Newspaper Reading Class
It's my second year studying in Beijing, which means that in addition to reading/writing, listening and speaking classes I also now have newspaper reading class. I know what most people think when I tell them this: "Whoa, you read Chinese newspapers now?? Wow your Mandarin must be really good! blah blah blah!!!"
I'll be the first to say that my Chinese is most certainly not awesome, since most conversations still begin with, "You speak Chinese very well! Where are you from?" Now I know that Mandarin is a more difficult language than English, but, when one hears a foreigner speak English well, no comment regarding his/her command of the English language is made. It's when we run into people who don't speak well that we say "No you speak well!"while grinning and staring at them like a retarded donkey trying to make out what they're saying.
But I digress. Anyhow, the class itself is one of the most boring classes I've had. I don't think there is a way to make it interesting. We just go over a passage in the book (an old newspaper article. Coincidence? I think not), review the vocab and answer questions that the teacher asks us (regurgitating the passage).
Where it gets interesting is the homework. Each week, we have to choose an article from a newspaper, then write a summary of it, along with our opinion and then pose two questions at the end. In addition we have to make note of any characters we don't know and write them out and their equivalent translations. Every Thursday, two students are picked to present their articles to the whole class.
While each article can take up to six hours to do (we don't even choose long ones), it's a rewarding experience because one learns so many new terms, phrases, words and grammar patterns, as well as abbreviations that are commonly used. It's also great because I can see how much my Chinese has improved and that I can grasp the basic meaning of the article, sometimes without even looking at the dictionary (though there are always at least 15 characters I have to look up to understand major details).
I'll be the first to say that my Chinese is most certainly not awesome, since most conversations still begin with, "You speak Chinese very well! Where are you from?" Now I know that Mandarin is a more difficult language than English, but, when one hears a foreigner speak English well, no comment regarding his/her command of the English language is made. It's when we run into people who don't speak well that we say "No you speak well!"while grinning and staring at them like a retarded donkey trying to make out what they're saying.
But I digress. Anyhow, the class itself is one of the most boring classes I've had. I don't think there is a way to make it interesting. We just go over a passage in the book (an old newspaper article. Coincidence? I think not), review the vocab and answer questions that the teacher asks us (regurgitating the passage).
Where it gets interesting is the homework. Each week, we have to choose an article from a newspaper, then write a summary of it, along with our opinion and then pose two questions at the end. In addition we have to make note of any characters we don't know and write them out and their equivalent translations. Every Thursday, two students are picked to present their articles to the whole class.
While each article can take up to six hours to do (we don't even choose long ones), it's a rewarding experience because one learns so many new terms, phrases, words and grammar patterns, as well as abbreviations that are commonly used. It's also great because I can see how much my Chinese has improved and that I can grasp the basic meaning of the article, sometimes without even looking at the dictionary (though there are always at least 15 characters I have to look up to understand major details).
posted by Batcha at
10:18 AM
1 Comments:
wow, you are reading newspapers?! Your Mandarin must be getting really good!
There, I said it.
But no, seriously, it must be true.
I still can't read Kiswahili newspapers (still struggling with first grade text, on and off again!)
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