(no subject)
I'm not sure I've ever mentioned how awesome my Mandarin prof is, but he is awesome.
He really likes to teach. I mean really likes it. He enjoys sharing knowledge and this never fails to make class entertaining.
(Not to mention he apparently knows the personal histories of each of the characters in our curriculum.
Lǎoshī: "Lǎo Wáng, can't understand that. Remember, the connection's bad. [makes popping/crackling sounds] He fought in the Korean War. Artillery. Try that again. What would you say?"
Xuésheng (yelling): "Nǐ shì yǔyán xuéyuàn sùshè lóu ma?")
Today, for example, the topics covered included:
1) Current university politics
2) The history of the telephone systems in China and Taiwan from about 1895 until present day.
3) This included a brief history lesson about the China-Japan war around the turn of the century. (I never knew Japan was in control of Taiwan for about 50 years! Or that China was involved in the Korean war!)
4) Oh, yeah, those Mandarin vocabulary and grammar rules from this week's lesson.
On top of that, in History of English, we examined some of Return of the King to see if Tolkien used thy/thine and my/mine the way it was used in Middle English (he didn't). It's been a pleasantly geeky day today.
He really likes to teach. I mean really likes it. He enjoys sharing knowledge and this never fails to make class entertaining.
(Not to mention he apparently knows the personal histories of each of the characters in our curriculum.
Lǎoshī: "Lǎo Wáng, can't understand that. Remember, the connection's bad. [makes popping/crackling sounds] He fought in the Korean War. Artillery. Try that again. What would you say?"
Xuésheng (yelling): "Nǐ shì yǔyán xuéyuàn sùshè lóu ma?")
Today, for example, the topics covered included:
1) Current university politics
2) The history of the telephone systems in China and Taiwan from about 1895 until present day.
3) This included a brief history lesson about the China-Japan war around the turn of the century. (I never knew Japan was in control of Taiwan for about 50 years! Or that China was involved in the Korean war!)
4) Oh, yeah, those Mandarin vocabulary and grammar rules from this week's lesson.
On top of that, in History of English, we examined some of Return of the King to see if Tolkien used thy/thine and my/mine the way it was used in Middle English (he didn't). It's been a pleasantly geeky day today.