Nimen Hao

Hey everyone. Sorry for the delay. China is currently blocking Google
Blogger, so I haven't been able to access my blog. Apparently my test
post worked, so here we go for real.

Since many of you reading this are either friends or family, I'll give a
summary of how things have gone so far. If you aren't a friend or
family member, you're probably considering the Light Fellowship or have
already won a Light Fellowship and are trying to decide which program to
attend. After the summary, I'll give some recommendations for HBA and
advice I might have found useful in starting the program.

Today is Sunday June 21, so I have been in Beijing for 9 days already.
Amazing how time flies.

My flight landed at around 2:00pm on Friday June 12th. After slowly
moving through the slightly intimidating swine flu screening process, we
finally met our teachers (waving a giant HBA flag) about an hour and a
half later. Since we were picking up other students from other flights
as well, we had to wait at the beautiful Beijing airport for about two
hours. Despite the fact that we all wanted to get our rooms and go to
sleep, it was a good opportunity to meet people while we were still
allowed to speak English.

After about an hour bus ride, we finally made it to Beijing Language and
Culture University (BLCU). The campus is beautiful - trees everywhere,
ponds, modern-looking buildings. And fun - tennis courts, basketball
courts, a huge soccer field. We received our room keys and finally got
to see our rooms. Amazingly, my single room here is nicer (my own
bathroom, my own tv, who needs anything else?) than the single I'll have
at Yale next year.

Though we were all exhausted, a group of us who met at the airport (two
Yale students, seven Harvard students - pretty much a good
representation of the whole program) decided to explore the surrounding
area, Wudaokou. For our first meal, we couldn't bring ourselves to give
up food from home, so we ended up at a restaurant called Grandma's
Kitchen - overpriced American food. Our first mistake. Chinese food
here is much cheaper, and usually better. We checked out a few stores
and restaurants then decided to call it a night.

The next morning, the same group of us got on a bus and head to the
famou Wangfujing street market. While struggling to find it, we walked
by Tiananmen Square, checked out a giant mall, and took a Beijing subway
(much nicer than in New York). Eventually the jet lag hit us again, and
we decided to head back.

On these excursions, we had our first (of many) extremely challenging
conversations in Chinese. Here's the problem: once you indicate to a
local that you speak a little Chinese (such as by saying "ni hao") they
assume you are fluent and rapidly fire back an answer to your simple
question. This resulted in many blank stares and long awkward moments
of confusion. Somehow though, we managed to buy cell phones (extremely
useful and not too expensive), order food (mostly by pointing to
pictures and saying "zhei ge" - "this one"), and get directions (mostly
by following hand signals).

Then Sunday was orientation and the dreaded language pledge. We signed
the pledge at about 5:00pm, then left for dinner. A terrible
experience. At that point, our Chinese wasn't very good, so we were
mostly silent, occasionally muttering things like "I want to speak
English" or "This food is very good" or "That placement test was really
hard" or "I am very tired." Not exactly thrilling conversations, but we
all stuck to the pledge. And struggled.

Classes began Monday morning. Here is my schedule:

8:00-9:15: Da Ban Ke (Big lecture class)
9:25-9:50: A small reading practice class that I still don't know how to
say in Chinese
10:10-11:00: Xiao Ban Ke (Small drill class)
11:11-12:00: Another Xiao Ban Ke (Another small drill class)
Lunch break/homework
1:30-2:20 or 2:20 to 3:10: Dan Ban Ke (One on one conversation class)
3:30-5:00: Extracurricular Activity (Music, calligraphy, tai chi)
Dinner
7:30-9:30: Office hours and homework (very useful)
9:30-12:00: Homework

Then I got up at 5:30 every morning to review character and grammar
before the next grueling day of classes. Honestly, being here makes me
miss about 2-3 hours of class a day at Yale. Life here is exciting, but
the work and memorization is nonstop. For example: at Yale, we had to
memorize about 6 characters every night. First night here: about 100.

