by Kay-Christian Karstadt
Hey foreigner! Yeah, You! Having trouble with your compulsory Chinese (國文) class? You are not alone. When I got into NTU and realized that Chinese was on the list of compulsory courses, I was really happy. Great! A special course for foreigners – so, I thought, this must be a good chance to improve my Chinese. How nice, I told myself. People really care about the needs of foreign students studying for a degree here. I was impressed – but not for long. The disillusionment came after I entered the classroom. As we were mixed with overseas Chinese students, the teacher told us clearly that she would adjust the course level to those who grew up speaking Chinese because they would be bored otherwise. That meant she would be teaching ancient Chinese poems and literature. Sure, my teacher made her point but I was in trouble. With my 10-month background in learning Chinese, I was all but unable to understand even a bit of what was happening in those ancient poems that the whole course seemed to be about. To make matters even worse, my teacher asked me continuously why my Chinese was so much worse than that of my overseas Chinese classmates. After I tried to explain it to her twice, she still wasn’t very sympathetic, and so I decided to do whatever it took to get the course over and done with. I hired a private tutor and spent my weekends cramming Chinese. But all my effort fell short of its purpose – I failed. No matter how hard I worked, there was obviously no way to fulfill my teacher’s expectations. Why, I asked myself, was I even accepted by the university if my level of Chinese was not appropriate to commence with my studies? But then, my major only requires that I can understand Chinese and express myself in the language. Of course it would be nice to improve my reading and writing skills (that is my reason for studying in Taiwan anyway), but honestly, a two-semester compulsory Chinese course does little if the level is too high for you. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to classify students according to their level in Chinese instead of teaching seven similar “foreigner/overseas Chinese courses” at the same time? I think this is the only way for all students to appreciate the depth of Chinese literature. And shouldn’t this be the aim of this kind of course? But for now, it seems that all you can do is hope to have good luck and end up with an understanding teacher, who realizes the fact that you didn’t grow up speaking the language and who assists you in improving your Chinese. Good luck, pal. a
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The Taida Student Journal has been active since 1995 with an ever-changing roster of student journalists at NTU. Click the above link to read about the authors Archives
May 2024
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