Samples of Chinese Students' Writing

This week (Today is Monday March 24, 2008) I am giving all of my classes a worksheet with three questions for them to answer.

The questions are:

1.) What are some of the differences between children and adults?
How do children behave? How should adults behave?


2.) How should University students behave? Should they play with their
phones or sleep in class? Explain your answer.


3.) What makes people different from animals?


I will post some of my students' responses to these questions throughout the week.


Here is one student's response to the first question:

"Children is puerility. They can think that the sun is blue, the river is red. They think their most hope is money, candy and happy. But adults are very busy. They must work hard. If they don't work they will no be have a good life".

Here is another student's answer to the third question:

"People can touch with each other but animals can not. People like dress them up".

Here is how one of them responded to the second question:

"University students likes play computer and study, play basketball. I don't agree sleep in class because that don't good study".

Here is another response to the second question:

"The University students like surf in the internet. Yes, they play with their phones in class because some students are not intering in some class".

And here is how that student answered the third question:

"People are brighter than animals".

Another student's response to the third question is as follows:

"People can say 'shit', 'fuck' but animals no".

And as I shift through my papers I think I've caught a pair of students copying off one another (pretty typical in China):

"People are brighter than animals. People have language but animals have not. Peop:e have spirits but animals have not. People can creat things but animals can't".

Bai Wen Chuan answered the second question as follows:

"The students are very like playing computer games and playing basketball. They always play wihth their phone in the classroom and sleep in the classroom".

Bai Wen Chuan had this to say in response to the third question:

"People can do some exercise but animals can't do that. People can writer some thing in book but animals can't do that".



Anyway, so there's a sample of my students' wonderful writing. I definetly have my work cut out for me.....

E-mail from a Chinese student.

Here is an e-mail I received from a Chinese student today:


I am sorry I do not know that the United States wrote a letter format
Thank you for giving me the answer ,In addition, I would like to ask a number of ways, for example, you want to learn Chinese, the best approach is the exchange and others, but seems not properly achieved and I know that the American news coverage of China things will be more facts, or even distorting the facts ,We are each of the foreigners come to China are very welcome, and help others who are in the same time they have gained happiness, We need to increase the capacity to help others, and we do a lot of efforts, I think that I am reading is to the prosperity of our nation. Is how do you treat China as a developing country with a long history.Your friends around you to what is the view of China? I read one called (The World Is Flst) book, I have a lot of ideas for this, you really want to know China's Tibet and Taiwan issues (they is one of our country's territory!) look at how.I even see you my views on how to be very curious, hehe!

Letter from a Chinese Student

One of my students gave me a letter at the end of class today. I thought I'd type it up here since I haven't posted anything in a while:

Mr. Brandon,

My name is Liu Ting. I'm very glad that you can teach our English. I think you are a good teacher and you are a handsome man. Mr. Brandon. Do you know? I feel is very hard how to speak English well, because my pronounces badly.

I think that related to my first English teacher. But the most important reason is myself. Begin this term, I enjoy learning English, every class I listened carefully.

In the end, I want to make friends with you. Can you tell me your E-mail dress? Thank you very much!!

Yours,

Liu Ting

Random musings I jot out from time to time

Independent and Transcendent.
Free from space and time,
above and beyond mere mortal minds.
Infinite and self-sufficient.
The only non-contingent.
Genderless and ONE.
Brighter than the sun.
The past is behind us
The future has begun...

Communication
Exchanges of information
Various intonations and infinite manifestations
of a single source.
An all-powerful force which lacks nothing.
It itself is NO-thing. It simply IS.

Beyond categories of being and non-being
Seeing without seeing
The mind's eye
Becomes aware
Embracing the face of truth
Erasing the place of non-truth
All things unite
Darkness turns to light

A process of transmutation
An act of contemplation
An indescribable sensation
Breaks the limits of imagination
A myriad of manifestation
The arrival of the Ultimate Destination
Begins within

Proportion and Symmetry
A Cosmic Symphony
A flower blooms from a universal egg
A bee builds its hive
A spider weaves its web
Intrinsic Design exists behind the veil of illusion
Beyond all confusion exists a logical conclusion
Remove that veil and perceive reality with clarity and sincerity.

A world of sounds and stimuli
Confronts all sentinent beings
Consciousness expands forward
Towards unification

A Universal population

Egos fade away.....

