Letter from the Director

Lecture Series 5: “Reinvent” Sound Artist Yan Jun will talk about the Chinese music scene on December 17, 2:20, Wenbei Lou, Rm. 707

Winter Holiday Party and Gift Exchange: Celebrate the holidays with IUP on December 24 at the Africa Rainbow Art Bar; festivities start at 2:30

Lecture Series 6: Anthropology Ph.D. student and current IUPer Josh Gordon will share his research on Chinese language and communities in Myanmar on December 30, 2:20, Wenbei Lou, Rm. 707

清华大学 | Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies ( 清华 IUP中文中心)

IUPeople Volume 2, Issue 3 December 2008

Charles Laughlin, IUP Director, giving remarks at alumni mixer

This has been a busy month at IUP: we brought November to a close at Element Fresh with probably our best alumni mixer yet; we had two great lecturers, Antonia Finnane talked about the Curious History of Fashion in Communist China and sound artist Yan Jun told us about how new Chinese music often "reinvents" existing musics; and though working hard on Chinese and struggling with colds and fatigue, this group of students continues to leave its mark on IUP history, organizing their own events including happy hours, birthday parties and gallery crawls.

In addition to these, as you'll see in this issue, our students and teachers are still finding time to share something about themselves for this newsletter, from Hua Kuoman's article to Vivian Li's very timely article on maintaining relationships while in IUP. Just as one student has returned home to bask in the joy of fatherhood, many other students are maintaining long-distance relationships, while others bring their families here (not uncommon!). On this family-and-friends theme, as we enter into the height of the Euro-American holiday season, we continue to busy ourselves with exams, classes, and

student speeches, but IUP will be holding a modest winter holiday gift exchange at the Rainbow Bar on Wednesday Dec. 24, and we will take a day off on the 25th and again on New Year's Day 2009. Because we're working in China, our calendar revolves around the local customs, so that the lengthiest holiday observance is for Chinese New Year from Jan. 10 - Feb. 8 (incoming spring students will have orientation from the 5th-8th), so that our teachers can enjoy their one long annual break together with their families.

This creates a challenge for our students; it means you have to miss your own families' holiday celebrations, and then you have a long break before you continue classes. As I mentioned at our Thanksgiving activity, it is a good time to travel, and I'm sure a lot of you have spectacular travel plans. If not, Beijing can be a great place to spend Chinese New Year, especially if you can spend it with Chinese friends whose families are in Beijing, but there are also temple fairs 庙会

throughout the city and the suburbs that are very 热闹 and give you a feeling for the traditional holiday. Like the roast sweet potatoes you can now find on the streets everywhere, these ways of celebrating Chinese New Year right here in Beijing are inexpensive, warm, sweet, and give you a feeling of satisfaction inside!

Mark Your Calendars!

An IUP Thanksgiving

November 27 @ Dufeng Canting on Tsinghua campus

Hua Laoshi & Ricky finally put Ricky’s premed training to good use

IUPers enjoy a pre-Thanksgiving feast bowling tournament

Joe Narus, Sharon Nakhimovsky, Alan Gaskill, Justin Knapp, and Christian Kaas enjoy a round of beers as they wait for the turkey

Ricky Kim, Hua Kuoman, and Jill Schultz 思考 the turkey

Brian Nichols poses with Li Yun in her fashionable coons cap

After waiting so long, Liu Yuming happily relishes her turkey leg

Photo: G

enevieve C

heng

IUP, family, and kids—by their nature each is

already “麻烦” described Brian Nichols, a married Ph.D. student with two sons. “So though it’s not ideal to handle them all together, it can be done.”

Faaria Kherani, a college senior who managed IUP and a long-distance relationship, agrees that it can be difficult to maintain relationships outside of IUP. “IUP’s environment is very浓厚, so your friends here become your family.”

Brian’s situation though was greatly improved by having his wife and kids stay at her parent’s home while he lives in the Tsinghua University dorms. Brian’s in-laws retired two years ago and decided to move from Fujian to Beijing and bought a house. During the week Brian stays on campus studying at IUP and then on weekends takes a two-hour commute to his in-laws’ house in Tongzhou, a suburb east of Beijing, to spend time with the family. Every night he keeps in touch with them by phone. Occasionally he still receives calls from his wife, Jamie, about the kids, but says that if it was not for his in-laws pitching in to help take care of them, he would probably be hearing more from her.

Faaria took advantage of Skype’s inexpensive international calling options to keep in touch with her significant other. “You can even call them on their cell phone” she said, so the receiver does not have to be in front of their computer. They made a point to set a certain time to chat, so they could make sure to catch up regularly despite their busy schedules. She found that the time difference also worked to their advantage. Before classes started it was evening in the U.S. and by the time classes ended it was nighttime there, so both sides were available to talk.

She recommends, though, that couples make sure that they are very committed to the relationship before one of them leaves for IUP. “Breaking up on Skype would be the worst way to do it,” she said.

Brian admits that he could not have wished for a better solution to balancing life at IUP and family life. His oldest son, Charles (乐乐), 4.5 years-old, attends pre-school and is for the first time taking piano lessons, which was unimaginable in the U.S. since piano lessons there are much more expensive, while his son William (陶陶), 1.5 years-old, stays at home being cared for by his mother as well as his grandparents. Brian is a Fulbrighter and also received Fulbright’s Critical Language Enhancement Award (CLEA) to pay for his studies at IUP till January.

