Panda Musings

So the site has fallen into slight disrepair, the classes at ICLP can keep you so busy that your head spins right off. Regardless, you have to attack things with a plan. Random moves and work won’t get you anywhere. The workload is simply too large to not have a plan. So with that in mind! It’s the weekend which means it’s prime time for review. I’ll be doing a review of all the grammar patterns and vocabulary acquired thus far in these past two weeks…if I really have gotten a handle on it then the review should be a very fast process. The next thing is writing in my Chinese Journal (sometimes a very long process) and then crashing into the current lessons that I’m working on. Sounds pretty jam packed, but I took last night off from working on anything and am seeing another film for Taipei’s film festival. I can’t complain too badly : D

I have been meaning to update but been a bit busy watching my brains splatter on the computer lab’s screens as I work at ICLP. I will be sure to throw everything up here asap. The big theme recently has been restaurants…which has actually come in handy as well as some words like “borrow” which I’ve been managing to get a lot of mileage out of. Today was a backwards day for me as I took a few steps back and lost some ground in my training. I’ve cooled off now and am working to build a medium between ultra confident and knowing I don’t know a bit of the language. It’s going to take some thought, but will do me a lot of benefit down the road, I’m sure of it.

This week has been crazy rough for Chinese studies. The vocabulary isn’t sticking in my head, and much worse there are moments where every single word and sentence pattern I should know slips from my mind at the worst conceivable times. Normally, I don’t like letting on that I have issues when it comes to studying and retaining, but this is a blog about musings and should also therefore be something that points to growth on the behalf of the writer. My method of study is really weak, I tend to just aggressively attack whatever material I have for absolutely way too long stretches of time. I do sprints, not marathons. It’s not a good way to go about it because it lacks any sense of pace. I’ve also managed to kill the fun out of studying and developing a new language. What standards am I working against? I am at ICLP to learn and develop the skills to learn and speak Chinese, yet I feel as if I have broken, shattered my brain into a thousand pieces and in the process am left wondering why I decided on Chinese. It seems like a stupid question now, I do it because I find joy in it, yet like I said before I put a hold on the fun bus and have no idea how to turn off the parking brake and get myself back down the road. As I walked home from school I just felt all this frustration well up inside me. If you can picture it, you have all these thoughts and desires to share with the world around you, but imagine not being able to communicate even a basic thought, an idea. That’s where I’m at. It’s a shame because I am in the perfect place to train. The only thing that is keeping me from flourishing in Chinese is myself.

Have you ever wanted to loosen up on your own standards but found that the process of trying to loosen only caused you to clamp up even worse? It’s a matter I’ve been struggling with big time. It seems like it would be easy to say, okay I am going to speak Chinese, yet it has not come to me as easily as I assumed it would. Tones have been ridiculously hard and my one-on-one class has become a battlefield where I am constantly misfiring and speaking language in sputters. I normally don’t touch on religious matters on this space because it has a much more focused slant, but I felt and still feel called to study Chinese. If my Christian slant has ruffled feathers, oh well, I’m not going to deny my own right to believe. Bah focus on topic!! My mind’s just flooded with all this new material without a good way of accessing it. It comes down to, okay yes this is an intensive environment, but what can I do to file and access all of the newly gained information? Speaking has been difficult since now I am constantly aware that 9 times out of 10 I have the wrong tone, which is a huge, huge deal in speaking Chinese. When trying to speak I have a tendency to speak it as if it were English and add emphasis on certain words, thus taking its proper tone away. What can I do to internalize tones? It’s a difficult puzzle that I have yet to even begin to crack. Any thoughts?

As to my sudden why am I here crisis, I am not particularly worried about that. I believe it happens to anyone who hits a brick wall in their studies. You look back, having thought you made great progress, and are forced to ask concerning what you achieved. The fact is, I want to speak Chinese, learn more about and research the historical events within China, and of course make new friends in my travels. It’s what I have to work with right now. I intend on holding on to that. So what can I do to lighten up on myself and break down the mental barriers? Thoughts?

While writing this, I can hear people in an apartment right across from mine fighting. It’s weird I can actually understand what the man is yelling about. Wow…maybe there is hope for me after all.

I checked one of my homework assignments only to find that it has marking all over it. I often strive to make my sentences more complex so the markings are always welcomed. I want to find out what I did wrong and how to fix it, improve it. Lucky me they don’t mark in red…just green. Eh, green the life giving color. It reminds me of how I felt when I got a writing assignment in one of my history classes back. It literally had more ink on it then I originally handed it in with. I felt bad and a little miserable, but then realized each mistake was a great learning experience. If you take it that way you can loosen up a bit and dissect it. If you sit and only see markings and failure, you’ll never be able to make any progress or look at your own work with the proper form of critical analysis.

