Oscar Chun

After snoozing my alarm a few times, I usually get out of bed around 7. The LSA classes have been the earliest I’ve taken in awhile, so it’s been a big adjustment. I like to take my mornings slow, taking the time to relax before the long day ahead. Sometimes I make it to breakfast, but most of the time I sleep in—today was one of those days. I head to class around 7:50.
 

My first class of the day is Chinese with our BNU professor, Chen Laoshi ( 陈老师 ). On the LSA+, we take the equivalent of two Chinese classes at Dartmouth in one term. Students are on one of two tracks, second year or third year, depending on prior completion of Chinese classes. I’m on the third year track, the equivalent of CHIN 31+32 Advanced Modern Chinese because I took CHIN 4 Advanced Beginners Chinese, and CHIN 22+23 Intermediate Modern Chinese during my first year. If you’re curious about the second year track, check out Madison ‘28’s experience in Beijing!

Every week we complete two chapters of our textbook, “New Horizons: an Intermediate-Advanced Course in Chinese (I)”. In terms of testing, we have two vocabulary quizzes a week, one for each chapter, usually on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Then every Friday we have an exam on the week’s grammar structures and vocabulary. In addition, we’re assigned a short composition every other week as practice for long-form writing. This structure is standard practice for Dartmouth Chinese classes, just a little faster paced as we’re covering two classes worth of content in one. 

Following our large, professor-led class, we break into two smaller cohorts, each led by a current BNU student. Our small classes are looser, mainly structured as a review of the lesson just covered in the larger class. Though we often go off on tangents where we learn more about Chinese culture and vocabulary we’re curious about. The other day we were talking about a sick classmate, which expanded into a full lesson on different body parts in Chinese. 小班 is where we learn the parts of Chinese that aren’t in a textbook, from a native Chinese peer.

After our Chinese classes we head to lunch! BNU has multiple student cafeterias offering a wide variety of Chinese and international cuisines. Some of our favorites are 地锅鸡, claypot chicken; 云南米线, Yunnan-style rice noodles; and a classic canteen were you can pick from many different dishes. The food court we’re heading to today is a short bike ride across campus—we’re getting 凉皮, a spicy and tangy cold noodle dish!

I tell myself this is self-studying time, but I usually end up scrolling on my phone. When I’m feeling productive, I’ll make a quizlet set for the vocabulary from today’s chapter, and star the vocabulary I’m unfamiliar with so I can focus on those characters when I actually study later.
 

On Mondays and Wednesdays, we have additional speaking practice with our TAs, similar to drill at Dartmouth. These 20 minute sessions are designed to help us practice conversational speaking. We usually talk about what we did since we last spoke and cool things to do in Beijing. 

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, around this time we would be in ASCL 9.02 Language, Culture, and Communication, taught by the LSA’s Faculty Director, Li Laoshi (李老师). (The LSA Faculty Director is a member of Dartmouth’s Chinese Language department, which rotates year by year). This class is a companion to the LSA, where we’ve explored the history of the Chinese Language, Chinese dialects, and how to best leverage studying abroad to maximize learning Mandarin.

After drill, I finally sit down and review the vocabulary for the upcoming quiz, which is usually around 40-60 words per chapter. It’s a lot of spaced repetition and refreshing my Quizlet flashcards, but I’m usually able to get all the vocabulary down in about an hour. As a little reward, I’m also having a fresh peach as an afternoon snack.

Outside of our ASCL and Chinese class, LSA students were able to pick cultural electives, either 书法 (calligraphy), 武术 (martial arts), or both. These classes are taught by BNU professors who are experts in their fields. They’re an interesting chance to learn about Chinese arts, either visual (calligraphy) or performing (martial arts). These electives occur once a week on Monday or Tuesday, respectively for calligraphy or martial arts.

Today’s calligraphy class focused on making horizontal and right falling strokes using the brush techniques we learned in previous classes. We’ve learned how to make even lines, round or square our stroke heads and tails, and tried our hand at a few ancient Chinese characters. The professionals make it look so easy, but the precision needed to move the brush correctly is really hard to get right!

My calligraphy practice from today’s class! The characters in the middle of the page are the ancient versions of 六 (six) and 之 (of). It's interesting to see how some characters have stayed about the same or have changed a lot. 

After classes, there’s plenty of time to explore Beijing, continue to study, or hang out with friends. On days where we don’t have to study for a vocabulary quiz tomorrow, I’ll often go out to have dinner and explore the city. Below is a photo from when I visited Beijing’s Olympic Park and climbed the National Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest, which hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics and the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2022 Winter Olympics. Other places we’ve gone after classes include shopping districts like Xidan and Sanlitun, sightseeing at Houhai and the Summer Palace, and restaurants throughout Beijing!

Though I’m feeling pretty tired from a busy weekend, so I’ll be staying on campus today. I worked a bit on writing blogs, caught up with friends back home, and studied a bit more for tomorrow’s vocabulary quiz.

I’ll usually have dinner between 6 or 7—quite earlier than when I used to go to FoCo right before it closes around 8PM. We went back to the dining hall across campus, this time with a bigger group of classmates. For dinner I had a bowl of 麻辣烫, malatang, a preparation where you get to pick from a variety of ingredients and the chef will cook what you selected in a spicy-numbing sauce.

And of course, we had to get a sweet treat. The LSA students love 蜜雪冰城, an ice cream and tea chain known for their 2 yuan soft serve cones (about 30 cents!). Though there’s also a convenience store just down the street that sells a variety of 2 yuan popsicles and other frozen treats. We enjoyed our ice creams as we walked back to our dorms—a refreshing way to end the day.
 

And that’s what a Monday looks like on the Beijing LSA+! It’s been an amazing opportunity to study abroad. Because of the constant exposure to Chinese, I feel that I’ve improved my reading, speaking, and writing skills much faster than I would have otherwise. Being immersed in the language really forces you to practice and remember content that a classroom setting doesn’t require. Going on the LSA+ as a first year means I take an unconventional D-Plan path, where I take first year summer on. (read more about the D-Plan in this blog post by Cal '27) But I don’t regret this choice at all—I mean, when else am I going to study Chinese in China?

If you’re curious about more adventures in China, check out this post about my visit to Houhai and Shichahai, and stay tuned for many more blogs!