{"id":1410,"date":"2016-07-12T09:09:49","date_gmt":"2016-07-12T13:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/sla2016\/?p=1410"},"modified":"2016-07-14T14:05:18","modified_gmt":"2016-07-14T18:05:18","slug":"beijing-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/2016\/07\/12\/beijing-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Beijing #2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Halfway through my third week living in Beijing, I finally feel like I am beginning to acclimate.\u00a0 <\/span>The cultural shock and immediate novelty of my surroundings has given way to a deeper interaction.\u00a0 <\/span>For instance, ordering breakfast on the way to class from the small cafe, a once daunting task, has become routine.\u00a0 <\/span>Speaking the Chinese language has also become more natural.\u00a0 <\/span>Why practicing at school, I was limited to just an hour of class time, so it was easy to forget about speaking for the next 23 hours.\u00a0 <\/span>Here, I am constantly thinking in terms of the language.\u00a0 <\/span>In conversations, I find myself responding more and more readily.\u00a0 <\/span>Third year Chinese is helping me quickly learn how to voice opinions in Chinese, which has led to more stimulating conversation outside of the classroom.\u00a0 <\/span>While I am still not \u201ccomfortable\u201d, I have embraced my surroundings and the challenge they present.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Two weekends ago, we visited the Forbidden Palace.\u00a0 <\/span>On one of the hottest days in Beijing so far, my classmates and I made our way through a seemingly endless array of ornate buildings and beautiful gardens.\u00a0 <\/span>The architecture was truly spectacular.\u00a0 <\/span>I enjoyed learning about the history and culture that surrounded the palace.\u00a0 <\/span>Perhaps even more interesting was observing the sense of pride Chinese felt in visiting the Palace.\u00a0 <\/span>It really provided a view into the historical relevance of the place.\u00a0 <\/span>It was truly humbling to be part of their experience looking at the Emperor\u2019s throne room, and hiking up the hill to see the giant golden Buddha statue.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I believe that my ability to speak Chinese is progressing at a rate at which I did expect when planning to spend my summer in Beijing.\u00a0 <\/span>Although I am in intensive classes for much of my time here, I believe my true progress is made outside of the classroom.\u00a0 <\/span>Last weekend, I took a cab home from a restaurant I had visited, and found myself holding a conversation about the European Soccer Championships.\u00a0 <\/span>While I had never actually read in a book how to criticize the German National soccer team, I was quickly able to learn, and maintain the conversation.\u00a0 <\/span>While I no doubt stumbled and made a fool of myself at some points, the driver would just laugh and correct me.\u00a0 <\/span>Experiences like these account for much of my learning in Beijing, and are definitely the most fun I have learning the language.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I am very excited for the next four and a half weeks in for of me.\u00a0 <\/span>This week our class is planning to travel to Xi\u2019an.\u00a0 <\/span>It will be great to be able to see another city outside of Beijing, and I cannot wait for the opportunities it affords me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Halfway through my third week living in Beijing, I finally feel like I am beginning to acclimate.\u00a0 The cultural shock and immediate novelty of my surroundings has given way to a deeper interaction.\u00a0 For instance, ordering breakfast on the way … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2171,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-china"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2171"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1410"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1471,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1410\/revisions\/1471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}