Patterns of recognition
Filtered through the senses
Physical limitations
Exceed no expectation
Interpreted by mind, no longer blind
Transitioning into the sublime
Entering eternity from the realm of time
Reason has found its rhyme

I like to play with words

and conjugate verbs

You say "Be"

I say "Being"

You say "See"

I say "Seeing"

X. Y and Z

are the elements of 3 dimensionality

More language practice (work in progress)

1.) 我出生在美国
Wo chu sheng zai Mei guo

I was born in America.

2.) Tengo un caracter muy fuerte.

I have a strong personality.

3.) 洗手间在那里?

Xishoujian zai nali?

Where is the bathroom?

4.) Juan es aburrido (characteristic).

John is boring.

5.) Juan esta aburrido (condition).

John is bored.

6.) Lo hará por su amigo.

He will do it for his friend.

7.) Lo hice por Ud.

I did it for you. (for your sake)

Ni hao. 你好。Wo xing Fike,jiao Brandon. 我姓Fike，叫Brandon。Wo shi yi ge Meiguo ren,dan shi wo zhu zai Zhong guo.我是一个美国人，但是我住在中国。Wo 28 sui le.我28岁了。Wo hen gao,(bald [guangtou]). Wo mei you (hair…[tou fa]) 我很高，光头。我没有头发。Wo de zui xi huan (colors) shi (green) he (blue).[Wo zui xi huan de(colors[yan se/se cai]) shi (green[lv se]) he (blue[lan se]).] 我最喜欢的 颜色/色彩 是绿色和蓝色。Wo de ai hao shi (traveling[lv you/lv xing]), kan shu, kan dian ying he xue xi Zhongwen.我的爱好是旅游/旅行，看书，看电影和学习中文。Wo ye xi huan (listening to[ting]) ying yue.我也喜欢听音乐。Wo xue xi Zhongwen zai Zhong guo yinwei hen duo Zhong guo ren zai (there[na li]).Maybe you can say the sentense like this better:Wo zai Zhong guo xue xi Zhongwen,yinwei hen duo Zhong guo ren zai na li.I don't know if it's the meaning you wanna express?then the chinese is:我在中国学习中文，因为很多中国人在那里。Wo you (2 brothers[liang ge xiong di]) he (1 sister[yi ge jie mei]).我有两个兄弟和一个姐妹。ge ge哥哥=elder brother,di di弟弟=yonger brother;jie jie姐姐=elder sister,mei mei妹妹=younger sisterWo xiang Zhong guo ren hen you hao.我想中国人很友好。but better saying like this:Wo jue de/ren wei Zhong guo ren hen you hao.我觉得/认为中国人很友好。Wo ye xiang Zhong guo hen you yi si (interesting).better saying like this:Wo ye jue de/ren wei zhong guo hen you yi si.我也觉得/认为中国很有意思。Wo bu hui kan hai shi xie hen duo han zi ke shi wo yao xue xie geng duo better like this:Wo bu hui kan he xie hen duo han zi,ke shi wo yao xue xie geng duo.is "xie" writing?“hai shi” is...?and?or?我不会看和写很多汉字，可是我要学习更多。(this year…zhe ge nian?)it's "jin nian" or "zhe yi nian"今年/这一年Wo bu xi huan (dogs[gou]) yinwei tamen hen (dirty[zang]) he[er qie] hen chao/noisy.我不喜欢狗，因为他们很脏而且很吵。

Nakhu, Thailand November 2007 Pics

Two pics of me in a small village near Nakhu, Thailand

taken in November 2007 around the time I first

arrived here.

Do you want to learn Mandarin Chinese?

If so, take a look at these two websites:

www.askbenny.cn

www.chinesepod.com

Both are excellent and the first one is 100% free.

Chinesepod.com lets you listen to podcasts for free but if you want to access any other areas you have to pay a membership. About $30 for one-month or $150 for six months which gives you access to pretty much everything you'll need.

I'm thinking about joining for a month and then just downloading as much stuff as possible during that month. Then just spend the next month or two (or three) trying to master that material and once I feel like I've got it down I'll sign up for another month.

Chinese is a difficult language to learn but I don't think it's as hard as most western people imagine it to be.

If Chinese people can learn English then Westerners can learn Chinese!