Settling In

Well, I now have almost one month under my belt of Chinese classes. While the vocabulary words are still mostly review, my knowledge of recognizing and writing characters has grown exponentially. I think that I know how to write and read over 100 characters. I am well on my way to basic (Chinese) literacy! In both my Hanyu (grammar) and Tingshuo (speaking) class, the teachers speak almost entirely in Chinese and even explanations will be in Chinese. I feel that I am getting into a routine of how and what I need to study. Really, the thing that I spend the most time on is writing characters. We usually have around 20 new characters that we need to know (which means that we need to be able to write not just recognize) every 2 or 3 days. I spend HOURS practicing writing. Just to show what I am doing, I scanned a page out of one of my practice books. Doesn't this look like fun? ;-)