Hi!
Week 1 of Princeton in Beijing was a lot of fun, but it is SUPER fast-paced, so there’s a bit of an adjustment I’ve had to make in this first week of classes. I’m in the fourth-year level, so this past week, we learned about topics such as COVID 19 and its effects on China and the world, the effects of using women to sell products, and the effects of cellphones and the internet on society (and all in just five days?!?!). My section had five students total this week, so there’s lots of time for us all to speak in class, which I really like. And the structure of classes is very similar to Chinese classes at Williams, which makes my adjustment to the speed just a bit easier. I’ve definitely already seen improvements to my Mandarin, which is really encouraging! I’ve been able to read and understand some news articles on Chinese websites, and even start to joke around with my teachers in our one-on-one sessions!
Another part of the program that’s exciting is the guest speakers we have every week and the cultural activities. This week we had a presentation from Professor Perry Link, and he talked about study methods that worked best for him to learn Mandarin. And our cultural activity was practicing Chinese calligraphy. I love the chance to meet students from other levels who are at different points in their Chinese-learning journey!
So far so good at PiB! Excited for Week 2!
– Shayla James