Picked up a quick meal at Vegetarian Paradise and am now ready to roll for another night of work. I have two sets of vocabulary to prepare for as well as some grammar aspects. I’ll be posting up the lists of both later on tonight. The big thing is a new assignment consisting of crafting well thoughtout journal entries in Chinese…funny how laoshi pegged me as the type to journal. It’s a fairly hand tailored assignment, and I am digging a challenge. Just for my own sanity writing out my schedule: 1)FEEC Dialog/Vocab(listen/write)/Grammar 2)PAVC Same set up, create flashcards. Speaking of flashcards, I still need to get more use out of that Anki program, that’s probably best done another day though. Alright Let’s do this!

I need to find a way to really beef up my training. The classes are intense, but as of yet I am not rising to the occasion for these classes and need to find another tool or method to get myself up to that next level. Maybe a quick talk with my Laoshi will handle it. I just need to find other ways to improve my training methods, because right now I just sort of do “whatever” until I feel like my brain is going to explode. The problem with this is that it is an unguided workout. That’s not a good way to train. Imagine if you went to the gym and did some different exercise every single day. Yeah sure you are exercising, but what are you really accomplishing? It takes a good regiment of exercises that are strategically planned and then thorougly executed nigh daily to have solid and more importantly lasting improvement. I’ll be thinking about these training methods and let you know what I come up with!

Today marks week 2 of ICLP classes. Everything went by real smooth like, which is awesome, but it tells me something. I am not pushing myself hard enough in terms of what I expect out of the course. If my expectations are too low, my work ethic will also take a fairly severe nose dive. The large goal, overarching is a better phrase, should be to internalize grammatical structures as well as develop a mouth for tones. This should be on top of all other homework assignments.

Tonight’s homework is pretty light given that I am a little ahead of the curve with my vocabulary. Lin Laoshi gave the students a roleplaying assignment where we create a dialog based on a situation given to us, via random selection, at the end of this morning’s class. My assignment “Ask the staff for the postage and time-spent of a postbard, a regular letter, and a registered letter. ” It sounds really straightforward, but it took me a little while to put together. The problem isn’t that I don’t recognize vocabulary, only that my familiarity is more than a little weak. It simply isn’t flexible enough to create a new situation other than a mirror of what is given in the book Far East Everyday Chinese. This is the same exact problem I experienced with Integrated. Part of my problem with integrated was just straight up the book doesn’t encourage you to think outside the dialog. Here, I am dealing with the effects of that mindset. (While I am writing this I am working on another assignment which is to listen to myself from my one on one class. I sound retarded…) : P Maybe a post about the records could be helpful.

So, now that the main piece of homework is out of the way, I have a mission: type out the different grammar pieces, blow them up on a piece of paper and print those suckers out. Also, I have been having serious issues with the sound represented in pinyin as “c” which is said like “ts” of students. I either make it sound like a z or too aspirated and therefore a “t” I need to hang out with a linguistics person focusing on how sounds are made. It would probably be helpful. Alright, let’s put up those grammar sheets! And then silly sounds ahoy : D

I have never made a very good weekend worker. There is some sort of time device that makes Saturday speed by so quickly that it is essentially impossible to accomplish whatever it is that you set out to do. This phenomena is a crime against productive humanity! That aside, I tried to work my way through some of the homework assignments I got from my classes on Friday. The language homework is always tricky because I often don’t know how to properly phrase something. If I view it as a practice and not as a test or mortal kombat, I tend to loosen up and take more risks on potential misusing a sentence structure. I figure the comments and markings from the teachers will be more helpful if I stretch myself beyond my means a little bit.

Right now I am on the third lesson for Practical Audio Visual Chinese (Book 2!)–all of this can be shortened to PAVC. The lesson works through a restaurant situation to teach its grammar and vocabulary points. Trying to get what you want to eat when you don’t have the right vocabulary or making word salad can be next to impossible. The vocab list I have been slaving away at!

