Benjamin R .
First-year Chinese, Summer 2008
Graduate Student

"At our orientation gathering the weekend before summer study began, an earnest appeal was made for a hearty and unyielding approach to our homework, to the point where we felt some degree of exhaustion.  This resonated some with a former Japanese instructor’s suggestion that language study be 苦しい, kurushii (painful, bitter), and, later, with our Chinese instructor’s reminder upon reaching the half-way mark that sometimes we must 吃苦, “eat bitterness.”  I felt this only demonstrated how compassionate our instructors were – only a teacher invested in their students’ learning could make such a request.  Beloit College’s approach in its intensive summer language program allows language study it’s “suffering.” However, just as our speaker followed his appeal with quick mention of all the campus resources available to us so we might “vent,” the program ensures that a student’s experience amounts to more than just study.  Both the cultural excursion and the weekend with the Peking Opera troupe rounded the curriculum out as brief opportunities to apply our language skills.  I am currently in Taiwan studying Mandarin at Fo Guang University, relying on my first year instruction to soften the culture shock of first-time entry.  Helpful though these language skills are, I still with much pleasure continue to receive support from my instructors at Beloit.  I don’t doubt our contact will continue after my time abroad."

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