Infrequent Nights

Here are two interesting links highlighting something we're going to hear more and more about in the future. The first is a soft news piece from the IHT adding a bit of historical perspective to China's trade surplus. It is important to remember that this isn't China's first time as the world's workshop: http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/02/26/...

The second is a highly entertaining effort by an American director to convey the rising nationalism in China. While accentuating America's apparent ignorance of the perceived great shift in global influence.: http://festival.sundance.org/2006/watch/film.aspx?which=402&category=DOC

Posted by Ryan at 7:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Over the next week or so I'm going to point out a few resources for those studying Chinese whether on their own or at a school. They're things I use to supplement my studies at Shi Da, and should be useful to just about anyone trying to learn Chinese.

The first is arguably my most used resource: Radio Free Asia. While it isn't strictly a resource for learning Chinese, it does offer huge amounts of Chinese (and other language) programming on a daily basis. One of the strong points is the archiving of the material. Programs are available for direct download for a few days after their original broadcast, or one can subscribe to an RSS feed.

The programs themselves are often quite interesting, and expose one to a wide array of spoken Chinese. Shows like 老百姓的声音 (lao bai xing de sheng yin: voice of the people) gets Chinese speakers from around the world talking about issues of import to them. RFA definitely has a political slant to its programming. As an organization with the majority if not all of its funding from the United States Government, the reportage must be taken with a grain of salt. Nonetheless I find most of the coverage enjoyable. I especially like the program where a deep voiced, slow speaking Chinese man recites the names, birth dates, and a short anecdote about people who were persecuted during the Cultural Revolution.

I just wish the PRC had a similar English language service to broadcast across North America and Europe. That would be entertaining.

Posted by Ryan at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been studying Chinese at Shi-Da since September. This is my six month progress statement. I've had a number of inquiries regarding how much one can learn, how quickly it can be learned, etc. So I thought I'd address some of those questions here to make the answers readily available to all.

When I started my Chinese was at a very basic level. After my preliminary placement test at Shi Da they stuck me into a book 1 lesson 13 class, using the Practical Audio-Visual Chinese series. At the beginning I felt I was in over my head. I probably should have started around lesson 7, but I had a good teacher and I studied a lot in my spare time. I opted for the "intensive" classes, which means that there are three hours of daily instruction as opposed to the two that most classes offer. In the past six months my Chinese has certainly improved. I can get by in day to day situations now. Broken, error ridden conversations are possible. I can even struggle through a newspaper article if I have a dictionary at hand.

While I have progressed, I have spent the majority of my time here studying. As languages are not my strong suit, I've put in hour upon hour of practicing on top of the demands of my coursework. At home Chinese radio is always on. I read Chinese as much as possible. I use outside materials to supplement my textbooks. And I try to have converstions when and where I can.

Thus far I've studied through the end of the second book 'shang' (that is the first half of the second textbook, which is for some unknown reason split into two books). Next term I'm going to switch to the Far East Everyday Chinese series, as I had a look through one of the books and found the material to be more suitable. I'd much rather learn how to say modem than typewriter. I've decided to return to Canada this summer so I've only got three months left. I'm going to try to be even more persistent by studying for at least an average of 8 hours per day during my last term here. I'll be sure to post a follow up report in a few months.

Posted by Ryan at 11:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

The mosquitoes here are driving me insane. It isn't that there are too many of them. Nor that their bites are particularly bothersome. It is their cunning and intelligence that angers me at three in the morning as I crawl around in my underwear muttering under my breath "I know you're in here. Show yourself." In hopes that I can kill the one or two mosquitoes which lie in wait for me to let down my guard.

Taiwanese mosquitoes are a different breed than those found in Northern America. They're slightly smaller, a little quieter, and a hell of a lot smarter. I apparently am accustomed to comparatively stupid, and thus more easily killed, mosquitoes. The mosquitoes here seem to know when you're aware of their presence. Simply glancing in their direction as they sneak up on you is enough to make them retreat and strategically bide their time. Their retreat is highly effective, utilizing a series of dodging maneuvers they quickly head for a darkened area to minimize their contrast with the background thus making them virtually invisible.

They of course prefer to come out at night, but sunset isn't enough to get them to show themselves. They're content to wait half the night until I'm in bed, and have shut off the lights before they search out my ears in which to dance around infernally buzzing until I'm forced to point a huge fan directly at my head in hopes the breeze will keep them away. Even the old method of letting them land and bite so as to kill them while their guard is down doesn't work as well here. Any movement or signal that you might be aware of them is enough to trigger the cloacking device.

I need to work on my anti-mosquitoe campaign. I believe as the weather warms, and the rains continue, my battles will only become more difficult.

Posted by Ryan at 11:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I got back from Halifax on Wednesday night. I'm just getting over my jet lag, and catching up on all the studying that I intended to do, but never did, over the holiday break. There are a few new photos up in the gallery section. Beyond posting here everytime I upload something, I've yet to figure out a good way to keep track of what is updated when.

Posted by Ryan at 10:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've again remade my gallery pages. I wasn't happy with the layout issues the last system had. Switching between two cameras of different aspect ratios scrambled the whole thing up. Furthermore, I felt the images were too small. So I'm using Jalbum now. I highly recommend it to anyone who puts images up on the web: http://jalbum.net.

The new galleries are located here: http://www.ryanwhalen.com/album/. I'd like to fix that root menu page so its prettier, but I have to get on a plane in a few hours and don't feel like doing it now. Please let me know of any bugs. I haven't had a chance to really check it out yet.

Thanks.

Posted by Ryan at 1:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)