Thursday, October 14, 2010

Life as a Student

Since I am living the life of a student now, my life is not nearly as exciting as it was last year. Last year, we would often travel two out four weekends a month, or at least have amusing/entertaining functions to attend. Now I sit around memorizing vocabulary lists and grammar structures all day. And even after all of that effort, I am constantly frustrated by how slow my learning curve is. Foreign languages have never come easily for me, but I think I had hoped that in coming back here to solely focus on language study, I would wake up one day and suddenly become like my grandfather, who managed to master some half a dozen languages during his lifetime. What I lack in genes, though, I make up for in determination. After three hours of class in the morning, I typically spend another three hours studying and doing homework before my brain completely melts or I am called off to teach some small child English. My most productive time is actually in the mornings before class (also the reason why I am loving my morning classes this year, and did not absorb any knowledge from my night classes last year). No doubt about it - I am a morning person. Further proof of this happened just last night.

Wednesdays are my busiest days, as I go straight from Chinese class to Minzu Jr. High School (my school from last spring semester) to teach two periods of English club. Then I go to Sophie's for two hours of tutoring and finish with another two hours of tutoring two high schoolers who attend the Kaohsiung American School. In other words, I am gone from around 8:30am until past 10:30pm (college all over again, no?). So last night I was hanging out with Sophie after tutoring (we often go out for dinner afterwords), when I remembered that I had an exam this morning. In my defense, we have been having exams all week, so it is not like I have not been studying throughout - I just had momentarily forgotten about this particular one. So when I finally got home around 11pm, I decided to buckle down and study. I prepared well, stuffing my system full of caffeine and sugar. Did it work? Well, ask my roommates when they found me 45 minutes later sound asleep on the couch. So much for that idea. :) Sometimes I wonder how I ever made it through college...

On the bright side of things, my Chinese is improving a lot (just not as fast as I would like, which would be fluency by tomorrow ha). My reading and writing have improved drastically, as has my listening. For some reason, I still cannot speak. Whenever I open my mouth, all knowledge of complex grammar structures and interesting vocabulary flees my head, and I am left stuttering in incoherent thoughts. Everyone is very sweet and encouraging, though. For example, this past Sunday, I attended the wedding of one of the teachers from Minghua Jr. HS. We had been in the same office last fall, so it was fun to go see her all dressed up and beautiful. Taiwanese wedding banquets are all about the wardrobe changes of the bride and the plethora of dinner courses. People eat and eat and eat... way too much food... It is a good thing there is no dancing at Taiwanese weddings, because after consuming that much food, there is no way anyone could dance. Anyways, several weeks before, my old office conspired against me and nominated me to give a speech at the wedding. After the dinner, the bride and groom go around to each table, drinking a toast with all of their guests. When they came to MY table, everyone thought it would be "cute" or "funny" or "endearing" if I stood up and made a bunch of toasts in Chinese. Oh Taiwan.... The whole previous week I spent in nervous preparation, practicing my string of Chinese wedding blessings (Chinese loves the use of idioms - the language has them for just about every occasion, and when it comes to weddings, there are many such as: 早生貴字 - wishing the couple the early birth of a son; or 百年好合 - wishing the couple may have a hundred years together; my office friends gave me a whole list of these to memorize) on any Taiwanese local who would listen. Sunday afternoon, Phoebe took me out to get my hair washed and styled for the wedding, and I rattled off all my phrases to the hairdresser who found me incredibly amusing.... When the time finally came, I managed to get out all of the words without any major catastrophe, and everyone present seemed to get a kick out of it (which is what we foreigners are for - entertainment for the locals lol).


Pictures: (above) me and Phoebe; (far left) me and the hairdresser; (near left) my hair - pretty! too bad it did not stay that way long...







In case you are thinking it is strange that I was so nervous to speak in Chinese at the wedding, I have recently discovered something about myself. Most people know I have always loved public speaking (thanks to my mother's efforts during early childhood). Whether impromptu or prepared speeches, I always have fun. Impromptu amuses me, because I love to see what happens when everything is spontaneous; but the process of brainstorming, writing, practicing and delivering a speech is also rewarding, from the creativity and organizational skills involved all the way down to the thrill of connecting with an audience. What I have now realized about myself, though, is that all of this is null when the speech is in Chinese. Whether I am standing at the front of class to give a five minute speech or being forced to speak in front of everyone at a wedding, my gut feeling is to panic and stand mute. Every thought flees my head and I begin exhibiting classic symptoms of stage fright. Must show how self-conscious I am when speaking Chinese...


Back to weddings for a moment, though - the Chinese and Taiwanese see luck and superstition in everything. For seemingly insignificant details, there is a proper way in which things must be done in order to bring good luck to yourself and those around you. For example, certain days are more lucky than others to get married on (or to be born on). When giving the bride and groom their red envelope (wedding presents here are done in the form of money, presented in a red envelope), you should give in even number amounts - for example, 1200NT but not 1100NT or 1300NT. When getting married to your spouse, there are lucky and unlucky age disparities. Marry someone 1, 4, 7 or 11 years different from you, but stay away from possible partners who are 2, 3, 6 or 8 years different.

