If we're going to rant on the subject of filial piety and what it means in the modern setting, there's literally endless things to say. Certainly, Chinese people have institutionalized the idea of taking care of your elders in their infirmity into a religion. With the current fashionable movement to be 'innovative,' to 'break the mould,' to be against any and all institutions regardless, in addition to the ideology of democracy eroding into the Chinese tradition of age hierarchy, it's not surprising that people occasionally slip up and yell at their Grandpas. All the more appropriate to discuss the topic, with the timing near Ching Ming Festival, in which ritual tomb/grave sweeping and offerings of food, money and incense are made. (Well done Pilar, right on time!)
I just learned from my maternal grandmother that if you've relatives that are fresh in the grave, you have to visit them first, before Ching Ming day, in order to demonstrate that you haven't forgotten them so quickly. You visit the relatives that have been in the grave longer later, either on the day of, or after. The term for the newly dead isn't actually 'newly dead' - it's literally 'new mountain,' and 'old mountain' for the long buried. This is a nice way of pointing to the practice of having graves situated on hillsides or mountainsides, mostly for Feng Shui reasons. I think that if I were dead, I'd like a spot on a hilltop with a nice view too, frankly. (Pilar can you teach me how to insert Chinese characters? Ta.)
And, it all makes a lot of sense to me. If you've been dead for ages, you'd forgive your kids and grandkids for wanting to visit the people they remember more freshly, right? Though, with how intractable old people generally are, it's also difficult for me to imagine them being less than absolutely stubborn and demanding in the grave as they are in life. I have this strange image of a bunch of old dead people elbowing each other out of the way, to get the dibs on the freshest and best food offerings, just like I've seen real old folks do in the Hong Kong wet markets. (Chinatown NYC, Pilar?) Honestly, if you're that old, and that dead, no shame in giving your fellow ghost a shove, eh?
Monday, March 31, 2008
Friday, March 28, 2008
The Granddaughter Asian Grandpas Wouldn’t Want.
It’s no secret that I am a little crazy. I am easily agitated over random things. One of those things is my grandpa’s insistence on putting clothes in the dryer after they’ve been hanging to air dry for two days. It just doesn’t make sense to me. He claims that air-drying for two days first saves money because the dryer isn’t running for the full hour.
I wasn’t really in the mood because I had a really strange dream about rejection and woke up confused and slightly angry. (What else is really new?) I decided to wash the bed sheets because I equated clean sheets with good dreams but when I came downstairs, I saw grandpa stacking the clothes washed two days ago one by one in to the dryer -- apparently laying them flat helps the already dry clothes dry faster -- and I just went crazy and started complaining about it. And it turned into a full-blown argument with both of us yelling at each other. OMG and it must be a generational thing or maybe he has been watching way too many TVB shows but grandpa threw down that he can’t “忍 受” (rěn shòu, to suffer) the complaining about the issue anymore. He knew that we all thought his clothes drying methods were insane and chose to ignore them because he was stubborn. Ugh and then we ended up yelling at each other about how we should do our own laundry (which is fine with me cuz I think he’s insane).
So there you have it, perhaps the ultimate example of not being filial. Confucius must be rolling over in his grave. Hearing Grandpa wax poetic about how he is suffering the indignity of being lectured by his granddaughter made me feel bad. It was like reliving that sad Sutaitai moment again: the day when I vowed never to make the elderly feel so exasperated and defeated. woops. Looking back, I should’ve left it all alone. Both Dad and Alex have also made comments about his laundry method, but neither has been as aggressive as mine probably because they don’t spend nearly as much time at home as I do. I am probably having cabin fever and took it out on them. Still I should have known better. Grandpa and Grandma live in our home and I shouldn’t be looking at them as if they were mere guests. :sigh: This is yet another reason to find a job ASAP so I can move out and never have to deal with the guilt for yelling at people for doing stupid insane things again!!
