Today ended my second week of classes. At this point, we are actually speaking, reading and writing in Chinese. Mind you this is very basic sentence structures and vocabulary, but it's pretty amazing that we are actually "reading" Chinese.
The last hour of our four hour day was spent in the computer learning lab in the fourth floor basement. One basement isn't enough, there are four floors below ground level. We have 11 computer listening tests that we need to take, one each week. This was actually insanely difficult. Not so much because of the subject matter, but the computer voice that was "speaking" the sounds was some king of computer generated voice and not an actual sample of a human speaking. Imagine Stephen Hawking reciting Chinese, that's what it sounded like.
The last hour of our four hour day was spent in the computer learning lab in the fourth floor basement. One basement isn't enough, there are four floors below ground level. We have 11 computer listening tests that we need to take, one each week. This was actually insanely difficult. Not so much because of the subject matter, but the computer voice that was "speaking" the sounds was some king of computer generated voice and not an actual sample of a human speaking. Imagine Stephen Hawking reciting Chinese, that's what it sounded like.
Next Monday is our first test. I've been studying at least four hours every day and still do not feel ready for the test. I'm going to need to spend many, many hours this weekend studying to get ready for the test. The first two week learning curve is pretty rough: learning tones, BoPoMoFo (MPS) Chinese sounds, Pinyin, and around 100 Chinese vocabulary words and 50 Chinese characters.
The weather is still pretty brutal. It is 85° with 70% humidity...oh yeah did I mention the apartment has no air conditioning? I know this is Taiwan, but come on, this is November. Is it too much to ask to have it cool off enough so I don't have to type this in my underwear with a fan blowing on me at full speed?
Hopefully after this weekend, things will start to even out for me and I'll be over the initial learning curve...well at least I'm HOPING that's what will happen.
Zaijian,
Jim
The weather is still pretty brutal. It is 85° with 70% humidity...oh yeah did I mention the apartment has no air conditioning? I know this is Taiwan, but come on, this is November. Is it too much to ask to have it cool off enough so I don't have to type this in my underwear with a fan blowing on me at full speed?
Hopefully after this weekend, things will start to even out for me and I'll be over the initial learning curve...well at least I'm HOPING that's what will happen.
Zaijian,
Jim
I thought your acoustic CD was off the hook, but what you are doing with this course is beyond cool! Bravo Jim!
ReplyDeleteYou were spoiled with that cute Sonya chic reading to you on your USA practice lesson DVD.
ReplyDeleteHang in there and drink plenty of water!