• 給 gei for this chapter means for (the benefit), to
• 介紹 jie shao is a verb for introduce or suggest
• 魚 yu is a fish, I don’t believe it is necessary to add word for meat to make it the food.
• 非常 feichang, an adverb ,meaning very or extremely
• 對 dui in this instance is a coverb meaning to, toward, for
• 牛肉- Beef, the first character by itself means cow or bull
• 青菜 The second character is incorrect but I couldn’t find the actual one in my list : ( means vegetables, green ones!
• 雞 ji is Chicken if you want it to mean like the meat throw the character “肉” at the tail end of it.
• 湯 tang means soup and will often be the last word of a phrase describing what kind of soup it is!
• 封 measure word for below word
• 信 Letter, we’ve had this one in other books
• 謝 when doubled it means thank you but by itself is a Chinese surname
• 替 ti is a handy coverb meannig for, in place of, a substitute for.
• 錢 qian–money but also a Chinese surname
• 問．．．好 “wen….hao” is an idiomatic expression use to wish someone well or send your regards
• 方 fang for this lesson is a Chinese surname
• 自己 zi ji oneself or by oneself to make yourself for instance simply take on that character to ni and make “你 自己”
• 碗 wan is the measure word for servings of food but can also straight up mean bowl.
• 大家 da jia means everyone or everybody. If addressing an audience a speaker can say “大 家 好”
• 慢用 man yong is an idiomatic expression meaning to enjoy your food literally translates as “Slowly use”
• 水果 shui guo is the word for fruit, for specific types of fruit take off the “shui” and put the appropriate word infront of “果”
• 刀叉 dao cha is a knife and fork set as opposed to the traditional chopsticks “筷子”
• 湯匙–tang chi a soup spoon
• 句 “Ju” measure word for sentences and phrases. This word is also seen in: 句子 meaning a sentence
• 鉋 “Bao” character meaning full, typically dealing with eating so “to be full after eating”
• 毛筆 The second character “bi” deals with writing utensils and the 1st character (字) let’s us know it is a brush

Pretty heft vocabulary list, but all necessary words. Often times it seems like I pick up a useless character but actually turns out to fit with a whole bunch of characters, thereby becoming handy to know. For the grammar it looks as if it will be straight forward, awesome. The first piece is a redux of a previous lessons work on using question words as indefinites. Now we can figure out how to give the idea of inclusiveness or exclusiveness. They show two patterns: (S)–Question Word–(S)都–V We can use this structure to say things like “He knows everything” or conversely another pattern, (S)–QW(S)–都/也–Neg-V “He doesn’t know anything. It’s a really handy technique to have in my little bag of tricks now. The idea of course is that we don’t literally mean he doesn’t know anything, rather that what he knows is so pointless or not meaningful that it is like nothing. The book gives tons of examples to go with it, most of which I had to sort out a little it in my head before I got it. I keep having to remind myself that the grammars don’t match each other! Exclusiveness intensified give the idea of not even a little bit. So we can throw this structure into our sentence, which I know is written 句子, “(S) 一 MW–N 都/也 Neg-(AV) V. This gives us something like “I can’t sing any song at all.”Alright sweet but what if I don’t want to use a measure word in it at all. Instead of using a measure word we can drop 一 點 兒 into the mix which will still give us the same general “at all” feel.

We are now talking about how to use less and more as adverbs instead of what is termed as a stative verb (if you just raised your eyebrow at that we can touch on it later). The structure here is: 多/少 (more/less) V (Number-MW) (Obj) It gives you the ability to say “East a little more, Drink a little less…etc.” While that may not seem like much it can go a long way. Oh I bought less paper than I need…things like that. Even though we could maybe find simpler ways of phrasing things, we have to move away from a childish language to more dignified, complex ones. The final piece that we will be looking at for the first half of the week is using certain words as coverbs and setting up indirect objects, although I think the setup can do more, details as I get them. We have five words that the book gives for right now (跟，給，替，用，對) These words can help give more clarity about what we use to eat, where something is directed to, substituting for someone, all sorts of goodies tonight! The tricky thing will be internalizing these aspects and making use of them in everyday speech.

Onwards to finishing up a forgotten piece of homework!

I haven’t gotten opportunity to write on the first few experiences I have had at ICLP here in Taiwan. ICLP (InterChinese Language Program) is a well established program. Many scholars in Chinese studies from all different academic backgrounds deem this program to be among the top to get good and solid training. It is a title that is well deserved. I have never had such a full throttle educational experience. The place is less of a school and more of a training camp…boot camp? Without a frame of reference the school can be difficult to understand so let’s hit on that important note first.

