussions about politics or anything else, although Bush and the war in Iraq seemed to frequently come up. My teachers were always quite tactful & careful not to assert their own assumptions when phrasing their questions asking us to talk about the education system, etc. in the U.S. I did have classmates mention teachers who frequently made comments such as, "Aren't all Americans really wealthy?" So, what do they really think about Americans after all? I'm not sure.
Almost all of the teachers were young and female, and the age/gender factor made it easy to feel comfortable having classes with my teachers. Although I never spent time with any of the teachers outside of class, I was quite chatty especially with my morning one-on-one teacher, who I saw for an hour everyday.
While we didn't have in-depth conversations, I felt that my teachers formed a truly helpful contrast to the Beijingers who I encountered outside of IUP. On the street, everyone comes off as aggressive and rude. People never apologize when they bump into you; if they see you coming from the other direction, they never move to the side; and bus & car drivers really don't seem to be concerned about whether or not they come within an inch of running you over. But as one of my teachers said, Chinese people may be willing to be rude & cheat you if they don't you, but once you know them & are considered a friend, they will suddenly be incredibly kind and generous.
I highly doubt any of my Chinese teachers would cheat anyone, whether or not they knew them, but their kindness was definitely a sort of soothing balm on the general hectic craziness of Beijing. Since I saw three of my teachers everyday, when I started to get sick & miss class, they were the most concerned. I spent all of my spring semester at Yale being afraid that my professors thought that I was lazy, and I had the same worries at first when I started missing school at IUP. But instead, they were the ones to urge me to take care of myself and try seeing a doctor. I still remember the hugs they gave me before I left! In any case, it's good to know that there are good people there for you in a foreign country when you're having a hard time.
For inspiration, I looked through the topic suggestions from the Light Fellowship--I thought about one related to contact with local Chinese people. Frankly speaking, IUP kept me too busy to meet that many local Chinese, so I couldn't answer the Light questions perfectly, but I'll talk a bit about what I did learn from associating with my teachers at the program on a daily basis, since they were the Chinese I had the most contact with.
In language class, you generally don't end up having full-fledged discussions about politics or anything else, although Bush and the war in Iraq seemed to frequently come up. My teachers were always quite tactful & careful not to assert their own assumptions when phrasing their questions asking us to talk about the education system, etc. in the U.S. I did have classmates mention teachers who frequently made comments such as, "Aren't all Americans really wealthy?" So, what do they really think about Americans after all? I'm not sure.
Almost all of the teachers were young and female, and the age/gender factor made it easy to feel comfortable having classes with my teachers. Although I never spent time with any of the teachers outside of class, I was quite chatty especially with my morning one-on-one teacher, who I saw for an hour everyday.
While we didn't have in-depth conversations, I felt that my teachers formed a truly helpful contrast to the Beijingers who I encountered outside of IUP. On the street, everyone comes off as aggressive and rude. People never apologize when they bump into you; if they see you coming from the other direction, they never move to the side; and bus & car drivers really don't seem to be concerned about whether or not they come within an inch of running you over. But as one of my teachers said, Chinese people may be willing to be rude & cheat you if they don't you, but once you know them & are considered a friend, they will suddenly be incredibly kind and generous.
I highly doubt any of my Chinese teachers would cheat anyone, whether or not they knew them, but their kindness was definitely a sort of soothing balm on the general hectic craziness of Beijing. Since I saw three of my teachers everyday, when I started to get sick & miss class, they were the most concerned. I spent all of my spring semester at Yale being afraid that my professors thought that I was lazy, and I had the same worries at first when I started missing school at IUP. But instead, they were the ones to urge me to take care of myself and try seeing a doctor. I still remember the hugs they gave me before I left! In any case, it's good to know that there are good people there for you in a foreign country when you're having a hard time.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Post-mid-term: Progress with Chinese?
I actually wrote an entry detailing the schedule for my average day at IUP, but I realized that it was incredibly boring and decided not to inflict it upon the 1-3 people who read this blog.
Well, we took our mid-term at IUP on Friday--it took about 1.5-3 hours (depending on your own abilities & particular classes), and the teachers actually scrambled to finish grading it over lunch so that they could all meet with each of us in the afternoon to go over the results as well as discuss how the term was going.
The test was ridiculously easy--they really don't try to make it hard for you. One of my teachers told me that she thinks of it as a good chance for students to review old material since we move so quickly, which I think is a healthy attitude towards testing. There were basically three sections: one for my 聽力課(廣播1), my 思想與社會 textbook that covers two classes, and a take-home exam for my 小單班 (in which I read Chinese short stories) that I handed in the afternoon before. I got 2 or 3 questions wrong across the majority of the test, but lost more points with the short paragraph we wrote for 思想與社會 and my essay questions for my 小單班.
I was talking with friends who feel that their Chinese has already improved immensely over the past month--really? Actually, I don't have class with them, so it's a bit harder for me to see concrete differences in their Chinese. But I feel slightly jealous because I don't feel that my Chinese has improved greatly by any stretch of the imagination. At most I'm more aware of potential mistakes that I make with Chinese. I can't really open my mouth without being highly aware of pitfalls lining my way down every sentence...
