Hi everyone! I'm Oscar, a '28 from Flushing, NYC. On campus you'll find me studying in Novack, lounging in the First Generation Office, or designing for the DALI Lab. I'm passionate about giving back to my community, fiber arts, and em dashes. Welcome to my blog—I'm excited to explore Dartmouth together!
COSC 1 was the most challenging but rewarding class of this term. I had minimal coding experience prior to this class, but the course is manageable because of all the support available. COSC 1 is one of the largest classes offered at Dartmouth—a total of 200 students split in two sections—but there was always ample help from Professor Vasanta's classes and concept hours and the TA team's recitation and office hours. I enjoyed that assignments had creative flexibility—I recreated "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" book cover, wrote an adventure story, and made games for assignments.
I had completed my language requirement by taking CHIN 4 in my last term, but I was interested in further pursuing Chinese through CHIN 22. CHIN 22 is very similar in structure to CHIN 4—small class size, vocabulary exams, and drill sessions. I was lucky to take CHIN 22 with the Beijing Normal University's exchange professor, Professor Yin, who often adds color to lessons by explaining cultural element of China. Some interesting topics we've discussed include the effects of China's One Child Policy, transportation regulations in Beijing, and the symbolism of snow in Chinese culture.
With the development of generative artificial intelligence (AI), why learn design when ChatGPT can create it for you? CSDA 21 (Computer Science/Digital Arts 21, previously known as COSC 21) argues for the importance of human agency in design (and why AI-generated designs are flawed). Using Adobe Photoshop and After Effects, we explored a range of topics, including typography, poster design, generative AI, and motion graphics. Professor Mahoney is an incredibly supportive teacher with deep knowledge of the creative industry—make sure to go to office hours if you take the course! As CSDA 21 was my first digital arts class, I’m excited to explore the department more!
I spent this summer studying Mandarin Chinese on the Beijing LSA+! It as a fast-paced, immersive experience that greatly increased my confidence in speaking and reading Mandarin. From ordering breakfast, to navigating public transit, every interaction was an opportunity to exercise my Mandarin skills. This study abroad counts as a regular 3-credit Dartmouth term, where I took two Chinese courses: CHIN 31 and CHIN 32, and a third Asian Societies, Cultures, and Languages (ASCL) course. We also traveled to other areas in China—Shandong, Xi'An, and Chengdu, visiting numerous historical sites, temples, and museums, and of course, see pandas. This experience greatly developed my understanding not only of the Chinese language, but also Chinese culture.
One of my favorite things about the Beijing LSA+ is how students are encouraged to immerse themselves in life in China, putting our language skills to use and experiencing Chinese culture in the real world. In classes, we're taught tons of grammatical structures and vocabulary, but how do people really talk on a daily basis? How do we exercise our language skills with purpose? And how can we learn more about what life is like in China?
While these questions are important, they can't really be taught in a classroom. The Beijing LSA+ approaches these concerns with 中文实践 (Chinese practice) and 中文饭桌 (Chinese table), our weekly real-world practice. Every Friday, our drill instructors have lunch with us and organize an activity to exercise our Chinese skills—the only rule is we can only speak Chinese. So far, we've learned how to order food delivery, ate at Haidilao (a popular hot pot chain), and played party games.
This week we decided to visit Houhai, a lake and its surrounding neighborhood in Haidian District, Beijing, not too far from Beijing Normal University (BNU), where we're staying. We were tasked with creating a 3-5 minute vlog or 20+ photo plog (photo log), detailing the day's adventures. Here are a few snippets of the plog I submitted!
Hello everyone! For this week's Chinese practice, we (our drill group) decided to visit Houhai (a local lake & sightseeing area) and create a "plog" (a photo log) to document what we did today.
First, we decided to ride bicycles to Houhai. Houhai isn't too far from BNU, it's only about a 30 minute bike ride. Not only are China's public bikes convenient, but they've been planned for very well. Every street has bike lanes and there's even traffic lights for bikes. If the states popularized this public bicycle infrastructure, transportation would be so convenient!
CN:
骑了一会儿自行车后，我们就到了后海！这里甚至还有一个可爱的哆啦 A 梦雕像在迎接我们。虽然好多朋友推荐去后海玩，这就是我第一次去，好兴奋我终于能转一转！
EN:
After some biking, we reached Houhai! There even was a Doraemon statue waiting to greet us. Although many friends have recommended that I visit Houhai, this is my first time here. I'm excited to see what the hype is!
When we walked closer to the boats, we saw two people fishing. It seems like they've been standing for quite a while. I'm not sure if Houhai has any fish, but I hope they can catch a big fish for dinner. Remembering that we wanted to ride the boats, we passed the two fishermen and continued to walk forward.