ICLP, located at National Taiwan University, has made its mission to teach scholars good Chinese into a mantra that is focused on finding the strongest teaching method. The school is filled with brilliant pedagogues who constantly attempt to find the best and most appropriate training method for any given student. They start off with a general rule of not having any class larger than about four people as its maximum. Right now for instance I have two classes that are a total of three people (myself included). The smaller class sizes eliminates the possibility of a student hiding within the crowd. The hiding element commonly creeps up in normal language courses at universities across the states. You don’t know how to say such and such phrase or didn’t do the homework? Okay, just hide behind someone else and don’t get seen. Well, that doesn’t work here. At all! With smaller classes, each student receives a great deal of attention. Most importantly is also a fair amount of pressure to perform at higher levels, lest ye hold backeth the class! There aren’t really grades, although you do take an exit exam to assess your gains since entering the school, but the distinctly personal approach leaves students wanting to do well. Another key factor, ICLP makes use of extensive testing on both written and oral skills in order to gauge where each student’s level is at. This has some major benefits. If your speaking is pretty solid you will get put into a higher speech course. But say if your reading abilities suck, okay so you start off at a lower level for writing. Although each student is placed in classes that are meant to challenge and push them, I have yet to see a student get put into a course that is inappropriate for their skill level. Certainly students will groan about the amount of work. Yet everyone is equally dedicated to progressing. Upon entering the school you sign a contract to speak only Chinese in ICLP’s classroom, hallways and offices etc. Interestingly enough they allow you to write in your own punishment clause if you fail to stick to the Chinese only rule. I wrote in that I have to scrub both levels’ floors by hand. My lack Chinese skills have effectively made me silent when not in class unless it is using some of the pocket phrases that I have on hand.

Once classes start, ICLP’s awesome teaching style gets cranked to a whole other level. The teachers that you have for your classes will talk to one another about your performance, books, lessons and vocabulary. What they try to do is establish a core class which all of the classes connect to and reinforce. The bridges between classes have been absolutely helpful for me. One book may describe a piece of grammar better than another etc. The books function together very well.

This has me thinking about my school’s approach to teaching Chinese. ICLP’s methods get me very excited about the potential directions my institution could take their language training. What ICLP does here could be somewhat mimicked at other universities. No school has the resources to fully does what ICLP successfully does here, that’s not what we should be going after either. We need to be thoughtful planning how and what we teach our students about Chinese language. The courses, no doubt, could be more intensive and perhaps other books than integrated Chinese could be used. Integrated is geared specifically towards foreign students, but this comes with a penalty. The grammar tends to be explained from a very Western perspective. Chinese grammar however has little to no connection to English’s way of constructing sentences. While Chinese grammar seems much more simple than English, it still takes a little getting used to. There are many concepts in Chinese that simply have no cross over to English. What this may mean is the use of multiple books and the absolute requirement for every single student to purchase a dictionary. Anyway, I’ll get off of my horse for right now. I keep wondering what I can do to help with the budding Chinese program at Mary Washington. I think it has a lot of potential, because students at UMW have a strong dedication to learning and are very passionate about the courses they take. No one goes into a Chinese class lightly, and I firmly believe that if we were to intensify the courses somewhat, that the students would rise to meet the challenge.

To be honest, my experience at ICLP has been highly frightening. My two semesters of Chinese does not take me very far here. My training before ICLP did not internalize grammar and vocabulary. I could essentially make the sounds and some of the tones, but in no one was producing language…just sounds. There’s a difference just parroting and full on taking the language as your own. Language is not just a grammar structure and vocabulary. It is a feeling, a feeling of communication, of connection. I have started a new blog space to talk about my homework and new lessons. The space is more focused to just saving the information I gain rather than being a flowery swirl of thoughts and confused sentences! More extended posts on language training and difficulties of Chinese, for instance I could talk for days about tones, will still be on the Panda Musings, because that’s what they are! So if you are interested, check out: gongke.umwblogs.org

I have had a few people back at home in the States ask me about the food in Taiwan. I feel that I could never capture the full nuance of food in Taiwan or even my little section of the island, Taibei (or taipei for some people). All that being said, I will be introducing you to a place called Shida Night Market. A place filled to the gills with a wide range of tastes, styles of cooking and smells.

You wake up from a short nap after touring around the city in the hot sun and swimming through a particularly humid afternoon. Let’s say you are staying at a wonderful little hostel called “The Chocolate Box Backpacker” located just around the corner from the night market. You turn down a narrow lane lined with scooters and walk towards Shida Rd. (師大路）You’re now standing in a constructed park with some strange kind of sculpture. Straight ahead you see a sign for Watson’s 24 hour store, known to some residents as the everything store. You get hit with a wave of different smells and decide to carefully cross the street, deftly dodging both cars and the numerous scooters flying down the road. You can’t read any of the signs and have no idea where to go so you start to wonder around trying to find something to eat.

