Week Five

Late posting this week. I did not present this week because of the new class schedule, but I did have a very productive meeting with Shi Laoshi. She did a great job helping me organize my writing for next weeks presentation. I decided to write a proper script this time in order to avoid the problems I have had the last couple of weeks, although I hope that I will not have to rely on the script in class.

I think it might be possible to use the scripts I have been writing (for three out of five presentations) and perhaps adapt them for use in my final paper. Especially the more organized scripts.

Week Four

Being sick can sure put a damper on proper class preparation. I was ill the first half of the week and unfortunately had to miss half my classmates presentations. Which was truly a shame. I enjoyed the (section) of the article I was able to read this week, but I felt like I was not able to properly convey it in class. The PPT is again a helpful tool, but I think that if I had been more together I probably should have written a script, so that I could at least have it to fall back upon.

On a more upbeat note, I am really starting to enjoy my topic, I think I chose it well, and that at least makes me feel good.

Week three

This week for my presentation I tried something different. The past two weeks I have been depending on a a script for my presentations, and while I didn't always follow the script, I did have it there as a safety net.

This week I prepared a powerpoint presentation, which served as an outline for what I wanted to say. I think that it worked pretty well in terms of conveying my point to the class, but I was somewhat uncomfortable without the script, and I think I had quite a few "ums" punctuating my presentation.

Second Week

This week I began my research in earnest. I found that I had a rather easy time, once I had decided on key words, finding relevant articles on both Google and CNKI.net. I was pleased that I was able to quickly skim articles and abstracts and find one I thought would be relevant. I ultimately came upon an article from a law journal, and Dai Laoshi was good enough to track me down a copy. It looks like a great article, but I have to say I am a bit intimidated by it. It is certainly one of the more complex pieces of Chinese text I have approached.

I have been trying to figure out how to go about reading, and more importantly evaluating this document. I think ultimately instead of reading it strait through I need to skim through it and sort of diagram it for myself, so that I know the basic structure and argument before I get into a close reading. That way I can have some advantage when I am having trouble with a particular sentence or paragraphs meaning. If I know the general flow of the argument, hopefully that context will help me get through the tough parts.

Here's hoping it works, if not, well then back to the drawing board.

First Week back

I have been very nervous about this first week of Chinese class. For academic and other reasons I read little and spoke even less Chinese in 2009. Coming to class I was finally confronted with the realities of my Chinese level.

The pleasant surprise has been that neither my listening nor reading comprehension have degraded as much as I would have imagined. I was able to follow the majority of what was said in class and was able to read the syllabus and the article I chose to read this week.

The not so surprising bad news is that my comfort level speaking Chinese has seriously declined. I have always been nervous public speaking, and doubly so when it comes to speaking in Chinese. When I was giving my introduction on the first day I felt fumbling and awkward, but on Thursday when I was giving my presentation I felt more comfortable, perhaps because I had put in the time to prepare. In any event, I need to figure out some strategies to maintain my Chinese when I am not in school.

On a technical level it is clear what I need to work on. My vocabulary has remained strong, but I need to improve my sentence structures and proper word choice. I will focus on this going into next week.