I think my goals are a bit different because I'm already quite experienced with speaking Mandarin and reading some form of Chinese characters (traditional when I was little, a lot of Japanese kanji in recent years). If I'm really honest about it, my goal is probably to be like a native speaker. In some ways, I do use Chinese as well as a native speaker would--I don't have huge issues with tones, my vocabulary is surprisingly expansive if I stop to think about it, and I can respond very naturally in casual conversations. But I occasionally do strange little things with grammar, don't know a lot of vocabulary that would be common knowledge to anyone who'd grown up in a Chinese-speaking country, and I can't claim to be able to understand a work of modern Chinese literature in a very nuanced way. I'm extremely self-conscious when I speak because I want to do so correctly, but without teachers to correct me, it's not that productive and simply stresses me out--I've given up on having my parents learn how to help me with Chinese. Now when I talk with my dad on the phone, and I still sound awkward and have to search for words occasionally, I feel frustrated since IUP hasn't worked like some sort of miracle drug. Isn't talking casually with your parents supposed to be relatively easy? I suppose that being able to talk about issues with Chinese society in the classroom after reading a text is different from simply pulling something out on the spot in sometimes unexplored territory.
Unfortunately, I probably won't be taking more Chinese language classes for the next few years (I will be taking a Sinophone lit grad seminar this fall, but that's quite different). I miss Japan, and next summer I'll probably be doing research in Tokyo and only coming to Beijing for a month to do a Chinese film class. I'm even tempted to just do my annual family visit in Taipei and stay in Japan for the rest of the summer. I'm starting to feel more fond of Beijing after exploring areas of it outside of Wudaokou, but it's been rough health-wise. You can accuse me of being pampered, but at some point it would be nice to have a summer that felt more like an actual break in a city that's easier for me to live in. But I envy those students who are staying on for another semester or the entire academic year. They're going to make improvements in Chinese that I can't imagine for myself. But even though I get greedy in a language-learning environment, when I sit back and take a breath, I realize that I'm going to be making improvements in a multitude of areas back at Yale, that would never be possible in Beijing. It's always a trade-off...
Well, we took our mid-term at IUP on Friday--it took about 1.5-3 hours (depending on your own abilities & particular classes), and the teachers actually scrambled to finish grading it over lunch so that they could all meet with each of us in the afternoon to go over the results as well as discuss how the term was going.
The test was ridiculously easy--they really don't try to make it hard for you. One of my teachers told me that she thinks of it as a good chance for students to review old material since we move so quickly, which I think is a healthy attitude towards testing. There were basically three sections: one for my 聽力課(廣播1), my 思想與社會 textbook that covers two classes, and a take-home exam for my 小單班 (in which I read Chinese short stories) that I handed in the afternoon before. I got 2 or 3 questions wrong across the majority of the test, but lost more points with the short paragraph we wrote for 思想與社會 and my essay questions for my 小單班.
I was talking with friends who feel that their Chinese has already improved immensely over the past month--really? Actually, I don't have class with them, so it's a bit harder for me to see concrete differences in their Chinese. But I feel slightly jealous because I don't feel that my Chinese has improved greatly by any stretch of the imagination. At most I'm more aware of potential mistakes that I make with Chinese. I can't really open my mouth without being highly aware of pitfalls lining my way down every sentence...
I think my goals are a bit different because I'm already quite experienced with speaking Mandarin and reading some form of Chinese characters (traditional when I was little, a lot of Japanese kanji in recent years). If I'm really honest about it, my goal is probably to be like a native speaker. In some ways, I do use Chinese as well as a native speaker would--I don't have huge issues with tones, my vocabulary is surprisingly expansive if I stop to think about it, and I can respond very naturally in casual conversations. But I occasionally do strange little things with grammar, don't know a lot of vocabulary that would be common knowledge to anyone who'd grown up in a Chinese-speaking country, and I can't claim to be able to understand a work of modern Chinese literature in a very nuanced way. I'm extremely self-conscious when I speak because I want to do so correctly, but without teachers to correct me, it's not that productive and simply stresses me out--I've given up on having my parents learn how to help me with Chinese. Now when I talk with my dad on the phone, and I still sound awkward and have to search for words occasionally, I feel frustrated since IUP hasn't worked like some sort of miracle drug. Isn't talking casually with your parents supposed to be relatively easy? I suppose that being able to talk about issues with Chinese society in the classroom after reading a text is different from simply pulling something out on the spot in sometimes unexplored territory.
Unfortunately, I probably won't be taking more Chinese language classes for the next few years (I will be taking a Sinophone lit grad seminar this fall, but that's quite different). I miss Japan, and next summer I'll probably be doing research in Tokyo and only coming to Beijing for a month to do a Chinese film class. I'm even tempted to just do my annual family visit in Taipei and stay in Japan for the rest of the summer. I'm starting to feel more fond of Beijing after exploring areas of it outside of Wudaokou, but it's been rough health-wise. You can accuse me of being pampered, but at some point it would be nice to have a summer that felt more like an actual break in a city that's easier for me to live in. But I envy those students who are staying on for another semester or the entire academic year. They're going to make improvements in Chinese that I can't imagine for myself. But even though I get greedy in a language-learning environment, when I sit back and take a breath, I realize that I'm going to be making improvements in a multitude of areas back at Yale, that would never be possible in Beijing. It's always a trade-off...
