Yes, this is fun.

As some of you know, I'm taking first-semester Elementary Chinese. As the university sees fit to partially pay me in product, I might as well get my money's worth. Right now, we're up to lesson 3, which pretty much feels like they hauled us up to the top of the roller coaster and we're just starting to drop. Screaming will likely commence shortly.

That is to say, the class has just switched into high gear, and the pace has picked up considerably... two hours of study for every hour of class isn't just a good idea; it's necessary for survival. This has forced me to resort to.... drastic measures.

For example, for remembering that the same word that is used for a pronoun can be a possessive pronoun by context, I ended up with:

D: "Luke, wo3 shi4 ni3 ba4ba!"
L: "bu4!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Alternately, for those whose browsers can deal with it:

D: Luke, 我是你爸爸！
L: 不！！！！！！！

In short, I'm having insane amounts of fun. The syllabus indicates that we'll know 320 characters by the end of this semester. I will note that you need 1500-2000 characters to be functionally literate. Hence, "insane" and "fun".

Note: If any of you out there want a Chinese-writing penpal with the literacy level of the average 2 year old (who has been lovingly put in the speed-aging tank), drop me a line.

Back to studying.
zai4jian4 (再见）