Imagine getting to redo kindergarten— playing games in class and singing songs about fruits and animals.  I get to!  It’s honestly a blast.  And not surprisingly, we still get things wrong all the time.  This is just our speed in the A1 class (total beginner).

Most days my schedule goes like this: I have a 1:1 session with my tutor for 50 minutes at 8:10 a.m., an hour break where I usually go to breakfast with some people who have the same schedule, an hour and 50 minutes of small group language class, an hour for lunch, some sort of speech about Taiwan’s culture, an elective class, and then free time.

So to take you through my first day–

I went over how to say my name, nationality, state (Ohio = É hài é zhōu), hobby, university (Maryland = Mǎ lǐ lán), major, birthday, and the reason I’m learning Mandarin with my tutor.  We mostly worked on my pronunciation of the tones on the first day, and throughout the week.  In Mandarin there are four tones.  The first is high and flat, the second is rising, so it sounds like you’re asking a question.  The third is falling-rising, so it’s a little easy to confuse with the tone before it sometimes.  And the last is falling, and it sounds like you’re mad at someone.

This is my tutor.

She’s teaches me really hip phrases and brings me pineapple cake, so she’s pretty much the best tutor out there.  She’s very patient with me.  It’s so sad when your favorite fruit is the one you have the most trouble pronouncing.  I think I’ve got it now.  Strawberries = cǎo méi.

Then I went to breakfast with Ethan and Eduardo, who also have the same break as me.

I got a crepe/egg covered in a gravy sauce and it was excellent.  And by some sort of mistake, I also got delivered these french toast looking cubes that were actually potatoes (pictured below).  I ate them anyway, and they were also delicious.  Black tea for my drink.  Again, super cheap– a couple dollars.

And then I had my small language class.  My teacher is very cute and doesn’t use English very much in class, but she only uses phrases we know, such as, “Do you have any questions?”,  “Correct,” “Incorrect,” and “Repeat after me.”  And if we ask a question in English she answers in English.

Here’s a picture of my teacher and me at an oyster farm.  The oyster farm is a story for another post.

Then I went to lunch with Jessica.  Most of the group was going to get fried rice, but we wanted to try something we’d never had before.  We got these amazing wheatcakes.  And I got a banana milk drink, which was heaven.  Tasted like a banana smoothie.

Coming back, students from every level gathered again for a speech called, “Guide for Foreigners in Taiwan” given by Gary Obea, the Director of the American Institute in Taiwan.  He talked about the port of Kaohsiung and the port of Takao, gave us an overview of the two political parties in Taiwan (the Kuomintang and the Democratic Progressive Party, or the KMT and the DPP).  He also noted that the American government doesn’t recognize Taiwan as a country, but rather an area.  Taiwan only has de facto independence from China, and there can only be “one China”… even though there are “two Chinas.”

He talked about how both political parties appeal to the middle and that in southern Taiwan, the KMT is strongest in big cities while the DPP is solid throughout.  He also said that most people in Taiwan want to maintain the status quo— that most people aren’t for independence or reunification.  They’re very happy with how it is right now, though the trend is actually toward reunification.  Then he talked a little bit about the different festivals they have in Taiwan, like the dragonboat festival, the lantern festival, and the balloon festival.

And then after that we had free time!  Though other days, we have elective classes.  I signed up for Chinese painting and Taichi.  These were really great and I have a lot to say about them (and various other fun things we did this week), so I think I’ll make a new post for that.

I’ll leave you with an article from the Wall Street Journal about the TUSA program that was published a few days ago.