when "simplified" isn't simple

It's been a busy week here at the Billing-Cartwright abode.

Ben has nearly completed his first week as an English/History teacher at a Chinese International school. It's been a pretty hard week for him, I think. He's had to deal with a lot of unexpected situations, while trying to gauge: 1.) exactly what level of language ability his students actually have, and 2.) what exactly his employers are expecting of him as a teacher. Add to the mix the facts that he doesn't speak Chinese or Korean, and he has never actually taught history (or high school students, for that matter), and it all makes for a pretty stressful week for Ben. But he's done a great job of making the best of things, and I think he's starting to feel more and more comfortable at work.

I've been pretty busy, too, which is why I haven't posted much in the past couple of days. This week was registration and orientation week at my school. I told you a little bit about day one of registration. Well, yesterday, I took part in the most stressful part of registration, which was a grueling language placement exam. Before you ask, I'll just tell you: it didn't go so great. But then again, I guess it didn't go so badly, either.

One problem was that I showed up about 5 minutes late, thanks to my bike tire going flat again. (I hope I have finally taken care of that problem for good, or at least for good for awhile.) The test was broken into four 20 minute segments, so I had to do the first segment, "vocabulary" in about 15 minutes. That was a bad way to start the exam. I started out pretty anxious, and that was before I had even read any of the questions.

Another problem was the fact that, in mainland China, they use jiantizi, or simplified characters. For the past two years, I have been studying fantizi, or traditional characters. Sometimes simplified and traditional characters look mostly or somewhat the same. But sometimes they don't look anything alike at all. That element made reading the test rather difficult at times, and made me move very s l o w l y through the exam. Even when I had learned the vocabulary, I sometimes didn't recognize it because the characters looked so different. That really heightened my frustration level.

Also, all incoming students of all levels took the same test. That means there were questions for people way below my learning level, but there were also questions for people way above my learning level. When you get to several questions that you just completely don't understand (full of words you've never seen or learned), it can be a rather intimidating situation. In the end, I think I let myself get overwhelmed over the course of the test. I probably could have scored better if I had just taken a deep breath, relaxed, and been able to calm myself down, but . . . no. I totally botched the last section, the reading comprehension part--I hope no one I know ever sees that section, because it was embarrassingly bad.

Anyway, the result, as I found out this morning, was that I was place in Beginner's level 2.
Before the exam, I thought I might be placed in Beginners 3 or Intermediate 1, so my placement was a bit below my expectations. On the other hand, immediately after the exam, I wondered if they would have a low enough level to place me anywhere, so I can't be too unhappy.

I spent some time talking to Sam about all this (he has a lot of experience both studying Chinese language here, and advising others who are studying Chinese here), and he convinced me that, no matter where I'm placed, it will be a good opportunity for me to learn simplified characters, and to really solidify the vocabulary and grammar points I have already learned. I think he's right. I bought my books this morning, and I can already see that there is a lot of vocabulary in them that I don't know already, so I know I'll learn a lot this year.

Next step: learn the simplified versions of the hundreds of words I already know. Before Monday. (um. sure. I can do that.)

a misconception

Lately we've been repeatedly encountering a particular misconception. Here's one example:


This afternoon, our landlord (who does not speak English) brought over some bookshelves for the office area in our apartment. I couldn't remember the word for "bookshelves" in Chinese, so after he set up the shelves, I asked him what they were called. He told me: "shu jia." OK--great. Then in the next breath he said (in Chinese), "You put books on them."


Ahem. Yes. You put books on them. I'm not an idiot, man. I mean, these are clearly bookshelves. I just didn't know what they were called in Chinese.



But this wasn't the first time my/our lack of linguistic ability was confused with general ignorance about the world here. Ben has encountered similar situations. For example, when Ben takes a cab, being unable to speak Chinese, he shows the cabbie a card or a piece of paper with an address on it. On a couple of occasions, when he has arrived at his destination, the cabbie has acted completely shocked that Ben is able to read the amount of money he owes the cab driver and give him correct change. No, he can't pronounce his destination in Chinese, but that doesn't mean he can't read a digital display of arabic numerals and match it to the arabic numerals on some paper bills.



I'm not saying this kind of thing doesn't take place in the States. It's like how some people, upon realizing they are talking to a non-English-speaker, just speak English louder and LOUDER. No, they don't speak English, but that doesn't make them deaf. Well, we don't speak Chinese (well), but that doesn't make us idiots.



I don't mean to sound angry about this phenomenon (does it come off that way?). I mostly find it laughable. Just a little quirk of being verbally challenged in a foreign country. Anyone had experiences like this?