Classes at Nankai

Lots of classes at Nankai take place. As we speak though the classes for the regular student body are finishing and people are graduating left and right. For me though on this summer study abroad though things are beginning to get difficult. I didn't realize how much of a drain traveling to a foreign country would be, but it is a wonderful experience and I am glad I am on this program!

I have two Hanyu language teachers and four Hanyu classes Monday through Friday. On Tuesday, Wednesdsay and Thursday I have a culture class after lunch and then of course Tai Chi Monday-Friday at 7:00.

I will in one of my upcoming blogs make sure to take photos of each of my teachers! My Tai Chi laoshi is pretty cool. Zhang laoshi - my recitation class teacher - goes wayyy to quick and never likes any of my tones and complains that I don't know enough characters - those are hard to learn, especially with our schedule - for me at least. Wen Laoshi - our main Hanyu or Chinese teacher - is really awesome! She is very understanding and always likes my tones :-D. Our culture class teachers have taught us only once each so I can't really comment on them.

I like the structure of the Tai Chi class, waking up though sometimes is really a struggle and inner battle - that so far I have won everyday! The Hanyu class is starting to get really hard and I just don't have the time to learn over 24 characters in less than a day. Luckily half of the class has had some, if not, 2 years of Chinese at UMD and so they don't make us all look that bad as a class.

If you take a close look at my pictures you will notice exactly what we are learning in classes. And I must add that whenever we learn how to easily get around China I pick those things up most quickly!

In the beginning of the course we were asked if we would like to partner up with a language partner to practice our Chinese and them their English. Well I wanted one, in fact I asked for a girl... and they gave me a wonderful language partner who has shown me all around Tianjin! And she has helped me practice my Chinese without laughing too much, and I her English - which is much better than my Chinese.

To recap as Xiao Ma - or little horse would say - to remind you of today. We saw a picture of the classes at Nankai, a turtle at Confucius' temple to remind us of UMD, a little girl in the city of Tianjin who wanted a picture with me and my language partner.

Zaijin till next time,
Signing off,
Joe

p.s. I asked her what she thought of Mao and what she did if anything for the victims of the earthquake. Apparently her highly educated parents wake up every morning and wish Chairman Mao a long life. She doesn't like him that much though and thought he made many mistakes. And she sent money for earthquake victims.
Sounds like any other girl.