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Workload at IUP & health issues
To add to my previous entry: I'm actually in classes only with other heritage speakers--I'm told that wasn't done on purpose, and the teachers were actually rather amused to find that they had to correct a bunch of Southern accents all at once. But even among heritage speakers, there are a lot of differences in background. Some people grow up speaking Mandarin, while for others it's Cantonese or Shanghainese, and there's a wide range of how much exposure students have actually had to Chinese.
Otherwise, all I can say is that you shouldn't plan on coming to IUP if you're really excited about having a summer full of time to explore Beijing. (I can see how you might be able to squeeze enough time out of an entire year?) Advanced students often not only have 3 classes over 2 different textbooks, but also have a 4th class with extra work. I'm reading a short story by 王朔 (Wang Shuo) called "空中小姐" for Monday, but it's about 40 pages in Word (with some spacing between dialogue)--it's also the third short story I've ever somewhat seriously attempted to read in Chinese. Since this fourth class is only twice per week for me, I always forget about it as I'm caught up in finishing my daily homework, and then it comes around on Mon. & Wed. to kick me in the butt. But basically, I've only been outside of Wudaokou once (798!! A post on this later?) over the past 3-4 weeks, and I'm getting pretty familiar with all the cafes in the area. If I'm on-task, I'm probably doing 3-5 hours of homework per day.
Unfortunately, I have to say that Beijing is tough on your health. Most people I've talked to have had some sort of stomach problems, and everyday there are a few students who are absent. While things are somewhat better now, I didn't go to class for two days this week since I had stomach problems for almost a week, ended up not eating enough as a result, and felt too weak & exhausted to actually do any work. These problems seem to have also brought up my old respiratory issues from the aftermath of bronchitis. Since I'm guessing the stomach issues were helped along by careless eating habits, sleep deprivation, and stress to begin with, all I can say is, it's important to manage your time wisely and remember to take care of yourself, too! I appreciate the chance to spend the summer clearing my head by studying ~100 Chinese vocab. words per day, but the program is a lot of work, and it can start to wear down on you along with the pollution, heat, noise, & general chaos even just in Wudaokou.
On a more *positive* health-related note, I had to get a wisdom tooth pulled and went to Arrail Dentail after asking for advice from IUP--half the price of United Family Hospital's dental care, and very professional. Everything went smoothly! However, although someone will speak a bit of English, at the Zhongguancun branch the dentist and assistants seemed mainly comfortable with Chinese (they did have forms & instructions for after-care in English). I didn't really mind since I got everything except for the very technical details about what exactly was happening, which I wouldn't have understood in English anyhow.
http://www.arrail-dental.com/en/
All right, I do have a lot more to say, but I deserve some sleep now!
Otherwise, all I can say is that you shouldn't plan on coming to IUP if you're really excited about having a summer full of time to explore Beijing. (I can see how you might be able to squeeze enough time out of an entire year?) Advanced students often not only have 3 classes over 2 different textbooks, but also have a 4th class with extra work. I'm reading a short story by 王朔 (Wang Shuo) called "空中小姐" for Monday, but it's about 40 pages in Word (with some spacing between dialogue)--it's also the third short story I've ever somewhat seriously attempted to read in Chinese. Since this fourth class is only twice per week for me, I always forget about it as I'm caught up in finishing my daily homework, and then it comes around on Mon. & Wed. to kick me in the butt. But basically, I've only been outside of Wudaokou once (798!! A post on this later?) over the past 3-4 weeks, and I'm getting pretty familiar with all the cafes in the area. If I'm on-task, I'm probably doing 3-5 hours of homework per day.
Unfortunately, I have to say that Beijing is tough on your health. Most people I've talked to have had some sort of stomach problems, and everyday there are a few students who are absent. While things are somewhat better now, I didn't go to class for two days this week since I had stomach problems for almost a week, ended up not eating enough as a result, and felt too weak & exhausted to actually do any work. These problems seem to have also brought up my old respiratory issues from the aftermath of bronchitis. Since I'm guessing the stomach issues were helped along by careless eating habits, sleep deprivation, and stress to begin with, all I can say is, it's important to manage your time wisely and remember to take care of yourself, too! I appreciate the chance to spend the summer clearing my head by studying ~100 Chinese vocab. words per day, but the program is a lot of work, and it can start to wear down on you along with the pollution, heat, noise, & general chaos even just in Wudaokou.
On a more *positive* health-related note, I had to get a wisdom tooth pulled and went to Arrail Dentail after asking for advice from IUP--half the price of United Family Hospital's dental care, and very professional. Everything went smoothly! However, although someone will speak a bit of English, at the Zhongguancun branch the dentist and assistants seemed mainly comfortable with Chinese (they did have forms & instructions for after-care in English). I didn't really mind since I got everything except for the very technical details about what exactly was happening, which I wouldn't have understood in English anyhow.
http://www.arrail-dental.com/en/
All right, I do have a lot more to say, but I deserve some sleep now!
Friday, July 3, 2009
Existing as a heritage speaker at IUP
I haven't been that great about keeping up with my blog, but I figure I'll have one post per week, slightly skewed? Sorry!
Being at IUP at Tsinghua has been an interesting experience that definitely feels a lot different from being at IUC in Japan.
Class placement was slightly messy because of the recent self-quarantine procedures due to H1N1--because I arrived relatively late on June 14, I ended up taking a placement exam online, but it was in simplified characters, not traditional as I had requested (I'm guessing they didn't have time or forgot to prepare another version). I was placed in two classes using 思想与社会, one of their core textbooks (one one-on-one class, one with two other students); a 广播1 radio broadcast class for more advanced students (with two other students); and a 小单班, a one-on-one class in which it's possible to address your specific language problems or work on a topic of your choice.
