studies

goodness gracious! i have not written in a week and have too much to talk about. i may write a few entries today in order to catch up (apologies). highlights from this past week were:

- last week's classes flew by, probably because we were traveling on either end of the week. also, we didn't have any tests, because we took our midterm exam on wednesday the 14th, before leaving for beijing

- last tuesday, i ventured over to the pudong "new area" for the first time with karen, to meet up with one of her friends from university of kentucky that graduated and now teaches english to 13 year olds here in shanghai. he took us for amazing doner kebab, with a little chinese twist! he also showed us around the district a little bit. the pudong new area has all sprung up within the last 10 years... extremely rapid development. i swear it is another planet. more pictures to come from my trip to the top of the world financial center last night.

- last wednesday was john bryan's birthday, so we all went to helen's for western dinner and celebration. mama karen brought amazing mango pudding and black forest cakes from 85 degrees celsius, a popular shanghai bakery. 生日很好过。yay for finally posting good pictures of helen's...

- on thursday, lots of the girls went to club G+ (jackie chan's former club!!!) in xintiandi for the ladies' night deal. it was alright. if there is one thing we have learned, it's that real shanghai people mostly go out to karaoke places. the clubs are all europeans and americans! but wait until you hear about the nightlife in nanjing...

- on friday, we left for nanjing straight after class. of course, nanjing will get its own post.

anyway, you are probably wondering why this entry is called "studies" if nothing i have mentioned so far pertains to my academic endeavors. well, i promise that between all these activities, i am working very hard in school. because i have neglected to write about it, my grandma has sent a few interview questions. as a former school teacher, she demands to know :) so everybody else... fast forward to nanjing entry haha.

1. How many classes do you have?
every day is different. on monday i have 3 morning classes; tuesday 3 morning classes, 2 afternoon classes; wednesday 3 morning classes, 1 afternoon class, 1 one-on-one tutoring session with my main teacher to work on weaknesses or talk about problems in class; thursday 3 morning classes, 2 afternoon classes; friday 3 morning classes.

2. Who are your instructor and what are their backgrounds?
i have three laoshimen 老师们, teachers. shi laoshi is my main teacher. he is 23 years old, currently working on a graduate degree somewhere in shanghai but teaches us in the morning. overall he is a great teacher and lets his sense of humor show when we are working hard! my second teacher is zhao laoshi. everyone loves her because she is loud and hilarious (some would say obnoxious but we definitely wouldn't). she's a stickler for pronunciation and will make you repeat it until you say it perfectly! i was intimidated by her at first, but she came to beijing with us and really bonded with the group. she is 25 years old, from guilin. my afternoon teacher is wen laoshi, who is probably also about 25. very soft-spoken, feminine, and easy-going. we definitely need someone like her to go easier on us when we are super sleepy by 2 pm.

3. How many hours are you in class?
each class is about 45 minutes, with 10 minute breaks in between. we also have 1 hour to get lunch at any of the hundreds of cheap restaurants or street food vendors surrounding fudan.

4. By what method is your language instruction delivered?
anyone who has taken chinese with a native chinese teacher can answer this question! it is amazing how uniform the teaching methods are (minus the difference in pace; here we cover a lesson a day whereas at GW we covered a lesson each week and a half). there are three parts to teaching and learning chinese: 预习，练习，复习。preview, practice, review.

each night, we students [ideally] do homework that practices and reviews the day's lesson, then [ideally] preview the next day's lesson. we read the text, grammar, and new vocabulary. we memorize the characters that are new, and look up the ones used in the text that we haven't learned before. since i am in a class slightly above my level, there are usually LOTS of these unfamiliar characters.

in class the next day, we are called on to read out loud from the text (they are making sure we have learned the new words, can use them, pronounce them correctly). immediately after, we close our books and have to write a dictation given by the teacher (graded to make sure we have memorized how to write the new characters, about 25 new ones a day). the rest of the morning, we are drilled (question-answer) on the new words and cultural concepts presented in the text... and then on the grammar (ask and/or answer questions according to a pattern). it's very speaking intensive... and exhausting. you're always on your toes.

in the afternoon, we repeat it with wen laoshi and a different textbook and lesson.

5. How many students are there in your class?
in my class, chinese 201, we are altogether 6 girls! the program is divided into 4 classes, per the placement test we took when we arrived in june. 101, 201, 301, and 401 (the highest class is for native/heritage speakers that need to work on writing, grammar, and advanced vocab that their parents might not have used in the house). hey mom! shouldn't i be in that class?!?! i wish... :)

so that's it! grandma, you will forever be an amazing teacher at heart. hope this answers all your questions!