Graduation!
Graduation! We're done!! We have passed through the fire and emerged on the other side stronger, better people. Our lungs and our tummies have suffered from Bejing's pollution and food, our heads have ached with the pain of memorizing hundreds of characters each week, our eyes have glazed over from hours of studying and our mouths have frozen when drilled by teachers, but we have all survived. We few, we lucky few, we band of brothers, are proud to call ourselves HBA graduates and third-year Chinese students. Hooray!
After a not-so-difficult final, we all reconvened in the Yi Fu Building for closing ceremonies. A bunch of important people (Feng Laoshi, the head of HBA, the director of the BLCU language program, etc.) and some students (including my friend Xiao Kan and my jiejie Feng Shi (my “big sister,” or the other student assigned to my “Chinese family”)) made speeches, and we all collected our diplomas before setting off to the Hui Yi Zhong Xin for a lunch whose sub-par deliciousness was more than made up for by the fun teachers and students with whom it was shared. After lunch, a frantic scene of picture-snapping commenced, and I happily joined in the fray... the results appear below!
This is a picture of me with Feng Laoshi, the head of the entire program (and the first Chinese teacher I ever had, whose charisma was about the only thing that could have made me take his 9 am lecture class) and Shi Bing Ling (Sabrina), a Yalie and a good friend, who will be with me on my flight back home to the States!
This is me with Wang Laoshi, head of the fantastic team of second-year teachers -- a strong and wonderful woman (see post below about teachers) whose tough exterior and commanding classroom presence mask an interior of kindness and motherly love for all of her students... every single one. Wang Laoshi, we love you!!
This is a picture of me with Mi Chaoyang (my friend Ned from Yale) and Kai (my friend from Harvard). Ned and I did our skit for the midterm together... he played Bachelor Number One in Beijing Tanlian'ai de Bisai (Beijing's Dating Contest). Fun times. Kai will be living in Mather next year, and, it turns out, has been family friends with my roomate Jenn and her family since he was little!! Is it a small world or what?!?
Okay, let's talk for a minute about how much I love Hao Laoshi. (It's a whole lot.) She was one of our xiao ban ke teachers, and one of the warmest, sweetest, friendliest people I think I've ever met. She was one of the uncontested favorites among the students, loved not only for her cheery manner and sometimes un-pc jokes but (especially in my case) for her willingness to teach us the way we want to be taught. This is not to be drilled over and over again, to memorize and recite text without understanding how or why to use the new vocabulary, grammar patterns, and idioms we studied, but rather to ask questions and have them answered thoughtfully and thoroughly. Hao Laoshi did all of these things, although her temerity in doing so was unmatched by the other teachers, all of whom were instructed to drill students without stopping for questions. Her internal battle was great -- after one particularly grueling xiao ban ke in which myself and three other students had almost unlimited questions and tangential queries about new vocabulary, she seemed almost unable to accept my thanking her after class. "Oh, He Kaili," she cried, tears in her eyes, and gave me a huge hug, explaining how much she wanted to be able to stop and explain things to us but how strictly she had been counseled not to do so. "If you have questions, during other teacher's classes, write them down, and you can ask me after class.... I am so happy to answer students' questions, but I just can't always do it during class, but I would love to help you any free time you have, just let me know...." She understands better than any other teacher the way American students think and learn, and the comeraderie with and loyalty of her students is simply unmatched. I love Hao Laoshi!!
posted by Kelly @ 9:52 下午
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