We finally reached a place to get on the boats. When we walked onto the dock, we saw a funny warning sign. In Chinese, the sign warned visitors to watch their heads. While the warning in Chinese made sense, even as native English speakers, we couldn't understand the English translation, "MOXIBUSTION ROOM"—it sounds like some kind of laboratory! I later searched what "moxibustion" is. Turns out it's a Chinese traditional medicine technique. A Chinese medicine practitioner takes mugwort, also called "moxa", and burns it near or on pressure points. In a way, it's kind of similar to acupuncture. But moxibustion has nothing to do with watching your head. We had a good laugh at this translation mistake.
We went to the dock, found a staff member, and asked if the six of us could rent a boat together. Unfortunately, there were no boats available for rent at the moment, and it would take more than 20 minutes to prepare a boat before we could set off. It was already past 10:30 in the morning, and our little teacher had agreed to meet at a zha jiang mian (Beijing-style fried sauce noodles) restaurant at 11:15. If we waited, we would've had to return the boat as soon as we got on. So maybe next time :(
CH:
诶？这只狗从哪里跑出来呢？好像是个老流浪狗。
EN:
Uh? Where did this dog come from? It looks like an old stray..
CN:
啊！Ryan 别追它！
EN:
Hey! Ryan don't chase it!
CN:
我们追了那只狗一下就突然跑到了不同的湖。什刹海是哪儿呢？
EN:
We chased the dog for a while and suddenly found a different lake. Where is Shichahai?
CN:
再走几步就到了一位男子练习武术的雕像。这雕像没有什么牌子，所以我们不确定这雕像在代表谁。这雕像让 Tom 和 Henry 抓紧时间练习一下他们最近学的武术。在他们练习时，一些正在散步的人停下来看了一下，还拍了视频。真笑死我们了。
EN:
A few steps further, we came to a statue of a man practicing martial arts. There was no sign on the statue so we were not sure who it represented. The statue gave Tom and Henry a chance to practice their recently learned martial arts. While they were practicing, some passersby even stopped to watch and take videos.
As we walked, I noticed some gorgeous manhole covers. On the cover were patterns of flowers and repeating circles. There is also a Chinese character in the middle of the pattern, such as "water", "electricity", "waste", etc., to indicate what is under the cover. In China, even ordinary manhole covers have been made into art. Before the LSA I visited Tokyo, Osaka, and Shanghai. In addition to Beijing, all of these cities had beautiful patterns on the manhole covers. The patterns even vary between neighborhoods! Compared with New York, where the entire city has the same manhole covers, China and Japan have much more variety.
After walking a bit more, we arrived at the shopping street in Shichahai. There are special shops for buying food, toys, or souvenirs. Our time was almost up, so we skipped shopping and planned to start walking towards the noodle shop chosen by our drill instructors.
CN:
我们本来是跟着 Henry、Tate 和 Ryan 走的。可是 Tom 看到了一家专门卖北冰洋的店，他宁可迷路也要买一瓶来喝。因为我们是好的人，我们几个人就等着 Tom，还帮他和北冰洋的雕像拍了几张照片。据他的T恤说，生活确实真好啊。但是我们就跟刚才带队的那三个同学走散了。完蛋了！
EN:
We originally were following Henry, Tate, and Ryan. But Tom saw a store that sold Arctic Ocean (a Chinese orange soda brand), and he would rather get lost than not buy a bottle. Since we're good people, we waited for Tom and took some photos of him with the Arctic Ocean statue. Just like his shirt says, life is really good. However, we separated from the three classmates who were leading the group. Oops.
The five of us, Selina, Maple, Iman, Tom and I, decided to find a way to get to the noodle shop. We were almost late, so we needed to hurry! Following Tom, we walked into an old Beijing alley. The alley was narrow, but also beautiful. Because there were a few trees planted on the side of the road, it was a relaxing walk.
CN:
啊。。。我们突然发现我们一直在走错路。我们真的迷路了！我们为什么相信 Tom 会把我们按时到达呢。。。Maple 看起来非常生气！
EN:
Ah... We suddenly realized that we've been going the wrong way. We were lost! Why did we trust Tom to get us there on time... Maple looked very angry!
After more than 30 minutes, riding bicycles and almost getting into accidents several times, we finally arrived at "No. 69 Zhajiangmian Restaurant" in Fangzhuanchang. After all that walking, we were really hungry. Let's hurry up and eat!
And that's the end of my plog! If you're curious to learn more about the Beijing LSA+, check out this day in my life post, or this post by fellow LSA student and blogger, Madison '28!
At most colleges, midterms begin in mid-October, but Dartmouth's 10-week quarter system means they can begin as early as week 3. With the right habits and resources, you can balance your workload with wellness.
