The current state teaching of Chinese in America

Tweet Dear readers, this is an open letter than I composed for our midterm report. It is intended for a government official (as per the requirements of the assignment). Enjoy!

我很荣幸有这么难得的机会来给您写一封信。我叫高健，我从事汉语教育工作。今年夏天，我来到中国的中央民族大学参加ACC K-12的暑期中文教师培训项目。我在这里认识了许多有丰富经验的中文教师。就我个人而言，他们之所以都很特别，是因为他们都是非母语者。通过这个项目我们不但提高了中文水平，而且掌握各种各样的教学方法和理念。

在参加项目期间，我有不少的机会跟其他的老师分享我们关于美国的中文教育局势的经验和看法。虽然美国以前已经开始了教中文，不过现在美国掀起了一股学习汉语的热潮，由此可见，为了让学习者成功，教师应该掌握大量、丰富、标准的教学方法。如此一来，教师能有效地让学生获得听说读写这四项技能。所谓的让学生获得四项技能指的就是学习者不但能有效地跟中国人使用目标语交流，而且可以进一步了解中国的文化与风土人情。为了更有效地教学，教师应该把注意力放在二十一世纪外语学习标准上，也就是我们所说的以5个字母C开头的单词：沟通、文化、贯连、比较和社群。当然，教师也不应该忽视三种沟通模式，分别为：理解诠释，人际交流和表达演说。 教师采取这些标准的做法能够让学生有效地说出心中的所想所思。

其实，写这封信时，我应该借此机会说明关于美国汉语教学的情况。在汉语教学中，教师仍然面临许多困难与挑战，此外这些困难与挑战难以克服。首先，中文教师的质量参差不齐，教出来的学生也是各有不同。学生之所以有很多化石化的错误，是因为老师有可能忽略纠错，尤其是在语法方面的错误。因此，当学生到高中，大学时，老师就很难改正学生的错误了。这个问题有两个重要的原因，一是因为基础教育的教师跟大学教师的交流机会不够多。二是有些教师不太清楚怎么使用目标语来教课，特别是非母语者在这方面面临更大的困难。就我个人而言，美国政府应该提供更多机会让教师参加一些培训项目，这样可以让教师有更多机会互相学习，互相分享有效地教学方法。

其次：在美国学习汉语的学生由于受到环境的限制，在下课后没有机会跟母语者交流，因此容易造成洋腔洋调的问题。对于以上的情况我个人深有体会。 当我处于初级阶段时，除了在课堂上之外，我没有机会跟别人交流。由此可见，汉语教师应该想办法为学生提供一些交流的机会。因为我们现在处于高科技时代，教师应该在课堂上使用多媒体辅助教学，这样不但会有助于学生了解中国的文化，而且可以提供一些课后的学习材料：比如，有意义的视频，电子笔友，练习汉语的网站等等。

最后：教师面临的最大的挑战是如何激发学生的积极性，毕竟汉语这种语言并不容易。在学习汉语的过程中，学生半途而废的比率比较高。学生半途而废的情况有许多原因，其中之一是中文的汉字对外国人来说很难掌握。此外，汉语的发音和声调也较难掌握。在中文汉字方面，教师应该给学生一些有效的策略，比如“一看二拆三写四比五记”。这样的学习方法不但可以让学生有效地记忆，而且可以减轻学习的负担。另外为了激发学生的积极性和学习兴趣，教师应该把真实活动与任务设计贯穿在教学中。这样一来，学生就能够获得使用语言的能力。当然最理想的课堂活动和任务是跟学生的生活，学习程度有关的活动。

现在我个人发现了学生的成功度和教师的教学有效度的关系非常密切。因此我们会不断坚持，不断提高我们自己的教学能力。我个人期望未来的政府政策与教育标准也会符合我们的要求。再次感谢您给我这个难得的机会跟您联系。

    祝

永远健康


高健敬上
 2011年7月21日

China Update: July 25th, 2011

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This week was filled with a lot of studying and our midterm exam, but the highlights have got to be the time we spent outside of the classroom. 

