Well I know its been a day or so since my last entry. I hope the last one wasn’t too confusing, word to the wise ‘Jet lag doesn’t have to occur when you arrive, if you ignore it long enough it’ll return a few days later with a baseball bat’. But on to other things… I’ve had two days of classes and there are a few thing that need to be addressed.
First class was devastating to the morale of the group here. We figured an intro to English Translation would be a beginner class and good for our majors (those of us in International Studies). I figured translating poetry, children’s passages things like that. It was vastly different it was a high level Chinese class that was working with intermediate English translation, sample paragraph below:
“Facebook is supposed to be a social network, but the truth is, most people I think who use it-myself included- spend so much time online tweaking our profiles and writing graffiti on other people’s walls or poking them that we never leave our computers to actually interact perhaps it was bad form to check one’s facebook in the middle of the workday, but, I walked in on Bob Ramirez tooling around with his myspace page and I realized that there was very little he could say to me without being a hypocrite”
My translation looked like this:
“Facebook 是 supposed to be a social network, 但是 the truth 是, most 人 我覺得 who use it-我 included- spend so much 點 online tweaking 我們 profiles and writing graffiti on other 人的 walls or poking 他們 that 我們 never leave 我們的 電腦 to actually interact perhaps it was 不好form to check one’s facebook in the 中 of the 工作日, 但是, 我 walked in on Bob Ramirez tooling around 給 他的myspace page 和 我 realized that there was very 小 他could 說to 我 without being a hypocrite”
Phrases like “tweaking, tooling around, graffiti and hypocrite” were lost on me. Most of the Taiwanese students translated flawlessly. Imagine how Kaitlyn felt. I was pretty overwhelmed. The professor was wonderful and suggested that we take lower level Chinese classes first. I was too embarrassed of my scrawled hand writing (and the fact that I used the simplified character for men 们) to show her my sheet and just explained to her what I knew. (I also mentioned I could have done more with a dictionary… but she gave me a look that said it wasn’t something students do).
Most classes are full now and many of the English taught are not English taught as much as about English as a language for example: Take English 101… that would be a simple class in the US about writing papers and proper grammar and such. Here it is similar, but the students are fluent Chinese speakers and are beginning their English classes. So naturally it would be taught mostly in Chinese, trying to help the beginners learn English. Why has this not been a problem in previous years?
My theory from speaking with professors and students is thus. First of all SVSU normally sends students for Winter semester, this means that the fact that semesters starting earlier and end a little later doesn’t matter because of Christmas break before and summer break after. Secondly, the marketing and PR classes are English taught meaning that Business and Political Science majors wouldn’t have too many problems finding classes (but international studies and education are another matter).
This is where we are running into some problems, we need 12 credits here to stay a float (stay full time and keep financial aide) according to SVSU. Most classes are full and Chinese taught. So if we do get other classes they maybe in marketing and not useful to our majors, one and two, if we get into any other ones at all. There is currently only Consumer Culture left open.
I have Mandarin (which was a wonderful class, though today was a bit of review), popular culture (which I talked with some Taiwanese students, its part of the marketing department so its mostly English taught to their knowledge) that class is tomorrow. Literary theories and criticisms had an English course description… but many of the western lit classes are in Chinese mostly… so I am nervous about it. If I have to drop that I’m not sure what I’ll do. I’ll have to take anything I can get and hope it doesn’t screw up my work schedule too much.
Its frustrating, but its not really any in particulars fault. There was just miscommunication on both sides about the program and the classes. It’ll likely turn out alright in the end, but these things are important to note for future SVSU students interested in the program. If problems are not discussed and discussed constructively how can they be fixed?
We’ll work through it and the people here are all wonderful and oh so patient (I was late to Chinese today … got mixed up looking for the class… wu laoshi was nothing but wonderful and Jordan thanks so much for the call and the concern). Thanks to Jennifer too for all her heard work. She’s our student coordinate and is working really hard to get all this worked out.
