Long Term Goals
My long term goal is to become a trilingual--that is, to be able to speak Chinese as well as I can speak Japanese and English. So far, I am planning to go China to study one year as an exchange student, and I really want to improve my Chinese before going to China alone and living in a totally different environment. The reason I am specially interested in China is for one, I have already lived in China for a year and half, so at this point I can understand just a little bet of conversation. For two, and more importantly, I was actually born in China, Beijing, and that my name has the meaning of both Japan and China...Waka as in Wa means Japan and Ka represents China. So I feel some attachment toward China, and hope to be able to speak its language as well!
The challenge is that there are not much opportunity for me to hear somebody speaking Chinese or being forced to use Chinese in daily life now--as I live in Japan and Chinese is not really required of me to live through the environment. I need to speak Japanese and English in order to live comfortably in ICU, but definitely not Chinese....therefore, if I do not make a special effort, I will not be able to acquire Chinese language naturally.
Short Term Goals:
Having explained how it is almost impossible to acquire Chinese language naturally in current environment, I had decided to take Advanced Chinese Class, which creates an environment for me to use Chinese to communicate and write. Since I have not used Chinese for almost whole three years, it is really hard for me to keep up with the teacher and the class--but I am pushing myself to engage more in the class, such as sitting in the front of the classroom and asking many questions by throwing away hesitation. I am also always reviewing what I have just learned right after the class ends, so I would not forget the important things that the teacher has told us. I have actually started listening to the Chinese News Broadcast, which I do not understand most of them. Even though I cannot understand well, I always put Chinese News in my iPod and listen to them every morning while jogging around the ICU campus.
So for my short term goal, I am making an effort to participate actively in the Chinese Advanced Class, and also listen to the Chinese News everyday. It would have been very difficult to me to make some time to listen to the news, as I am quite busy with other things to do, but because all I do is to switch the music I have been listening to during the jog, it is not time consuming and is very easy to continue (as jogging is my everyday activity).
-Engaging Distractions-
Also to make my study more interesting and meaningful, I am planning to buy some Chinese music and probably watch Chinese movies during the Golden week so I can get the sense of "Chinese as an alive language" that is not just about studying on paper, but is a language used in people's daily lives.
Hi Waka,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great post, and for being the first to write about Chapter One.
You have a great long term vision, and you seem to be doing all the right things to to achieve it.
I especially like what you have said about how to deal with feeling overwhelmed by your Chinese class, by "sitting in the front of the classroom and asking many questions by throwing away hesitation." You are taking action, you are doing something about your anxiety. This will pay off. It will work for you. Even if you continue to struggle with the level of the class, your teacher will admire your courage and your effort, and that is worth a lot.
There is a student at ICU I want you to meet. Remind me of this on Monday.
Again, thanks for the great post.
Ken