Monday, May 14th
Today was our first day of classes here at Sichuan University. After spending yesterday exploring the area surrounding the campus and settling into our dorm (it's more like a hotel, it even has free maid service and free breakfast) it was refreshing to have a more concrete schedule this morning. Classes started at 8:30 and we all went to the Foreign Languages Building (四川大学外国语学院) to find our classrooms. Our professor, Yin Laoshi (尹老师) was so energetic for an 8:30 AM class! Additionally, we signed a language pledge for every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday while we're in Chengdu that prohibits us from speaking any English between 8 AM and 6 PM. Between her high energy and our language pledge, we had no choice but to jump right into language learning. It was rewarding to see that I was able to get through 3 and a half hours of class entirely in Chinese. Though progress is slow in language learning, this is a milestone that reinforces the effectiveness of the work that I've been doing.
Class went quickly; our teacher was dismissing us before we knew it. A handful of us met up and decided to go find lunch. Waiters in China are so nice; they had a special table set up for our big group and were accommodating that we were in a rush, as we didn't arrive at the restaurant until 1:20 PM and we had to be back at our classrooms at 2 PM. Once back in the classrooms, we met our language partners who'll be providing one-on-one tutoring for each of us. Talking to the language partners was exhausting since they all spoke very fast and asked challenging follow-up questions. It made me realize just how valuable it'll be to work so closely with native speakers, especially when they're this patient with our fumbling. After talking to the language partners, a few of us went to get bubble tea, but we asked Leanne to order for us, since she knew how to order and the rest of us didn't.
The language pledge is a mental exercise, unlike anything I've done in my education experience. It's weird how quickly our brains adapted to using circumlocutions and gesturing. Having a wide range of language experience spread throughout the program is valuable and it helps keep the conversation going when it hits a standstill. By the end of the afternoon, it felt like the new normal. However, I can't lie that it was refreshing once we could have the English flowing again. The language pledge is at once a great way to develop conversational habits and a reminder/motivator of how much work is to come.
After some relaxing time in the AC of our dorms, we set out for exploration. It felt as though it kept getting hotter as the evening drew on. The humidity seems to permeate everything. I didn't expect a city so far inland to have such humidity, as my experience inland in America has proven to be relatively arid.
Setting out to wander for a few hours, we ended up getting dinner on the same street as last night. The diversity of restaurants in Chengdu is amazing. It's definitely held up to the warning that there's no such thing as "Chinese food" as the diversity of Chinese food requires further classifications. It's nice to be building into a schedule and getting acquainted with the university. The campus is beautiful, but it's relatively large so it'll take some work to become comfortable with finding everything.
We have class again first thing tomorrow morning, so I'll spend the rest of my night studying today's vocab and previewing tomorrow's. Though we're only taking one course in a classroom, there's handily work enough to keep us busy. More updates to follow next time I write the blog, sometime next week. Thanks for reading!
- Kevin M.
No comments:
Post a Comment