My first week at HBA is now over, :(. So the following are the highlights of my first week:
First day of classes:
Fourth year at HBA is pretty difficult, and classes work a bit differently from second year. Basically, fourth year is supposed to teach us how to use very formal language, the type of language you see in newspapers or hear in the news. As Wang laoshi put it, with our third year Chinese we can survive pretty well in China, so the goal of fourth year is to make us use Chinese in a way that makes us sound more educated. To achieve this goal, the teachers have given us a pretty heavy workload. Like last year, we have to read the lessons, study characters, etc. However, as a fourth year student we have many more assignments, such as: DAILY essays, preparing discussions, interviewing people in the city, etc. I'll be honest and say that the first few days I was doubting if I could take it. I felt that the workload would be pretty tough. But as the first few days went by, and with the help of teachers and classmates, I got into the rhythm again. Now I feel very comfortable, even if the workload is still pretty tough.
HSK (yes, it's back):
If you read my blog entries from last year, you know what I'm talking about. For those of you who don't know, HSK stands for Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (汉语水平考试). Its basically the equivalent of TOEFL but for Chinese. It's an SAT-like standarized test that determines your level of Chinese. This time, like last year, HBA students got the opportunity to take the HSK at the beginning of the program. We had the three-hour test on Friday, the same day we had the weekly test for our regular classes, which equals a total of 5 hours of tests on one day. I found the HSK pretty difficult, though not as difficult as last year, which is a good sign. I found that most of the time I understood what was going on, but when it came to answering the questions I wasn't very good at picking the best possible answer. Anyway, I think I definitely did OK on the test, and the results should probably come in a week or two. All HBA students will also have the opportunity to take the test one more time towards the end of the program.
Chinese "family":
Until now I'm not sure exactly what happened the night we were supposed to meet our Chinese family. On Friday night, after HSK, we all met in the auditorium where we held the first orientation activities. Basically there's supposed to be one family for every two/three students. Therefore, they started to call out the name of one family and of two/three students. When they called my name, they also called the name of a woman (which I assumed would be my Chinese mother) and another student. So I greet the woman and she greets me back as we well. However, as we were walking the woman told me to sit down with a Chinese university student and basically left me there, without ever coming back. Then this university student started to talk to me and we exchanged phone numbers, etc. So apparently, instead of having a Chinese family, I got a Chinese friend. I'm totally fine with it, it's just that I was prepared to meet a family, and not a university student. HBA also gave each of us another Chinese friend which is supposed to tutor us every week for two hours, thus now I have two Chinese friends.
Does this mean I'll have no Chinese family? Not to worry! That same night, my Chinese mother from last year (see last year's posts) saw I had returned and greeted me. She said she was very happy to see that I had returned and said we would remain in contact!
Great Wall and Karaoke:
On Saturday, like last year, we went to the Simatai section of the Great Wall. I honestly didn't want to go, since from last year's experience I knew I would be very tired. However, I forced myself to go. I realized that it would be a shame that being in China I would not go to the Great Wall. After all, I don't know if in the future I'll get to go back to the Great Wall, so I might as well take the opportunity. As expected, I was really tired after going up the wall. At first I really thought I would quit, but with the moral support of two teachers I went all the way up. Here are some pictures:
I thought I would just go to sleep after coming back from the Great Wall. However, Wang laoshi invited some fourth year students to Karaoke. We left around 9:00 p.m. and met up with some fifth-year students and teachers at the Karaoke place. We really had a good time singing Chinese songs and listening to classmates and teachers sing. Around midnight we then took a taxi back to our dorms, although some people stayed back and went to go dancing.
Well, this was the first week for me. At first it was a bit difficult, but now I'm very excited to see what happens in the upcoming weeks!
