New Gig

It’s official. I’ll be moving back to Shanghai next month.

For awhile I’ve been going back and forth on whether or not I wanted to leave the awesome bubble that has become my world in Nanjing. Finally, I decided it wasn’t worth going unless I was moving for a job I was stoked about. Well, I’ve found a job that I’m happy to be starting and I’m ready to get myself down to Shanghai.

I’ll be working for a Korean High School. Originally I wasn’t so happy about the idea of not teaching/working in a non-Chinese environment, but somewhere along the way, I started seeing it as a challenge. I’ve been doing the ‘training center’ thing for over a year a now and I’ve got it down. I love teaching and that place has been a great way for me to realize that, but I’m ready to move on and hone some new skills, namely: teaching without being able to use my life in China and my struggles learning Chinese as a way to win the hearts and minds of students. It’s a common ground and a great way to connect with students that I won’t have while teaching Korean kids.

I’ll also be losing the great wellspring of information that are my students. Working at a center is an excellent place to learn what Chinese people are thinking and how they feel about certain issues. Looking back, that experience has been irreplaceable. It’s good to keep the discussion relevant and for the past year, I’ve always had my finger on the pulse, so to speak, concerning whatever issue may be in the forefront of people’s minds. Whether it be the earthquake, the Olympics, 陈冠希, or whatever. It helps put a personal face on the issues and people in general and I’m thankful for that.

In the end, I think it’ll be a good change. I’m glad to be developing more as a teacher and equally stoked about moving back to Shanghai. Cheers to change.

Texting in Chinese

For awhile now I’ve wondered this:

Why don’t Chinese cellphones (cheap, simple ones not included) support the same text input systems that computers do, i.e. Pinyin IMEs?

There are many phones that have a form of predictive texting which will recognize multi-character words and characters that often follow one another*, but nothing like a full-on IME. I don’t know anything about cellphone technology, but it seems to me that if you can support all the applications that are supported these days, why the hell couldn’t you support an IME? Now, I realize that a cellphone keypad is not a keyboard and you’d therefore have to play around with it a bit, but they could definitely come a lot closer to an IME than they do right now.

That would be most excellent.

*The crappy thing about this is that you can’t play around with active phones before buying them to find out what kind of text input system they have. I know a lot of Nokias have this feature, but my upwards of 1,500 RMB Sony Ericsson doesn’t. A big pain in the ass.

Anki and Pīnyīnput

I recently discovered Anki, a flashcard program for studying…well, anything via John Beisnecker’s blog here.

What makes it different is that it’s based on the idea of ‘spaced repitition‘. After you make your flashcards and start studying, the program will decide which cards to show you and which not to according to how difficult you told Anki it was for you to remember each card. Essentially, it shows you cards you deemed ‘difficult’ more often than the ‘easy’ ones and weens you off of ones you have already learned.

It’s also set up to only allow a certain number of cards to be studied per day. (You can decide how many) At first I was a little frustrated by this, but now that I’ve been using it for a few weeks, I’m starting to appreciate it. Rather than studying one of my really big vocab lists elsewhere, I can just sit down and do a quick 35 words on Anki everyday. I gain some sort of pleasure in that. A little sense of accomplishment.

In related computer/Chinese stuff, I’ve finally…finally, gotten around to adding pīnyīn tone typing capabilities on my computer. I had looked into it a few times before, but each time I seemed to get disheartened by all the crap that came along with doing it and never got around to it. Through a forum on Chinesepod, I bumped into pīnyīnput.

Pīnyīnput works just like a normal IME and so it’s as simple as installing it and then cycling to through your language inputs until it comes up. Straightforward and easy, which I like when it comes to computing.

Finally, I’ve added a Chinese Tools page to the site. More and more this space has become a place for me to talk about learning Chinese, particulary through self-study and I wanted to put all the online resources I use in one place.

Word to the mothership.

A Worthy Plug

Chinesepod is rad.

I started studying Chinese on my own sometime in ‘06 and the site was a huge part of my initial progress. Before I even came to China I had downloaded a bunch of lessons and listened to them over and over in my car. I had a good friend who helped me with pronunciation, but listening to so much Chinese early on made a big difference. At that point, I had already made the decision to ’self-learn’ Chinese and I was eating up all the podcasts/resources I could get. I even visited the old offices with a few friends when I was doing an abroad program in Shanghai that summer. Ahhh…it was all so fresh and so new.

