Today concluded the first week of spring semester classes at IUP. If this week has been in any way representative of what’s in store for this module, the next seven weeks will be a challenge, but in a refreshing and rewarding way. The topics of my classes have started to turn from issues in every-day life and society to more academic topics. For example, my main textbook, 学术中文漫步 (A Stroll through Academic Topics in Chinese), is a collection of real lectures given by Chinese professors in a range of fields. It’s a fun textbook because not only are the lessons interesting in their own right, the vocabulary and sentence structures are also quite useful for discussing abstractions.
What’s even more exciting for me is my cailiao (individualized) class. Twice a week, I select a new article to read from the Chinese translation of Scientific American (“科学美国人”). It’s a class I always feel motivated to put effort into, because I’m always reading articles that I’ve selected (and, naturally, am interested in). It’s also partly the excitement of reading “real” and up-to-date materials that makes this class so refreshing. The topics I’ve selected range from chimpanzees and Jane Goodall, to internet freedom, to predictions of how video games will change our lives. One night while reading the Yale Daily News, I stumbled across an article about New Haven’s recent acquisition of dynamically priced parking meters. This was essentially the same topic of the article I had read in Scientific American earlier that day in Chinese – complete with references to the same scientists! It’s no incredible accomplishment, but it still made for an exciting and satisfying realization, nonetheless. The other aspect of the class I like is that, since my teacher knows I’m interested in math and science, she will frequently seize tangents in our conversation to teach me simple, but highly useful, mathematical or scientific terms, like “inversely proportional,” “multi-dimensional,” or “solid/liquid/gaseous state.”
On another note, I went to Hong Kong a few weeks ago. I have lots to say about the trip, so I will try to write a post on that in the near future.
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