1 month of study!

I've now studied Chinese for four weeks, and the days pass quickly. This week we moved on to lesson 4 in our book. We've started to learn measure words, and there's many of them! Chinese use many different words for referring to different type of objects. Example: 3 books = San1 ben3 shu1 = 三本書. Ben3 本 is describing the type of object, and shu1 書 means book. This newspaper =  zhe4 fen4 bao4 = 這份報, where fen4 is describing the type of object. There's different measure words for long objects, flat object, electronical objects, vehicles etc etc. It's important to learn them though, especially the most used ones.

Some days in class are a lot of fun, while others are still quite frustrating. It helps to be well prepared though, by reading the current chapter and try to learn all the words before we start with the chapter in class, but even that is not always enough to avoid frustration. I try to remind my self that I'm no expected to understand every word that's spoken in class, as we actually haven't learned all of them yet. The important thing is to understand the content of the previous and current chapter, and therefor read the texts over and over again, listen to texts through the attached mp3-files several times, and write the characters over and over again. Some days I'm satisfied with the time I spend on study and homework, while I know that some days I could have done better.

Classmates eating lunch a couple of weeks ago :)

Study facilities

The library at campus offer a great study enviroment. In the basement you can get access to your own desk with- or without poweroutlet for laptops. It's quiet and a good place for concentration.

If you want to take a break from your study, you can go to first floor and borrow and watch a movie, alone or together with a friend, at one of the many available computers. Foreign students need to pay a fee and deposit of 3000NTD to borrow, I don't now if local students need to do the same. (I haven't paid the fee yet, but maybe I'll do it later..). It's also fun to see all the students sleeping around in the library, it seems to be a common thing to do..

In first floor of the appartment building where I live, there's also I nice place to do homework. The entrancehall offers tables, lighting, and is neither too noisy or too quiet ;) I might also talk to the nice gatekeepers to practise my Chinese.

Studentclubs and scholarship

This week there's been many welcomeparties by studentclubs. I attended the climbing club, magic club and the mixology club (cocktail club). I've met so many nice people and hope to be able to attend the club nights in the time to come.

Last friday I recieved my first scholarship-payment. 25.000NTD. I went straight to the cashier office and payed 22.500NTD for my next term. The winterterm is a little cheaper than the other terms because of the celebration of Chinese new year in February. I paid the fee now to get my enrolment certificate, which I will use to extend my ARC. I hope to go to the imigration office tomorrow to do this.

PS. I think I should try to take more pictures.. I didn't take anyone this week..

4 weeks ( ! )

Lesson 2

My Chinese has slow progress, but at least it is progress! I think listening is the most difficult part. When I hear someone speaking Chinese, I automatically try to translate to Norwegian for analysis. That takes way to much time :p People tell me to relax though, they say it's normal and that it will pass.

On wednesday I volounteered for an english class at a junior highschool. It was fun, but difficult the make them speak English. I'm told that they only do reading and writing at school, and that's why we want to make them listen and speak as well. I'll probably continue as a volounteer in the weeks to come, and so it will be interesting to see how the kids speaking develope.

Last week I was offered private Chinese classes, and I said yes (of course). This thursday was first lection. It was me and another beginner from the Netherlands, and after introduction and the "get to know eachother"-part we spent a lot of time practising days and weeks. Yesterday, tomorrow etc. Now the challenge is to use it in everyday conversation, because everytime I do, my Chinese improves a little bit more ;)

Don't Leave Anything but Footprints,

Don't Take Anything but Photos

a sign at the trail entrance

Today I went hiking the mountains behind NCCU. I had bought a map over the area, and we found a waterfall we wanted to explore. It was 1,5 hours walk from the Chinese Language Center. After seeing the waterfall, we walked on to Zhinan Temple, passing Maokong Station and many teahouses on the way. We brought sunscreen, mosquito spray, hats, 2 litres of water each, lunch, map, compass, cameras and were well prepared. As the maps in the trail don't always point north, it's easy to get confused about directions. The compassed made it easier to orient though.

Where to go next? =)

My friend taking pictures of the waterfall

Yes, we saw snakes. We also met salamanders,
big, flying bugs, spiders, dogs and scooters in the trail.

