Block 3: Elementary Chinese

I know you all want to know how the class is going.

This is the quiz from Day 2:



I'm unofficial study buddies with Connor, my next-door-neighbor. His roommate George is fluent. We memorize characters for hours in my room, and bang on George's door for pronunciation help. Shan-Shan, my friend and Molly McGee's former roommate, is fluent, too, so she helps me with characters. However, she speaks with a southern accent, almost Cantonese, so I don't ask her for any help with pronunciation. For example, she pronounces her own name "San-San."
Across the hall is Rosie, who has rosy-colored hair. She's in the class.
Paul's in the class, too. He is the unicycle enthusiast from Maryland. My friend Joel is his R.A.

I love the teacher, Hong. She is really good, and patient, and we can understand her thick Chinese accent, and it's fun to say something to make her giggle.

There's 10 people in the class, 5 boys and 5 girls. Four are sophomores, the rest are freshmen. A few of them have been to China, but on the first day no one knew more than a few words. Now at the end of Week 1 we know a bunch of words. No one's too shy to ask questions. We meet every morning from 9 to noon, and on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays from 1 to 2pm. The afternoons help, and they're not nearly as long as science labs. The visiting student from China helps teach these. Her name is Lu.

To answer the question on how I'm doing: it's pretty fantastic. I'm never behind, and often ahead. The only person doing better than me is Rosie, and she has two adopted sisters from China.

Starting Monday, we aren't allowed to use our English names. Jiang Hong Laŏshī (Professor Hong Jiang) gave us names that sound similar to our given names. Kathryn Rafter is now Kaīlĭng Rèn. Since you put the surname first in China, it's really Rèn Kāilĭng.

My first name, Kāi Lĭng, means "open leader." The initial Kai-Ling that the professor came up with meant "graceful gentleness." Paul, Connor, and Rosie said it definitely did not describe me. No worries, because I found a better name by accident. During lab I put my name in the wrong pinyin on a document, and it generated different characters. Hong told me what they meant, and she said I should keep them.

The surname Rèn means assign, appoint, office, or responsibility. It's a somewhat common name.


I don't think Hong Laŏshī (Professor Hong) will call me Rèn, so I'll probably just get everyone to shorten Kāilĭng to Kāi.