Today we just went to class, and then came back to the hotel to study. We have our test on Thursday, which is part oral and part written. The written part is going to be really hard…we have to write in all Chinese characters, but they haven’t even been focusing on writing. All we do in class is practice pronunciation and dialogues, so most people haven’t been writing the Chinese characters on their own. Everyone’s really worried about it, because no one can remember all the Chinese characters by heart. Joanna counted today, and we’ve learned more than 500 words in this month. I know we’ve had a month to learn them, but that’s still a lot to be tested on. Especially because the Chinese characters are so complicated. I’ve been trying to test myself on the words from previous lessons, and I forgot a lot of them. I think learning the simplified characters actually makes it harder because since they’re simplified, a lot of the characters look almost exactly the same, only with very subtle differences. It makes it harder to remember how to write them since they’re all so similar. I can read the characters perfectly fine, but if I have to write a composition, it’s really hard to recall the characters that I need. I usually end up mixing up or combining characters since they’re so similar. Me and Joanna are trying to study really hard to know everything we can, but I don’t think either of us will do very well on the test because our main priority right now is to say our goodbyes and get ready to leave. If we decide to prepare for the test adequately, we wouldn’t have time to say goodbye to our friends and spend time with them. I know that my main goal to come here was to learn Chinese, but I don’t want to waste my last days here studying for a test.
After class, me, Geneva, and Joanna ate lunch together and took some pictures around campus so that we can remember it [In the picture, the big building is where our language class is]. Me and Geneva went to pick up our laundry (we drop it off at a Laundromat, and a man washes & folds them for us) and we took pictures with the man [see picture]. HAHA. He thought we were SOOOOOO weird. These 3 random girls come in to pick up their laundry, and we each want to take a picture with him too. So silly. We’re also planning to take a picture with the people we see really often, like the lady who we buy bao from in the mornings, and another lady who we sometimes get breakfast from. Hahaha..it’s going to be random, but very funny.
I started packing to go home today…IT’S SO WEIRD! I think I have enough room to fit all of my stuff, surprisingly. But it’s going to be a tight squeeze…my luggages are going to be super full. Wow! I’m leaving in 4 days!
No comments:
Post a Comment