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Hollywoodization
Has anyone else seen both versions of the Hong Kong movie Infernal Affairs? Pilar and I have. The concept is so simple it's revolutionary - a story about two moles trying to rat out each other. The comedian Eddie Izzard hit the nail on the head in the case of the Hollywood remake of Infernal Affairs. Pilar and I went to see it with a bunch of Americans who hadn't seen the original (gritty, intense, emotional, dark... a lovely movie, highly recommended, if only for the eye candy. OMG Tony Leung Chiu Wai please marry me, I'll do your dirty dishes). Afterwards, Pilar and I could not stop bitching about how the Hong Kong version was soooooo much more awesome. Our other friends got jealous about how much fun we were having and told us we needed to stop, because The Departed was a good movie. Was it bad form of us to bitch, when it was TEH TRUTH?
Any other tainted movies to mention? I would really love to hear from someone who knows a movie that was better after Hollywoodization. No, really, I'm eager to be surpised. I shall eat crow, if I am.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Where are your friends from freshperson year? To Josie Garza: a Most Stellar Dyke. I did love you, and I love you still.
Recently, I received news of the passing of a person that I knew from my freshman year at Hollins University, a woman of note (it seems strange to refer to ourselves as girls, though back then, I suppose we were), if only to me. First year at college was a bit strange for me, I don't know if I loved it or hated it: it was an eye-opener on American college culture, and on the variety and spirit of Americans. And because I find this obituary sadly lacking, I'm going to fumble one of my own...
Josie and I met during orientation, and spent the majority of our first semester doing... well, whatever it is people do during their first semester at college, I can't remember. Some drinking and dancing and talking about nothing, I think. I took two classes with her, and my strongest memories had to be of the "Female Cyborgs in Early Modern Literature" class during our second semester of first year.
Josie probably had no respect for the concept of 'off-topic' or 'on a tangent.' She was hardly the most conscientious student ever, none of us did all our readings, really, but she always added something amazing to our tiny seminar class, something wonderful and tenderly imaginative, like "Wouldn't it be great if... ?" or "Hey, what if...?" and since this was a class partly about sci-fi, you can imagine that what she said was always surprising, and sometimes laughable. It was the laughing that she incited, the genuine delight she found in sharing her non-serious, non-scholarly musings, that will always stay with me. She makes me remember the greatest thing about pure academia: that anything is possible in the mind. I don't think it mattered that we hardly ever talked about cyborgs in a scholarly way. I think it did matter that we laughed, and that Josie often had a hand in our laughing.
In my senior year, I wrote a thesis on the Image of the Female Cyborg in Film and Literature (are the caps a bit much? Yeah, they are a bit snobby aren't they, those big letters. I forgive myself. You don't need to. ) I miss that class, I miss that particular time, and I miss Josie making me laugh. I hope you're laughing now (you probably are, we look pretty ridiculous) , wherever you are, Josie Garza.
Josie and I met during orientation, and spent the majority of our first semester doing... well, whatever it is people do during their first semester at college, I can't remember. Some drinking and dancing and talking about nothing, I think. I took two classes with her, and my strongest memories had to be of the "Female Cyborgs in Early Modern Literature" class during our second semester of first year.
Josie probably had no respect for the concept of 'off-topic' or 'on a tangent.' She was hardly the most conscientious student ever, none of us did all our readings, really, but she always added something amazing to our tiny seminar class, something wonderful and tenderly imaginative, like "Wouldn't it be great if... ?" or "Hey, what if...?" and since this was a class partly about sci-fi, you can imagine that what she said was always surprising, and sometimes laughable. It was the laughing that she incited, the genuine delight she found in sharing her non-serious, non-scholarly musings, that will always stay with me. She makes me remember the greatest thing about pure academia: that anything is possible in the mind. I don't think it mattered that we hardly ever talked about cyborgs in a scholarly way. I think it did matter that we laughed, and that Josie often had a hand in our laughing.