IUP is my first experience actually being with a big mix of students studying Chinese as a foreign language. I have to admit that it has required an adjustment period--I consider myself something close to a native speaker, and I'm not used to studying Chinese as a foreign language. At first I felt slightly irritated by constantly hearing incorrect grammar, tones, etc. Even though it wasn't difficult for me to keep to the Chinese-only language pledge and also speak in Chinese outside of IUP when other people wanted to practice, I got tired of doing it. Also, for the first couple days of the program, I was really frustrated with the classes that I'd been placed in because it seemed that my classmates couldn't express themselves in Chinese as well as I could. Additionally, I knew 1/2~2/3 of the new vocabulary in my 思想与社会 textbook. I more or less blamed the placement exam that was in the wrong writing system, as well as the phone interview, since I'm pretty certain that I do poorly with interviews regardless of language. Another major source of stress was that on the first day, all four of my teachers asked whether or not I wanted to change my Taiwanese--or Southern--accent. Even when I tried to make "sh" or "ng" sounds, it wasn't strong enough for them, and I was reduced to half my normal speaking speed. Even though I wanted to try learning these differences & to show it in my speaking, I couldn't help being resentful of the entire Beijing/northern-oriented approach to learning "correct pronunciation" which seems to ignore the fact that probably over half of the Chinese-speaking population in the world does not speak in the same way. I felt that my identity was being challenged, and that it was ridiculous for teachers to correct me when I already sounded like a native speaker, since many foreigners still have huge problems getting tones & basic grammar correct.
By now I've taken into consideration the fact that even some people who don't speak Chinese as quickly/fluently may have vocabulary that I don't have, or many have amazing experiences actually living & traveling in China. I've realized that I have enough homework to work on, whether or not it's easier for me than for some other students with the same textbook. The lessons in both textbooks seem to be getting somewhat more challenging, too. As for my accent, it's become easier for me to speak at a more normal speed while curling my tongue, although I still speak more slowly than I would with a more Taiwanese accent. Although I still have reservations, I'm willing for now to at least learn to differentiate better between different sounds in a sort of compromise, even if my pronunciation still doesn't have enough "r" in it to really sound "correct" to many teachers. However, I have to say that I've given myself more pressure than IUP has--they really do give heritage speakers the choice and realize that it's not easy to change the way you've always spoken.
After the initial annoyance with the wrong test, being one of the only two students at the program (out of over 60) working with traditional characters hasn't been that bad either. The textbooks have the text and instructions in traditional, but both traditional & simplified for new vocabulary. I focus more on traditional characters when I'm reading, and I write my homework in traditional, but I get practice reading simplified as well in the textbook and in class, since the teachers usually only write simplified on the board. Sometimes the teachers won't know how to write some words in traditional, but it's not like it's difficult for me to go home and learn how to do it myself after first writing down the simplified characters.
Will be writing more this weekend about the workload, impressions of Beijing, etc. so far. :)
Being at IUP at Tsinghua has been an interesting experience that definitely feels a lot different from being at IUC in Japan.
Class placement was slightly messy because of the recent self-quarantine procedures due to H1N1--because I arrived relatively late on June 14, I ended up taking a placement exam online, but it was in simplified characters, not traditional as I had requested (I'm guessing they didn't have time or forgot to prepare another version). I was placed in two classes using 思想与社会, one of their core textbooks (one one-on-one class, one with two other students); a 广播1 radio broadcast class for more advanced students (with two other students); and a 小单班, a one-on-one class in which it's possible to address your specific language problems or work on a topic of your choice.
IUP is my first experience actually being with a big mix of students studying Chinese as a foreign language. I have to admit that it has required an adjustment period--I consider myself something close to a native speaker, and I'm not used to studying Chinese as a foreign language. At first I felt slightly irritated by constantly hearing incorrect grammar, tones, etc. Even though it wasn't difficult for me to keep to the Chinese-only language pledge and also speak in Chinese outside of IUP when other people wanted to practice, I got tired of doing it. Also, for the first couple days of the program, I was really frustrated with the classes that I'd been placed in because it seemed that my classmates couldn't express themselves in Chinese as well as I could. Additionally, I knew 1/2~2/3 of the new vocabulary in my 思想与社会 textbook. I more or less blamed the placement exam that was in the wrong writing system, as well as the phone interview, since I'm pretty certain that I do poorly with interviews regardless of language. Another major source of stress was that on the first day, all four of my teachers asked whether or not I wanted to change my Taiwanese--or Southern--accent. Even when I tried to make "sh" or "ng" sounds, it wasn't strong enough for them, and I was reduced to half my normal speaking speed. Even though I wanted to try learning these differences & to show it in my speaking, I couldn't help being resentful of the entire Beijing/northern-oriented approach to learning "correct pronunciation" which seems to ignore the fact that probably over half of the Chinese-speaking population in the world does not speak in the same way. I felt that my identity was being challenged, and that it was ridiculous for teachers to correct me when I already sounded like a native speaker, since many foreigners still have huge problems getting tones & basic grammar correct.
