Blogging
From Abroad

This may be a somewhat funny title for this post because ” Suda” is actually composed of the first part of “SUzhou” (or Soochow, according to an older Wade-Giles spelling) and the first part of “DAxue” (the term for college)...so the term is a compound of Soochow Daxue….I can’t help but feel like what I’m saying is Suzhou University University…but that is what we call it here. It took me several days to realize the trend for shortening place names by the first syllables of each word, so that was confusing at first. But…now I have to hang of it and have no problem asking for directions anymore.

So…here are some images from Suda!

The classroom…

Graham hard at work…

Jillian looking chipper at 8:30 in the morning…

Cao Laoshi reviewing terms in one of our first classes…

The view out of the window of our language classroom…

Zheng Laoshi explaining autonomous regions in history class…

The campus itself…

Class here is very similar to what we’re used to back home. Although in Chinese classrooms students listen quietly to the lecture and then ask questions privately afterwards, all our teachers have encouraged a Western style structure and are very thorough in answering us whenever we raise our hands. With the exception of our history and culture classes, the rest of our coursework is presented mostly in Chinese (even the language classes), which was admittedly a bit hard to understand at first but has quickly become easier as days go by. It’s also been really increasing our ability to quickly understand someone when spoken to, which really helps when we are out on the street and away from campus.

I had been told to expect being approached at least once or twice to “practice English”, which led me to believe that China would be like Japan or Europe in that many people would be very fluent in English…not so, not so. While we have run into small pockets of English speakers here and there, I cannot stress enough the fact that most people here do not speak English…at restaurants, stores, bus stops and the like…I have really had to step it up with my Chinese just to get by. Fortunately for me, although I speak a kind of pidgin, childish Mandarin at this point, everyone has been very patient with me and nobody has displayed any anger at my limited Chinese understanding and ability. I think this kind of protected immersion experience (we can always call a teacher to help if need be), is really helping me improve my Chinese in a way that studying solely at an English-language university or town would not. For that I am very thankful.

Tomorrow we have our first tests…written and oral…so I’m not running long on the verbal aspect of blogging today because we have a study group in an hour that I’d like to get to, but I wanted to post a few of the photos from this past week first. This morning was busy, too…my “buddy” partner and I had our first in-class skit this morning…we staged a telephone argument over our differing opinions regarding her ability to cook 饺子 (jiaozi – dumplings), without causing irreparable harm to the digestive systems of others…here’s some sample bits of dialogue…Li Laoshi thought it was really funny, which is hopefully a good thing and in no way a negative reflection on our Chinese capabilities:

”你才不知道好吃的饭是什么。” (Ni cai bu zhidao hao chi de fan shi shenme) “You don’t know what good food is.”
”你的男朋友很喜欢我的饺子!” (Ni de nanpengyou hen xihuan wo de jiaozi.) “Your boyfriend really likes my jiaozi.”
”不对。我的男朋友也知道你的饺子太酸了。” (Bu dui. wo de nanpengyou ye zhidao ni de jiaozi tai suan le.) “No, my boyfriend also thinks they’re way too bitter.”
”我的男朋友是白痴。” (Wo de nanpengyou shi baichi.) “Your boyfriend is an idiot.”

See all the fun things you can say when you learn another language? ;)

Alright…getting out of here so I can post another photo blog or two before our study group…I’ll leave you with this…

An Erin’s-Eye view of class.