In my senior year, I wrote a thesis on the Image of the Female Cyborg in Film and Literature (are the caps a bit much? Yeah, they are a bit snobby aren't they, those big letters. I forgive myself. You don't need to. ) I miss that class, I miss that particular time, and I miss Josie making me laugh. I hope you're laughing now (you probably are, we look pretty ridiculous) , wherever you are, Josie Garza.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Su taitai, the Asian Grandmother I sometimes wish I had.
Here we are at a class dinner. Half of the class didn't show up but I think she was pretty happy anyway. Isn't she so cute? 
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Su Tai Tai (Look her up at www.culpa.info) and what American exchange students in China may need to take into account
This is a post dedicated to one of the most memorable professors of my college career, Su Tai Tai. As mentioned, Pilar and I met in her class, and she's probably one of the reasons we became friends, because talking about Su Tai Tai and her particular antics was so much fun.
The thing that the other American students I had the priveledge of calling classmates never understood about Su Tai Tai is that she couldn't be any other way even if she tried. She doesn't think that she is a lunatic, because her idea of being a teacher extends beyond the classroom. This is a quaint Chinese attitude, and personally, I believe Su Tai Tai carries it off with great aplomb.
Chinese professors, especially older ones, do feel the obligation to mold their students into responsible, ethical adults, which is a digression from the average professor at Columbia or Barnard, where the assumption is that you already are (though, from what I've seen... haha nah just joking.) Su Tai Tai also expects an unquestioned amount of respect above the threshold of respect that the average professor requires from his/her students, which I also think is Chinese. She meets with a lot of resistance because of her concepts and expectations of us, her students, and I feel bad for her sometimes. She gets outraged occaisionally, but she really is a sweetheart.
I recently talked to my professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong about the respect issue, and she admits she hates it when foreign students, mostly American, troop into her class wearing flip flops or tank tops, or when they put their feet up on the chair in front of them. She says that it reflects a total lack of respect for the class, their classmates, and herself, who put a lot of effort into putting the class together, encouraging discussions etc. I don't know whether to agree with her or not. But let this be a warning to all American exchange students in China: shoes and shirt are required, preferrably one with a collar. That, is the lesson of the day.
The thing that the other American students I had the priveledge of calling classmates never understood about Su Tai Tai is that she couldn't be any other way even if she tried. She doesn't think that she is a lunatic, because her idea of being a teacher extends beyond the classroom. This is a quaint Chinese attitude, and personally, I believe Su Tai Tai carries it off with great aplomb.
Chinese professors, especially older ones, do feel the obligation to mold their students into responsible, ethical adults, which is a digression from the average professor at Columbia or Barnard, where the assumption is that you already are (though, from what I've seen... haha nah just joking.) Su Tai Tai also expects an unquestioned amount of respect above the threshold of respect that the average professor requires from his/her students, which I also think is Chinese. She meets with a lot of resistance because of her concepts and expectations of us, her students, and I feel bad for her sometimes. She gets outraged occaisionally, but she really is a sweetheart.
I recently talked to my professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong about the respect issue, and she admits she hates it when foreign students, mostly American, troop into her class wearing flip flops or tank tops, or when they put their feet up on the chair in front of them. She says that it reflects a total lack of respect for the class, their classmates, and herself, who put a lot of effort into putting the class together, encouraging discussions etc. I don't know whether to agree with her or not. But let this be a warning to all American exchange students in China: shoes and shirt are required, preferrably one with a collar. That, is the lesson of the day.
Indulge Me
What is the line between kindness and indulgence in the realm of sexual practices? I read Dan Savage and Mistress Matisse's Columns and Blogs and I find myself pondering the above question quite often. Dan Savage is mostly against bestiality, but very against it when you're tearing up a girl dog. He's generally against publicly flaunting certain kinks, if that means that you're forcing coworkers, family or friends to participate in your kink (omg, I have le not so secret diapers on and I... I... I... could be found out! *gasp* *hard-on*) . And I do see why, it's simply rude. I recently read an article about an British male taking a willing female sex slave and having her trail around on a chain in public. It's kind of like being a nudist outside of a nudist colony - just, well, uncouth.
