Structure and Whatnot

So, as I was skypeing with my mother earlier this afternoon, I realized two things:

The first is that my first of eight weeks of classes (+one week of 社会调查--Social Study Research) is over.

The second is that I haven't yet given a really good explanation for the structure of the program that I am on.

There are four kinds of classes that meet every day at HBA. The first is 大班课, a larger drill section of about 12-15 students. The first one was a little bit traumatizing. The Harvard students were all used to that style of class, as it was something that they experienced at Harvard. The teacher (one of three, who rotate every day), without any warning, will ask you a question, and you have to answer quickly or they move on. Most of the Yale students the first day were so tense and out of our element that it was very hard to respond. They have since gotten much better, especially since we are now more acquainted with teaching styles and the textbook we are learning out of.

After 大班课, we break into smaller sections (小班课) of about 4 or 5 and have a twenty minute read-aloud class. Then we have two grammar classes, taught by local teachers who change every day, that round off four hours of Chinese classes. Then we have an hour and a half for lunch (in my case, two and a half hours) and then have an hour of 单班课--one-on-one tutorials with our local teachers. Since there are more students than teachers, there are two time slots.

Every Friday, we have a written and an oral test. Both were different from what I experienced at Yale, but not necessarily harder.

Apart from classes, HBA has language partners and host families. Most students met with their host families this evening, but the host mother I share with two other students couldn't make the meeting. Next week, we will start extra-curricular activities, something most of the students (myself included) are extremely excited about. The biggest problem is that I want to do four extra curricular activities, but there are two pairs that meet at the same time, so I don't know if I will be able to do both.