Class:
In general, class seemed to get easier as we got to the last two weeks. I'm not sure if I was actually getting the hang of how to study most efficiently or if I just got lazier, but in any case I seemed to have much more free time on my hands. In general, our 课文 got less interesting as we ventured into some economic and political topics. I can barely keep up a conversation about this in English, much less in Chinese. I enjoyed these much less than the culture-oriented lessons in the first few weeks. Our last lesson, however, sparked my interest in continuing Chinese, even if it has to be an independent study if I don't have room in my schedule. This lesson was on Chinese chengyu, which basically are meaningful four-character phrases that have a story behind them. I talked to my Mom about them, and was a little surprised at how enthusiastic she was about these stories. They are, after all, essentially fables. But these were a lot of the stories that she grew up with, and to her they describe some of the best parts of the Chinese language. I think that conciseness is valued in any language, and chengyu are the epitome of concise. I grew up with some of the more common sayings, but also encountered many when I took calligraphy lessons with my daddy. Before this lesson, I was worried that the summer had beat the will to study Chinese out of me - it was a spontaneous decision that led me to take it at Yale and to go to China, and I usually don't do spontaneity. I had a lot of second thoughts over the program (usually during Thursday night cram sessions) because I found learning monotonous and boring - I was only learning to know the language. But now that I've found a new direction through which I want to keep learning, I am a lot more optimistic about my future relationship with Chinese.
Teachers
I definitely had a rough start with my teachers, but they definitely ended up being one of the better parts of the program. Judging from other blogs I've read, I don't think I had as close of a relationship with them as others did with their teachers, but it still was a new experience to learn from teachers with such an apparently different background. We talked a lot about 中美文化交流， or exchange of culture between China and America, in class, and I think the best example of that was any given class. I think the closeness in age (and sometimes maturity level) and their unbridled enthusiasm made our classrooms a more engaging environment. I wish that I had gotten to know my teachers a little better outside of the classroom - a goal if I ever do a program like this again. I'm thankful that our class was very close-knit - 很自然 considering five of us were in the same class at Yale. But having a separate heritage class was nice - if we had different people in 大班 every week, or if we had been combined with 非华裔班，the experience would've been different.
Meeting my Yale tutor
The day before I left, a group of the Yale heritage students and I met up with our tutor - Wanting - for some 台球(pool) and dinner. It was fun to see her, but it was also encouraging to hear her say that our Chinese had improved a lot! I've always found it hard to measure improvement in Chinese because even after so much study, I still struggle with it daily. But it wasn't until I compared how easy it was to speak with her now vs. our last tutorial at Yale that I realized how much I have improved. Otherwise, it was great to see the PiB students and gloat about how we were done with the Language Pledge. Our program was definitely less intense than the PiB program, judging from how many lessons they do a week. But I'm glad that DSIC was more 轻松。
Yubanr
My yubanr and I had a farewell dinner together. Generally, we got along well, but I wish I could have had a language partner who was more friend and less language partner. We had very different personalities, and I think we often got frustrated with the other. I don't remember what I filled out on the form about language partners, but for anyone who is doing a program like this, I would highly recommend taking your time to fill out the answers to that form. Having a good yubanr can really change your experience in China, if only you don't have to dread the hour every day, as I know some people did. My language partner was also a stickler for rules. I know some people didn't meet for the required 4 hours every week, but we definitely did. At the time, it got tiring because everyone else had an extra hour for napping/sightseeing/studying, but when I think about the insights I gained and language practice I got, the time was definitely worth it.
ExploringOne of the places I wanted to go to was Central Perk. After hearing about it from a friend and reading the CNN article, the coffee shop, which apparently looked exactly like the one from Friends, sounded really cool. Finding it was not so easy though. We looked up the address and saw SOHO amidst some Chinese, and automatically assumed that it was the SOHO building we always saw from Sanlitur. Silly us, there are apparently many SOHO buildings all over the city, because SOHO China is a developer of commercial properties in Beijing and Shanghai. The Sanlitur one is the newest addition, evident from the multiple empty buildings we walked into. Each one was built beautifully, they just lacked shops and people. On this particular adventure in Sanlitur, we went to the Yashow Market instead, another version of the Silk Market, but less crowded and less pushy. This area of Sanlitur fascinated me. In a few minutes, we were able to walk from the sophisticated, brand-new Soho buildings to an average building housing the market to rundown, old hutongs and buildings that looked as if they had two days until collapse. And this is all very close to the bar street and the high end shopping near the Adidas plaza. There were so many contradictions around us.
We continued the search for Central Perk another day and went to Chaowai Soho, near Guomao Plaza and the CCTV tower. We found it at last, but were very disappointed. The sign on the window was close, but the interior was not nearly as similar to the show as the article made it sound. That it was on the 6th floor of a ritzy commercial building may have also added to the discrepancy. Even so, our adventures on the way to this coffee shop were fun. As long as we were in the area, one last trip to Xiushuijie was essential to get some more collared shirts/polos for the boys, and fake purses/shoes/scarves/clothes/all things imaginable for me. Since we knew exactly how much we can get for these things, bargaining was much easier. I miss the prices, but I do not miss the difficulty of acquiring new things!
This is a view of the Guomao area from the 60th floor of the Hyatt Hotel Tower. One of my favorite views of Beijing, possibly because it didn't really look all that much like Beijing. Much more like Shanghai:) It's also one of the few places where you can look over the fence of the CCTV tower.
The final banquet was wonderful. We had a giant banquet room in one of the nice restaurants at Ximen, and we had courses and courses of delicious food, including 北京烤鸭(Beijing duck). The teachers put together slideshows of pictures and videos from China Night to play for us, and also awarded the most improved in each class, based on the pre/post test. It was amazing to think back to how awkward the Welcome Banquet was, when we all barely knew each other and had no idea what was going on.
Our heritage class had a table together, and it was nice to celebrate with our teachers. This is a picture from our last class.
In the last few weeks, I was constantly complaining about how ready I was to be at home. It's true, after the 25 hours of travel I was very much ready to be at home, but I didn't think I'd miss China as much as I do right now. I may not miss the daily vocab or the air or the food or the weather, but I miss all of the people and daily experience of living in China. Hopefully I'll see some of the people I met again - future road trips to Duke/Brown?A few last pictures -
Decorations at a local restaurant we frequented. The other walls had African safari animals and Nelson Mandela in honor of the World Cup.
冰at故宫 - one way of making the day bearable
popsicles - the key to making it through the summer
Thank you very much again to the Light Fellowship and Greenberg Foundation for making this summer possible! It has been unforgettable.