First day of classes:
Fourth year at HBA is pretty difficult, and classes work a bit differently from second year. Basically, fourth year is supposed to teach us how to use very formal language, the type of language you see in newspapers or hear in the news. As Wang laoshi put it, with our third year Chinese we can survive pretty well in China, so the goal of fourth year is to make us use Chinese in a way that makes us sound more educated. To achieve this goal, the teachers have given us a pretty heavy workload. Like last year, we have to read the lessons, study characters, etc. However, as a fourth year student we have many more assignments, such as: DAILY essays, preparing discussions, interviewing people in the city, etc. I'll be honest and say that the first few days I was doubting if I could take it. I felt that the workload would be pretty tough. But as the first few days went by, and with the help of teachers and classmates, I got into the rhythm again. Now I feel very comfortable, even if the workload is still pretty tough.
HSK (yes, it's back):
If you read my blog entries from last year, you know what I'm talking about. For those of you who don't know, HSK stands for Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (汉语水平考试). Its basically the equivalent of TOEFL but for Chinese. It's an SAT-like standarized test that determines your level of Chinese. This time, like last year, HBA students got the opportunity to take the HSK at the beginning of the program. We had the three-hour test on Friday, the same day we had the weekly test for our regular classes, which equals a total of 5 hours of tests on one day. I found the HSK pretty difficult, though not as difficult as last year, which is a good sign. I found that most of the time I understood what was going on, but when it came to answering the questions I wasn't very good at picking the best possible answer. Anyway, I think I definitely did OK on the test, and the results should probably come in a week or two. All HBA students will also have the opportunity to take the test one more time towards the end of the program.
Chinese "family":
Until now I'm not sure exactly what happened the night we were supposed to meet our Chinese family. On Friday night, after HSK, we all met in the auditorium where we held the first orientation activities. Basically there's supposed to be one family for every two/three students. Therefore, they started to call out the name of one family and of two/three students. When they called my name, they also called the name of a woman (which I assumed would be my Chinese mother) and another student. So I greet the woman and she greets me back as we well. However, as we were walking the woman told me to sit down with a Chinese university student and basically left me there, without ever coming back. Then this university student started to talk to me and we exchanged phone numbers, etc. So apparently, instead of having a Chinese family, I got a Chinese friend. I'm totally fine with it, it's just that I was prepared to meet a family, and not a university student. HBA also gave each of us another Chinese friend which is supposed to tutor us every week for two hours, thus now I have two Chinese friends.
Does this mean I'll have no Chinese family? Not to worry! That same night, my Chinese mother from last year (see last year's posts) saw I had returned and greeted me. She said she was very happy to see that I had returned and said we would remain in contact!
Great Wall and Karaoke:
On Saturday, like last year, we went to the Simatai section of the Great Wall. I honestly didn't want to go, since from last year's experience I knew I would be very tired. However, I forced myself to go. I realized that it would be a shame that being in China I would not go to the Great Wall. After all, I don't know if in the future I'll get to go back to the Great Wall, so I might as well take the opportunity. As expected, I was really tired after going up the wall. At first I really thought I would quit, but with the moral support of two teachers I went all the way up. Here are some pictures:
I thought I would just go to sleep after coming back from the Great Wall. However, Wang laoshi invited some fourth year students to Karaoke. We left around 9:00 p.m. and met up with some fifth-year students and teachers at the Karaoke place. We really had a good time singing Chinese songs and listening to classmates and teachers sing. Around midnight we then took a taxi back to our dorms, although some people stayed back and went to go dancing.
Well, this was the first week for me. At first it was a bit difficult, but now I'm very excited to see what happens in the upcoming weeks!
1 comment:
Wow HBA seems to get more creative each time I hear more about it. First the social study and now all the different things they added to the 4th year experience: newspapers, interviews, essays.
I'm glad you made it through your first week and to the top of the great wall. Thank you again for helping me with my luggage while you were attending to all of your class work.
We have the usual daily ke wens and grammar drills in class. Besides catching some meals, there is not too much time to really go out and see the city during the weekday. I hope we can still meet up sometime.
By the way, how did you manage to arrange your pictures the way you did? Mine are just kinda scattered on the front of my posts.
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