It is mean and small-minded to denigrate homosexuality of course, but at one time, the prevailing thought was that homosexual people were simply indulging themselves in something unnecessary and amoral. Right now, we have established, in general, that involving outsiders in you and your lover's personal kink is asking for too much indulgence on the part of unwilling bystanders. But sometimes, and I WILL be beheaded for saying this, I'm sure, I vaguely understand when a certain people rant on about people wanting to marry their lamps and their pet gerbils next, in the context of arguing about gay rights. What that camp might be trying to say is "Perhaps we shouldn't forget that line between absolute indulgence and humanity. " There should be a line, we shouldn't indulge ourselves or other human beings in raping animals (actually, I just had the strange image of a lamp fighting off the sexual advances of a male like a Regency era lady... don't you think some lampshades look a bit like a frilly dress? "No, Lord Beckett, I must return to the bedside table, this tryst will ruin me!"), and... {insert here other examples of unindulgable sexual practices that that I can't think of right now}. But I'm annoyingly confused as to what exactly is unnecessary to indulge, in myself and others, and what should be given acceptance and/or dignity in the open.
And, to all the raving, foaming-at-the-mouth liberals that I've met over the years, I don't think I'm ashamed of asking either. There should be some hard and fast rules - it would , and is, remiss of the liberal camp NOT to think up something catchy like "what would Jesus do?"
It is mean and small-minded to denigrate homosexuality of course, but at one time, the prevailing thought was that homosexual people were simply indulging themselves in something unnecessary and amoral. Right now, we have established, in general, that involving outsiders in you and your lover's personal kink is asking for too much indulgence on the part of unwilling bystanders. But sometimes, and I WILL be beheaded for saying this, I'm sure, I vaguely understand when a certain people rant on about people wanting to marry their lamps and their pet gerbils next, in the context of arguing about gay rights. What that camp might be trying to say is "Perhaps we shouldn't forget that line between absolute indulgence and humanity. " There should be a line, we shouldn't indulge ourselves or other human beings in raping animals (actually, I just had the strange image of a lamp fighting off the sexual advances of a male like a Regency era lady... don't you think some lampshades look a bit like a frilly dress? "No, Lord Beckett, I must return to the bedside table, this tryst will ruin me!"), and... {insert here other examples of unindulgable sexual practices that that I can't think of right now}. But I'm annoyingly confused as to what exactly is unnecessary to indulge, in myself and others, and what should be given acceptance and/or dignity in the open.
And, to all the raving, foaming-at-the-mouth liberals that I've met over the years, I don't think I'm ashamed of asking either. There should be some hard and fast rules - it would , and is, remiss of the liberal camp NOT to think up something catchy like "what would Jesus do?"
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Friendship Chemistry part deux: Or, Playing Catch Up, 12++hrs behind!
Gosh! Sorry loklok! I am totally behind. I log on to blogger and see that there already so many awesome posts. I hope all your friends know that I am not nearly as poetic as you are. Perhaps I am just more melodramatic. Hah!
Reading “Friendship Chemistry” was truly shocking! I am shocked that something like letting you sleep made you fall in love with me! I thought it was my wit, charm and stunning good looks!
I knew we would be good friends when I met you sophomore year, when we didn’t know how the sutaitai learning method worked. I wouldn’t say that we have a lot of similarities but there is enough that’s different to keep things interesting. Also, I think you are somewhat of an old soul. Sometimes, you have the most sagely advice, as if you’ve lived for decades and decades. We’ve had (shall I say extremely?) similar life experiences but somehow, you’ve always come out of them learning a lesson that is deeper than “don’t do that again,” where as I, on the other hand, am still wondering what/where the lesson is.
