Language Class Hell

Before studying abroad you are educated on ‘Culture Shock’ in hopes that you will be able to navigate your way through it/around it and have a pleasant time. I have sat through lectures from both TAMU and IES and am well aware of the “4 stages of culture shock one goes through whilst residing in a foreign country”. I think it was Wednesday night when we all felt a little shock, but it had nothing to do with the culture.

The freaking language classes here are ridiculous.

We generally have a least 50 new words every night plus written homework and grammar study. Every day there is a quize and every Friday a test.
Classes start at 8am and are divided into four one-hour sections:
(1) Lesson of the day (group of about 20)
(2) Review the lesson (groups of 5)
(3) Spoken Practice (groups of 5)
(4) Written Practice (groups of 5) (and by far the worst section…)

Language class ends at 12:15, and by this time, we are all ready to start studying Spanish again (oh…it was so easy then… what was I thinking…). It’s really interesting though being in class because it’s a solid 4 hours of speaking in Chinese. Actually, it’s kind of weird when we leave class and start speaking English again.

Speaking of, starting tomorrow we are not allowed to speak English while at school. When on lunch breaks off campus I think we might be allowed but most will probably want to stick with the zhong wen (Chinese language). This is due to the “Language Pledge” we all had to take and it is there to train our brains into ‘thinking in Chinese’ which is really good but more frustrating than anything. For someone who likes to talk a lot, this can be quite a barrier...

From the 4 classes I have been to, I have already been assigned over 150 words. Laoshi (teacher) told us we would be learning around 2,000 this semester. At TAMU, I probably ‘learned’ around 400 in the 2 years I took Chinese class…

Anyways, every student who is enrolled in the language intensive program took a placement test so that we would be with kids at our level. I am proud to say that I am in the lowest class…and that it is still kicking my butt. When I started doing my first night’s homework I think it’s the closest to depression I have ever felt. I distinctly remember thinking “what have I got myself into?!?”

Anyways, typing all this English is making me forget my Chinese. Zaijian for now.