An American Chinese Education

Please watch this:

I wish I could sing like him.

This is how I wish I sounded:

A child speaking better Chinese than me.

This semester, I’ve been working on three blogs. Two are for Chinese class, and one is for a MIIS vegan potluck night sponsored by the school. I like all three. Last semester, however, I did not have a lot going on, and I started a wordpress blog for a side project. This semester, I have had no time to update it, as you can see if you check out the dates on Chinese Food for Thought.

I have always made fun of blogs. I hated telling people about mine last semester. Just saying “I have a blog” makes me feel stupid because most out there are incredibly self-centered. I really enjoy the two that are organized through our Chinese class. The one in Chinese is a great method for homework assignments. The English blog has allowed me to understand my classmates.

I think I might be done with my other blog, but I think if I ever become a teacher, I will try to incorporate these duel blog assignment into my curriculum.

First of all, if this is actually going to turn out to be another Jersey Shore, I will be overwhelmed with disbelief. I do think it is quite interesting that MTV is hoping to start another reality tv show with an all Asian/Asian-interested cast.

Now that I have that off of my chest, I can explain that I love learning Chinese through China’s history. It is not always the most useful, but the stories are fascinating. Sometimes the new vocabulary does not sink in quickly.

I had an interesting conversation with Chris after class last Monday about the importance an event carries when it is not something that people like to discuss. There are often times the most important historical details to study. In my experience, it is obviously not a smart idea to aggressively try to discuss the Cultural Revolution with those who lived it, but if the topic is brought up, it is essential to know the details of what happened in China. It displays your respect and dedication, when discussed appropriately, to Chinese culture.

….is not very good.

On my recent trip in China, a friend at the company we worked with told me that with different tones, Shili means selfishly out for one’s own benefits. A man I befriended on a long train ride from 德州 to 上海 gave me the name 斯理 (si li ), although I cannot determine the exact meaning.

I loved my name 史立 in high school because my teacher said that it means “standing tall in history,” but since high school, Chinese people generally give me a strange look, even when I pronounce my name correctly.

Any recommendations?

We have to speak a lot in class. This is great. I still struggle with my accent and tones, but I notice slight improvements. The TA sessions also help me feel more natural when I am speaking. Last session, I incorporated a few different grammar structures without even thinking about it.

It is a great feeling to speak Chinese and not think about it. I missed this feelings. Not that it is happening a lot these days. It only occurs every once and awhile. But at least I feel like I’m making progress.

My vocabulary is a different story. As school gets more intense and my two jobs pile more projects on, Chinese is the first course that receives less attention–not because it is less important, but because I have to practice Chinese everyday. So when I have a full day of work and school and homework, Chinese gets cut. It’s unfortunate. After a good class or TA session, I think about how much progress I would make if I just studied Chinese and nothing else.

I love the language. I want to study each individual character and the radicals. I want to study tradition Chinese, so I can understand the root of each character’s meaning. But learning the tones, improving my awful pronunciation, altering my grammar, changing my pace of speech, augmenting my vocabulary, and practicing writing characters demands a lot time, especially when this is one of my 6 courses. It’s too bad.

I struggle with tones. It is obvious. When I began learning Chinese, we learned tones, but it was never stressed. I don’t mean to blame all of my previous teachers. I share the blame. I always knew how important tones are to speaking Chinese. They are everything.
My accent is also troubled. It is certainly improving, but at the same time, it can only get better. This week’s TA session made me focus on my pronunciation. I spoke a lot more than in class. Now I have a new tool….

Learn Chinese Tones

….I haven’t followed it yet, but we will see.

I don’t know if everyone is looking through each other’s blogs for this class, but I checked out everyone else’s blog this week. It was interesting. Most focused on what we are doing in school and learning Chinese. A few were a bit more personal. I enjoyed this difference.

It impressed me that some students are willing to share their feelings about experiencing MIIS life. Personally, the academic or social adjustment has not been extreme. Chinese class is where I feel the most self-conscious. I hate thinking back to when I did not have to think through speaking basic sentences, when I was much more conversational. Dai Laoshi wants me to practice reading every day. I hate to hear myself read. It doesn’t sound like Chinese. I know I have to in order to get better. I guess I just feel embarrassed to have studied something for so long and not be good at it.

Like I said in my last post, I have competing studies. I know I should be studying Chinese for a least an hour or two every day, but after reading 200 plus pages about carbon markets, reviewing new Chinese vocab is not exciting. In this class, I am hoping to improve my accent and get more comfortable speaking. This summer I plan to expand my vocabulary.

I got off subject a bit. I think it’s important for us as a class to share what we are uncomfortable with, be it MIIS academics, social scenes, or language capabilities. This openness can make our class sessions more comfortable and allow us to truly help each other.

Studying Chinese demands a lot of time. The most successful programs demand a full-time commitment, sometimes a language pledge to not speak or communicate in anything other than Chinese. I have no intention of complaining about being at MIIS, but studying to get a Master’s Degree certainly impairs the process of significantly improving one’s language capabilities. Unfortunately, standards for progress must be set lower than those for a full-time language program.

There are certainly several opportunities to combine interests. I have friends who do similar papers for a policy class and their Chinese class. This is actually ideal-learn the same concepts in two languages. Still, it seems like studying for my IEP classes complicates my language studies more than the other way around. Maybe it is because I have more IEP classes than language classes, but more likely is the fact that language studies demand more of a full-time commitment. If I took four Chinese classes and one IEP class, I would not have the same issues with my IEP studies that I currently have with Chinese.

Last semester, this balance was a bit easier to maintain because I had the time for a language partner once a week and my class was much more memorize and regurgitate. What I learned, however, did not stick. I am hoping I can maintain good study habits this semester and over the summer to keep what I learn from this class.

Over the course of my different Chinese classes, I have encountered a few ways to study. MIIS language classes differ in how we only meet for class twice a week.

In other classes, when we meet four or five times a week, it is easier to regiment study habits. One of my teachers required that we prepare 5 vocabulary words each weekday and 7 over the weekend in addition to class studies. We had to write each word a number of times and use it in a sentence, and hand it in for correction.

In one of my Chinese classes at Yunnan Shifan Daxue, we had to stand up in front of the class and speak for five minutes about any subject. We obviously had to prepare some vocabulary for that as well.

At MIIS, I’m trying to figure out a way to keep working every day. I like that we have homework that we have to hand in, that then gets corrected and we have to make the changes, but we are not really using any textbook with a set vocabulary list. My thought right now is to make a notebook not just of vocabulary words, but an alphabetical list of each character. At my most fluent, I learned new words by putting together the characters and making sense out of their meanings. I think this will help me remember words in the long run.

Any thoughts?

I have attended Mandarin classes for over a decade, mostly in the US and a few in China. Courses in the US have been rather frustrating. Class conversations regularly included a great deal of English, and testing primarily tested student capabilities. Other measures for assessing progress were largely absent. Classes in China were incredible. Obviously, testing stood out as a main educational tool, but class time included significant oral practice and a bare minimum of English.

One week in this Chinese class reminds me a lot more of China than my primary and secondary Mandarin education in the US. I appreciate Dai Laoshi’s more modern approach to education, among other things ignoring testing. While this approach may seem more relaxed, she complements it with requiring a great deal of work. She emphasizes speaking and listening, as well as conceptual thinking.

I am excited for this semester.