So, when I got to Shanghai after moving to China for good, I was on a mission to immerse myself. I spent the good portion of a lot of days (and a lot of nights) chatting with security guards, waitresses, little kids, neighbors…pretty much anyone. I didn’t understand what the hell anyone was talking about really, but I knew I had to keep at it and I enjoyed the process. I ended up living with Chinese guys in Nanjing for 6 months, made Chinese friends, asked a lot of questions, etc, and basically my environment was a good enough a ’study session’ as any. I’d take a few notes and look things up, but I never bothered with anything ‘formal’. Somewhere in there I stopped using Chinesepod very often, but I still checked back from time to time. Basically, I was busy getting my learn on in my daily life.

Then, for the past, oh I’d say about, year or so, I’ve been playing around with different self-directed methods and systems to sophisticate my Chinese. I always change it up, but I’ve realized that this suites me quite well. I use textbooks, do flashcards, watch movies, read (fairly) easy novels, translate stuff, take (somewhat) organized notes the whole time and have a tutor to talk about it with a few times a week. When I say it like that, it all sounds pretty messy, but it works and I’m happy with it.

Well, to bring it all back around, I finally got off my ass and paid for an account a few weeks ago and I’m totally loving it. It’s a kickass service and it compliments my chaotic study ways well. I’m also at a point with my Chinese now in which I need lots of higher-level input and C-pod is great for that. I highly recommend it, especially if you’re not studying formally. Lots of content and a big community of users with which to mull over it with.

Oh yeah, and I completely forgot to mention they’ve since expanded and now do a hell of a lot more than just Chinese. (Think French, Spanish, Italian and English)  Check it out.

Master’s

I’m not totally sure, but it’s quite likely that I’ll start some sort of Master’s program within the next few years. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what exactly I would want to do. It’s going to be China/East Asia related, that’s for sure, but what I’m not 100% on is in what direction I’ll go.

On the one hand, I would really enjoy doing something in Chinese language. A Master’s in Chinese would mean a lot fun reading and would do a hell of a thing for my advanced Chinese.

On the other hand, I’m also considering a masters in U.S.-China relations. It wouldn’t be in Chinese which is less fun, but I would certainly learn a lot. I also think that in many ways, U.S.-China relations opens a lot of doors that a language master’s wouldn’t.

Hmmm…

We’ll have to see. It’s at least a few years down the road anyway.

Of equal importance is where I would do the program. I have some connections through professors to a few places in Hawaii and that would just be badass. Still ridiculously far from home, but totally awesome.

The Coolest Guy Ever

I’ve tried to think a couple times about the oldest memory I have which is somehow associated with China. I definitely had Chinese food and even a Chinese friend of the family when I was a kid, but I’m thinking of the first memory that actually made me think, or ‘wonder’ about China.

In that case, I’m going to have to go with seeing Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story with my friend when I was about 10.

I loved that movie in all it’s underdog, kung-fu badassness. Even more so, I loved Bruce Lee. I went on to read two of his books and even start taking kung-fu classes at the local YMCA. (it was totally praying mantis style.) I also ended up reading the Tao Te Ching which in turn sparked my interest in Eastern philosophy and religion. Went on to take Japanese in Uni as opposed to Chinese, but simply couldn’t say no to the idea of studying abroad in China with my philosophy prof, and well, here I am.

There’s certainly more little things along the way, but I gotta say, Mr. Lee played a role in getting me here to China.

Which brings me to 李小龙传奇, or ‘The Legend of Bruce Lee’, a new show on Chinese T.V. It’s not the greatest and can be a bit boring, but hey, it is in Chinese and it is about the coolest guy ever:

Resolutions

This year I’m going to make a few New Years resolutions.

Actually, I’ve been intending to do these things for a while, but calling them New Years resolutions gives me an excuse not to start doing them until January.

