It begins

Yesterday everyone took the language pledge. At first it was really funny and everyone was laughing and shouting simple chinese phrases at each other but it quickly turned into a problem. The basic deal of the language pledge is no english. Ever. Don't speak english in class, don't speak english out of class, don't speak english in the dorms, don't speak english on the phone, don't read english books, don't listen to english music, and definitely don't watch english movies (youtube is banned here so it's easy to deal with that). Conversations are painfully dull and ineffective. Instead of joking and constant chatting with classmates we only have very simple, bizarrely profound sentences ("This book is big.") that often never make it to the end. Walking to class and from place to place is frustrating and often quiet. Ordering at restaurants has devolved into pointing at things other people are eating. That said, it's not as bad as it sounds. It is funny talking to people and struggling to convey simple ideas. Everyone has a good attitude about it. We know how important it is, and already we have shown dramatic improvement in the necessary vocabulary. It can only get easier.

We also had homework last night. We had to memorize the characters for about 130 words. A few we had seen before, but most we had not. It takes a while. After dinner everyone locked themselves in their rooms and memorized until they fell asleep. This seems to be the way things are going to be around here during the week.

Today was our first day of class, which is a lot of Chinese at once starting at 8am. We have 75 minutes of "lecture", which is basically where we learn all the lessons for the day. This class is only about 10 people, and there is a lot of participation and being put on the spot. The class starts with a dictation, which is one sentence that the teacher reads that the students need to write in characters. After that is "read aloud". The class of 10 people splits up into two sections of 5 and, with a new teacher, practice reading and speaking Chinese from the homework the night before. Then a 20 minute break, and then drills, where we practice what we learned in lecture. Classes end at 12. All classes are in only Chinese. It's nothing like Chinese class at Yale. It's intense and tiring but it was actually a lot of fun and the teachers are all incredibly understanding and helpful. I have a homework assignment tonight similar to the one from last night, except tonight, in addition to the memorization, we have exercises that drill us on what we learned today.

Soon I have my daily 50 minute 1 on 1 tutor session, with yet another teacher. There are 37 2nd year students and 18 teachers for us. We switch teachers every week. Lot's of names to learn.

MS