Chinese I: Day 1

So, other than not finding the classroom right away, class is quite good. Our teacher uses her Mandarin name rather than her given Cantonese birth name (since we're learning Mandarin, of course!) She also shares that the Chinese (in general) do not express love towards one another whether it be spouses, parents, or children to each other or one another. It's just not culturally acceptable although I'm not sure why, yet, and she says this seems to be changing with the younger generations. Oh, with special thanks to the professor of 10 years and the and campus police officer for their help in helping me find our classroom just ahead of our teacher as she graciously lets me pass her in the hallway on the way to class as she straw-slurps a Starbucks green tea! As an alumnae on this campus, I can't believe how much it's changed from 20 years ago with people everywhere when this place used to shut down around 6:00 pm except for the occasional lab or library visit! Sigh. So many memories reside in this historic Austin High School campus from 1991 including AT, the 18-year-old Pakistani woman, whose father was paying for her US education from overseas while she lives with her aunt in a tiny apartment on Rundberg Lane. Under threat to obey or to return home and lose her only opportunity for a college education, AT doesn't dare tell her parents (especially her father) about her illicit romance with a man her age from Oman whom she met in Austin and only her aunt knows about their relationship. These memories happen in the basement near the white lockers (not used then or now) where AT and I learned all about Texas History. Oh, and if your class schedule says room 1.328 please know it's really 328 (bldg 1, rm 328.) Do you know what's extremely liberating after more than 39 years on the planet? It's wonderful not to worry about the same problems as fellow classmates who are just starting their college careers and who are soooo young in their late teens and early 20s! They may be worried about their majors, class credits, paying rent, and someday falling in love and each class has hook-up potential. In this class, the ratio from young to old is about 5:2 with approximately 30 students. It's wonderful and I hope everyone will make it through the entire semester though I know better since language classes always fade. At least three students had Chinese in high school at Eanes or Anderson (impressive.) Back in the late 80s, our high school (Lake Travis) was a wealthy district but only offered Spanish and French. Now, about half our Mandarin class plans to study the traditional form (me, too) and the other half decide to learn simplified. Our teacher says it doesn't matter which one we learn first except the traditional makes it easier to decipher the simplified pictograms. The simplified version was developed (and is still used) by the People's Republic of China to improve literacy and language ease; however, the biggest critics say it's much harder to revert to traditional with only a simplified background.