Tate In China

Having some really good study sessions with my Scottish classmate Pete at the moment, very productive. We are doing around 2 hours a day just on the Chinese proficiency test, which isn’t related to the school exams. I’m in awe in of Petes ability-and willingness I might add-to analyse things so deeply. This had brought a refreshing new dimension to our study process at the moment, which to be honest has been quite rushed  (in class time anyway). Teachers seem eager to cram as much as possible into lesson time, which isn’t really conducive to a true grasping of the content, in my humble opinion. 

Anyway, Pete and I are making progress, slowly, which brought to mind something we picked up in our first intensive reading lesson of the new semester, “啃书本” ＝ 啃bite/chew/  , 书本 ＝books/text.

Which basically can be interpreted as ‘keep nibbling away at the books/keep studying bit by bit…etc’.

Speaking - 89

Alot better than last years final exam, I think I got 73, as I recall. Anyway to be honest it was a bit of a weird exam. Sprung on us with half an hour to prepare in a group of four. I was lucky in that I worked with a Korean girl who is top of the class,a really hard worker. We sit next to each other so have worked together before, usually very productive! 

It was the other 2 members of the group that really let us down. They found it hard to gather their thoughts and stay focused on the task in hand, and also refused to follow any kind of instruction. This led to us not being able to complete the dialogue and were fortunately granted another day to prepare! I was quite pissed off as you can imagine, lol. 

Anyway we arranged a time for us all to get together to prep the dialogue, which by the way was ‘a family of four go to buy a new car’, utilising the 4 previous chapters we had studied. not so complicated. The problem is that they didn’t show up for the prep, despite them designating the time! So the Korean girl and I had to write all the parts. 

The other two turned up on exam day, one was really quite rude, not even acknowledging the fact she hadn’t turned up the previous day. Anyway, got through it, result isn’t too bad, fairly pleased. Just wonder if it could have been a better mark if the group had been more cohesive.

Just a small observation that we-as foreign language students-often discuss. 

It’s a fascinating thing when you come head to head with another language learner-that is someone who is learning your own mother tongue. It’s not as easy as it may appear. Rather it can be considered a battle to see which language will dominate the conversation with both parties desperate to apply what they have learnt.

This isn’t really a problem as such, the result is the same, the intended message is perceived and understood (for simple exchanges at least:for example in a coffee shop interacting with a waiter/waitress).

I just find it interesting how we process the information during these kind of exchanges:

party 1 -thoughts translated into the target language (Chi) and offered (albeit without the eloquence of a native speaker)to 2nd party

party 2-information received in mother tongue(Chi) , appropriate response then translated into Eng and offered to 1st party.

party 1- information received in mother tongue (Eng), appropriate response articulated in target language (Chi)

and so on…..

However, just to make it a little bit more interesting, I have often found that when one party reverts back to their mother tongue, the other party will also do the same! The mirror image of the initial encounter! Hahaha. It’s as if both parties refuse to settle on one language for the exchange.

Another very interesting situation is when a third language comes into play, for example Japanese.

I had a situation recently where I bumped into one of the Japanese students here. We were trying to organise a football match. The conversation was so strange! Flitting from English to Japanese and back again , but ultimately finding ‘common ground’* with Chinese. 

I think there is some kind of hidden desire from both parties to make the exchange as comfortable as possible for the recipient. 

So I mumbled through some Japanese, he mumbled through some English, we were both fairly uncomfortable and slipped back into the ‘comfort’* zone of Chinese ( haha , never ever thought I’d say those words!) 

* ‘Common ground’ in that we are approximately the same level in terms of class division and spoken ability (his intrinsic knowledge of characters will obviously be a lot higher than mine though)

* ‘Comfort’ being relative here of course! (We are after all only intermediate Chinese students)

as I recall it went as follows:

1.サッカーするの？(you playing footie?) Jap

2.えん、サッカーしにいってるよ(yeah, just going )Jap

1.你踢吗？(Are u playing?) Chi

2.不踢，(Nah) Chi

1.何で？(Why?) Jap

2.Monday,月曜日試合が有るからさー,too tiring. (I have a match on Monday, too tiring) Jap/Eng (obviously!)

1.跟谁啊？(who with?) Chi

and so on…..

My confidence with Japanese has suffered a bit since embarking on this journey into studying Mandarin. Losing vocabulary through simple lack of usage being the main problem  Simultaneously however, I get a real kick from the transformation that taken place in how my brain adjusts accordingly to the various language situations. It of great interest to me how it feels increasingly more natural to use certain phrases and responses. How I deconstruct the aural information I receive then attempt to reconstruct it into both Chinese and Japanese is of equal interest.

Reading and grammar - 74

Intensive reading - 89

Media - 90

bit disappointed with grammar really, as it’s my favourite class, but all’s not lost. Did well in the other two, better than I anticipated anyway. Still awaiting the speaking exam result.

I spoke with one of the Korean students whose level appears to have gone through the roof! She put it down to studying for the HSK 5 test (mentioned in previous post). My fellow classmate from Scotland, Peter, and I are about to embark on some preparation for the exact same test. I’m hoping this will really give us a boost and should coincide nicely with our finals! 

Just had a week of mid-term exams, thank god it’s over. I feel like I passed all of them but will update results upon them being published. Our grammar test was probably the most difficult and reflects the teachers high demands, and expectations for that matter. Definitely one of the best teachers I’ve ever encountered!

I’ve decided to do the Chinese proficiency test (HSK) in June . This time I’ll try level 5 as I completed level 4 just before leaving  last year. I ‘ve somehow managed to acquire a official preparation book, a rather expensive one by the looks of it. I think one of the students in the dorm borrowed it to me, then left suddenly, or left whilst I was away in England? Anyway, I’ll put it too some good use! 

Level 5 doesn’t seem like a massive jump from level 4 and I feel as if I can pull it off. Keep you posted!

Seeing as we are on education, here is another of my favourite Chinese idioms, uttered by none other than Confucius himself!

“三人行。必有我师”(san ren xing, bi you wo shi)

If three people walk together, one should be my teacher. Or to put simply, everyone can learn something from everybody else. 

A fair summary of the study abroad experience in that we as foreign students are learning from the Chinese, of course, but also in the process learning from each other.