Back to Language School

This morning we started back to language school. Boy, did we feel like we were greeted by a brick wall. Last semester the first of our two classes was the introduction class that covered pronunciation, grammar, and conversation. The second class was the spoken, conversational class with little English. We found the spoken class harder due to the nature of the class. This semester the classes are switched and we have a different teacher for our conversational class. Then we learned that the school told our teachers to only speak Chinese with us, including in the introductory class. So, although Mark & I had a tutor for the past two months, we both had the 'deer in the headlights' feeling today. At some point, I just listened to absorb the content. I am sure we will adjust after a while. A couple of us students talked with our introductory teacher to see if we could ramp up to only Chinese instead of starting off totally in Chinese. We will see how that goes.

I have heard that one way to keep intellectually active is to learn another language. Ok, but Chinese? Maybe this will keep (or make) us mentally healthy. Actually I enjoy learning the characters. I have always liked puzzles, detective work, figuring things out. Mark likes to talk. Maybe I will let Mark do the talking, and I will do the reading. If we stick together, we make a good team.