By now I've taken into consideration the fact that even some people who don't speak Chinese as quickly/fluently may have vocabulary that I don't have, or many have amazing experiences actually living & traveling in China. I've realized that I have enough homework to work on, whether or not it's easier for me than for some other students with the same textbook. The lessons in both textbooks seem to be getting somewhat more challenging, too. As for my accent, it's become easier for me to speak at a more normal speed while curling my tongue, although I still speak more slowly than I would with a more Taiwanese accent. Although I still have reservations, I'm willing for now to at least learn to differentiate better between different sounds in a sort of compromise, even if my pronunciation still doesn't have enough "r" in it to really sound "correct" to many teachers. However, I have to say that I've given myself more pressure than IUP has--they really do give heritage speakers the choice and realize that it's not easy to change the way you've always spoken.
After the initial annoyance with the wrong test, being one of the only two students at the program (out of over 60) working with traditional characters hasn't been that bad either. The textbooks have the text and instructions in traditional, but both traditional & simplified for new vocabulary. I focus more on traditional characters when I'm reading, and I write my homework in traditional, but I get practice reading simplified as well in the textbook and in class, since the teachers usually only write simplified on the board. Sometimes the teachers won't know how to write some words in traditional, but it's not like it's difficult for me to go home and learn how to do it myself after first writing down the simplified characters.
Will be writing more this weekend about the workload, impressions of Beijing, etc. so far. :)
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Foreign student dorms at Tsinghua
This entry is actually from a couple days ago, since I was having trouble figuring out how to post (I'm doing it through Blog It on Facebook.):
I was getting ready to write the entry of all entries, but I've been too wiped out with moving into my apartment and socializing with other IUP students. I've been in Beijing for a week, but I haven't actually taken any classes yet--I took a placement exam online and did a phone interview since I was asked to do self-quarantine for several days after arriving on the 14th (thanks to swine flu). In any case, here's a very short entry about a frustrating issue that I dealt with immediately upon arrival.
The point: Beware of the Tsinghua foreign student dorms
So about two days before I came to Beijing, I saw a message on the IUP Google forum indicating that prices for the dorm had been doubled for students who were only around for the summer. Since the Light Fellowship haven't given me enough to pay for that--and rightly so, since it's a rip-off--I began freaking out about finding a place to temporarily stay and then looking for an apartment for the summer. I talked to an IUP staff member who was also quite angry at the sudden increase in prices, and very supportive in letting me know that I could stay short-term, while also supplying the name of a nearby hotel.
After arriving in Beijing and being dropped off in front of Building 19 (registration), I did indeed encounter problems. At first they wanted me to pay up front for two months of rent (the time of study indicated by my papers from IUP) even though I told them there was no way I'd be staying that long. I pointed out that I'd only found out two days ago that they jacked up their prices, I didn't have a place to stay, etc., etc. And I won! YAY! (Apparently another IUP student was forced to pay for two months' worth, so it's rather arbitrary...) If you move out early, the rent is returned to you.
In any case, the room I got assigned looked like a jail cell. The furniture and closet were made out of shiny new wood, but the walls were a dingy white with spots all over it. Getting internet access also involved talking to a really grumpy guy who didn't help explain anything about how it worked.
My point is that the dorms are run in a very unprofessional manner. No one at IUP knew about the price increase until one student showed up and was asked to pay over double the amount he expected, and I heard that one student who moved in *before* the price increase was asked to pay more. It may seem scary and inconvenient to find an apartment, especially if you're just there for the summer, but if you have the option, you should definitely take it. Most of the students I know are off-campus in the Wudaokou area, and the foreign student dorms are pretty far off, making it slightly inconvenient to hang out with other people. Also, former IUP students often post ads offering up their rooms, which is a pretty easy way to grab an apartment.
Luckily, I was able to contact a former student who had posted an ad for her room to the IUP forum, and I'm now living in the Dongshengyuan apartment complex (东升园公寓), which is a pretty ideal location for getting to class every morning. Tomorrow morning I'll be walking from my apartment to the IUP building at Tsinghua for the first time in order to buy textbooks and see what my classes for the summer will be like.
More later!
I was getting ready to write the entry of all entries, but I've been too wiped out with moving into my apartment and socializing with other IUP students. I've been in Beijing for a week, but I haven't actually taken any classes yet--I took a placement exam online and did a phone interview since I was asked to do self-quarantine for several days after arriving on the 14th (thanks to swine flu). In any case, here's a very short entry about a frustrating issue that I dealt with immediately upon arrival.
The point: Beware of the Tsinghua foreign student dorms
So about two days before I came to Beijing, I saw a message on the IUP Google forum indicating that prices for the dorm had been doubled for students who were only around for the summer. Since the Light Fellowship haven't given me enough to pay for that--and rightly so, since it's a rip-off--I began freaking out about finding a place to temporarily stay and then looking for an apartment for the summer. I talked to an IUP staff member who was also quite angry at the sudden increase in prices, and very supportive in letting me know that I could stay short-term, while also supplying the name of a nearby hotel.
After arriving in Beijing and being dropped off in front of Building 19 (registration), I did indeed encounter problems. At first they wanted me to pay up front for two months of rent (the time of study indicated by my papers from IUP) even though I told them there was no way I'd be staying that long. I pointed out that I'd only found out two days ago that they jacked up their prices, I didn't have a place to stay, etc., etc. And I won! YAY! (Apparently another IUP student was forced to pay for two months' worth, so it's rather arbitrary...) If you move out early, the rent is returned to you.
