University of Nanking - Linguist Yearbook (Nanking, China)

Page 93 text:

90 THE LINGUIST School is out at four o'clock and we scatter each to some activity -or recreation, whether it be teaching English to a class of Chinese students at the Y.M.C.A. or to the tennis courts. Dinner comes at seven o'clock. And this particular evening we .all go to the Community Center where in a large reception hall .artistically furnished and decorated we listen spellbound to the XVorld's greatest woman violinist, Kathleen Parlow. It seems that never before had we heard a concert under more agreeable circum- stances. The warm glow of the hreplace finds a response in each 'appreciative listener and the artist seems to enjoy her art. In the shaded light of the room the Hickering light of the flames from the 'grate play upon the artist as she entrances us with the mysteries of harmony. Then it is over and we go home tired after a full day. And so goes each busy and happy day, D. B. Several years ago a new arrival in China started out one afternoon to walk through the Nanking streets to see the sights and he thought he knew the way home. But when it was almost dark, he discovered that he was lost and more-over was unable to tell a ricksha man where to take him. So he solved the problem like this: He knew the way home from the Chinese hospital, so he pretended that he was dreadfully sick, he doubled all up and stumbled into a ricksha without saying where he wanted to go. The man took him to the hospital from which place he was able to find his way home. Last Fall Bertha Smith went into a money changing shop and asked, ii May I change my clothes? She thought she was going to say, ko-e-huang-tsan Qmay I change my moneyj but said instead, ko-e huang-e-shang. - r lg v

Page 92 text:

A DAY AT LANGUAGE SCHOOL S9 At the noon hour we are out and away to lunchg the girls to Meigs Hall and the married people to homes of the community where many of us are hospitably lodged for our tirst year in China. On our way from the Language school we pass through the narrow streets or along the paths and meet the Chinese children who have a cherry Kello for us. There are the coolies carrying, at the ends of a bamboo pole anything from buckets of waterto babies in a basketg or a drove of moth eaten donkeys overloaded with baskets of brick or stoneg or rickshas whizzing past bearing sleekly attired women or absent minded bespecktacled students. Or one may be accosted by professional beggars old and young, blind or lame. Another Game of volleyball at recess The afternoon session begins at two o'clock and is divided into two sessions with a recess between. One of these is devoted largely to oral review wherein we repeat phrase by phrase the increasingly complex sentences containing the words that have been demonstrated to us in the former new words classes. The other is given over to- writing the Chinese character. It is a case of where every little stroke has a meaning. Committee of VVelcome Rainy Day Promenade

Page 94 text:

LEARNING CHINESE 91 LEARNING CHINESE The Chinese language has the reputation of being very difficult to learn. The difficulty has been exaggerated. Consider that a quarter ofthe inhabitants of the globe speak one or another dialect of Chinese, and the vast majority of these people are illiterates. As a pre-requisite to the study ofChinese, students must free their minds of this prejudice. But nothing is gained by underestimating the seriousness of the task. The Chinese language offers one of the greatest intellectual challenges that ever confronted a keen-minded student. In the early days the method oi learning Chinese from a private teacher was universally employed. The private teacher served the best that he knew, but he was unacquainled with the scientific methods of pedagogy. His day is largely over for starting a student in the knowledge of Chinese. A new clay has arrived. The Language School at Nanking has put into use practically all the tested pedagogical methods of teaching spoken language, In a word the direct or natural method is used. It attempts to make it possible for the student to acquire the language as the native does. It is in harmony with the latest findings of psychological research and experiment. It is limited in its application only by the ingenuity of the teacher. The teacher is the crux of the language study. And it has taken years to discover this fact. It has remained for the child to point the way. The program of the numerous classes, new word class, review, individual teacher, group conversation, writing and public speaking classes .is designed to throw about the student those conditions that a child faces in learning its mother tongue. But while the principles are simple the methods are varied and often complex, five hours per day in close association with Chinese trained teachers who will speak no English soon does wonders for the student. The danger of monotony is overcome by weekly reversal of classes and by a rotation of individual teachers.