First Day of School

The HPU motto.

The last few days have been some of the most exhausting and stimulating any of us can remember.  Talk about memorable experiences!  And we're only a few days into our trip...and the main reason we're in China just started: we're going back to school! Henan Polytechnic University is close to Yuntaishan, Grand Canyon's sister park.  Because of our two-part travel (for language/culture immersion and sister park relationships), it is so convenient that HPU teachers are accommodating us.  On our first day of class, we met two of our three new teachers- Mr. Wei and Jing Jing.  Also, for our entire study, a student teacher, Sun, will assist.  Sun is very excited to meet us and her English is very good.  Jing Jing and Mr. Wei seem as nervous as we are, but that may be because their English is not as good as they would like.  That's okay, we tell them.  Our Chinese isn't good, either!  

 Mr. Wei at the chalkboard.
Teaching still works just fine this way!

For our first class, we focused mostly on tones and pronunciations.  Unlike English, Chinese is a tonal language. In English, if someone mispronounces or misuses a word, we can probably understand what they mean.  For example, we can understand what is meant if someone says "flew" instead of "fly."  In Chinese, though, if you don't say a tone right, it's the difference between "intestines" and "chicken farm."  Our ears and mouths are not used to these tones. This language is so different to us that it is intimidating at times.  But our teachers are here to help us and they are so incredibly patient and kind.  And Sun's enthusiasm to teach and learn is infectious!

In addition to practicing tones and pronunciations, we also learned some basic words like hello/goodbye, please/thank you, sit, read, listen, etc.  We want to know every word!  We are consistently asking our teachers how to say computer, dictionary, and golden monkey milk candy.  So far, no one seems irritated by our inquisitiveness or our ignorance.  We also tried to write Chinese.  Another aspect of the language that is so very hard is writing it - over 40,000 characters. There are two kinds of Chinese writing.  One is called pinyin and uses the 26-letter alphabet we're used to.  It's more or less the phonetic spelling of the word.  The way the language is really written, though, uses characters, or symbols.  Chinese is one of the oldest languages in the world- dating back to the Stone Age- and that is evident in the symbols.  They started out as drawings, like the rock art a hiker might see on the Bright Angel Trail at Grand Canyon.  The drawings may have been simplifications of what early writers saw- the sun, moon, mountains, rivers.  Over time, the drawings evolved into the complex characters the Chinese use today.  We are starting to recognize some characters, but because our study is so short, we're focusing more on the pinyin.

Megan, Zephyria, and our museum tour guide.

With all the pronunciations, new words, characters, and overall stimulation of the first day of class, we were glad to take a break.  We met with a student volunteer, Zephyria.  (That's her English name, anyway.  Most Chinese students take English classes, starting perhaps in middle school, and decide on English names for those classes.  Zephyria chose her name to reflect her fondness for the Greek God of the West Wind, Zephyr.  There is no limit to the English names the students choose.  In fact, one of our volunteers goes by iPhone!)  Zephyria escorted us to the HPU history museum.  This school has a fascinating history!  It started out as a mining museum, but now has many departments, including an international exchange program.  But of the 30,000 or so students that attend HPU, only about 30 are international! 

Emily rubbing the ear of a former HPU professor.
She thinks it's good luck!

After our museum tour, we went back to our apartment.  It was a long day, and we thought we would go back to Mrs. Qin's apartment. But that plan, which would have truly immersed us in the culture, fell through.  Because we are students, the university is making us stay on campus.  As much as we want to stay with Mrs. Q, there is nothing we can do.  Our apartment is clean enough, and staying here gives us time to study together, decompress, and process all the new things we've learned.  All in all, everything has come together and we are still excited to be here!

In our apartment, AJ is studying hard.  Emily is...not.