I Misjudged My Chinese Professor

February 25, 2022

A month ago, I wrote a scathing account of my first Chinese class. Which is trueĀ ā€” that first class went quite poorly. So poorly, in fact, that of the nine students only six remained for the following class, which was mercifully in-person.

But I want to admit my mistake: I misjudged my Chinese professor. Heā€™s actually pretty great. And those six students have stuck with the class since.

Itā€™s true that he goes around the class cold calling relentlessly, but thatā€™s pretty much how it go anyway if you only have six people in your class. It basically just makes it so I donā€™t have to raise my hand. Plus, he goes in a circle, so I can look ahead at the slides and guess which phrase heā€™s gonna ask me to read by counting ahead.

The important thing about him is that heā€™s super into radicals, the basic ā€œbuilding blocksā€ of Chinese characters. They have specific meanings, like ā€œfireā€, ā€œwaterā€, or ā€œsacrificial tabletā€. If you see one inside of a word, it clues you into its meaning.

For example, the fire radical (ē«) kinda looks like a fire.

My professor loves to break down words for us into their meanings. The explanations actually make for a really good way to memorize how characters are written, because theyā€™re vivid and give the way itā€™s written an actual meaning.

His broader philosophy is that students shouldnā€™t just learn the vocab thatā€™s on the paper, but they should learn the individual characters that make up the phrase. That way, when you see the word in other words, you can make a guess as to its meaning.

And itā€™s actually worked! Iā€™ve started recognizing radicals and characters from past lessons in later lessonsā€™ vocab, and itā€™s helped me memorize new words.

That philosophy, combined with his animated demeanor and a touch of me not wanting to disappoint a well-meaning professor, has made the class quite enjoyable. I like my Chinese professor.

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