First Week of Classes

Last week was the first week of classes at Beijing Normal University. The Saturday before classes began, I received my class assignment and purchased my books.

Upon receiving the class assignment, I found out I was put in the level two class, even though I told the school at least 10 separate times I really need to start from the beginning level. But of course, they didn't listen. I think they were jaded by the fact that I could speak a little bit, understand most of what people are saying to me and read a very tiny handful of words, since some of Mandarin is similar to Cantonese and I still remember some things form Chinese school. But I figure, well, its their Chinese program so they probably know best; maybe the first level would be too easy for me.

I show up on the first day of class, and that class was way beyond me. There were a lot of words I had never learned. Not to mention that they study simplified Chinese in mainland China and I had previously studied traditional Chinese characters, so half the words I do know are unrecognizable to me now. (Traditional characters are still used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and maybe Macau.)

So after some explaining to the teachers and a visit to the College of Chinese Language and Culture, I was able to switch into a beginning, level 1 class. Truthfully, I might have been okay in the level two class had I worked really, really hard but I knew had I stayed in the class I would become increasingly frustrated and unwilling to learn. Plus, my basics of Chinese language are very faulty as is and you can't build a house on a faulty foundation and expect it to last.

Now, I'm in the level 1 class and it's much better. Currently, it's a bit easy for me when it comes to reading & writing and listening, but I'm sure in a few weeks it'll get harder for me. There's a few things I'm kind of "reverse-learning" as I call it, especially when it comes to pinyin. Pinyin is a phonetic system that uses the English alphabet to spell out the sounds of various words. When I studied previous, my school didn't use pinyin to teach us, so now I'm formally learning it. Sometimes, the teacher uses words that I already know the character and pronunciation of, to teach the pinyin so occasionally, I feel like I'm learning things backwards. Nonetheless, pinyin is very useful since all the street names here in Beijing are both in characters and pinyin.

However, I'm horrible at speaking Mandarin, so it's nice to be in a class with others who are struggling as well. I think my main problem with speaking what many would call performance anxiety. Often times, when I'm alone, I can think of the correct words to say and in the correct (or almost correct) tones, but when it actually comes to speaking, my mind goes blank and my tongue moves on its own. Hopefully though, I'll get over this soon...

Okay, gotta check if my clothes are dry, again.