Today (July 3) is the last day of school! During the past week I have been giving my students oral English exams for grades 4 through Middle 2 (8th grade). The students are required to read a passage and then answer five questions. Usually they are allowed to look at the passage to answer the questions, so most just read the answer from the passage. I made them give me the passage before answering the questions, so they had to make up the answer themselves -- actually answering orally. All in all they did very well, as they had spent all year doing this in my classes. For the first time I know the joy that teachers feel to know you are done with school. I have also had the experience of having to take exams with the students. This morning was my first-grade Chinese exam, so I also know the joy that the students feel when school is over. After studying hard for the past week I barely passed my Chinese exam -- 62%. A pass is 60 % so I didn't have much to spare. When I looked over my exam when it was returned, there were so many things I got wrong that I knew. Oh, well, I guess you would call that exam stress. Anyway school is OVER! School's out for the summer!
I am now supposed to know 460 Chinese characters, only 1,540 more to go before I can read a Chinese newspaper. In reality I probably know about half that many and sometimes remember another quarter if I am lucky! As far as the tones go, my brain still hasn't made the three-way connection: Chinese character, Pinyin word (Latinized spelling), and tone of Pinyin word. This means that I also do not pronounce the words properly. If the correct tone is not used, you are not using the word you think you are using. It can get quite amusing, if not downright embarrassing. As I said when I began learning Chinese, everything sounds the same to me. Tim heartily agrees. ch is pronounced ch, q is pronounced ch, x is pronounced sh, sh is pronounced sh, c is pronounced ts, zh is pronounced djh, and s is pronounced s. Hua is change, paint, word, and flower. Each has their own character, yet the meaning changes whenever they are combined with other characters. Another quick example is shi which means ten, time, grain or seed, 'to be', to watch or guard, room, and soldier. However, slowly but surely, I am beginning to understand a little. In the fall I will start second- grade Chinese with Taalan. He will be in fifth grade, but will also study second-grade Chinese. He will be working this summer finish the first-grade book.
I have really enjoyed learning to write the characters, though the little ticks and bends are easy to forget, and most characters are made up of several symbols put together. Often one of the symbols may be the same as another word. A few of the common beginning symbols have fairly consistent meanings. For example, there are special symbols for things to do with water, wood, food, mouth, hand, feet, earth, bird, plant, and insect. This means that when a word is used related to a subject, that symbol will be part of the whole character.
We have also finally found Chinese names for ourselves. Tim is Le Tian, meaning optimistic or carefree; Taalan is Kai Lian, or open face or open unity, depending on the way the second character is written; Tariqa is Ta Yi Ke, meaning "she joyous carver;" and my name is An Ning, meaning free from worry or peaceful, tranquil. Needless to say, these names do not accurately describe us as we are, but remind us of what we are striving to become -- especially mine. That is probably enough about Chinese for now. I could continue in this vein for many more pages, but will spare you the experience. So long for now, An Ning.
Notes about this web page