中文一Chinese Level I February 20 & 21 二月二十日& 二十一日 星期四 & 星期五

We worked on the story on the textbook. For 4th period we reviewed the story again with TPRStorytelling circling questions. And then we worked on the textbook questions. Students worked as pair or group of 3. later we corrected the answers to see their comprehension. For 7th period they worked the assignment individually. They were given 15 minutes to copy down the questions and answer the questions in pinyin for each session. However, I had more students complain at 7th period than at 4th period.

Seriously I was a little bit frustrated. Students complained Chinese is hard and difficult but those who complained most of time are those who don't pay full attention but chat or draw in class. Students like to ask me how I can write Chinese characters so fast. I had to, as an elementary student, write Chinese characters at least half an hour every day at home as homework assignments for 6 years. Students like to learn Chinese well but don't want to put effort in; they want an "easy-cut". They complained why they had to copy down the questions instead of just simply the answers; because writing down the sentences will give them a little more concept/sentence patterns than just words. They complained it was too much time writing, bla bla bla. There is a saying "天tiān 底dǐ 下xià 沒méi 有yǒu 不bù 勞láo 而ér 獲huò 的de 事shì 情qíng 。“ (Literally: there is no such as a thing that you don't have to work but get paid. Meaning: No Pain, No Gain.)

Another saying: 又yòu 要yào 馬mǎ 兒ér 肥féi ， 又yòu 要yào 馬mǎ 兒ér 不bù 吃chī 草cǎo 。(literally: You can't expect the horse to run fast when you don't let it graze. Meaning: You cannot eat the cake and have it too.) Students cannot expect that they can speaking good Chinese without opening their mouth to practice speaking; they either cannot expect that they can write Chinese without practice writing them; they cannot expect to have good listening comprehension while they don't pay fully attention. IF YOU DON'T COME CLOSE TO CHINESE LANGUAGE AND BEFRIEND WITH IT, HOW CAN YOU EXPECT YOU CAN USE IT WELL?