But mostly, I’m friends with you because you don’t laugh at my obsession with Doraemon and other stupid things. And you also tolerate me making fun of your obsessions with stupid things. =D
AND we like to think outside the box. Look how freaked out the adults in the back are! haha, the Chinese girls behind us look sassy. Awesome. I hope they're friends for life too.
Reading “Friendship Chemistry” was truly shocking! I am shocked that something like letting you sleep made you fall in love with me! I thought it was my wit, charm and stunning good looks!
I knew we would be good friends when I met you sophomore year, when we didn’t know how the sutaitai learning method worked. I wouldn’t say that we have a lot of similarities but there is enough that’s different to keep things interesting. Also, I think you are somewhat of an old soul. Sometimes, you have the most sagely advice, as if you’ve lived for decades and decades. We’ve had (shall I say extremely?) similar life experiences but somehow, you’ve always come out of them learning a lesson that is deeper than “don’t do that again,” where as I, on the other hand, am still wondering what/where the lesson is.
But mostly, I’m friends with you because you don’t laugh at my obsession with Doraemon and other stupid things. And you also tolerate me making fun of your obsessions with stupid things. =D
AND we like to think outside the box. Look how freaked out the adults in the back are! haha, the Chinese girls behind us look sassy. Awesome. I hope they're friends for life too.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Why I love Hong Kong
I never, ever get yelled at by construction workers in Hong Kong. We have the politest, most respectful construction workers in the world. They're all feminists, I'm sure of it.
Although to balance that viewpoint, I must recall to you all the one time my chest was oggled on the MTR. I complained about it to my brother, who was standing next to me at the time, and he just sighed and said "He probably had a bad day, L, just let it go." - WHEN did 17 year olds become so jaded about the world may I ask? Male honor? Common Chivalry!?!?!?
Although to balance that viewpoint, I must recall to you all the one time my chest was oggled on the MTR. I complained about it to my brother, who was standing next to me at the time, and he just sighed and said "He probably had a bad day, L, just let it go." - WHEN did 17 year olds become so jaded about the world may I ask? Male honor? Common Chivalry!?!?!?
Chivalry for Women
A couple of weeks ago Dan Savage's column mentioned that All Men Do It. In my vision of a perfect world where men and women are true equals, women who started bawling and/or raving about discovering her boyfriend's porn stash behind the crapper would be denigrated and labelled Too Stupid To Live by older, wiser women. (This is not to say that your dear author is old, or wise - just opinionated.) As feminists, it's about time we got over the "Porn is Bad for Women" mentality that most likely springs from the insecurity about our bodies that, past teenage years, ougt to slowly fade away just like pizza face (Sorry, people who have post-adolescent cystic acne.) If women expect men to understand and tolerate the quirks of female biology, the least we can do is return the favor.
PMS for example: if we require men to cease patronizing us about it every time we get into a little snit about something, we need to step forward and accept that men can't help loving visual stimulation. Why make your honey ashamed of something that gives him so much pleasure? I believe a fig leaf can be taken from the books of swingers and polyamorists in this regard: the majority of women whose partners enjoy porn should learn to feel compersion.
Respect is a variable and personal concept, and lest I step into any pats of poo down that path, I won't go down there attempting to define it. (Wikipedia can weather the poo on my behalf.) But I do stand by respecting male biology if the vice versa were also true. If my honey doesn't think less of me when I grumble and bitch before and during my period, then I can't think less of him when I catch him hunched over a copy of Double Stuffed. I think chivalry exists for women too, and this is one way I think that women can be chivalrous. Not making guys pay for all the dates is chivalrous as well, IMO, but that's whole 'nother kettle of cold-blooded aquatic vertebrates.
PMS for example: if we require men to cease patronizing us about it every time we get into a little snit about something, we need to step forward and accept that men can't help loving visual stimulation. Why make your honey ashamed of something that gives him so much pleasure? I believe a fig leaf can be taken from the books of swingers and polyamorists in this regard: the majority of women whose partners enjoy porn should learn to feel compersion.