In any case, the room I got assigned looked like a jail cell. The furniture and closet were made out of shiny new wood, but the walls were a dingy white with spots all over it. Getting internet access also involved talking to a really grumpy guy who didn't help explain anything about how it worked.
My point is that the dorms are run in a very unprofessional manner. No one at IUP knew about the price increase until one student showed up and was asked to pay over double the amount he expected, and I heard that one student who moved in *before* the price increase was asked to pay more. It may seem scary and inconvenient to find an apartment, especially if you're just there for the summer, but if you have the option, you should definitely take it. Most of the students I know are off-campus in the Wudaokou area, and the foreign student dorms are pretty far off, making it slightly inconvenient to hang out with other people. Also, former IUP students often post ads offering up their rooms, which is a pretty easy way to grab an apartment.
Luckily, I was able to contact a former student who had posted an ad for her room to the IUP forum, and I'm now living in the Dongshengyuan apartment complex (东升园公寓), which is a pretty ideal location for getting to class every morning. Tomorrow morning I'll be walking from my apartment to the IUP building at Tsinghua for the first time in order to buy textbooks and see what my classes for the summer will be like.
More later!
Monday, May 25, 2009
Blogging aims, placement concerns
I was reading a few of the Light Fellowship blogs from previous years, and some seem to have a very no-nonsense style: information about the program curriculum, neighboring area, etc. Not that I won't have my own say about that sort of thing, but I hope that my blogging style won't come off as completely useless or uninformative either when I write about what seems to be less "practical." At least I'll be honest about whatever real issues I find myself dealing with, and anyone who reads this blog will find a reasonably thoughtful perspective related to living/studying abroad.
For that reason, in case anyone is actually reading this blog to learn about IUP or studying/living in East Asia, I'll try to keep my entries fairly coherent and tag them properly.
In particular, I hope that I can give a nuanced account based on my own background as a Chinese American and a Ph.D. student in literature.
During my phone interview, I was told that IUP has had very few heritage speakers as advanced as I am. They may be wrong about that, or perhaps the interviewer was being kind, since I have really shoddy writing skills and talk with the vocabulary of an elementary school student. However, since heritage speakers seem to end up being a minority in these programs, I'm interested in seeing how things will work out--how successfully IUP can manage training heritage speakers with a language background skewed very differently from that of total non-native speakers.
Also, as a Ph.D. student in Japanese literature, I'm interested in seeing the composition of students (undergraduate, graduate, and professional). Are there many crossover students such as myself who come from an academic background NOT centered around Chinese studies? How much hand-holding is there when it comes to dealing with living arrangements, etc.?
Not surprisingly, I'm currently most concerned about the placement exam during the first week at IUP. (T_T)
I would really appreciate placing into 4th- or 5th-year Chinese. Please don't make me sit through basic Chinese classes where it's 50%+ review--I'm sure filling in gaps is important, but right now it's most important for me to increase my vocabulary so I can actually read modern literature. I would love being able to speak impressive Chinese with perfect pronunciation and grammar, but unfortunately, I can't make it first-priority right now. I have to admit that I'm rather relieved to hear that there isn't an emphasis on tingxie 听写, since I think writing characters is a lost cause unless you're actually going to do it regularly on a long-term basis (which I will not be doing in grad. school). Another issue I need to figure out is how I will balance learning traditional/simplified characters, since I'm told that both are used at the program. I'm more familiar with traditional, but of course I would like to be able to at least read simplified fluently.
My plan? I have three weeks for: a copy of 社会与思想 from the ICLP program in Taiwan, which seems to be a 4th-year textbook (I believe they have the same one at IUP, but modified to fit a program being taught in China?), as well as the textbook in simplified from Chinese 153, a dictionary of the most basic 1,000 characters, and light reading that I've picked up. I also should just watch the news while I'm in Taiwan and start reading the news online, but there lies my weakness, since even in English I only go so far as to skim the NYTimes headlines. At an advanced level, language learning also becomes hard because you can get by reasonably well with what you already have, and it's difficult to push yourself to constantly be on the alert to pick up new vocabulary and pay attention to what's going on around you.
Right, I definitely don't obsess over language classes or anything. :) Hmm...I suppose after 5 or so lengthy years of Japanese language instruction, I'm even more determined to get the most out of my classroom time. I definitely do not want to be spending more time than necessary at language programs in the future, since I have enough to do with learning about literature!
For that reason, in case anyone is actually reading this blog to learn about IUP or studying/living in East Asia, I'll try to keep my entries fairly coherent and tag them properly.
In particular, I hope that I can give a nuanced account based on my own background as a Chinese American and a Ph.D. student in literature.
During my phone interview, I was told that IUP has had very few heritage speakers as advanced as I am. They may be wrong about that, or perhaps the interviewer was being kind, since I have really shoddy writing skills and talk with the vocabulary of an elementary school student. However, since heritage speakers seem to end up being a minority in these programs, I'm interested in seeing how things will work out--how successfully IUP can manage training heritage speakers with a language background skewed very differently from that of total non-native speakers.
Also, as a Ph.D. student in Japanese literature, I'm interested in seeing the composition of students (undergraduate, graduate, and professional). Are there many crossover students such as myself who come from an academic background NOT centered around Chinese studies? How much hand-holding is there when it comes to dealing with living arrangements, etc.?