My Chinese has been facing other challenges this past month, which has the side result of making me very tired. Last weekend, one of the ladies in my class (the Korean lady - whom we all call "Korean Mama" since she is the only one with kids) invited us all over to her house for dinner. My teacher lives just a few blocks away from me, so she offered to pick me up and give me a ride. What would normally have been a 20 minute ride turned into an hour long trip due to the weather and rush hour traffic. Imagine me trying to keep up a one-on-one conversation with my teacher in Chinese for over an hour... painful. Once we arrived at Korean Mama's house, we of course had to continue talking all in Chinese, as we have to whenever our teacher is present (she is apparently fluent in English, having lived for two years in Philadelphia, but I have never heard her speak English). By the time I returned home, I had spent over 5 hours in concentrated Chinese conversations - intense and exhausting. This coming week, I am going to start hanging out with a language partner, so hopefully, I will begin having many more protracted Chinese conversations (the problem with most of my Taiwanese friends is that their English is much better than my Chinese, so it is easier/more natural to use English when we hang out).

Tutoring English also has its amusing moments. All of my students are "special," some more so than others. The continuing saga of Jane, my problem child, might sadly (or happily) be coming to an end. Jane is a fifth grader who transferred this year from Chinese school to KAS, and has been having problems adjusting to the level of English, since no Chinese is allowed at the American School. Jane, however, does not like to learn. She is the classic strong-willed child coupled with a streak of laziness. She has major attitude problems and no respect for authority. Luckily, having been a strong-willed child myself, I can have way more attitude when necessary and will win any battle in stubbornness. That being said, Jane has absolutely no desire to cooperate and no motivation to even make an attempt at learning - with that I really cannot help. Her mother tells me that Jane is the same way with both of her parents, and both of them are at wits end to know what to do with her. We are beginning to think it might be better for Jane to take a hiatus on her lessons since her attitude is preventing her from actually gaining anything out of them (other than the joy of a battle of wills - which I may find entertaining but suspect she does not ha). Such encounters make me relieved I am not yet a mother and responsible for the moral upbringing of another human being.

A more comical tutoring situation happened this week with one of my high school students. He is a junior at KAS, and I typically help him with his English literature assignments or SAT prep. We just finished working on Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House," discovering different literary techniques, analyzing plot and character developments etc. Having never read the book myself, it was slightly challenging to help him wade through the book. The other day, he showed me his new book for class, "The Kite Runner." I got excited, because not only have I read the book, but I loved it. In my forever-absentmindedness, I happened to forgot a few major plot points... We started reading chapter two together, and almost immediately, the realization of what I was getting into hit me. We were only on chapter 2 - chapter 2! - and already the book was graphically mentioning sex! It is one thing to have a mature conversation about such a book with a friend, quite another to analyze it with a high schooler, slightly more awkward when that high schooler is a boy and more awkward still when the high schooler's English is not good enough to understand what he is reading! Imagine reading a mildly explicit sentence, and then having the high school boy ask you to explain it to him. Oh goodness... One of those many moments when I think to myself: "I am not getting paid enough for this." All I know is, there are certain chapters in that book which I will NOT be reading with him. He can just go ask his teacher to explain those passages to him. After all, what is an American teacher thinking to assign such a book to Taiwanese high school students?! The SAT-level vocabulary and political setting alone put the book way over the poor guy's head, let alone the adult content and deep psychological issues which are taking place. But no matter how much I feel for the guy, we will NOT be discussing rape or sex during our tutoring time.

On other lesser news, I finally bought a blender (called a "juice machine" in Chinese - is not that cute?). I love smoothies, and one day, decided to make one at home. Having dragon fruit (see picture) already in the fridge at home, I stopped by a market to pick up pineapple on my way back from school. Looking in the freezer, I realize we have no ice and no ice trays. So I turn around, go back downstairs, find the nearest 7-11 and buy ice. I march all the way back upstairs only to discover that our kitchen is lacking in a blender! What to do? I believe I have already mentioned my stubbornness in this post? Well, that particular personality trait rarely lets me give up on an idea, no matter how futile or bleak things are looking. Being resourceful, I pull out a mixing bowl and a blender. Oh terrible terrible idea. In less that 10 seconds, the ENTIRE kitchen is covered in magenta-covered goop. Ceiling, cabinets, floor, counters.... I wish I had taken pictures, because it was awesome. Needless to say, I purchased a blender soon thereafter. Moral: never ever attempt making a smoothie in a mixing bowl with an electric blender (I do not have pictures of the actual incident, but I took some today to show the color of the smoothie, so you can imagine that substance being flung about and covering everything in sight).


PS - Happy Birthday, Mommy! :)