Infrequent Nights

Today's IHT has a good report about the growing popularity of Chinese as a second language: http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/01/11/news/china.php. I think it's great the language is gaining such popularity. I just hope these 'Confucius Institutes' don't use the PRC state published Chinese as a Second Language texts I was using in Canada: The "New Practical Chinese Reader" series. There are many better texts out there, including the one used at my school.

It's a fine series of texts really. I've enjoyed using them for the past few months. The only shortcoming is in the production of the VCDs. For some reason, I reckon because they hired a poor audio technician while they were shooting, they've dubbed over all the dialogue with stuff taped in studio. The music is humorous, and the acting is (as is to be expected) hilariously inept. My favorite bits are the completely out of context montages between different sections of a lesson. The lesson I'm currently studying has a montage glorifying the Taiwanese army. This photo is a screen capture from the video. I'm not exactly sure what these soldiers are doing here, but I like to think that they're saluting the Generalissimo.

This lesson's second montage includes a voice over describing the plight of poor Taiwanese students, forced by their parents to study overseas. Apparently as time passes and these students live away from the calming and purifying influences of Taiwanese family and culture they turn to smoking and later mugging overseas Chinese ladies on the street. That is if the video is to be believed.

The video also has great examples of how to use the grammar we're studying. Our current lesson shows a man waiting at a table frustrated and hungry looking. When his wife FINALLY arrives with the food he uses a new sentence pattern to berate her saying "Two hours and you only made me three dishes!?!" The book and VCDs are full of entertaining gender sterotypes and examples of how to express them using one's newly acquired Chinese. I can only hope that the Mainland's international language centers do such a good job teaching people to express their admiration for the wisdom of the dictatorship of the masses.