~ CET Harbin Language Pledge
So it begins. The language pledge. What were once lively conversations have since become crippled exchanges between groups of CET students looking at each other over their mountains of homework. Slowly, a conversation (in Chinese!) will begin, developing promisingly as those involved gradually become more invested and more confident in their language abilities, people excited now that they are able to amply express themselves and their opinions, the conversation increasingly fluent as words begin to flow quickly and without bounds...until someone utters the lethal "tīngbudǒng" (听不懂, I auditorily don't understand you) and suddenly silence descends.
From now on I am only allowed to speak English to my American family. Outside of that, this blog will be my only English outlet for the summer. FDJGKDFGOSFFFJDKGS.
Some things:
- I met my Chinese roommate! His name is Zhang Chiye and he is a second year electrical engineering (see AWESOME) student at the university. At first I was afraid that conversation might be awkward (given my language ineptitude), but things are actually great. His background story is a little sad since he, like so many Chinese people, was forced into his major due to the 高考 (massive life-determining college entrance exam that makes the SATs look like a game of go-fish) but he's somehow managed to not be bitter about it. In fact, he's hilarious.
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| The pillow doesn't really do him justice but it is a good representation of his sense of humor. |
- Who do I need to talk to about the weather? Harbin is essentially in Russia, yet it is still very hot here (though nights are cool). Unclear how anything gets done during the day in Chinese universities when there isn't any air conditioning and one has just had a large bowl of 榨菜肉丝炒饭, otherwise known as hot-pickled-mustard-tuber (don't laugh) meat fried rice.
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| Doesn't that look delicious? |
- Yesterday we had lunch with our 1-on-1 professors who will help us with our 8-week long research project. Mine is Sui laoshi, a 50-something preventive medicine (预防医学) researcher-type person who focuses on "top priority easily transmittable diseases" like TB, H1N1, and AIDS (艾滋病 in case you were curious). She is another victim of the 高考, as well as conservative parents who apparently didn't think civil engineering/architecture, which are very desirable majors, was very becoming for a young Chinese woman. So now she tries to protect unsuspecting villagers from contracting AIDS. The amount of knowledge inside her head is almost frightening; this woman can tell you something about almost any aspect of the Chinese health-care system from preventive medicine to medical distribution to health insurance policy differences between regions of China. Tomorrow is our first legitimate class so I'm planning on reading (thanks, Wikipedia/Google) about the health situation in China for preparation.
- Outside of the 1-on-1 topic, I have three other classes: 1-on-2 drill class, composition, and business Chinese. The 1-on-2 consists of two students and one teacher; the students recite dialogues and discuss topics while the teacher leads the discussion and mercilessly corrects pronunciation and tone mistakes (huáshèngdùn...huáshèngdùn...huáshèngdùn...). Composition class is focused on written Chinese, which differs from spoken Mandarin in both grammar and vocabulary; students study a variety of styles and imitate them to learn how the Chinese put down thoughts and feelings on paper. Business Chinese is exactly what is sounds like. I'm not sure why I'm taking this last class as I studied economics for three semesters at Yale and have hated them all, both individually and together as a whole, though the chapters on medical insurance and environment look pretty good. Vocabulary words like "welfare and remuneration" (福利待遇) and "focused strategic management" (专营主业战略管理) aren't helping. Whatever, no pain, no gain.
魏德
哈哈！那么好笑！
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