Sijiyingbei (Rote Memorization)

First of all, I'm sorry for not writing a lot this week. Unfortunately, nothing much exciting has really happened since I last wrote. I've mostly been busy with class, which has given me more than enough to do every day. I was hoping to be able to continue going to the calligraphy class, but we had about 90 words to learn in addition to homework the same afternoon, so I did not end up going. We learned that the keystone of Chinese education is Sijiyingbei, aka "rote memorization." This was actually an assigned vocabulary nugget for this week and so happens to capture in a few syllables everything that we are doing with our 18 or so waking hours per day. I do not mind so much memorization, doing so much work or going to so much classes, but, now that the dust is settling and we are starting to get into a routine, there are a couple of things that have been frustrating me.

My primary concern has been about HBA's effect on my Chinese. Coming into this program, I thought that I would leave in August as an almost fluent speaker. Maybe that was too presumptuous, but, at the same time, I don't feel like HBA is as much of an immersion experience as it is advertised to be. Yes, we are living in China, and so there are lots of cultural interactions that we would have if this program were instead held in the U.S. However, we have so much work every day that we do not get to go out, explore, and try our Chinese out in as many places and with as many people as possible. We are mostly in classrooms, interacting with each other and our teachers, whose patience and exaggerated enunciation make conversation a lot easier than with the average Beijing resident.

Speaking of "each other," I have found that some of the students push back on the language pledge more than others. The first time I was around people who started speaking English, I was fine with it, understanding, even. My friends really are markedly different when speaking English versus Chinese. We cannot be sarcastic, make little jokes, tell as many stories, have the same conversational timing, and be as playful in Chinese as in English. We don't know how to say "win," "lose," or even "team," so all sports conversations involve a lot of flailing hands gestures and sounds of either love or hatred for a team (there are a lot of angry New Yorkers on this program). Anyway, when people first switched, I felt as though I was having the opportunity to really get to know them and I relished this opportunity as a weekends-only bonus. However, some people have started just dissolving into English as soon as we are off campus, or in someone else's room. This bothers me. At first, I questioned how useful the language pledge was, but because it felt so awkward and uncomfortable to switch to English the first time, speaking only Chinese must be helpful to our improvement. So, when others to switch to English during the week, a time we're supposed to be in Chinese mode, they make it not only impossible for us to answer their questions in Chinese (for fear of indirectly, but self-righteously chiding them), but also impede the progress of people who actually think that speaking Chinese is constructive. I hope that, this next week especially, that I can figure out a way to balance spending time with those people and Chinese improvement.

Returning to my more general fears of not becoming as good of a Chinese speaker as I had hoped, I at least made a big decision that will hopefully help me get to where I want to be. Initially, I was going to stop taking Chinese after this year because I have limited room in my schedule for the next two years to fulfill Economics, Pre-med, and Core requirements as well as to take Farsi. However, as I started to become anxious about not achieving proficiency in Chinese, I realized that I wanted to continue taking it. So, I decided to move some things around in my course plan and to take one last year of Chinese starting in the fall. Hopefully, I will be able to return to Beijing next summer to get more of an immersion experience before jetting off to Iran to do a research program there (this is the current plan).

That's pretty much all that has happened since last post. I thought, though, that I would post some pictures from this week:

Most endearing display of friendship I've seen yet.

My friend, Zane, tried to order a Coke. She asked, "Ni you ke le ma?" (Do you have Coke?) But, the waiter mistakenly thought that she said "Ni you Ke le na?" (Do you have Corona?) So, that's what he brought her as we were doing our homework together on a Monday afternoon.

Our beautiful cafeteria.

That broccoli with chicken dish is my favorite dinner at the cafeteria. With a bowl of rice, it's less than 10 RMB, which is just over $1.

Another shot that I thought would give you a sense of how clean and lovely this place is.

A typical cafeteria table. Before we sit down to eat.

In the cafeteria: a really cute baby reaching for BEER!

I love these chalk boxes. Note the spelling of "white."

This is the track I run on every day. This little girl was getting a good work out in with her backpack on wheels.

From what I've seen so far, China does a great job with providing recycling bins alongside waste bins. Here, there has also been an effort to spread awareness of the adverse effects of smoking. However, let me just interject and say that the number of smokers here is through the roof. Everyone smokes. Everyone. It is so awful -- I hope that anti-smoking educational campaigns become more successful soon...

This is what we look like during our 15 minute recesses between classes.

Our host university recently brought in some enlarged photograph boards of the Sichaun earthquake wreckage. This is one of them.

This one had me really choked up.

Same with this one. He is so young.

Zhongwen zhuozi (Chinese Table). Every Tuesday and Friday, our teachers take us out to lunch. Here, we are at a Vietnamese restaurant.

I haven't had great experiences with Vietnamese food, but this was delicious. A lot of noodles in a delicious broth with a bunch of other additions that can be seen in the little bowls in the above picture.

Beijing subway! Fast, convenient, and very modern. However, the inside of the trains are competing for the worst odor in the world. It definitely makes splitting cabs seem worth the extra couple of RMB.

Other con of the subway: for some reason, the way out is subject to traffic jams. This is the one we ran into.

Mid-afternoon in Beijing, right outside of our subway stop. You should still be able to see the sky at 4 PM, right? With the pollution, though, seeing a nearby building was a little difficult.

Funny looking spikey ball structure in the middle of the highway!

A lot of people squat here when they want to rest.

Some water lilies in Houhai, a popular hangout for young people.

Next time: more on the Beijing opera, Tiananmen, the Forbidden City, and Wangfujing!

Miss you all so so much. Thanks for reading, for those of you who aren't in my family -- I'm counting down to when I get to see you again ...