September 21, 2001

  • Some Appo?


    Learning Chinese from scratch must be one of the hardest things to do.  The second week of classes here have just ended and already, I have a lot to do!  The foreign language students here have 18 hours of class each week, and in my class, I learn about 20 new characters a day.  I should know about 200 by now, and although I can read most of them, I can probably only write about half.  In China, the students are taught simplified Chinese, which basically means that the characters have less brush/pen strokes than traditional Chinese characters making it easier to learn.  Yeah, whatever!  But I will tell you that the world around me is slowly starting to make sense.  It's a bit frustrating though, because I can only make out maybe 1/2 or 1/3 of the signs here, perhaps in 3 months enlightenment will come.  Jane, your note (from what I can understand) is very touching!  Thank you, and the day that I can read everything you wrote, I will write you back in Chinese.


    Learning Chinese here is probably a little easier for me than many at home though, there are many resources available to me.  A common thing to do among foreign students here is finding a language exchange partner.  The desire to learn English is very strong here, especially North American English and for one hour of conversational English, one hour of conversational Chinese is taught.  It's quite easy to meet a language exchange partner here.  The local students just hang around the gates of the Foriegn Students Centre and look for white people to pair up with.  I met with one of my language partners for the first time yesterday and it was a helpful 2 hours for both me and her.  I think I know what I have to do to improve myself.  Our initial introduction last week was quite awkward though.


    "Hello, you looking for partner?  Maybe we can study each other?"


    "Uhh... (apprehensive because she was pretty aggressive), sure but how does this work?"


    "Well, we can do sex-tions (I swear that's what I heard).  We can take turns, one time you first, then next time I go first."


    Well, you can pretty much imagine what was going through my head at this point, I was quite scared actually because I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into.  But things worked out fine, she's actually a very 'nice' lady.  And thankfully, she is married.  Her name is Carol, and if you like, you can learn about her in the Sept. 16 post.  I have taken on some other language parters as well, because one hour is just not enough.  A group of three girls I will take on Monday, and a new friend (Margaret) has agreed to help me out, and maybe teach me a little Shanghainese.  Margaret's English is really good (she really is too modest) and I am actually ashamed to be learning from her.  I honestly don't know how much more I can teach her.


    Friday is my favourite day at Fudan.  Not only because the weekend begins after class though.  The reason is quite funny.  At Fudan, the 18 hours of class are divided up into 3 sex-tions.  12 hours are for reading and speaking, 4 are for grammar, and 2 are for writing.  We have a different teacher for each section and I think I have a crush on my writing teacher!  Haha... the last time I had a crush on a teacher was in grade school (No Rob, not at St.Henry, they were pretty bugly there), a grade 2 teacher named Miss Keating.  But back then, only good thoughts were in your mind, perhaps buying your teacher an apple or something.  But alas, age has corrupted me, and bad thoughts seep in like water into the Titanic.  Bad boy!  Haha... ah well, too bad she is my writing teacher, I see her only 2 hours a week.  My Chinese would probably improve substantially otherwise, haha!


    I got my favourite Nike's stolen the other day.  I'm so pissed, damn people here will steal anything they can get their hands on!  My roommate and I have so much crap that we put the shoerack outside of our door.  One morning I woke up and my shoes were just gone.  My roommate lost 2 pairs of his own shoes and now everything is inside our room.  I'm pissed not only because I paid so damn much for them, but because Nike's are my favourite shoe brand and are quite costly here.  Actually, any imported brand here is pretty expensive compared to local prices.  The prices are about the same as Canadian and US prices and I feel quite ripped off paying for stuff like that, considering a local brand is much cheaper.  I will have to survive on my sandals for the time being.


    Tonight I am going to the restaurant where Linnete and Carol work.  They are waitresses and work Fridays and Sundays.  They're going to give us a 10% discount on all drinks, and want to go clubbing with us after work.  I think I might call it an early night though, I'm quite exhausted and have a lot of work to do tomorrow.  Margaret is also meeting me on campus tomorrow, she is going to introduce me to some area on campus that might give me exposure to people who are willing to pay to learn English.  Maybe I can make some extra money to buy more junk for my room.


    I was hoping to write a bit more about Shanghai and Fudan for those of you interested in travelling here or perhaps just learning about the two.  I have recently gotten some literature on them and will type it for you next time.  It's quite interesting actually, Shanghai is definitely a city you must visit if you plan to travel to Asia.  Well, until next time...


    Simon is missing his friends a lot more these days.  Miss you guys!  Have fun at the QSEAC dance, and Happy Birthday Kirb!  Alex! 

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