It isn't every day that something interesting happens here in China. Since moving in and getting settled most days are about the same, nothing that isn't normal for me now.
Yesterday and today were not exceptions. It rained all day yesterday and all day today. Yesterday I held out on buying an umbrella. I'm not exactly sure why but I figured that getting a little wet was better than spending the $6 USD for an umbrella. Today it was raining quite a bit harder The streets were flooded to mid-calf level so walking to school was especially fun. I caved and bought an umbrella, and I quite like it. I'll probably keep it and take it with me back to America.
Class was the same as it is everyday: long, but I learned a lot. The constant Chinese immersion is started to become exhausting. I remember on my mission, when I would really immerse myself in the language I would get really tired (mentally exhausted) because I was focusing so hard on what was being said and I was trying to remember so much. I'm having the same thing happen now as before. At times in class I've caught myself zoning out. Not zoning out and not paying attention, more of just staring at a random spot and concentrating so hard on what I'm hearing and tearing apart the grammar structures, characters, analyzing the feeling of the words that are being said, etc. that I don't move.
One thing that I learned today, quite interesting if you are interested at all in the linguistics of Chinese at all. Pre-Modern China (as the Chinese call it 'Old China' - Pre-1912) there were of course many dialects of Chinese spoken, as there are today, but interestingly enough none of the dialects of Chinese was written the way it was spoken. Of course they could use Chinese characters to write the words that would make up what you say, but things were only written in a written Chinese language. In written Chinese, there were different grammar rules, and they used a different vocabulary completely. The differences were great enough that if someone were reading out loud something written in Chinese, an uneducated person would not be able to understand what was being said. On May 4th, 1919 a demonstration began which would later become known as the May 4th movement. As part of that movement, the Chinese fought for changing the writing in China away from the Classical Written Chinese language to a Vernacular Chinese that people spoke. They were for the most part successful. There still is an understood vernacular language that people speak on the streets and a written language. Thus, while learning Chinese it is important to distinguish words and grammar patterns as written or vernacular so they can be used in the proper context. However, the written and vernacular between Taiwan and China are completely different. For the most part they use words in Taiwan Vernacular Chinese that are only used in Written Mainland Chinese. It makes learning Chinese in classes here that much more different. Not only do I have to relearn all of the characters I can read (because they use simplified characters here in China, while they used traditional characters in Taiwan), but now I have to reestablish words as vernacular or written.
After class (which was later today, I had class until 5 PM today) there wasn't much to do. We went back to the bistro that I mentioned in my last post and had a gourmet pizza. It was definitely worth the $2 USD that I paid for it. Now I'm getting ready for our trip to Dunhuang which leaves on Saturday night. We have some free time and I want to make sure that I use it in the best way that I can.
Yesterday and today were not exceptions. It rained all day yesterday and all day today. Yesterday I held out on buying an umbrella. I'm not exactly sure why but I figured that getting a little wet was better than spending the $6 USD for an umbrella. Today it was raining quite a bit harder The streets were flooded to mid-calf level so walking to school was especially fun. I caved and bought an umbrella, and I quite like it. I'll probably keep it and take it with me back to America.
Class was the same as it is everyday: long, but I learned a lot. The constant Chinese immersion is started to become exhausting. I remember on my mission, when I would really immerse myself in the language I would get really tired (mentally exhausted) because I was focusing so hard on what was being said and I was trying to remember so much. I'm having the same thing happen now as before. At times in class I've caught myself zoning out. Not zoning out and not paying attention, more of just staring at a random spot and concentrating so hard on what I'm hearing and tearing apart the grammar structures, characters, analyzing the feeling of the words that are being said, etc. that I don't move.
One thing that I learned today, quite interesting if you are interested at all in the linguistics of Chinese at all. Pre-Modern China (as the Chinese call it 'Old China' - Pre-1912) there were of course many dialects of Chinese spoken, as there are today, but interestingly enough none of the dialects of Chinese was written the way it was spoken. Of course they could use Chinese characters to write the words that would make up what you say, but things were only written in a written Chinese language. In written Chinese, there were different grammar rules, and they used a different vocabulary completely. The differences were great enough that if someone were reading out loud something written in Chinese, an uneducated person would not be able to understand what was being said. On May 4th, 1919 a demonstration began which would later become known as the May 4th movement. As part of that movement, the Chinese fought for changing the writing in China away from the Classical Written Chinese language to a Vernacular Chinese that people spoke. They were for the most part successful. There still is an understood vernacular language that people speak on the streets and a written language. Thus, while learning Chinese it is important to distinguish words and grammar patterns as written or vernacular so they can be used in the proper context. However, the written and vernacular between Taiwan and China are completely different. For the most part they use words in Taiwan Vernacular Chinese that are only used in Written Mainland Chinese. It makes learning Chinese in classes here that much more different. Not only do I have to relearn all of the characters I can read (because they use simplified characters here in China, while they used traditional characters in Taiwan), but now I have to reestablish words as vernacular or written.
After class (which was later today, I had class until 5 PM today) there wasn't much to do. We went back to the bistro that I mentioned in my last post and had a gourmet pizza. It was definitely worth the $2 USD that I paid for it. Now I'm getting ready for our trip to Dunhuang which leaves on Saturday night. We have some free time and I want to make sure that I use it in the best way that I can.
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