Respect is a variable and personal concept, and lest I step into any pats of poo down that path, I won't go down there attempting to define it. (Wikipedia can weather the poo on my behalf.) But I do stand by respecting male biology if the vice versa were also true. If my honey doesn't think less of me when I grumble and bitch before and during my period, then I can't think less of him when I catch him hunched over a copy of Double Stuffed. I think chivalry exists for women too, and this is one way I think that women can be chivalrous. Not making guys pay for all the dates is chivalrous as well, IMO, but that's whole 'nother kettle of cold-blooded aquatic vertebrates.
Is pornography disrespectful? And how is it different from boob oggling in real life? Chivalry for women: does it exist?
Friendship Chemistry
This is the third blog that I've started in as many years, because although I LOVELOVELOVE checking in at my favorite blogsites every time I'm on the internet, and think that they're like, like, like COLUMNS but BETTER, I worry that the whole concept of having an online diary is a little too hubristic.
Self-consciousness aside, I had the thought that a rant may not be the most auspicious beginning to this, our blog, and wanted to introduce you all to my friend Pilar, by telling y'all how we met...
The short story is that we took Chinese class together in the second semester of our Sophomore year (natural alliteration! It doesn't happen often, it's like, penguins in your soup or something...) I'd bore you with the long story, but everyone knows there's such thing as friendship chemistry, so I'd like to say something about how my (non-sexual) crush on Pilar started out.
The true romance of our friendship began in Hong Kong, actually, when I fell asleep on an evening I was supposed to take her out partying in LanKwai, and she forgave me for it. It was unforgivable on my part because she was only in Hong Kong for about a week, and everyone knows that you have to squeeze every last minute of joy out of short trips, in order to placate yourself when you look at your bank account statement when you get home. That she let me sleep is true selflessness. She even gave me this purple scarf she bought during her other Chinese travels despite my callous succumbance to lethargy. Pilar is a SAINT I tell you!!!!! When I'm an wearing my Cardinal reds I'll be the first one to vote for her (they do vote, don't they?) canonization.
The rest is recent history. :) (actually, I shit myself when I use that phrase, because I don't really know what that means. What does "the rest is history" actually mean? Technically, everything that happened is history, but why does it feel right to point out that obvious absurdity / absurd obviousness right about now?)
Self-consciousness aside, I had the thought that a rant may not be the most auspicious beginning to this, our blog, and wanted to introduce you all to my friend Pilar, by telling y'all how we met...
The short story is that we took Chinese class together in the second semester of our Sophomore year (natural alliteration! It doesn't happen often, it's like, penguins in your soup or something...) I'd bore you with the long story, but everyone knows there's such thing as friendship chemistry, so I'd like to say something about how my (non-sexual) crush on Pilar started out.
The true romance of our friendship began in Hong Kong, actually, when I fell asleep on an evening I was supposed to take her out partying in LanKwai, and she forgave me for it. It was unforgivable on my part because she was only in Hong Kong for about a week, and everyone knows that you have to squeeze every last minute of joy out of short trips, in order to placate yourself when you look at your bank account statement when you get home. That she let me sleep is true selflessness. She even gave me this purple scarf she bought during her other Chinese travels despite my callous succumbance to lethargy. Pilar is a SAINT I tell you!!!!! When I'm an wearing my Cardinal reds I'll be the first one to vote for her (they do vote, don't they?) canonization.
The rest is recent history. :) (actually, I shit myself when I use that phrase, because I don't really know what that means. What does "the rest is history" actually mean? Technically, everything that happened is history, but why does it feel right to point out that obvious absurdity / absurd obviousness right about now?)