• Going to the gym at least once a week. (I’m waaaay too physically lazy and out of shape these days)
• 5 hours of Chinese tutoring sessions a week. (a topical approach and lots of note taking. it’s time to get sophisticated)
• Save more $$. (I’m a frivolous guy. particularly as far as good foods and beer goes. but, that’ll never change so I’m just gonna work more)
• Get a nicer camera. I love walking around and taking pictures in China and I want to take that to a more (semi) professional level as far as quality and customization goes.
• Maybe get involved in a martial arts class. I say maybe because I haven’t looked around yet and I don’t know what’s out there or how much they cost, but it’s fun, healthy and well, just plain cool.

If I can keep these up (well, maybe not #5), it should be a good year.

(Oh and btw, in the spirit of change, I went ahead and changed the blog layout around. I had the other style for over a year so it was about time. I was also getting a little sick of the white text on black anyway.)

Random Thoughts

Shanghai was a lot of fun. The friends of the family are well off and on vacation so gallavanting around the nice parts of Shanghai was a nice change from when I was living there and broke. Made it to JZ Club one night and the music was phenomenal. So were the many beers.

I was propositioned for an interview at a Korean HS through a friend while I was there, but I’m not sure I’m going to take it. The pay is ridiculously high, but there’s a lot about the position that just doesn’t work for me right now. For one, it’s more than an hour commute to the school from downtown. Two, it’s a real high school teaching job. Now, don’t get me wrong, I actually love teaching, but this job is essentially a career move and I’ve got other ideas I’m not sure I’d have the time or space to develop if I went that direction right now. 8 hours a day, 5 days a week in a completely non-Chinese environment means less Chinese and in ways, less ‘China’.

I bumped into a friend in Shanghai who was with a Japanese friend and talking with him (as little as I could) reminded me that I still have my foundational Japanese. It’s crap, but it’s still pretty much there. At some point in the future I definitely want to seek out some opportunities to use more Japanese.

I’ve also decided that if and when I move to Shanghai I will be finding a Shanghainese tutor. I’m not going to study very hard, but just a few hours a week would make a difference and sure as hell be a lot of fun.

This weather recently has been awesome as far as I’m concerned. It’s ‘cold’, but at least the air is clean, crisp and clear. Also, most importantly the sun is out all the time. Nanjing summer are hot, stuffy and way too gray. I’ll take having to wear a scarf and a hat over that any day.

Nanjing Massacre

Today is the anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre (南京大屠杀). Every year on this day at 10:00am the sirens go off for about a half an hour, taking short breaks here and there. There are multiple sirens coming from different places that seem to respond to one another. It’s eerily life-like.

Before I had any plans to live in Nanjing, I wrote my undergrad thesis about the importance of narrative history and a huge part of my research was about the treatment of the massacre in textbooks. It would be easy to come to Nanjing and not realize you were surrounded by very tumultuous history, but if you look, there are reminders everywhere.

Of course there is the Massacre Memorial near Mochou lake, but it’s mostly the little things. Little plaques and statues, blocks of texts on the city wall. If you talk to cab drivers about it, they’ll remind you that historically, the people of Nanjing have been through a lot. The city has been the capital about six separate times and almost every time it’s status has been removed by some sort of invasion or violent revolution. On that same note, I think it’s easy for a lot of tourists to come through Nanjing looking for it’s history and miss the subtle charm that comes along with the people who inherit such a crazy past.

winter

Winter is almost here. It’s been pretty damn cold, but I like it. The sun is out and the skies are actually blue for a change. It’s fun riding around on the moped all bundled up.

I started lessons with a tutor and it’s going well. Books aren’t really conducive to self-learning a language when the books get old after the first 4,5 lessons. Tutoring affords a much more elastic system that I appreciate. But, even with all that flexibility, there’s still the accountibility that comes along with payment, which is also nice.

Like mostly everywhere in China there’s a lot of construction going on in Nanjing. Ever since I’ve been here they’ve been working on subway line # 2 . It makes for a big pain in the ass at times, but more than that it just makes the city look different. There are tons of billboard walls downtown that make seeing the other side of the main street impossible. Well, they’ve started coming down. At least one section has on 汉中路 and it’s crazy seeing the whole street for once. When they’re all down, downtown is going to be so much more…open.

I’ll be in Shanghai for a few days next week seeing some old friends of the family and I’m looking forward to it. Good to be on a train, get out of town and see good people.