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. 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.
Xi Wang Dance Company presents Colorful Yunnan -- a collection of traditional dances from the Yunnan province of China. The vibrant dances of the diverse ethnic groups and the brilliant colors of their costumes will transport you back into villages, hidden in the mountains and fields of Yunnan. Prepare to be mesmerized by the treasured dances and music of Colorful Yunnan.
Xi Wang Dance Company Saturday, September 26, 2015 from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM (EDT) Welte Hall Central Connecticut State University 65 Ella T. Grasso Blvd New Britain, CT 06053 Admission is free! |
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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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