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.)

the word of the day is . . .

Registration at Nankai University began today. For some reason, I had it in my mind that it was going to be a rather quick, organized process. I even told Ben that I would pop downtown afterward and pick up a coffee maker, so it would be all set up before he got home from school. Heh. Yeah, right. I guess I temporarily forgot I was living in China. If there is one word that characterizes Chinese life, it is "bureaucracy."

In bureaucracy's defence, I kind of got off to a bad start. I originally thought I would ride my bike over to the building where registration was supposed to begin, but when I got outside, I found I had a flat tire. It shouldn't have been a surprise--the tire was flat when I inherited the bike from some of Sam's friends, and we suspected it had a slow leak. But, I haven't quite figured out where to have my bike repaired yet, so instead of taking it somewhere to be quickly fixed and then riding over to the registration location, I decided to just hoof it.

I mentioned before that our apartment is located very close to one of the gates of the university. This is true. However, it is not located very close to the building where registration (or at least the first step of registration) occurred. The gate is on the far southwest corner of campus. My destination was in the far northeast corner. So, the walk was about 45 minutes long (it probably should have been more like 30, but I got lost a couple of times).

When I finally made it to the room for registration, the smokestacks of bureaucracy began chugging along. First I had to fill out two, nearly identical forms. Then I had to attach photos to those forms. After standing in line for about 45 minutes, I had to sign my name a couple times, procure my passport three or four times, and fill out another form. That was all step one.

By the time all that was completed, the room was closing down for lunch, so they told me to go to a particular bank that was located on campus, and open an account there, so they would be able to put my monthly stipend directly into the account. That was a painful process I won't really go into. Suffice it to say, opening a bank account when you don't know the vocabulary involved in opening a bank account is a very difficult ordeal. But, I did find the bank, fill out another form, procure my passport once again, and was, through difficulty, able to open a bank account . . . I think.

The best thing that happened to me was that, while I was trying to fill out the forms to open the account, two American guys from Minnesota came in, and the had to complete the same process. They were able to help. . . a little. But more importantly, they informed me that, in order to complete the next step of registration, I would need to have at least two more passport photos than I had with me. Good call, guys. So, I walked most of the way back to the apartment (Ben met me part of the way there) and got some passport photos.

Then, on to another building, where once again I had to fill out a form. It seemed identical to the first ones I filled out that morning, but I may have been hallucinating at this point in the process, having been exposed to heat, wind, and lunchlessness. I showed my passport again, gave them some photographs, and was given a student ID card. Now we're talking--finally, something to show for all this walking and signing and standing in line.

I was then quickly ushered into an adjacent room for a "Chinese interview." Basically, it consisted of a woman asking me (in Chinese, of course):"How long have you studied Chinese? At what level would you describe your ability? How well do you write characters?" Based only on my answers (and no proof thereof), she then told me she would put me at "Intermediate II." That seemed about right to me, but what do I know? Also, I'm not really sure what purpose the interview served, because actually, I have to go back on Thursday for a real interview, where her decision to place me at Intermediate II will be either confirmed or proven inaccurate.

So, finally, five hours later, I'm done. Right? Wrong. Now it's back to the first building (which, by the way, is on the opposite side of campus from me once again) to prove I have opened a bank account, and provide my bank account number, so that deposits will be made on a monthly basis.

Whew! That was a long six hours, chock-full of walking long distances and standing in long lines. And in the end, Ben actually got home about 3 hours before I did. After all that, we rewarded ourselves by going downtown and picking up that coffee maker together.

Now, we just need to get our hands on some coffee . . . .