And I was excited for classes why??

Oh man it's going to be an intense semester. Taking three classes in Chinese and one in English is extremely tiring.

My reading/writing class and my speaking class aren't too bad. The teachers are very energetic and I can keep up for the most part. We have quizzes every day on characters so I have to learn about 60 words a day including the pinyin with tones. The teachers don't speak English so all explanations are in Chinese. Half the time I find myself zoning out cause I just can't follow. I have classes with many foreign students (British, German, Bolivian, Japanese, Korean, etc) which is really cool. I feel so bad for some of them though cause all our translations in the books are in English so not only are they learning Chinese they are also learning English. Glad I at least have one up on them.

My listening class is painful. We have to listen to short dialogues and then answer questions. Unfortunately, this is the class I need the most because my listening is quite poor. However, between my horrible listening skills and the speakers they use from the 60's it is quite hard to understand anything. It doesn't help that the man speaking muffles half the time. To say the least I feel completely lost and frustrated.

On a good note though my Intercultural Communications class is awesome! And not just because it's in English. It is taught by the CEO of a Chinese consulting group that works with big names like Nike, Microsoft, etc. He is really entertaining and very knowledgeable. Plus, the class material is right up my ally. I am definitely going to try and get to know him really well so he can hopefully give me good advice since this is the type of stuff I want to do later on in life. He said, "I don't want you to become Chinese but I do want you to become better Americans." Could not have said it better myself.

These last few days I have been feeling pretty frustrated because I feel like I'll never learn this damn language (excuse my word choice but I think it conveys my mood accurately). It's almost like I have been transported back to my German days. Part of me knows it can only get better from here, but the other part just wants to give up.

Just as I am having a bad day I had to meet my tutor for the first time. We are required to see Chinese tutors three times a week. My tutor is named Mary and is studying to teach Chinese as a second language. She might want to go into a different field though cause the whole time she kept laughing at my Chinese pronunciation. And it wasn't a kind playful laugh either. It didn't help that she tried to convince me that Chinese is not a hard language to learn at all.

Sorry to vent but it was just one of those days. Tonight we are all going out to sing karaoke. I'm sure there's nothing a good Britney Spears song can't cure! As long as it's not in Chinese...

Oh and I got to skype with Mom, Linds, Jan, and Cassie this morning. Really great to talk to them and it always blows my mind that I can literally see them half way across the world. Technology is such an amazing thing! Hope everyone is doing well. Love yall ohh soo much!!

Lauren
柯若兰