Well class is a week underway here in Taiwan. I guess I'll put a brief disclaimer at the top of this post. I studied year 1 Chinese at Middelbury College's intensive summer program so a lot of my assessments of ICLP here in Taiwan, also an intensive summer Chinese language program, will be made in comparison to that experience. Remember that character from the Magic School Bus Series, Phoebe, who started every sentence with "At my old school..." as in "At my old school, cracked out redhead teachers didn't take us to the moon..."? Well, Pheobe and I are soul-sisters.
Okay so we received our schedules on Friday. Looking through one of my textbooks I was a little worried because the first few lessons seemed to deal with similar subject material to the 2nd year textbook at Yale. My other textbook didn't worry me at all because I couldn't really read it. That's a good sign.
Sure enough my initial suspicions played out. ICLP is divided into three 50 min. classes a day. (1) The first one is your main "da-ban" class and "da" (or "big") is used liberally here since its only three students. Our teacher told us that this was our most important class and we should prioritize the work for it above the other class because we would be focusing on it in our tutorial.
(2) The second class is also a "da-ban" class which also has 3 people but uses a different textbook and has no correlation either with the first class or with...
(3) The "dan-ban" class which is just 50 minutes of you and a teacher. This is incredibly helpful because all that lazy pronunciation that built up at Yale where my class size was much larger and my tutorial leader was much more lax cannot escape you when your teacher is only responsible for you. Already my simple interactions with taxi drivers, waiters, etc. is much less fraught with confusion because my tones are sharper.
Nevertheless I was unimpressed with the level my classmates were at in my first da-ban class (the important one) and felt like I was ahead both on material and on classmates. Without even mentioning this to my one-on-one teacher she asked me if I was going to look into switching levels because she thought I was a bit under-placed. (ICLP has accepted a record-breaking 130 students this summer which means that a lot of students were complaining about being over or under placed. I think the administration is still having trouble adjusting to so many students.) So I went to Chai Laoshi, my da-ban teacher, to see what was to be done. She categorically refused saying that even if the vocab was a little too easy, I had stuff to learn in this level and she would not switch me. She also said that the other sections studying the same textbook were moving much slower than I was (which seems impossible to me. We only learn like half a lesson a night at this point. It only takes me an hour to prepare.) so there was no point switching sections. She did however tell me she would redo the curriculum to move us at a faster pace and that if I was still dissatisfied she would give me another textbook and I could review it with my dan-ban laoshi in addition to the easier one. This seemed satisfactory to me and in fact the new pace is much better. (We are literally now studying twice as much material in a night as originally planned, a change which I will not tell my other classmates I was responsible for.)
As for my other da-ban class, I like the laoshi a lot more. She's really young and fun and the material is much more interesting and conducive to discussion. Next week I have to go to a restaurant to interview patrons and waiters, which I think will be fun.
So anyway, overall its been a lot breezier than Middlebury last summer (which was mind-crushingly difficult.) Even the "Language pledge" here made me laugh. Midd's language pledge is famous (they even copyright the phrase "Language pledge"... seriously.) because the stakes are high (you get kicked out after two warnings) and the rules are strict (you aren't supposed to use English on the internet, on your ipod, etc.) ICLP on the other hand handed us a contract asking us not to speak English in the ICLP campus (which is two floors of a building) and to devise a punishment for ourselves. I didn't sign it or hand it in and so far no one has followed up with me (when you are writing your own punishment why bother?) Anyway, that's not to say I'm not following the rules so much as to point out the half-assed manner in which they carry out the pledge. I think a more relaxed pace is fine. Although at Middlebury we had 4 hours of class a day and an all-encompassing immersion environment and I still placed into level 1 back at Yale. (Then again, I think Yale's placement test is a bit harsh. I enrolled in year 2 anyway and got great marks. Suck it Yale.) So I'm worrying that given the three hours of class and less strict environment I won't place out of a year of Yale study. Oh well. I'll still be 8 weeks better at Chinese than I would be without the Light Fellowship.
Friday they gave us a great welcoming reception for lunch with tons of free food. I stuffed my face, especially with the fruit because eating out all the time means I eat a lot more fried pork than fresh produce. It was very nice of the school to provide all of it for us.
There isn't much to report here in other news. I've discovered that Taiwanese television is epic amounts of fun. Fellow-fellow David D. recommended the Cartoon Network which I'm loving! Its really easy to understand, and they have subtitles in Chinese characters for dialect speakers so its both a great listening and great reading exercise. This is one of those ways in which being abroad just really reinforces what you're learning in the classroom in a way you can't emulate in the U.S. I laughed last night when some cartoon character used a grammar structure I'd just studied. When I was being drilled on it for 50 minutes I was thinking "do people really use this?" Turns out they do. Also I watched Finding Nemo dubbed into Chinese and it was great because I knew what was happening already. Also some of the Chinese translations were even funnier than in English. (The "shark bait hoo-ha-ha" chant is hilarious.)
Okay anyway, its Sunday which means its back to real listening comprehension homework. Until next time...
"So I'm worrying that given the three hours of class and less strict environment I won't place out of a year of Yale study."
ReplyDeleteIt's a rare occurrence, so don't worry. I think there were other issues going on with your first placement exam. Also, as phenomenal as Middlebury's program is, they can only replicate immersion to a small degree. You're LIVING in Taiwan, and that means your language will be tested in all kinds of context-rich situations that will bring you much, much closer to fluency.
Your next placement exam will capture only a small piece of that, but it will be the piece that gets you to the right class for sure.