Apparently I may become a Chinese TV icon within the month.
"Wait, what?!" you say? Exactly. Let me explain.
I was called into a meeting about week and a half ago. About six students attended, and the top teachers of ICLP told us about a competition in Beijing next month. Apparently they gave Taiwan free tickets for 4 foreign students to attend the competition, and that's where we came in. They ended the meeting with "Tell us by noon tomorrow if you want to go. Think about whether or not you want a life this summer".
Predictably, by noon the next day I had dove in over my head. The next day, the head teacher, Professor Fann, told us we would be meeting with her from 2-5 pm every day to prepare for the rest of the summer, and since then that's what I've been doing, in addition to the three hours of normal classes every day (9-5 workdays so soon? I thought I still had another five or ten years...). Two other students dove in along side of me, and though I'm clearly the weakest link of the three, that only means I'm benefiting from them more.
If you've bothered to read this far, you're probably thinking "what exactly is this competition?", and that's a great question! I wish I knew.
The competition starts around August 12, and unless I make it to the final round (which is astronomically unlikely), it will end August 16. The school will excuse me from my final exam, and this will become it. It's nationally televised on CCTV, the most widely watched channel in China, and is a Chinese speaking competition for foreigners with a game show atmosphere. It consists of many rounds, including but unfortunately not limited to: speeches (for example, they give you a random figure, place, or item in Chinese history and you have one minute to immediately speak about your feelings toward it), debates, going to a market place with a camera crew and bargaining, poem reading, and an on-stage conversation with a native speaker (you choose a setting - taxi cab, theater, library, etc.- and he makes five language mistakes during the conversation. You have to not only call them all out, but tell him what he should have said), all of which are judged by a panel of five famous Chinese men.
Besides watching the videos of previous competitions, we have no idea what to expect. We typically spend one hour a day watching films on Chinese culture, one reading poems and trying to erase our American accents, and one hour reviewing popular sayings and idioms in Chinese. It's incredible practice and I'm really lucky to have double the class time with the head teacher, but it's tiring. I can feel this is already taking my Chinese to another level, one in which I didn't think I was ready for. We'll find out soon enough if I am, and I'm only going to learn rabidly as a result.
Here are a couple YouTube videos of the random rounds of the competition. What have I gotten myself into? Only the best, I suppose.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZD2HhDR-YU&feature=PlayList&p=ED5595CD5C3AB825&index=0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAa8r-kiDao
That's really awesome, David! You're jumping at all opportunities. You'll have to send us videos of your competition as well :) It looks pretty entertaining and more educational than slapstick.
ReplyDeleteUnbelievable! When someone says "reach for the sky" most think that only the motivated will do that. I'm realizing, that even that phrase indicates a limit(sky). I guess we'll have to extend the limit. David, "reach for eternity!"
ReplyDeleteWe'll be sending our most positive wishes,
Marie & Dad