Afterwards, he will revisit a Buddhist temple in Fujian, the subject of his research, to write his dissertation and conduct follow-up interviews. His wife and the kids will follow him, but not the grandparents. Yet, Brian does not seem distressed about this upcoming change. He views his good fortune managing IUP and family as a life lesson rather than mere chance.

“The timing of all of this has worked out especially well for us since I'm now studying at IUP and Jamie can spend time with her parents and the kids can get to know their Chinese grandma and grandpa and vice-versa. Having Jamie's parents just outside Beijing has really facilitated our move and the transition to life in China. Everything has come together really well. I actually use Chinese thought in thinking about how things come together; I think about it as following the Dao. You know in Daoist thought things are not to be forced; success depends on working within our means and according to the conditions at hand. What's Daoist is how things unfold according to some internal logic and how we are all powerless to change that internal logic. We can only strive to find our way within the flow of the Dao.

Studying Chinese is like this as well. It is not

impossible to do what IUP asks of us, but it is only feasible if we make a lot of adjustments; making those kinds of adjustments is what I'm considering a kind of following the Dao. For me that has meant separation from my kids during the week in order to allow sufficient and uninterrupted time for daily study and review. Of course that's only the beginning for accomplishing what we are asked to do at IUP. I wish I knew the Dao of studying Chinese; if anyone does please let us know. Some mantras we hear at IUP like 努力学习 don't sound very Daoist to me, though

others like 慢慢来 do .”

Living with IUP

by Vivian Li

Brian Nichols with sons William (陶陶) and Charles (乐乐)

Photo: B

rian N

ichols

之我见之我见之我见之我见

滑阔漫, IUP 老师

今天我想谈一下高水平汉语学生的语言学习。

我在 IUP供职八年余，其间有一年在 Stanford。接触

的多为高水平汉语学生。在工作中有一些个人的经

验总结在这拿来跟大家讨论一下。

有一些朋友认为，口语应该在语言的初学阶段

教学中作为重点。我个人对此观点不敢苟同。口语

并不是有些朋友认为的只是生活中的小技巧。更不

只是点菜、打电话、坐出租这么简单。口语能力的

高低可以直接反映一个学生的汉语水平。更能反映

他对一种文化的理解。因为它直接与文化及语言的

历史沿革联系在一起。当一个人在使用口语和人交

流时它直接反映的是一个人对一种文化的掌握的程

度。

比如“打水漂”这个说法，意思是花了钱却没有办

成事情，所作的努力白费了。那为什么这个说法会

有这样的意思呢？这就和中国的钱币历史有关系。

中国历史上使用时间最长的是金属钱币，金属钱币

掉在地上会发出声音，但是如果你用钱币去打水漂

的话就连声音都听不到了。听到声音这样的最小的

回报你都没有得到，岂不是很亏吗！所以“打水漂”这

个说法可以用来比喻花了钱没有办成事情，甚至连

一点声音都没有听到。再比如，我们所说的“背黑

锅”、“连锅端”。这个锅在中国人的心目中到底是一

个什么概念呢？中国人又是怎么理解“黑锅”的呢？如

果你真的想把这个说法用在最合适的地方，那你必

须得对这个文化义项有一个准确的把握才可以。

由于历史的原因，中文中的很多词汇有着非常深刻

的文化内涵。对于一个第二语言的学习者来说，遵

从第二语言习得的规律，它是非得从文化上、历史

上、文字上去深入探究才可以正确把握的。比如，

中国人说年纪大会说“一大把年纪”。为什么要用“把”

这个量词来表示“多”呢？你思考过吗？这是一个初级

水平的汉语学习者能够把握的问题吗？再比如“图”这

个字。学生们都熟悉的是“图画”、“图片”、“图案”、

“图书”的“图”。那到了口语中为什么出现了大量的动

词“图”呢？像“图方便”、“图便宜”、“图省事”、“图放

心”等等。再举两个例子，如“放马后炮”、“事后诸葛

亮”。如果你不了解中国象棋，如果你不了解中国历

史，那你对这两用法的了解也一定是一知半解的。

这样的例子很多，比如“上厕所”为什么叫“解手”，

“单身”为什么叫“打光棍儿”，“议论别 人”为什么叫

“嚼舌头”，

“洋”和“土”为

什么是相对

的。太多的例

子了！再比如

中国人常说的

“落不是”。你

用现在的中文

输入法在电脑

上基本上都 可

以直接打出这

个词，可见这

个词的使用频

率之高。但

是，你真的了

解“不是”是什

么意思吗？一个英文母语背景的学生会不会把它理

解为“Not”？这个“是”是“是不是”的“是”？

得出的结论很简单：语言是生活的一部分。文

化内涵在语言上是非常重要的。所以在高水平的汉

语学生的语言教学里面有必要从文化角度、文字角

度以及语言沿革史的角度进行教学。而口语教学就

是一个很好的切入点。当然也不绝对。解决的办法

还有许多，比如结合现代汉语的古文教学；以字本

位为出发点的现代汉语教学；未经修改的文学影视

作品为材料的语言教学等等。重点在于教学中师生

的教学重点和学习重点的侧重。

以上意见仅供参考，抛砖引玉欢，迎板儿砖。

Lila Buckley & Carol Liu admire the Longmen Grottoes at Luoyang

Photo: H

ua K

uom

an

The IUPeople Newsletter is published monthly by the Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies. Wen Bei Lou, 502, Tsinghua

University, Beijing, China 100084. Visit us at http://ieas.berkeley.edu/iup. Editor-in-chief: Charles Laughlin, Managing Editor: Vivian Li