In the Stillness

My ICLP courses have not been disappointing. I'm currently taking Practical Chinese Reading&Writing, Chinese Moral Tales, and Far East Everyday Chinese.

Practical Chinese Reading&Writing: When it comes to vocabulary, this is my easiest class. We're learning words like mom, dad, school, library, etc. The only reason a lot of us are taking the class is because in our placement process, we made it clear to the staff that we know how to speak and listen, but we aren't so sure about reading and writing. This class ensures that we still know how to recognize simpler vocabulary. And the teacher goes extremely fast and gives us a lot of homework. It's only Monday of Week 2, and we're on Lesson 4. In addition, she tends to give us 4 sheets for practicing our writing, an oral speech (about different topics), and 4 pages in our workbook. This class is definitely the most work.

Chinese Moral Tales: My teacher is known for being one of the cooler, younger ones. Even though there's over 60 new characters in each lesson, she goes slow and helps us out. Her humor also makes it easier to learn, because we don't feel pressured to get her questions right every time. The lessons revolve around old Chinese tales that inevitably end with some type of moral. We've covered one, and the story was about how rumors are a terrible thing. We end each week with a small quiz and oral speech. I got 100% on my last quiz, and thus received a piece of chocolate cake. It was small, but exciting nonetheless.

Far East Everyday Chinese: This class contains the hardest, useful vocabulary. The moral tales class uses intellectual and advanced words, whereas this book has words such as accident, hospital, headache, etc. I completely underestimated this class because of the speed we initially started at. But now that I know how much work needs to be put into it, I look forward to learning how to write all of these words (that I originally only knew how to say). The teacher is the quietest, and least interesting of the bunch. She speaks slowly and monotonously. I'm pushing through because I know it will help me to pay attention.