Monday morning we headed out bright and early to Black Bamboo Park, which is located just a few blocks away from our campus. Arriving at the park gates we were greeted by a group of street calligraphers gracefully coating the ground with Hanzi (Chinese characters). Their brush, made of PVC and a delicate sponge filled with water, was the perfect tool for perfecting their art form. With the early morning sun beating down the characters quickly faded away, giving us but a fleeting moment to enjoy their masterful craft. Once inside the park we ventured to and fro, enjoying all the amazing sites.

Finding respite from the suns rays under some trees, we played a rousing game of Chinese hacky sack, while a group of locals danced to China's modern classics. Before I knew it, one of my teachers took the liberty of finding me a dance partner, an older women who was a retired dance instructor at Minzu University. She was a wonderfully patient teacher, and I quickly progressed beyond learning the Chinese three step, and began incorporating basic spins and a "feel for the pace of the music" to my routine. After a few dances we pressed on, stopping to enjoy the various forms of Tai Chi being practiced in the park. 

I hope that before I leave Beijing I will have an opportunity to return to Black Bamboo Park. My first time there was an experience that I will not soon forget. The park was a mix of tranquility and turbulence blending together to create something truly magical amidst "normal" every day city life. 

After our midterm we ventured out of Beijing to Cuandixia, a village suspended in a time now past. The entire village was made out of stone and perfectly preserved by the local population (with the help of Chinese law forbidding any exterior changes). The villages history dates back to the Ming and Qing Dynasty, with a few wall paintings older than America itself. We spent our day hiking in the mountains and getting a taste for the local flavors. I spent the night "looking at big mountains," which in Chinese is a turn of phrase for chatting about any and every topic under the sun. When it was finally time to turn in for the evening I was surprised to find that the kang (a heatable brick bed) I was sleeping on felt as soft as a Tempur-Pedic... who am I kidding, it was hard as brick! 

Monday marks my last full week in Beijing. I can't believe how fast time has gone by. After that I am off to Nanjing with my program, followed by roughly 20 days of travel around China. It is sure to be a grand adventure and I look forward to sharing it with you all. 

Best,

Gao Jian

Lessons from a coffee shop

Tweet Chinese, just like any other language is constantly evolving, taking old words and giving them new meaning for the modern generation and the changing times. Today I had the opportunity to spend some time with a few baristas at Beijing's 西尚咖啡厅 discussing a few of these words. To my own surprise, a lot of these words and their usages have origins in Japanese manga and anime.

萌 (méng): Originally this word meant sprout or bud (萌发:méngfā). Like others on this list is has its roots in Japanese manga and anime. The word is now used to describe something (or someone) that is particularly cute (可爱：kě ài). For example: 那个大熊猫非常萌哦 (nà ge dàxióngmāo fēicháng kě'ài o!) Of course, if you want to sound hip and impress the ladies, that that works too!

控(kòng): Although this word originates from the English word "complex" (or rather the initial sound con), it wasn't until the Japanese adopted the word that it started to gain ground in today's Chinese pop-culture. Today the word has come to represent a new style of self-project, or critique of one's in interests and behaviors. In Chinese you will see 控 appear behind a series of characters (often two other characters. 按照日元语法形成“某某控”的语言景观重构。 

Now lets take a look at a few practical usages:

1. 微博控 (wēibókòng): someone who spends all day on their 微博 （wēibó：a micro-blog such as Twitter). 
2. iPhone控: I don't think this one needs any explanation, but do note that you can also say 手机控 (shǒujīkòng) for those of us who haven't bought an iPhone yet. 例子：昨天我跟我的朋友一起去吃了饭。当时，他一直在用他的手机，真是个手机控！

Now onto some less practical usages that also have their roots in Japanese pop-culture:

1. 御姐控 (yùjiěkòng): a great word for those among us who have an interest in slightly older (and perhaps more dominant) women. It is translated into English as a "Royal Sister Complex".  
2. 萝莉控 (luólìkòng): a lolita complex. Someone who likes the appearance of younger girls. Could be a great word to use for those older men who enjoy spending a little bit too much time hanging around Chinese high schools.
3. 镜子控 (jìngzikòng): See someone spending a little bit too much time "fixing" their hair in the mirror? They might just be a 镜子控, in which case you should call them out. I would translate this into English as narcissism if it didn't have the strict connotation of using a mirror to check yourself out.

