Chinese Language Division @ NTU update #1 for Dorothy
Dorothy wanted info about my classes so I figure I’d post them here.
Registration and Orientation
This was a bit daunting, I would’ve freaked out if my aunt hadn’t taken me. The Chinese Language Division program is part of the Liberal Arts department at National Taiwan University and the building is located pretty much at the end of campus from the front gate. There aren’t enough maps on campus so we got lost a bit the first day before my Aunt was able to have a student help us. If you registered properly and have all your stuff in order it’s quick. Go up the second floor and there are a few posted signs pointing to the office at the end of the hall where you sign in and pay (they only accept cash). If you have problems, like I did with my Visa, they only have an okay grasp of English so I had to have my Aunt translate or ask things myself a few times. No big problems and the lady was nice (and in what would be a continuing theme when dealing with people here, gave me a tonnn of shit for being Asian not knowing Chinese)
Once you pay they make you take a written and oral test if you know any Chinese. The written test is in simplified and traditional characters as well as pinyin. The oral test is one-on-one with a teacher. Written is about 15-20 minutes while oral is about 10 minutes. After that, If you’re a first time student you have the option to pick a morning orientation or afternoon orientation.
Orientation was just okay. The two student guides were nice and friendly though it was mostly reading off the student packet and the walking tour was only 20-25 minutes showing the dining commons, student center, library, and hospital. I wish they talked about NTU or had a “Welcome to NTU! Here’s some history + in depth info about the campus” packet. Though I’m a dork so no one else probably wanted that. You’re better off just wandering and getting lost by yourself which I’ve been doing a bit before and after class everyday. I wish there was more info on how to join clubs since I really want to join a few like the Film Club on campus. There was a student group called ISIS that focuses on international students flyering for a field trip later in the month. They also held a club fair but I missed the fair because I couldn’t find it, and I’m not sure how I even knew about it.
Class and classmates
Classes are limited to 6 students which is awesome for learning but terrible for meeting people. There are three class times (morning, afternoon, and night) with about 10-20ish classes total for the various levels at each time. You get put in a class based on how you did on the written/oral test, availability and your chosen preference during registration. Classes are 3 hours with 10 minute breaks every hour. I’m afternoon from 12:00 to 3:00 book 1/level 2.
The teacher is adorable (ex: *in Chinese* “English? Psh, who needs to learn English?”) and super nice. I think she’s a grad student at NTU though a few of the other teachers in the other classes seemed to be both much older and much younger. She knows pretty much no English so the whole class is taught in Chinese which screws the students without a strong listening/speaking background. To compensate, she’s really animated and will act the words out. I know the lower levels book 1/level 1 students have English speaking teachers though.
First few days fucking straight up sucked. I got put in the second half of the first book so we started on chapter 7 and there was a full blown panic between me and my classmates. 4 out of 6 of us grew up speaking Chinese but could not read or write (in my case I forgot everything from college/I learned simplified characters) and 1 of those 4 couldn’t speak/listen too well so the first test was brutal. I got a 30/50 and so did some others. The reason for the freak out if that you have to hit a certain grade level to continue to the next level and they will drop you and not let you re-join CLD@NTU if you hit below the 70 mark, also if you’re here on scholarship you’ll have it revoked the next semester. We pretty much tried to mutiny after we got our grade back and tried to convince the teacher to start from chapter 2. We decided to go back and forth between 7 and 1, 8 and 2, etc and move a bit slower.
There’s no magic to learning Chinese, it’s just painful rote memorization. From the start of class to the third day it took about 16-20 hours of self study until I felt more comfortable and starting getting 47 and 49 on tests.
- I’ll finish tomorrow Dorothy, its 1:14 am here and I’m exhausted.