Taiwan’s variety of food is literally without end. What’s even more beautiful about food here, you can eat on the absolutely tightest budget. Food, depending on where you eat, can cost you the equivalent of one maybe two USD, which is just glorious. Shida Night Market has small food stalls with certain unrecognizable meats and even well known American chain stores like Subway, Burger King, and Pizza Hut. You decide you want to at least avoid going to the “normal American” place. But do you really want to eat a traditional Taiwanese dish? Mimicking Western food has become a pretty popular thing here in Taibei. I’m only going to tell you about two of my preferred places that you could walk to. If you were say looking for some good western food. A great place to go would be a restaurant called “Grandma Nitti’s Kitchen” located on an alley kind of across from a 24 hour cafe and bar called Jr. Cafe (if you are wondering who the Sr. of that Jr. Cafe is, it would be a popular club called Roxy). Grandma Nitti’s offers two awesome things, cheap paperbacks for sale and solid Western style cooking. On their menu you’ll find waffles, omelettes, veggie burgers, and even quesadillas. If you pop in for dinner you can typically get a drink and piece of cake thrown into a full dinner package. I have only personally gone once, but have many friends who love to eat there. I personally vouch for their tasty veggie quesadillas which are made with a delicious sauce. When you are eating take a look around you. You’ll probably notice that there aren’t too many foreigns or even expats hanging around the place. Rather, it is packed full of Taibei residents…I take it as a very good sign.

But we all know what Western food tastes and smells like. You want to try something a bit different, more local food. Well you’re in luck. The traditional and “modern” cultures blend together in strange ways and produce situations where you have a 7-11 (just straight up called 7-11 by locals of xiao qi (little seven) close to the more traditional spot you’ve selected for your dinning experience in the heart of Shida Night Market. The food style is called Luwei. Quite simply, it’s a food stall with a wide arrangement of meats, veggies and styles of noodles. You pickup a pink basket and a set of tongs. No one is going to direct you so you stumble through the crowd and pick some meats…maybe a piece of tofu?, and definitely some broccoli. You also get the option of picking either rice noodles or the typically ramen noodle packet. You don’t have to get the noodles but it is a nice touch. The rice noodles are my favorite option, they tend to soak up the flavors around it and become awesomely delicious. Oh man, you are too slow!! “太慢！“ A woman with a large knife grabs the pink basket from you and starts to count out the food and chop everything off. A young man next to her yells the price to you…except you don’t speak Chinese and sort of stumble through trying to figure it out via holding fingers. You mange to only have to spend about 90 TWD (equivalent to less than 3 USD). In return you get a full, hefty plate of food cooked in delicious oils and sometimes made with a fair amount of kick if you say you want it “hen la” very (Not as strong as english very) spicy. The workers point you to the inside of a building and walk cautiously up a somewhat steep flight of stairs with your wonderful smelling dish. there’s lots of people (adults, teens, families) eating and talking loud with one another, when a woman comes up to you with a clipboard and a blue piece of paper with funny symbols. You look confused and she maybe says “Tea”. The paper is filled with different types and styles of tea both hot and cold, milk, red, or green teas. All of them are tasty. You figure since the dish is still hot that you’ll get something cold and pick a set of characters that seems to inspire something. She asks “hong haishi lu?” You look confused and just point to one…lucky you you picked red (my favorite!). You devour your meal with your newly acquired skills using chop sticks.

Taibei also has numerous amounts of bakeries along every single street. Even when running late for classes I can still quickly stop into a bakery and pick up a tasty morsel for my breakfast consumption. My favorite thing for breakfast however is the rice ball called “fan –an pronounced more like “on” –Tuan” You can get these rice balls for next to nothing and they will stuff it full of meats, or eggs and some spices. The balls are served hot and tightly packed together by a middle age guy who labors over each ball like it is his child. He’s an artist or the rice balls. You can typically pick up a cup of cold tea with the rice ball for around 45 TWD. That is a steal, I am telling you , for how delicious it is!

Even as I am writing this, I am at a small restaurant called the Red House which sells tea, breakfast, and Budweiser. All of their seating is located on a small open balcony level overlooking the night market. Tonight I picked up a pot of hot ginger milk tea and have been sipping on it as I wrote both blog posts for tonight. The tea here costs about 150 TWD a pot and each customer has to order a minimum of 150, but this isn’t really too bad considering you can stay how ever long you want and the place is open until 3AM. $150 is the equivalent of 4.50 in USD and the tea is rocking. Its also a great place to listen to Beatles music, which I think is the owner’s favorite band to listen to. Okay, well that’s enough writing for one night! Hope I’ve at least gotten you more interested in the food. Don’t worry if you are too scared by local food…there are tons of Mcdonalds and Starbucks everywhere! Not that I would step foot in any of those places : P