But we can all tell that it is already beginning to pay off. The
initial one sentence conversations turned into fluent ones - basic, but
fairly fast-paced. Then the basic sentenced began to develop into
slightly more sophisticated ones. We have a long way to go, but we've
already gotten to the point where we can approach people in stores or on
the street and have meaningful conversations.
After our two-hour caoshi (test) and hour long oral
presentation/conversation on Friday, all of the teachers went out to
lunch (for free) for Zhongwen Zhuozi (Chinese table). One of the more
relaxing and fun times of the week. At 1:30, we were free.

A note about being a foreigner (waiguoren - literally foreign country
person) in China. On both Friday and Saturday afternoon, my friend from
Yale and I played tennis at BLCU. Each time we played, Chinese people
would constantly stop and stare at us. Living in America (especially
New York), you get used to diversity. Here in China, it is rare to see
foreigners. There have times when we have been walking around in a sea
of people - and we have been the only foreigners in site. I guess
seeing two foreigners play tennis (and struggle to say the score and
make calls in Chinese) is an odd site.

We were supposed to go to the Great Wall on Saturday, but there was
supposed to be a huge storm in the area, so we pushed it back to next
week. We went to a Beijing Opera performance instead. The music wasn't
my favorite, but it was entertaining.

And that brings me to today, sitting at Tous Les Jours, a nice coffee
shop with free wireless internet (I decided not to pay for internet in
my room - too much of a distraction). Tomorrow morning, the cycle
begins again. Now for some information about HBA for those of you
thinking about attending.
_
_Why You Should Go To HBA:__ (Obviously I can't say anything about the
other programs, so talk to other people too):

1. The teachers. All of them are extremely friendly and willing to
help. Classes aren't necessarily fun, but they manage not to let you
get bored. There are office hours for two hours every night, and all of
the teachers are always willing to help.

2. The rooms. The BLCU conference center is like a hotel. You get a
single. Daily room service. Very, very comfortable.

3. Weekend activities. Not sure about other programs, but HBA seems
very interested in making sure you get to experience Beijing on top of
learning Chinese. There is a trip organized for every weekend, so
you'll always have something to do.

4. The work. Yes, it sucks. But if your goal is to learn Chinese, and
you take it seriously, you will. I am not very good with foreign
languages, and even I feel like I have improved a lot already.
5. Food. All you can eat breakfast for 10 kuai (about $1.40) every
morning in the lobby. Good, cheap restaurants nearby.

6. The kids. Obviously this changes every year, and I am sure the kids
on the other programs are nice too, but everyone here is friendly.
Don't fear the Harvard kids. They are nice to the Yale students.

I'll post more as I think of them.

_Some Advice That I Might Have Found Useful: _

1. Get to know as many people as possible (really) before the language
pledge. As soon as you can't speak English, it becomes really really
hard to meet people and make new friends. Learn as many English names
as possible. Exchange cell phone numbers. Get to know them. I
guarantee that it will help once you begin the language pledge.

2. Get out early. Again, getting around becomes incredibly more
difficult when you can't speak English to your friends. Get to know the
area so you have reference points when you have to resort to charades to
indicate what you are talking about.

3. Go out in general. There are times when I have just wanted to sit in
my room and either do homework or watch tv. Do your homework, but go
out. You pick up a lot of vocabulary simply by having to deal with new
situations. Having conversations with your friends is very helpful too.

4. Get to know the guy who runs the coffee shop on the second floor of
the conference center. He is incredibly friendly and excited to help
students improve their Chinese. I have already had two long
conversations with him, and he is an excellent teacher.

5. Follow the language pledge. It's tempting to break it, but it really
helps. I have already started thinking in Chinese, because I am
constantly forced to try to express things in Chinese. It works. There
is a reason they have it.

6. Buy a pocket-sized dictionary. Useful to always be able to look up
an important word.

7. Don't be intimidated by Feng Laoshi. He comes across as a very
serious person (and he takes the program extremely seriously), but he is
a really nice guy. Get to know him. He is an excellent teacher too.

More advice to come.

A note about pictures. Since Google Blogger is blocked, I am sending
this post by e-mail. The picture files are too large to be sent by
e-mail, so I am going to have to find another way to share them.

Anyway, that's it for now. Another post coming soon.

- Louis