Hello, everyone! I officially finished my second week of classes at ICLP last Friday, 4 days ago. Coming into the program, I heard from both professors at Williams as well as people on the internet that the Chinese language instructors at ICLP are among the world’s best. Despite having heard this, I find myself pleasantly surprised by how incredible my teachers are every day. While I am lacking a lot in Chinese, it’s a testament to my instructors how comfortable I am with reading traditional characters (\u7e41\u9ad4\u5b57) despite only beginning to utilize them in earnest 2 weeks ago.<\/p>\n
Today we had our first speeches (\u6f14\u8b1b) in class. While I was nervous to share my experience teaching at Mount Greylock last Winter Study, the speeches were very low-stakes, and everyone was able to glance at their scripts as needed. How fortunate I was that the unit we had just finished was on the career of a teacher! I really enjoyed hearing from my other classmates on how their experiences living in Taiwan thus far have been. Surprisingly, I’m actually looking forward to the next speech (and I don’t even really like them in English)! <\/span>Classes are indeed intensive; each day’s worth of grammatical lessons are equivalent to about 3 or 4 days of grammar lessons in Chinese 102 at Williams, and each dialogue we must memorize (if you have memory problems like me, don’t worry, your instructors are willing to work with you!) is about twice as long as Gu Laoshi’s dialogues. If that weren’t enough, we have a LOT of homework every night.<\/p>\n For full transparency, and in the hopes of helping future neurodivergent Chinese learners at ICLP, please do not feel ashamed if you need to submit your homework a day or two late. The teachers here all understand how much pressure you are under, and it’s better to come to class engaged than falling asleep because you were up until 4AM finishing homework (unfortunately, a true story). Fortunately, I was granted permission to audit one of my 4 classes, so while I still attend class every day, I only need to do the homework for 3 out of 4 courses (I got a slight cold from over-working last week, so I’m cautious to limit myself to 6 hours of homework a day now!) On a brighter note, it’s remarkable how much more expression I’m already capable of in Mandarin. I’m slowly getting a glimpse of how immensely satisfying it is to be able to express yourself in mannerisms you previously couldn’t (whether regarding grammar, vocabulary, or confidence). Funnily enough, a Taiwanese man actually asked ME for directions on the Taiwan University campus, and I was able to help him (\u90a3 … \u5dee\u4e0d\u591a\u4e86) completely in Mandarin!<\/p>\n P.S. I can’t stop going to Raohe \u591c\u5e02 for the pineapple buns. (For future ICLP-ers: The best ones are in a stall right at the top of the market! The line is worth it.) Also, make sure to go to Jiufen and partake in a tea tasting at A-Mei Tea House! The petit fours alone are worth it \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hello, everyone! I officially finished my second week of classes at ICLP last Friday, 4 days ago. Coming into the program, I heard from both professors at Williams as well as people on the internet that the Chinese language instructors … Continue reading