10/27/22

Chinese is one of my favorite classes. It is a mix of learning a new language and culture which is amazing. I also just love the class itself. So far we’ve had three xiao kao’s which haven’t been too hard, as I’ve just had to study the stroke orders we’ve been given. I wouldn’t say that Chinese is an easy language to learn but it is not as difficult as many people would think. Yes, you do have to put work and effort into understanding the language and characters but Steele lao shi is really good at helping students understand things they maybe aren’t getting yet. The class does require active participation inside and a bit outside of class but I wouldn’t say it is hard to learn the material needed to pass this class. Chinese is probably the class I have the most frequent homework in but it doesn’t take a long time to do. Our Chinese journals that we do every week aren’t hard. And when the focus is something like “talk about your family’s interests” or “talk about what your family members want to be when they grow up” it is kind of fun to ask my family these questions and then translate it into Chinese. Overall the Chinese Program is great and I hope to make it through all four years of the program.