Today, I showed my students in the Mandarin Chinese I classes the Four Treasures of the study (wén fáng sì bǎo 文房四宝), which refers to the essential tools a scholar in ancient China used in written communication. These tools, including 笔、墨、纸、砚, (bǐ, mò, zhǐ, yàn,Brush, Ink, Paper, Inkstone), are still used by calligraphers and Chinese brush painting artists all around the world. Here is a video introducing them: Today, where the Americans are celebrating the Veteran's Day, the Chinese consumers are indulged in an online shopping spree. Originally a sort of anti-Valentine's day for the singles (the Arabic Numeral 1 is regarded as a symbol of the unattached), the Double 11 Day, also called the Singles Day, has evolved in just a decade's time into the biggest online shopping day of the year, comparable to Black Friday here in America without physical stores involved. Here are some articles you might want to read: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34773940 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-34784444 http://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/chinas-singles-day-business-boon-online-shopping-n460886 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-09/why-singles-day-in-china-is-bigger-than-cyber-monday http://www.cbsnews.com/news/china-singles-day-alibaba-jd-com-breaks-record-number-of-sales/ And a video... American publisher of business forcasts Kiplinger ranked ten best languages for your career, among which Mandarin Chinese was number one. Here is why:
1. Mandarin Chinese Native speakers: 848 million Number of job postings in 2014: U.S.: 21,770; total, English-speaking countries: 72,597 Median annual salary: U.S.: $43,680; English-speaking total (in U.S. dollars): $30,637 More jobs require Chinese than any other foreign language except Spanish. And Mandarin is only the seventh-most-popular language studied by American undergrads, according to a recent report by the Modern Language Association of America. That means less competition for jobs requiring Mandarin, which range from retail and sales openings to personal financial advisers, who make a median salary of $148,750 a year, according to Burning Glass. The State Department, in its description of Mandarin as a "critical language" for Americans, cites a high demand for Chinese speakers in booming Asian economies, including China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. If you decide to learn this top language for your career, prepare to study hard. The tonal language is consistently ranked as one of the most difficult for English speakers to pick up. Read more at http://www.kiplinger.com/slideshow/business/T012-S001-best-foreign-languages-for-your-career/index.html From BBC: A professor in China has invented a taxing new way of preventing students from turning up late for his classes. Wang Sijun, who teaches at a university in Sichuan province, has been giving tardy students a complex character to write out on paper 1,000 times. The Chinese character for "biang", is made up of 56 pen strokes. The word holds no meaning but local media said Mr Wang drew inspiration for it from the name of a noodle dish he had while visiting Shaanxi province. The Chengdu Economic Daily newspaper reported that two unfortunate students had received the penalty so far. The first student said she could not continue writing the word after the 200th time as it became "so tiring". In the end, she had asked Prof Wang to commute the punishment, and promised that she would never be late for class again. The second latecomer volunteered instead, to draw one hundred Terracotta Warriors, also a specialty from Shaanxi. He took more than four hours to finish his drawings. 'Creative' form of punishment Chinese characters are often rated among the most difficult languages in the world to write and master. They are made up of simple strokes, variations of eight basic ones, which are combined into characters. Those in turn, are used to form words and sentences. Experts often say that the only effective way to master the art of writing Chinese is by repetition. So students frequently practise handwriting exercises, writing out multiple lines of Chinese characters by hand. Following news of the professor's punishment, the "biang" character has spread widely online. On Chinese social media, many netizens exchanged praise for the professor's "creative" form of punishment. "One look at that and I won't ever be late for class again," commented one user on popular micro-blogging platform Weibo. "This sounds like an interesting and refreshing mode of punishment," said Luying Yang, a teacher on Weibo. Another said: "The professor was not asking for too much from his students to not arrive late for class - so I think this was actually quite a reasonable penalty. The word looks painful to write but it was not an outrageous punishment overall." Mei Wei Zhu said the punishment could have been worse: "Imagine if he made them write out their punishment in traditional calligraphy." Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivered a 20-minute-long speech entirely in Mandarin at Tsinghua University. As a member of the Advisory Board of the School of Economics and Management (SEM) at the renowned Chinese university, Zuckerberg also had a Q&A session with the head of SEM the last year.
