Sixth Week

This was our first week since returning from our social study projects. If the Wednesday before social study was my worst day of HBA, week 6 has definitely been my worst week. The general consensus is that we are tired of the monotony of class and study, and I am ready to go home. I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with the program; it’s just that it’s intense and tiring. On Tuesday, my xiaoban ke was with Wang Laoshi. I told her how I felt, and she said that it was normal to feel burnt out at some point. I let her know that I didn’t feel as if my Chinese was improving as much of the other students’, and she gave me the classic SAT example. If you get an 1100 on the SAT, it’s easy to study hard and get a 1400 the next time you take it, an improvement of 300 points (I’m using the old test here). However, if you test 1500 points the first time, it may be hard to improve to even 1550, thus illustrating the fact that going from poor performance to decent performance is easy, while starting at fairly good and going to really good is much harder. Wang Laoshi is definitely one of my favorite teachers since she is extremely demanding and strict while still being incredibly caring and funny.

Not much happened this week, except that our daily schedule and week test formats were slightly changed. Instead of a 3-part xiaoban ke, the last part has been converted to a 2-on-1 discussion section, with 2 students and 1 teacher. Instead of the drill-style xiaoban ke, it is much more conversation oriented, and allows for true elaboration of viewpoint and exchange of ideas rather than spitting out prefabricated sentence structure and trying to fit in the required vocabulary. While most of my experiences this week were really positive, some students expressed frustration with the new class, demonstrating that it totally depends on who your partner in the class is. Someone who is quiet and overly contentious can make the session unbearable, while the right person will spark a lively conversation/debate, leaving both sides enlightened by the time the 50 minutes is over. The teacher is also important: a good one will facilitate discussion while a bad one will ask awkward questions, leading to bad times all around.

Our weekly tests will now include a speaking part. At the beginning of each week, the teachers will pass out an excerpt from each lesson we learn during that week. On Friday, we will blindly select a passage and read it while the teacher grades us on pronunciation, tones, and fluency. It is by complete luck that I chose lesson 14, the easiest lesson we learned that week and the one I reviewed the most. Not only do tones and pronunciation have to be perfect, but pace and timing counts too. If you spend too much time on a word, or put the emphasis on the wrong one, points will be taken off. It does put a lot of pressure on the student, but it seems to help a lot with communication and striving to speak like a native.

On Saturday, HBA had planned a trip to the Marco Polo Bridge, but we decided that might not be very interesting so we made the trek downtown to see the Forbidden Palace, or Gu Gong. The subway was incredibly crowded, and coupled with the muggy air and the high temperature, I started the day in a bad mood. While the 13 line is air conditioned, the 1 and 2 lines, which were built earlier and nearer the center of the city, aren’t. Each transfer involved navigating through throngs of sweaty and pushy people to get a much coveted space in the subway. When the car comes and you see each car packed with more people than the last, you wonder how people deal with it every day of their lives. I could never live in a city so big, so crowded, so uncomfortable.

We finally arrived at the Tiananmen Square stop and emerged from underground. Everywhere we looked there were tourists, mostly Chinese, swarming the area in front of Gu Gong and filling every inch of Tiananmen Square.


Complaints about the Chinese population were heard from everyone, including me as we swam through the saturated air, skirted around the slow-moving elderly peasants who had made their first journey to their nation’s capital city to see the civilization’s most important relic, and avoided the “street mongrels” who were selling sketchy banana-flavored popsicles from cardboard boxes. We finally made our way in to the ticket counters, and Jesse gave the fuwuyuan, or service provider, our Beijing Language and Culture University student IDs, but she wouldn’t take them since they were only temporary passes. So we dished out the 60 RMB (it would’ve been 20 with the ID) to see the Forbidden Palace, which really isn’t that much (less than $8), but it was the principle of the matter that frustrated us. But that wouldn’t have been so bad if every building inside were under construction, the workers trying to meet a deadline set by the government that the majority of the renovations have to be completed by the end of the year in order to ensure that the important Olympics goes off without a hitch.


In addition to construction, many of the buildings were being painted with fresh coats of glistening paint. While the buildings obviously look better after they’ve been repainted, I’m not so sure I agree with the practice. They definitely have to be protected, but if it were up to me, I’d coat them with a protective paint rather than change their appearance. There’s no doubt that the changes are for the Olympics, but that’s not right. It should be because these cultural relics deserve protection no matter how much global coverage or which international dignitaries are going to see them. It just seems dishonest in a way.




We basically walked to the very back of the palace, decided that we’d seen enough, and returned right away. By the time we finished, we were exhausted, sweaty, in pain, and frustrated. It was impossible to appreciate the exhibits or enjoy the architecture and scenery because inevitably there’d be someone who’d march right in your way or shove you out of their way. I don’t think it’s a matter necessarily of Americans being politer, but there are definitely fewer social courtesies observed here.

When we got out, we were so unhappy at the whole crowded aspect of our experience that we were vocally expressing our grievances, just enough to be obnoxious, but not enough to warrant a guard arresting us or escorting us off the premises. Looking back on how we reacted to the crowdedness of China in general, we could’ve been a little more tactful. It’s just that people who have never been to China can complain that the nation has a much-too-large population, but actually being in the middle of all those people, trying to enjoy a cultural relic while people are littering around you, screaming at the tops of their lungs, and taking thousands of pictures when there is obviously a “no pictures” sign posted is demoralizing in a way. You expect the citizens of a nation with such a long history, such glorious culture, and such rapid development to be more like Americans, but to us, they were still in a way “uncivilized.” But it really is a matter of cultural difference. It was truly an interesting experience. I had never thought about it before, but being in a place as popular as the Forbidden Palace really made clear the behavioral disparities that we complained about. I’m still not sure how I feel about the situation, why we reacted the way we did, and what needs to be done to ensure greater cultural understanding, even among Chinese Americans and their motherland peers.

That night, we met up with some Duke Study in China students from Yale for dinner at Kro’s Nest, a restaurant near Bei Da. We enjoyed some delicious pizza in an American atmosphere, and discussed the differences of programs. DSIC students definitely get more free time to explore Beijing than HBA students. Our friends seemed to know all about every bar and restaurant in town. The program even organized a city-wide scavenger hunt for them that day. They also use the same textbooks as we do. After dinner, we went to Beijing Shifan Daxue to visit the DSIC dorms. While they have to live in doubles, the rooms and facility in general seem better than ours, but any real differences are minimal. We then walked over to the nearby KTV for karaoke, my first time ever. Luckily there were both English and Chinese songs. We had a great time singing American pop songs that were popular during our middle school years and attempting to read the traditional characters of the Chinese songs.

On Sunday, we treated ourselves to a Western-style brunch at one of the bars in Wudaokou, Lush. The atmosphere during the day is completely different to the one at night, a relaxed café instead of a rowdy club. It is very similar to the now-defunct Deux Gros Nez that used to be in Reno. As we looked over the menu, everything looked incredibly good, not surprising since our breakfasts until then had consisted of baozi and soymilk. We ordered eggs, bacon, toast, and pancakes, raving about the food as we stuffed it in our mouths. It probably wasn’t as good as we made it sound, but it was much needed at the time.

Wang Laoshi is also expecting me to compete in the essay/speech competition between the various summer study programs in Beijing. I reluctantly accepted since I hate public speaking, and my participation just means more work for me, but who can say no to Wang Laoshi?