So, I have now had six days of classes, and I can tell you that we are not cruising anymore, but rather are speeding down the highway of learning Mandarin. When classes resumed last Monday I was informed by both my teachers that they would no longer use any English in class unless a new concept was being introduced. So, you can imagine how much I am being challenged with listening to Chinese being spoken, as well as having to speak it in return to answer a question. I was slightly overwhelmed the first class trying to recall everything that I have learned so far, but as time is progressing I feel like some of my language is finally coming together nicely. I even surprised myself today with a really long response to a question in Chinese. I guess all the studying over the holiday is finally starting to pay off.
For other news....I met a new Western friend last week at club (Sunday fellowship) and we immediately hit it off. She is from a village town called Pingliang where she has been an English teacher for 2 and 1/2 years. Thanks to a volunteer English teacher coming to Pingliang, my friend has finally had the opportunity to come to Xi'an begin to learn the language. While she is only here for a few months (she has to go back to Pingliang to finish the school year teaching), I am still excited to be able to hang out with her from time to time, and to have another single person to talk to who is experiencing the same things I am experiencing.
Also, my new friend is studying at my school as well, so she and I have had a few opportunities to spend some time with our Chinese teachers outside of class. One day we took our teachers and another teacher out to lunch, which was a lot of fun. And last Friday night, one of the teachers invited my friend and I to KTV (karaoke television) since I had not the privilege of experiencing it yet. The Chinese are fascinated with KTV and many people go every weekend. KTV was quite entertaining to say the least. You are given a private room that includes 2 microphones, a TV, couch, and a control panel. The control panel allows you to choose songs in about 6 different languages, and while the words are displayed on the screen to sing along to, there are also music videos playing in the background, which in my opinion were the best part of the night. Some music videos are the actual videos made with the song being sung, and other videos include a Chinese person singing the song and Chinese dancers in the background - which is funny when you are singing a Barbara Streisand song.
One thing that I have really learned in the past 7 months is that everything here in China is about guanxi (means relationship). The Chinese hold to the concept that they don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care. On Saturday, as I was at my school for the grand opening of our second classroom facilities, I realized that my guanxi the past 7 months has been with my teachers as well as the other teachers at my school. All of my teachers are a part of the family, but many of them have only been in the family for a short time and still have so many questions. Many of them were supported when they joined the family, but then the support stopped immediately after that. I have been grateful that I have been allowed the opportunity to come alongside and be that support for them now because ultimately when I leave China one day, it will be my teachers that are still here supporting others in the family.
Well, I will close for now, but I hope that you all are now enjoying the longer days of sunshine since daylight savings time has come and gone. I am sure you would all love to have that extra hour of sleep back though. I am just glad to be back to exactly 12 hours difference in time between here and there, since that extra hour really made a difference some days. I'll be checking in again soon, until then have a great week.
love the new look!
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