As to how well he speaks Mandarin, please refer to this article. I will give him a thumb up because of his attitude to learn and his obviously relentless effort to practice despite his busy schedule. Here's a New York Times story. And a CNN report. You can see a video of him giving new year's greetings to the Chinese people in Mandarin. The NSLI-Y Program offers scholarship for high school students to learn chinese, in china10/22/2015 The following is taken from the NSLI for Youth website:
If you have a passion for learning languages and want to immerse yourself in a foreign culture, this program may be for you! The application deadline for 2016-17 programs is October 29, 2015 at 4 PM EST. ABOUT NSLI-Y The National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, provides merit-based scholarships for eligible high school students and recent high school graduates to learn less commonly taught languages in summer and academic-year overseas immersion programs. NSLI-Y is part of a U.S. government initiative that prepares American citizens to be leaders in a global world. Now more than ever, it is important that Americans have the necessary linguistic skills and cultural knowledge to promote international dialogue and support American engagement abroad. NSLI-Y aims to provide opportunities to American youth that will spark a lifetime interest in language learning. ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS
Chinese (Mandarin) Summer Program Location: China Program Dates: Summer programs are six to eight weeks in duration and typically start in mid-June to early July and end in early to mid-August Language Class Hours: Minimum of 120 hours during the program Accommodations: Host families or a combination of group housing and host family stays Academic program: The Chinese summer program aims to enhance students’ ability to communicate with confidence in the target language. The program increases students’ Chinese language proficiency through intensive in-class language instruction, cultural presentations and activities, and host family stays. Volunteer service activities with community-focused organizations and cultural activities such as cooking, Chinese arts and crafts, and martial arts classes complement classroom learning and provide studChinese cultural classents with diverse opportunities to practice their language skills. Pre- and post-program expectations: Beginners must complete pre-program language assignments, which will include an introduction to the language and basic phrases. Participants with prior experience in the target language will be expected to take pre-program language assessments. All participants will be expected to complete a pre-program survey and several post-program surveys and language tests. Chinese (Mandarin) Academic Year Program Possible Program Locations: China, Taiwan Program Dates: Late August to June Language Class Hours: 10 to 20 hours per week Accommodations: Host families or a combination of dormitory housing and host family stays Academic program: The Chinese academic year program aims to enhance student’s ability to communicate with confidence in the target language. The program provides intensive in-class language instruction (at the beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels) and host family stays. Volunteer service activities with community-focused organizations, cultural classes such as calligraphy, tai-chi, kung-fu, and Chinese chess, and local excursions to cultural and historic sites complement classroom learning and provide students with diverse opportunities to practice their language skills. There were stories considered less newsworthy by mainstream American media when the Chinese president Xi Jinping paid a state visit last month (He started a visit to the U.K. today), but they might be more relevant to the Mandarin Chinese learners in this country. Here are some highlights:
and on Huffpost Politics
Read full text here. Here is the link of the office site of the 100K Strong Foundation. The Great LOL of China video series with Jesse Appell explores modern Chinese people and society from a foreigner’s perspective and an emphasis on the humor in cross-cultural misadventures. Each episode is accompanied by a blog post which examines various elements mentioned in the video at a deeper level and draws connections to the world we live in today. This series features 12 episodes, with a new video released every other week. (Click the image above to visit the website of the videos) “Yellow River Cantata” concert at Yale University in commemorating the 70th anniversary of the ending of World War II.
Saturday, October 24, 7:00 pm Woolsey Hall, 500 College Street, New Haven, CT The concert features famous American and Chinese soloists as well as over 200 singers rendering the classic Chinese choral work “Yellow River Cantata”. For details, please visit the link below where you can watch videos of the same performers in a similar concert in Philadelphia a week ago; which demonstrates the amazing quality of this concert. General Admission: $10; VIP: $30; Group (five or more) discount available [email protected] 860-676-9511, 203-988-6811, or 203-285-8362 https://sites.google.com/site/allctcc/events/yellowrivercantataatyaleuniversity On Sept. 25, thirty-seven students from Avon Middle School and Avon High School went on a field trip to Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) to celebrate the Confucius Institute Day, an annual cultural event hosted by the Confucius Institute. The students joined their peers from nearby school districts for an extravagant cultural experience. In the opening talent show, Lauren Huang of AMS, together with RBS Chinese teacher Ting Du, played Nocturne on a Fishing Boat (渔舟唱晚) with their traditional Chinese instruments. Following a Kungfu show-and-guess game, the students enjoyed the performances of the visiting artists from Shandong Normal University (my university in China), featuring folk music and dances, art songs as well as Kungfu shows.
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九月 2016
About MeI currently teach Mandarin Chinese at Avon Public Schools, Connecticut. I am also Associate Professor of English in the School of Foreign Languages at Shandong Normal University. Categories
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