Not surprisingly, I'm currently most concerned about the placement exam during the first week at IUP. (T_T)
I would really appreciate placing into 4th- or 5th-year Chinese. Please don't make me sit through basic Chinese classes where it's 50%+ review--I'm sure filling in gaps is important, but right now it's most important for me to increase my vocabulary so I can actually read modern literature. I would love being able to speak impressive Chinese with perfect pronunciation and grammar, but unfortunately, I can't make it first-priority right now. I have to admit that I'm rather relieved to hear that there isn't an emphasis on tingxie 听写, since I think writing characters is a lost cause unless you're actually going to do it regularly on a long-term basis (which I will not be doing in grad. school). Another issue I need to figure out is how I will balance learning traditional/simplified characters, since I'm told that both are used at the program. I'm more familiar with traditional, but of course I would like to be able to at least read simplified fluently.
My plan? I have three weeks for: a copy of 社会与思想 from the ICLP program in Taiwan, which seems to be a 4th-year textbook (I believe they have the same one at IUP, but modified to fit a program being taught in China?), as well as the textbook in simplified from Chinese 153, a dictionary of the most basic 1,000 characters, and light reading that I've picked up. I also should just watch the news while I'm in Taiwan and start reading the news online, but there lies my weakness, since even in English I only go so far as to skim the NYTimes headlines. At an advanced level, language learning also becomes hard because you can get by reasonably well with what you already have, and it's difficult to push yourself to constantly be on the alert to pick up new vocabulary and pay attention to what's going on around you.
Right, I definitely don't obsess over language classes or anything. :) Hmm...I suppose after 5 or so lengthy years of Japanese language instruction, I'm even more determined to get the most out of my classroom time. I definitely do not want to be spending more time than necessary at language programs in the future, since I have enough to do with learning about literature!
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Pre-Summer Thoughts
I have to admit that, getting the Light Fellowship, I've been feeling a bit out of place. Most other students are undergraduates, some of whom are going overseas for the first time or at least haven't spent a considerable amount of time living abroad. In general, they seem more optimistic and a lot more excited.
With that said, perhaps it isn't obvious, so I'd like to say that I am quite happy to be spending another summer outside of the U.S. While some of my fellow Ph.D. students in the dept. would rather stay in New Haven and read, I'm planning on spending the majority of my summers in East Asia. I need to visit my parents anyway, and I like being in East Asia. Tokyo--and Taipei, to some extent--feel like home to me just the way the East Coast does. Since I'm always worrying about my language abilities, refreshing them in the right country is a plus.
But spending several months in China for the first time, I feel more like I'm gearing myself for battle than setting out bright-eyed in search of adventure. For me, going to a foreign country means once again putting on some sort of protective mental armor. I need to prepare myself to field questions about who I am, shift into a different language, and struggle with deciding who I will be. I'm thinking about--body image issues in countries populated by skinny girls; lack of comprehension concerning what "Asian American" means; people talking about me/over me since I apparently don't understand; commentary about my facial structure, that inescapable question - "Are you mixed?"*; being asked whether or not I'm friends with any real black people; etc, etc.
My background overseas: I threw myself into an immersion program in Holland when I was 17--the experience shook me out of my shyness but only as a beginning. A summer at ICU's Summer Courses in Japanese (highly recommended), a summer interning at the TV station TBS, a year at IUC in Yokohama (also recommended) + another year (more or less) working at a major Japanese corporation--it took all of this for me to start feeling okay about my Japanese, and work out some of my issues with living in Japan. Going to Taiwan over & over for brief visits has left me with a constant vague irritation about my poor Chinese, and resignation concerning how even my relatives will always have confused & irrational assumptions about my language skills, as well as discuss my nose and how I look Southeast Asian or Middle Eastern.
Beijing will be interesting because as a Taiwanese Chinese American**, I have a very different accent and most likely quite different political views. Japanese politeness and indirectness resonate more with me than Chinese directness, and I'm easily irritated by mainland Chinese who come off as oblivious (KY--or 空気読めない in Japanese) and rude. I really don't think that the Beijing accent is the best thing on earth. ...I need to learn simplified characters. IUP will be my first serious attempt at improving my Chinese although I've been speaking and using it all my life, and I'll have to work on turning any frustration & impatience I have into productivity. It's always a struggle to find my way out of my reserve to be willing to engage with people more fully.
*Footnote: I do most likely have some Western blood on my mom's side, but it's only enough that I ended up looking "mixed" while my sister & brother look thoroughly Chinese, whatever that means.
**Footnote 2: My parents are from Nationalist Chinese stock in Fujian but were raised in Taiwan.
With that said, perhaps it isn't obvious, so I'd like to say that I am quite happy to be spending another summer outside of the U.S. While some of my fellow Ph.D. students in the dept. would rather stay in New Haven and read, I'm planning on spending the majority of my summers in East Asia. I need to visit my parents anyway, and I like being in East Asia. Tokyo--and Taipei, to some extent--feel like home to me just the way the East Coast does. Since I'm always worrying about my language abilities, refreshing them in the right country is a plus.
