Week 9
This week we took our midterm
exams. The way the courses are structured the only grades that count are the
two major exams: the midterms and the finals. We had an exam for every language
class: grammar, speaking, and listening. As the class president/representative,
it was my responsibility to make sure everyone knew where the testing room was
and what time it was. There was an entire day set aside for each exam, even
though the exams only took 2 hours at the most to take. This meant, for us,
that after our exams were finished, we had the whole afternoon to a) study for
the next exam and/or b) relax and enjoy the feeling of relief that comes after
tests are over.
The grammar test was the typical
written exam. We were expected to write the correct character when presented
with the pinyin in one section. I still have trouble remembering how to write
all the characters we’ve learned so that was the hardest part for me. Other
sections were comprised of constructing and correcting sentences – which I’m pretty
good at that so I felt confident about these sections. The last part of the
test was to write a 100 character essay about one of three possible topics: a
friend, your family, or your average day. I chose to write about Maryann
because there were a lot of things that I knew how to write that involved her.
I feel really good about my essay because not only did I prove to myself that
I’m really learning something, but I wrote a solid essay.
The speaking test was the day
after the grammar test. I was most nervous about this one. We were given six
topics and we were expected to prepare a 3 minute speech for each of them. The
teacher administering the exam would then pick one of the topics for us to then
talk about. The topics were: my habits, my friend, my average day, my school,
my birthday, and something I’ve bought while in China. Our teacher did not
inform us about the other aspects of the exam, though. In hindsight they were
minor and the most important thing was the 3 minute speech, but still I was
thrown for a loop when I found out there was more to the exam than just my
speech. We also had to recognize characters and create sentences using
different points of grammar we had learned. The topic the teacher chose for me
was my average day. I talked so long (because I had prepared speaking points
the night before) that she had to tell me to stop when the three minutes were
up. Yay!
The last test was listening and
that was no big deal. It was just a test version of what we do regularly in
class. Mark the tones of different words as you hear them and choose the
correct answer between two similarly pronounced words. The only difference was:
When we would listen to a dialog, they did not write the question on the test.
They just provided us with our four multiple choice answers and we were
supposed to listen and understand the question when it was asked in the
recording. That threw me off because I wasn’t expecting it. So I know I missed
at least a couple questions since I wasn’t sure what was going on. But that’s
alright because a lot of people I talked to had the same problem. They were
caught off guard just like me.
One night
this week, a group of us were walking back to the dorm from the Central
Office/Apartment and we saw a new banner hanging up on campus. At first glance
all we could read were the letters CUBA. Now, keep in mind, a week or so ago,
we got a huge group of new students from the UK. Putting two and two together I
assumed that we were getting a group of students from Cuba on campus. However,
upon looking at what else was written on the banner (and having Lily explain
what it all meant) we learned that CUBA was actually an acronym for China’s
University Basketball Association. What we then dubbed as “April Madness” was
coming to our campus.
For the
entire week basketball game after basketball game was being played at our school.
During the day the games were free and at night the tickets were less than a
dollar. The stands for the games during the day were almost entirely vacant,
which was weird for me because I thought that more students would come watch.
It was interesting to watch the games because 1) I don’t know much about
basketball and 2) I was able to observe the differences between college sports
in America and college sports in China. The most striking difference, for me,
was that Chinese universities don’t have school colors. For example, IWU’s
school colors are green and white. Since the Chinese schools don’t have school
colors, the uniforms for the games were always the same. There was always a
white team (home) and a purple team (away). To tell the teams apart you had to
read the name of the school on the front of the jersey – and since I couldn’t
read I had to rely on Felix to tell me who was who. He came and watched most of
the games with me, which was nice. The two of us went to one of the night games
together and that was more like what I imagined a regular college game would be
like.
The game
was between Zhejiang University (my school) and Ningbo University. Felix is
from Ningbo so he was interested in the outcome of the game. Since this
tournament is similar to ‘March Madness’ this game was televised. Before the
game started, each team’s captain came out and introduced their teammates.
After the introductions were over, everyone stood and honored China’s national
anthem. I felt awkward and out of place mostly because I kept waiting to hear
the familiar words “Oh say can you see…” but it never came. It was interesting
to see because, unlike in America, everyone was standing and even stopped what
they were doing to honor the country. In America (even at professional games)
you have people who chose not to stop what they are doing or even chose not to
stand for the anthem. It really irritates me when I see these people, so it was
refreshing to see a display of united national pride for once.
The game
itself was really exciting (or as exciting as basketball games can get).
Zhejiang University won the game by one basket. And much celebration was had.
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