Thursday, March 6, 2008
CUHK Chinese Language Center : A Review
Am I actually a 'banana'? I wish I were, because it would make my identity a lot easier to market. The word has assonance, the concept is graphic... if I could get an angle on my lack of Chinese language skills, make it seem like I'm this yummy fruit that everyone would love to hire as a scriptwriter for an already successful TV show like - well, nothing comes to mind actually. Hong Kong TV sucks satan's sweaty scrotum.
Speaking of sucking, I really must suck on some more about the Language program I'm enrolled in right now. GIVEN that Chinese is a difficult language to teach - how do you make memorizing 3000 characters really Fun and Full of Fudgy Flavour and Rainbow Sprinkles??? ( or Hundreds and Thousands, if you're from across the pond) - I'm still irritated by the incompetance and general shabby attitude of the school which is supposed to have a prehistoric legacy in experience teaching Chinese.
Suck No. 1. I Did Not Get my Teaching Materials Until A Quarter of the Way though the Course.
When I signed up they assured that I could get traditional character teaching materials and that did not happen until way late. I had to continuously chase them up for the absolute basic things. Then it was suggested to me that , well, you know, simplified is a good option too! Why don't you change your mind and then we wouldn't have to do all this reformating and photocopying! ie. *you're an annoying customer, and we'd rather you CONFORM DAMMIT*
Suck No. 2. The teaching materials are designed ONLY to make you learn vocabulary. Some of the passages we read are so laden with four-word sayings that I could probably rap the thing out as for my oral exam (which is essentially a spewing out of a word-for-word recitation of the text. I have a vision of myself bringing a boombox into the exam room). It just doesn't seem like something you would normally read! Why don't I just make myself a bunch of vocab flash cards and save myself the money? (15 credits equals about 23,000 hkd. Do da math)
Suck No. 3. The campus is in the middle of nowhere. If you're an advanced learner, you have to travel all the way to Shatin for class. The commute is a bore.
Suck No. 4. The chairs are too small. My classmate, who is 6'3'' American with Swiss heritage, cannot possibly fit his booty into that chair and feel comfortable for the three hour class. They're an institute for foreign learners?! They should expect students of foreign sizes and adjust the seating accordingly so they don't get that 14-hour flight feeling?????
End rant.
Speaking of sucking, I really must suck on some more about the Language program I'm enrolled in right now. GIVEN that Chinese is a difficult language to teach - how do you make memorizing 3000 characters really Fun and Full of Fudgy Flavour and Rainbow Sprinkles??? ( or Hundreds and Thousands, if you're from across the pond) - I'm still irritated by the incompetance and general shabby attitude of the school which is supposed to have a prehistoric legacy in experience teaching Chinese.
Suck No. 1. I Did Not Get my Teaching Materials Until A Quarter of the Way though the Course.
When I signed up they assured that I could get traditional character teaching materials and that did not happen until way late. I had to continuously chase them up for the absolute basic things. Then it was suggested to me that , well, you know, simplified is a good option too! Why don't you change your mind and then we wouldn't have to do all this reformating and photocopying! ie. *you're an annoying customer, and we'd rather you CONFORM DAMMIT*
Suck No. 2. The teaching materials are designed ONLY to make you learn vocabulary. Some of the passages we read are so laden with four-word sayings that I could probably rap the thing out as for my oral exam (which is essentially a spewing out of a word-for-word recitation of the text. I have a vision of myself bringing a boombox into the exam room). It just doesn't seem like something you would normally read! Why don't I just make myself a bunch of vocab flash cards and save myself the money? (15 credits equals about 23,000 hkd. Do da math)
Suck No. 3. The campus is in the middle of nowhere. If you're an advanced learner, you have to travel all the way to Shatin for class. The commute is a bore.
Suck No. 4. The chairs are too small. My classmate, who is 6'3'' American with Swiss heritage, cannot possibly fit his booty into that chair and feel comfortable for the three hour class. They're an institute for foreign learners?! They should expect students of foreign sizes and adjust the seating accordingly so they don't get that 14-hour flight feeling?????
End rant.
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