2nd week

Hello there,

today I finished my second week of Chinese language class at Shida University. Wow, how the time flies! In the first week I was just so overwhelmed by all the new impressions. Now that the class more and more becomes a daily routine, I can have a more objective look at it and tell you about it.

What still is great about the class: lots of lots of talking! We are speaking Chinese all the time, and we are being encouraged to do so. While having those conversations we always pick up new vocabulary that is REALLY useful and not in the books. What will certainly get much better is my vocabulary and what comes with that is my ability to express myself in Chinese.

On the other hand, writing does not seem to be so important for my teacher. When I compare this class to my class back in Singapore, that is totally different. In Singapore, we had a dictation every class and so everybody was kind of forced to study all the characters so well that we would be able to write them. In here, it is not so much about writing but much more about recognizing the characters and being able to read them instead of being able to write them. My Chinese speaking has improved for sure, but I cannot say the same about my writing skills. Well, for me that is okay, since I also care much more about the speaking skills! But for people who are more into (hand)writing Chinese, and cannot motivate themselves to study on their owns at home, that might be a little issue since you won't be forced to write all the time.

Now we are 9 students in the class. That is because some students changed their class to mine. With 6 students as before, it was much better. Well, they offered us to change to another class that just has like 4 students, but nobody whished to do so, for sure because our teacher is so good. So you see, there are also some drawbacks of having such a good teacher!

Talk to you later! :)