First Week of School

I just finished my first week of school at ICLP! The teachers are wonderful, the classes are interesting, and I feel my Chinese is improving dramatically already. I have four hours of class everyday from 8am to 9am, from 10am to 12am, and again after lunch from 1pm to 2pm. Of course my classes are all Chinese language study, but different classes focus on different areas and are of differing levels of difficulty. My first class, which focuses on modern Taiwan, is relatively easier and should be very helpful for learning traditional Chinese characters. My second class is a one-on-one class where I practice speaking Chinese using the grammar and vocabulary from the textbooks. My third class is the hardest, as it consists of reading excerpts from newspaper articles and listening to recordings of those articles to practice listening to the news, reading the news, and talking about the news. My last class uses a textbook on Chinese culture and while harder than the first class, it is easier than my third class.

Homework is a lot but relatively straight forward. It consists of preparing for class, listening to the tapes, reading the passages, and learning the vocabulary and grammar. There are no dictation quizzes and from what I can tell, few exams if any. Instead, we are expected to come to class prepared and knowing the material.

On Tuesday morning, I traveled with several other students to Taipei's Confucian temple where we got to witness the Teachers and Students Festival, a celebration held every early fall on the birthday of the Chinese philosopher Confucious. Thousands of spectators crowded into the narrow spaces around the courtyard where school principles and officials presided over the ceremony. One of Confucious' descendants said special chants, while a student band played traditional instruments and young students danced traditional dances. President Ma attended the ceremony as well. In olden days, the ceremony would end with the slaughtering of a bull, following which parents would fight over the hairs of the bull, believed to bring academic success to their children.

On Wednesday evening I went with Malaysian Ray (one of my roommates) to get our visas extended. The visa office was not anywhere near as slow or crowded as I thought it would have been.

Finally, yesterday I learned Chinese Chess from a classmate. While very different from Western Chess, there are still many similarities. Once I learn how to play the game better, I'll do a blog post on it, explaining how to play it and showing pictures of the board.

Picture: Confucian Ceremony