Could you repeat that?
Classes have started at the International School of BUCM and have made me quite a busy little girl. I've been quite out of touch with blogging and emailing, but this is simply because if I took time to get on the computer, it would take away from the ridiculously small number of hours of "free time" I have outside of class, self-studying, sleep, and desperate housewives watching.
In an attempt to become truly fluent in Chinese, I have registered only for classes taught in Chinese - this includes lectures, books, study materials, homework, and tests. I'm finishing up with my third week of class here and I can honestly say that I have just recently figured out exactly what class I'm taking at the moment. Here's how bad it is: when I bought my books for this semester, I couldn't read the titles of half of them. That, my friend, is a bad sign.
After three years of Chinese, you would think that I would be able to understand an intro lecture on Chinese Medicine. However, during the first week, I was struggling at around a 70% comprehension level. This might sound do-able to you, but here's an example of what I hear in class (chingchongcheng has been inserted for the 30% of words or phrases that I do not understand):
".....Now, we know that the most important advancement in the chingchongcheng time period is chingchongchengchingchongcheng. This technique involves using a chingchong to chengchung whenever physicians encounter changchingchong. The first major work from this era is the chingchong, written by chengchong. This work is extremely important because it is the first chingchongchengching. Mr. chengchong spent many years compiling these chengchong records, and his work is still used today by chungchong physicians for changcheng. We won't be reading the entire chingchong in our class due to time restraints, so all you need to remember about it is that chingchangchongchungchengchangchong."
Right, that 30% is pretty important. Don't worry, I can understand any of the conjunctions or grammar paterns they want to throw at me, but it seems that I'm missing a very important set of vocabulary words. My listening and reading abilities are slowly improving, but I've still got a long way to go. My review time after each class has decreased from four to two hours, and I've even started making time for lunch these days. My life is Beijing is shaping up nicely, and as soon as I can understand what changchengchungchong means, I'll be golden.
In an attempt to become truly fluent in Chinese, I have registered only for classes taught in Chinese - this includes lectures, books, study materials, homework, and tests. I'm finishing up with my third week of class here and I can honestly say that I have just recently figured out exactly what class I'm taking at the moment. Here's how bad it is: when I bought my books for this semester, I couldn't read the titles of half of them. That, my friend, is a bad sign.
After three years of Chinese, you would think that I would be able to understand an intro lecture on Chinese Medicine. However, during the first week, I was struggling at around a 70% comprehension level. This might sound do-able to you, but here's an example of what I hear in class (chingchongcheng has been inserted for the 30% of words or phrases that I do not understand):
".....Now, we know that the most important advancement in the chingchongcheng time period is chingchongchengchingchongcheng. This technique involves using a chingchong to chengchung whenever physicians encounter changchingchong. The first major work from this era is the chingchong, written by chengchong. This work is extremely important because it is the first chingchongchengching. Mr. chengchong spent many years compiling these chengchong records, and his work is still used today by chungchong physicians for changcheng. We won't be reading the entire chingchong in our class due to time restraints, so all you need to remember about it is that chingchangchongchungchengchangchong."
Right, that 30% is pretty important. Don't worry, I can understand any of the conjunctions or grammar paterns they want to throw at me, but it seems that I'm missing a very important set of vocabulary words. My listening and reading abilities are slowly improving, but I've still got a long way to go. My review time after each class has decreased from four to two hours, and I've even started making time for lunch these days. My life is Beijing is shaping up nicely, and as soon as I can understand what changchengchungchong means, I'll be golden.
posted by CC at
10:45 PM
1 Comments:
I just caught up on reading all of your blogs. First of all, I am so impressed by you and Phil. I would have cried and flown home after week one probably. Second, I think you should consider turning your blog into a book or series of articles for a travel magazine. They are hilarious. Love and miss you!
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