University of Nanking - Linguist Yearbook (Nanking, China)

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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.

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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

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92 THE LINGUIST The pace for the day's' study is set by the Chinese teacher' who presents the new words orally to the students. Chia Sain Sen, our Principal, cleverly and energetically presents the new words by the use of acting, story. gesture and only in terms ofthe words previously learned. Students repeat phrase by phrase the Chinese sentences spoken by the teacher. At no time is English resorted to except at the end of the new word class when the Dean, C. S. Keen, clears up any misunderstanding and writes on the board the phoneti- cized new words for copying in note books. Then when the sounds are still fresh in the students' minds they are rehearsed audibly under the leadership of a qualified teacher until their pronunciation and use become habitual. In the review classes and in the. conferences with the individual teachers no- Chinese teacher is permitted to introduce into the reviewing any word that has not been previously given in the new word classes.- Certainly a remarkable discipline. In the conversation classes the student is made to construct sentences in reply to questions in Chinese. The sentence is the minimum unit. The consistent following of these simple principles prepares the student in an academic year to understand and use--if imperfectly at times--most of the common idioms of the spoken language. The course in Chinese is continued for five years, the first year in residence at the Language School and thereafter at the stuclent's station, by correspondence and the use of a private teacher. The Chinese spoken language is terse, forceful, logical and beautiful, but it is difficult. Given a right attitude, however. proper conditions and modern trained teachers it would seem that any intelligent person with the patience to apply himself may acquire such degreeof progress in the use of the Chinese language as will enable him to express himself with acceptance to the Chinese as well as with some small satisfaction to himself. C. S. K. W. C. L. ,