Alright, so photos still won't be happening during this post, but there is good news! I spent this week sort of working out new study habits and the way I approach the material, and this week, the first week of the second "semester", was by-the-numbers my best week of the program so far! So, I'm happy about that and hope it continues. Studying has been a somewhat tricky balance between characters and actual words. Chinese is kind of weird compared to languages which have phonetic alphabets (like Latin) in that I sometimes find that when I'm translating on a test, I can write the correct answer even though I don't know how to say the Chinese word at all because I still remember the character associated with the English word. But... that's obviously not ideal, so I'm trying to rework my study habits to prevent that as well.
Last week was also my best week thus far in terms of actually getting sleep, which should in theory only feed positively back into everything else, and hopefully that trend will continue. It's a little strange though, because from time to time spoken Chinese will be crystal clear when I'm exhausted... maybe it's because I don't have the energy to overthink it? Anyone have a theory on this? Of course, exhaustion generally works the other way...
We've been doing weekend trips to various nearby landmarks like the Great Wall and the summer palace, but I want to be sure I do some more exploration of Beijing itself. I think it might be cool to buy a bike (which can be done pretty cheaply) and take a day to go around the city with a couple people and just see what we find, so we'll see, and if it happens, hopefully I'll someday post some pictures from it on here!
I miss Mexican food like it's a member of my family. I don't understand why there's no Mexican food ANYWHERE. Actually, I've heard there is in fact some around here but that it's not much to speak of in terms of quality. If I could import the burrito cart at Yale or one Chipotle, my life would be perfect.
I'll be here almost exactly three more weeks. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about that... I'm having a great time here and am thrilled to know I'm making real progress in this language (which I didn't know one word of less than a year ago!), but it'll be good to spend a week or two back home with my family before getting back to the gleeful madness of life at Yale.
I'll keep trying to get chances to upload photos/video, but at very least I'll upload lots of relevant photos and videos after the fact. And believe me, I have a lot to choose from!
I'll be posting again very soon,
Jon
2 comments:
WAIT. That is exactly how I feel about my Cantonese. It's when I'm absolutely tired (i.e. having just woken up) that I speak my finest Cantonese. I think there is some reason to the argument you made - you tend to overthink it less and therefore speak it more naturally!
Anyway......I find that having spoken Cantonese and Mandarin more often this summer, I'm finding it more difficult to maintain English in a conversation. I'm worried I'll forget HOW by the time I get back home (fortunately Singaporeans speak English....).
there is definitely chinese food here in mexico. though it's gross-looking and not like the US chinese food, nor is it like real chinese food. bascially stir fry. i didn't eat any of it.
as much as i'm enjoying the super-authentic mexican cuisine, beans and chicken get old eventually (i don't eat other meats while abroad, like the paranoid american i am).
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