Back again at Confucius Institute in Ateneo (Basic Mandarin 3)

   After 3 years, I'm finally back in Confucius Institute at the Ateneo de Manila University. I decided to take up Chinese again because I was positively influenced by my friend, whose Chinese mastery is way, way advanced compared to my level. Anyway, we started our class last week, July 8th. Yesterday, was our 2nd session. This is the 43rd cycle. My batchmates before, I'm sure were pretty much ahead of me because the Basic Mandarin 2 that I took 3 years ago was cycle 30+... something.. I already forgot since it's been a long time. My instructor's name is Priscilla Chang. She originally hails from Taiwan, and from her story, since the start of Confucius Institute Cycle 1,  at the Ateneo de Manila University, she has been teaching until now. My former laoshi (Ms. Joanna Tecson) in Basic Mandarin 2 told me that my teacher now is really kind. Before, I was really having second thoughts if I should continue attending this class. (remember my post before in my Basic Mandarin 2 class, same feelings again) I find this course also difficult. I was not able to practice what I learned before since I didn't have Chinese friends, or someone to practice what I learned. I have a Filipino-Chinese friend (churchmate) but that friend of mine is not that active in texting or replying in Chinese.

Basic Mandarin 2 focuses on conversation, creating sentences, more vocabulary words. Basic Mandarin 3 focuses more on writing. Our first lesson was all about the Chinese strokes, horizontal, vertical, left, right and dot... (heng, shu, pie, na, dian.. etc,) I'm still overwhelmed because I've been on a hiatus with regards to Chinese language study. I tried memorizing them. I even told my laoshi that I'm having a hard time studying the lesson. She encouraged me to study harder. The book that we used is the same as the book that we used in Basic Mandarin 2. (New Practical Chinese Reader - Book I). We review the words that we learn, and I think its a good refresher course for me. I also like the style of my teacher, wherein we review how to say a sentence in Chinese, and then we learn how to write the characters. The number of students enrolled in our class is not that large (8 students) since those who attended in the first day of class moved to another class because this level is way easy for them, and also as suggested by my laoshi. Yesterday's class we did a lot of things. Our teacher brought a book about how to hold the Chinese brush properly, how to write Chinese characters in order, and we also got to try writing with a Chinese brush and sort of a writing mat for practicing writing in Chinese. We also learned how to write Philippines (feilubin), so lengthy! I still haven't bought a notebook for this course. My filchi friend suggested a math notebook. What I did is I just printed the Chinese writing paper (Tian Zi Ge) that I saw online. My teacher said that's okay, she also brought a copy of tian zi ge for my classmates to have it photocopied. A lot of words to remember, hen nan (very difficult)! I'm overwhelmed. I even have a comparison when it comes to learning Chinese.. I feel happy, excited, and nervous. The feeling is similar when you like someone. he!he!he!

For those who are interested in learning Chinese (Mandarin), the course fee for a cycle is P4,500 for the early bird, and P5,000 if you didn't register earlier like me. I already registered on the last week, deadline of payment. Basic Mandarin 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 is offered at Ateneo in Katipunan (courses offered in Katipunan are limited). While in Ateneo Confucius Institute in Makati all Basic Mandarin levels are offered, and they have also Special Topics, and various lessons in Chinese musical instruments are also offered. The new Basic Mandarin textbook 1 is priced at 1,100 now, while the New Practical Chinese Reader books are still priced at P550. Even if its hard studying Chinese, I'll still try my best to learn. If you love something. No regrets! Jia you!

Book Review: Simple Strokes (Song Liwen)

  

I did a book review about the history of the Chinese language before and now it's going to be about the origin of Chinese characters. My former mandarin teacher explained to us a brief history of the Chinese characters that every character has its own story. She gave an example on the board. First, she drew a door. My classmates' reaction was it doesn't look like a door. I imagined the character looks like a door in a western movie, a swinging door. Next she drew an eye. I can't really understand how the character looks like an eye, maybe a single eye. I find the characters to be complex. 

The Chinese characters has really an interesting historical background. From the book, it says that, "In the history of civilization, many nations have recorded their native ideographic languages, but those have long been lost. Many people believed that Chinese characters were doomed to extinction. Chinese characters demonstrate  superiority over romanized language."

    Description from the back cover of the book. Do you know that every stroke in a Chinese character represents an idea or symbol that each Chinese character tells a story? Simple Strokes demystifies the Chinese language as it traces the history of each Chinese character and explains why the Chinese script is written that way.  With pictorial symbols to help readers especially first-time learners of the Chinese language. Simple Strokes is the fun way to learn and memorize complex strokes and their usage, and more importantly, how they put together a meaningful sentence. 

    As you can see from the photo that I posted here, there's a translation of the Chinese character. There is also a drawing on how the character evolved, past up to the present Chinese character. A description of its history in English, and also in Chinese. How to write it, order of the strokes, and usage of the character. The author of the book is Song Liwen, a graduate from Capital Normal University with a degree in Chinese language and literature. He is now an editor in the Department of Chinese and Linguistics at Peking University Press.

    I recommend this book to those who are interested in studying the Chinese language. Especially to Chinese studies enthusiasts like me. Looking beyond the art of Chinese writing. It will help you even more appreciate the beauty and uniqueness of the Chinese way of writing.