4th weekend

Last saturday, there was a trail running race in the mountains behind NCCU. 800NTD to join. There was a 17km run and a 9km. I chose the shortest one because I had never run 17km before, and I was afraid of the humid weather and high temperatures. I had nothing to be afraid of though, because we had constant rain during the run. Even after 5km I wasn't really thirsty, but I grabbed some wather anyway ;) The trail went through muddy woods, rivers, temples, farms and more. 4-500 people participated, most of them went for the longest trail. A lot of fun!

三，二，一！ 加油!

Some (heavy) rain due to the typhoon.. :p

1h14m12s  9th place :-)

My Chinese is slowly getting better, and last time I counted, I knew more than 30 characters. I don't know if I still remember them next week though.. :p Anyway, it's fun to read and understand the small conversations in our textbook and answer the questions with traditional characters.

How's class?

I've been to class for seven days and spent a total of 21 hours there.
Has my Chinese improved? Yes. Much? No. Easy? Definitely not.

The first week was all about pronounciation and tones, and depending on our prononciation, we either stayed in the class or we were moved to a higher or lower level. I stayed in class, but a couple of my classmates were moved, and we got four other students to join our class.

Time flies when we are in class, but the last days have been frustrating. There's different reasons for my frustration.
- When I applied for the CLC, I was told there would be an average of 6 students per teacher. We are now 10 students in class, and yesterday we were 11. That means the teacher have less time to help each student, and she have to move on more quickly than if we had been less students.
- Different proficiency level in our class. We have three Japanese in class, and because they use the same characters in Japan, the writing is easy for them. We also have one in class who often speaks Chinese with the teacher, and another one who says he understand most of the things our teacher says. I guess I'm not the only one feeling this, but I feel many of my classmates have advantages when it comes to learning Chinese.

好看嗎

This week we started learning Chinese characters, both handwriting and computerinput. I need to repeat the writing over and over again, and I find it useful to listen to music while practising. I do have progress, and it feels good every time I recognize a new character :)

Second week

Never bored in Taiwan :)

I've been in the B1-6 class for one week now. Some students have been changing classes the last week, to find the class which is at their level. From monday on there will be no more changes though, so we'll all know who will be our classmates for the rest of the semester.

View from our classroom in 6th floor

My uncle visits Taiwan this week. Last friday we went to the Maokong mountain together. He and my dad took the gondola, and I met them on top. There's buses driving from NCCU and up to Maokong, and as a student you only pay 12NTD. On the top you can go running, enjoy the view or visit teahouses. You can also take the gondola back down of course.

View from Maokong station after sunset, Taipei 101 in the background

Saturday I went together with some friends to a beach in the north of Taiwan. We took the MRT to Tamsui, and then went by bus to our final destination. The weather was beautiful and the watertemperature was perfect. We had to rent a tent to get some shadow, and then run down to the water as quickly as possible, as the sand burned our feet :)

Germany, Norway, Czech Republic, Taiwan and France

Today I went with some other friends to a mountain in the south of Taipei. A fantastic trip!! ^^ Nice view, climbing, exotic. I drank 2,5 liters of water during the 4 hour trip :) Thanks to Ondrej for arranging the hiking. Pictures below!

The spiders were everywhere!

This is in the middle of a drop of nearly 20 meter, and the rope was all the safety we had.
No other climbing gear ^^

First day at school

Our language classes started to day. I've got nice classmates, and a very enthusiastic teacher. We learned how to introduce ourself, with name, familymembers, interests and phonenumber. After the teacher had taught us some words, we talked together in pairs. It's quite noicy at times because of all the speaking and repeating, and so the small ten-minute breaks are well appreciated. There was a good mood in class and we had a lot of fun :) Tomorrow the teacher will test us on the words and sentences we learned today.

I had a wonderful weekend with panda and other animals in the Taipei Zoo, Maokong gondola, running in the mountains, testing the NCCU swimming pool facilities and more. I've also met a couple of other norwegians studying in other universities, and it's very nice to know I'm not alone.

Picture-break while running in the mountains

View from the gondola

Nice path in the mountains. Notice the tree in the middle of the stairs ;)

Studytime!