宅男／宅女 （zháinán/ zháinǚ): Directly translated 宅（zhái）means "house" or "home". This word is used to describe someone who, apart from work or attending class, spends all of their time at home. While it is commonly translated as "Otaku" (someone who has a obsessive interest in manga and anime) I personally think that the Chinese definition of the term more loosely describes someone who spends most of their time at home in their room. You'll often find these people getting their food "to go" and buying things on 淘宝网 (táobǎowǎng). This phenomenon is rather common in modern Chinese cities with so many people who work long hours, at the end of the day they would rather spend time at home alone than go out with their friends. 这些人觉得出去玩不如留在家里。

That's all for now. If you have other fun modern slang that you would like to share, please feel free to post a comment below.

Thanks for reading!

“填鸭式” (tiányāshì): Stuff The Duck

Tweet After a two month hiatus I'm glad that I can get back to blogging. The past two months have been incredibly busy, with a lot of life changing things going on. In late May I graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Just a week later I took a road trip across America, helping my girlfriend take all her belongs to Fremont, California, where she started her residency program. A week after that I was China bound. For the past 4 weeks I have been living in Beijing, China and studying at Central University for Nationalities（中央民族大学）.

I am currently attending Associated Colleges in China (ACC) K-12 Chinese Teachers Training Program, a six week long summer training program dedicated to increasing proficiency in Mandarin Chinese, while simultaneously attending lectures and discussion labs that are focused on how to effectively teach Mandarin Chinese. I am blessed to have a wonderful group of fellow students (who also happen to be Chinese teachers during the school year) with me on the program. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the ACC Summer Programs, they are know for their incredibly high expectations of students, and their blazing fast pace. The average student who attends ACC's six week program will cover roughly one year of college level Chinese.

Before I started the program, I was curious as to how the students and teachers are able to achieve so much in so little time. After the first hour of class I found out, they "stuff the duck," or as we say in Mandarin 填鸭式 (tiányāshì). For two hours of class we become Chinese learning robots, mimicking our teacher's every sentence pattern. While the original form of 填鸭式  has fallen under a lot of scrutiny due to its apparent inability to clearly teach "why" something is the way it is, that is not my take for learning a foreign language. After over three weeks in ACC's Summer Program I would say that it is an effective tool for learning Chinese. And here is why:

• In a class setting it allows for maximum repetition of target language goals.

• It forces language learners to use new grammar patterns to express their opinions (over and over and over again)

• After a single student is done saying the sentence every other student is forced to repeat (again) the sentence, thus maximizing the students ability to listen to new sentence patterns as well as speak them. 

The above is only possible because the teacher has complete control over the lesson plan, and what  students are allowed to say. For the past three weeks I have not be able to truly express my own opinion in the classroom unless it strictly pertained to the topic we were covering. Because of the structure of the class students are able to hear sentence patterns and new vocabulary at least 80 times during the course of the two hours. Of course, I also have another two hours of class a day where I can freely speak about the topics we are discussion, but of course the use of newly learned grammar patterns and vocabulary is ideal.

Assuming that students do their part outside of class to review materials studied during the day, it is a rather successful way of teaching a language. Of course, my program is geared toward this style of teaching. And, although I'm living in Beijing, I haven't had much time to get away from campus to do any exploring, I'm simply too busy studying all the time (grumble, grumble).

While it has been hard work the results are staggering. I can feel my Chinese constantly growing stronger and my grasp of the grammar points and vocabulary words is quite strong. Although, that might also be related to the 10+ hours that I have put in on Anki since my arrival in China, and the language pledge that we signed at the beginning of the program. Regardless, I feel a strong command over roughly 500 new vocabulary words related to effectively teaching Chinese.

If anything, this has been the prefect way to prepare for graduate school in Taiwan.