Startalk, Husson University, and preparing with only 5 days left

I am incredibly excited for the amazing opportunity that lies ahead of me this summer, and I want to thank all of you who are following my blog, for joining me in this adventure.

For the past two and a half weeks I have been living on Husson University campus in Bangor, Maine. Husson has been hosting the Bangor Chinese school Startalk summer program for the past few years. Since I have never studied Mandarin Chinese before this summer, I have been learning and studying to prepare myself, so that I am able to communicate with my host families, teachers, and everyday acquaintances in China. The Startalk program is a component of the National Security Language Initiative run by the US State Department. The initiative seeks to expand and improve the teaching and learning of strategically important world languages that are not being widely taught in the US. Startalk programs are taking place all over the United States in a variety of different languages.

Each day we attend class from 9 am to 4 pm, and we study both the language and the culture of China. In my class, we have started from the very beginning. We have been learning introductions, body parts, households items, colors, foods, animals and more. The class is geared towards giving us the tools to become more familiar with Chinese, and to have the basics to get along in China. Although only high schoolers were eligible for the scholarship to actually travel and study in China this summer, the ages at Startalk range all the way from kindergarten to high school seniors. On the first day of the program we were split into Chinese 1, 2, 3, and 4. Chinese 1 and 2 both came with little to no Chinese experience, 1 are younger children while 2 are older middle school and high school kids. Both Chinese 3 and 4 are made up of kids who have been studying Chinese for a longer time, or kids who are of Chinese heritage.

In my class we are working in something called pinyin. Pinyin is basically the phonetic sounds of the Chinese characters written in the English alphabet. I have learned very few characters so far. While I am in China we will continue to study the language for 4-5 hours each day. I hope that during my studies in China I will begin to learn more characters, but I suspect that we will primarily be working in pinyin, since our main focus is speaking and listening. When I share some of my Chinese on this blog it will most likely be in pinyin.

Along with studying the language we have part of our day set aside for culture study. This is easily my favorite part of our days here at Startalk. I find learning about the culture and traditions of other peoples completely fascinating and it is by far what I am looking forward to most in China. The culture in China is so drastically different from America and anywhere else I have ever been, that it was what immediately drew me to this program. During our culture time at Startalk we have done a variety of different things. Some include learning Chinese calligraphy, bringing in and trying out traditional Chinese musical instruments, making our own dumplings, learning to make traditional Chinese tea, and even watching a classic Chinese children's cartoon. The picture on the right is my first calligraphy character. We all got the chance to create our own on special calligraphy paper during one culture class. The character we were supposed to write was ái which means love. But since there were many people sharing one example I ended up creating mine by looking at our teachers example upside down. With one small line in the opposite direction my character instead became chicken feet friends. 

In addition to learning the language I have been preparing for my trip with only 5 days remaining before I fly out of Bangor, Maine headed for Beijing (on a short 22 hour trip). I have been reading about the long and dense Chinese history as well as buying myself a travel journal, and of course making many copies of my passport and visa. My departure date has crept upon me quickly and it still feels surreal that in a short few days I will be traveling across the world with 20 other lucky students from Maine.

Talk to you soon!     Nín de dàolái