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Chinese

Formal Study
Although I had been interested in the Chinese language for some time, my experiance with Chinese formally began during the fall of my freshman year at Carleton College when I enrolled in Chinese 101, taught by professors Mark Hansel and Ping Fu, for the fall of 2001. Chinese courses at Carleton teach Beijing-standard Mandarin Chinese using The Practical Chinese Reader as the primary text. Although we studied primarily simplified characters during the frist year of Chinese, were were also required to be able to recognise their traditional counterparts. At Carleton I completed both the 100 and 200 level Chinese language series, and audited one 300 level course.

Since graduating from Carleton I have visten China twice and continued to use Chinese on my own. I started a Chinese language blog on Linese.com and enjoy watching CCTV serials. However, I am happy to be studying formally once again. For the 2006-2007 academic year I resumed formal study of Chinese at the University of Minnesota. Currently, I have completed the first semester of Advanced Modern Chinese and am registered for the second semester, which begins in mid-January. I am greatly enjoying my studies at the U and have begun to explore the posibility of working for an advanced degree in a field related to Chinese language.

Teaching at Gustavus
I am currently teaching a January course at Gustavus Adolphus college in beginning Chinese language and culture. The class is foremost and intensive language course, however I also incorporate many aspects of Chinese culture into the class, to give the students a more rounded view of China and Chinese. We meet 5 days a week for 2 hours at a time, and students are expected to spend a significant amount of time outside of class on homework and studying. I am using The New Practical Chinese Reader as the primary text. The students are learning very fast, and they are a oy to have in class.

As a part of the course, we recently had my former professor Zhao Qiguang visit as a guest lecturer. He taught the students about Daoism and Taiji. The students had a great experiance, both listening to his lecture, and learning the first few forms of 24-forms simplifed Yang style taijiquan. Students will also have the chance to learn the basics of calligraphy, tea ceremony, and one culture topic of their choice. They will also be viewing 3 Chinese films. By the end of the course they should have a strong foundation in Chinese language and introduction to Chinese culture.

Study Abroad
In the fall of 2002 I had the opportunity to study abroad as part of the Tianjin Seminar Program, which was based at Nankai University in Tianjin, PRC. The program focused on both Chinese language and culture. We spent much of our time traveling and seeing many of the great cultural sites of China, cities we visted included Beijing, Tianjin, Datong, Chendu, Xi'an and Shanghai. In addition to our language course, we studied Peiking Opera, cligraphy, painting, martial arts, and poetry. The program vastly imporoved my Chinese and deepened my interest in Chinese Culture. I have since returned to China on a two week trip with my husband, and I am planning to return this fall with my mother.

Chinese Club
When I returned to the Carleton campus I became one of 4 co-presidents of the Carleton Chinese Club. As a club we held both language and culture oriented events such as weekly tea, movie nights, vaious cooking activities and a Chinese lunch table. We also participated larger campus events such as the International Festival, Lunar New Year Celebration and the A.S.I.A. fashion show.

Sen Lin Hu
During the summer of 2003 I worked at Sen Lin Hu, the Chinese language camp associated with the Concodia Language Villiages. At Sen Lin Hu I worked as a Chinese instructor, lifegaurd and general counselor. Over the course of the summer I taught two beginning Chinese language classes. Each class met for 2 hours a day, 6 days a week for 2 weeks. The focus of the camp was on verbal skills, and used immersion and cultural activites to teach the language. Cultural activities included Chinese music, artwork, food and games. Outside of language, I also taught, amoung other things, basic Hmong history in China, Mahjong, Peiking Opera and early Chinese religious ideas.

Chinese Cultral & Historical Studies
As an Asian Studies major I studies many aspects of Chinese culture during my time at Carleton. My primary focus was history and I took 4 history courses related to China in addition to my Comprehensive Exsersize. Other coursework I took at Carleton related to China and Chinese culture included two sociology/anthropology courses, one linguistics course, one film course and erhu music lessons.

Future Plans
Since I graduated from Carleton College I have continued to find ways to use Chinese in my life. I hope to continue to expand my knowlage of Chinese and incorporate it more into my personal and professional life. I am currently planning on accompanying the Gustavus orchestra to China in January of 2008. My role will be to help prepare the orchestra students for the culture shock of their first time in China, and to teach them some basic "survival Chinese". I am very excited about this opportunity and hope that it works out as expected. I am also looking at programs at the University of Minnesota to earn an advanced degree in a field related to Chinese language, such as literature, culture or media. I would love to expand my current Chinese course at Gustavus into a full year program, for which an advanced degree would be required.

Date	Class	File
Spring, 2003	Carleton College: Chinese 205	北京烤鸭！
Fall, 2006	University of Minnesota: Chinese 3031	明洲的地理
Fall, 2006	University of Minnesota: Chinese 3031	人口的分布
Fall, 2006	University of Minnesota: Chinese 3031	爱尔兰
Fall, 2006	University of Minnesota: Chinese3031	唐代