But spending several months in China for the first time, I feel more like I'm gearing myself for battle than setting out bright-eyed in search of adventure. For me, going to a foreign country means once again putting on some sort of protective mental armor. I need to prepare myself to field questions about who I am, shift into a different language, and struggle with deciding who I will be. I'm thinking about--body image issues in countries populated by skinny girls; lack of comprehension concerning what "Asian American" means; people talking about me/over me since I apparently don't understand; commentary about my facial structure, that inescapable question - "Are you mixed?"*; being asked whether or not I'm friends with any real black people; etc, etc.
My background overseas: I threw myself into an immersion program in Holland when I was 17--the experience shook me out of my shyness but only as a beginning. A summer at ICU's Summer Courses in Japanese (highly recommended), a summer interning at the TV station TBS, a year at IUC in Yokohama (also recommended) + another year (more or less) working at a major Japanese corporation--it took all of this for me to start feeling okay about my Japanese, and work out some of my issues with living in Japan. Going to Taiwan over & over for brief visits has left me with a constant vague irritation about my poor Chinese, and resignation concerning how even my relatives will always have confused & irrational assumptions about my language skills, as well as discuss my nose and how I look Southeast Asian or Middle Eastern.
Beijing will be interesting because as a Taiwanese Chinese American**, I have a very different accent and most likely quite different political views. Japanese politeness and indirectness resonate more with me than Chinese directness, and I'm easily irritated by mainland Chinese who come off as oblivious (KY--or 空気読めない in Japanese) and rude. I really don't think that the Beijing accent is the best thing on earth. ...I need to learn simplified characters. IUP will be my first serious attempt at improving my Chinese although I've been speaking and using it all my life, and I'll have to work on turning any frustration & impatience I have into productivity. It's always a struggle to find my way out of my reserve to be willing to engage with people more fully.
*Footnote: I do most likely have some Western blood on my mom's side, but it's only enough that I ended up looking "mixed" while my sister & brother look thoroughly Chinese, whatever that means.
**Footnote 2: My parents are from Nationalist Chinese stock in Fujian but were raised in Taiwan.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Plans for the summer!
I would like to thank those who are making this trip possible. As a Yale graduate student, I was lucky enough to receive the Light Fellowship this year for my summer at the Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies (henceforth, IUP) in Beijing, China. Thanks!
I have to admit that for awhile, at some point during the semester, I rather lost my enthusiasm for my summer plans. Dealing with bronchitis & other unexplained respiratory issues for over five months, I definitely did not look forward to spending a summer hacking and coughing away in Beijing's pollution. However, I've been feeling a lot better over the past few weeks, and I'm ready to go!
First, I'll be flying to Taipei, Taiwan, on May 22 to spend a bit over a week visiting with my parents in Linkou. I've been visiting Taiwan almost every year (usually in the summer) for the past seven years--usually for less than a month. My plans involve cramming Chinese language study on my own, lounging around the apartment soaking up the AC, trying to learn how to swim in the apartment pool, and going out to Taipei to hang out occasionally.
In early June, I'll be in Tokyo, Japan, for about the same length of time to reconnect with the city and also spend time with a few friends. I lived in the Tokyo/Yokohama area for two years before coming to Yale, and I'm already very happy to think that I will be revisiting my old haunts soon. I'll be visiting a bunch of places on the JR East Pass for the first time--planning for Nikko, Sendai, Matsushima, and Joetsu.
Finally, I arrive in Beijing, China, in mid-June and will be studying at IUP until mid-August while living in the foreign student dormitories. Afterwards, I'm planning on visiting Shanghai to see a high school friend, along with Hangzhou & Suzhou, and stopping at Xiamen to meet some long-lost relatives. From there I'll fly back to Taipei for a bit, and then return to Yale at last.
I'll be writing mainly about my experiences in Beijing and elsewhere in China, but I will probably also blog a few times when in Taiwan and Japan since I hope that will make things a bit more interesting. :)
More later on thoughts that I've been having about this summer...
I have to admit that for awhile, at some point during the semester, I rather lost my enthusiasm for my summer plans. Dealing with bronchitis & other unexplained respiratory issues for over five months, I definitely did not look forward to spending a summer hacking and coughing away in Beijing's pollution. However, I've been feeling a lot better over the past few weeks, and I'm ready to go!
First, I'll be flying to Taipei, Taiwan, on May 22 to spend a bit over a week visiting with my parents in Linkou. I've been visiting Taiwan almost every year (usually in the summer) for the past seven years--usually for less than a month. My plans involve cramming Chinese language study on my own, lounging around the apartment soaking up the AC, trying to learn how to swim in the apartment pool, and going out to Taipei to hang out occasionally.
In early June, I'll be in Tokyo, Japan, for about the same length of time to reconnect with the city and also spend time with a few friends. I lived in the Tokyo/Yokohama area for two years before coming to Yale, and I'm already very happy to think that I will be revisiting my old haunts soon. I'll be visiting a bunch of places on the JR East Pass for the first time--planning for Nikko, Sendai, Matsushima, and Joetsu.
Finally, I arrive in Beijing, China, in mid-June and will be studying at IUP until mid-August while living in the foreign student dormitories. Afterwards, I'm planning on visiting Shanghai to see a high school friend, along with Hangzhou & Suzhou, and stopping at Xiamen to meet some long-lost relatives. From there I'll fly back to Taipei for a bit, and then return to Yale at last.
I'll be writing mainly about my experiences in Beijing and elsewhere in China, but I will probably also blog a few times when in Taiwan and Japan since I hope that will make things a bit more interesting. :)
More later on thoughts that I've been having about this summer...
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