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school update #2 ! week 2 (so far)

mini rant:

why do professors who have professed for a long time do the thing where they use very specific field terminology without ever explaining what the words mean and expect everyone to know whats going on? i have 2 that do that rn & they are both classes without prereqs and specifically state you dont need any background in related fields to take the course lol

classes:

ethnomusicology - he tried to make us sing the other day, & i get its a music based class but its also an 8 am seminar for non music majors, my anxiety will not let me do that lol. otherwise seems really interesting so far and im excited for some of the projects listed in the syllabus.

dinos - not fully understanding the geology parts of this class so far. we were also assigned a group project where we have to go fossil hunting but none of my group members answer my texts so 🤷🏻‍♀️. enjoying reading the textbook a lot. also why does being in a larger room for class make it so much harder to focus?

bio anthro - not as bad as i expected. hearing my professors talk about their research as archaeologists is reallly cool. hate this classroom as well tho lmao

cultural anthro - we havent really done anything yet lol no updates tbh

archaeology - current fav. think im gonna be volunteering in the campus archaeology lab starting at the end of the month to help catalogue artifacts. excited for my textbook to get here tomorrow bc its the only physical one i got.

other things:

am in the process of setting up a semester abroad for summer 2024! already met with the office, chose a program, and have another meeting friday to apply for scholarships and get transfer credit approval :D fingers crossed i get accepted to the program i want

accommodations i’ve had approved as an autistic college student

helloooo today i finally had a meeting with the disability office and have accommodations after 2 years of being in college without them. im autistic and have cptsd/dissociative issues and had a hard time finding what was even available to me to request for accommodations so i wanted to make a list to help anyone else who might be having trouble.

• Priority registration

i get to register for classes earlier each term to make sure i can create schedules that’ll work for my routine

• Extended time on assignments

self explanatory i think? was also offered extended time on tests or a separate room to take them but testing isnt where i struggle

• Flexible attendance

as long as i email beforehand i dont have to stick as strictly to professors attendance policies

• Alternative formats

if i buy a physical textbook i can request the ebook/pdf/audiobook for free to have multiple methods of studying depending on what works for me on a given day

• Note taking

allowed to audio record class and send to a service called messenger pigeon who will give me a transcript of the class and professional notes based on it

• Access to lecture notes

able to access professors lecture notes prior to class/instruction

• Devices

allowed to have phone/ipad/laptop for social buffering and notes in classes that may have policies against electronics

• Flexible participation

no cold calling, option to work alone for group projects/assignments, not required to present in front of class

if anyone has any questions lmk these are just what i have been able to get at my school so far! hope it helps

edit: this is blowing up so fellow autistics, students, language nerds, etc pls be my mutual i want friends lol my dms are also open any time !!

i wanna start a youtube channel

or maybe tiktok? idk which would be better lmk lol but id wanna focus on study/school/language/travel content. if i do what kind of videos do you like to watch or that youd wanna see more of from those types of channels?? i need ideas

20231002 (day 1)

gonna start trying to make a little daily update post/journal entry on here so hi heres day 1

cultural anthro got canceled so i scheduled a study abroad meeting during that time. i started my applications for summer 2024!!! i’ll be spending two months somewhere that ill reveal later when its all confirmed (ive wanted to go to this place for years now, my fingers are crossed so hard theyre gonna break). also started planning my spring semester since the course listings came out. spent most of the day on campus and explored the library a bit more, its 11 floors ??? and thats only 1/2 libraries on campus. made plans for my partner to come to campus w me one day to check out our museums and more of the beach/harbor.

currently at the dance studio i intern at, just took a class and am dying. but ! might be able to perform or be part of a project here soon :) gonna try and do some homework or reading while i wait to film for the next class then ill have to lock up and go home.

quick question before i go, can people tell me about their study abroad experiences? like where’d you go, how long, did you have scholarships/price of the program (if youre okay with sharing), etc

school updates!

- been making friends finally and im really happy (i knew a total of like 3 people at my community college after going there for two years)

- midterms are done! still waiting on grades but very happy its over

- just met with my advisor today to finalize my class choices / make sure they make sense and ill get to register next week for spring! finally starting language classes (mandarin) up again

- really enjoying all my major classes so far

- currently struggling with my ethnomusicology seminar (assignments/topics are interesting but we have no textbook and kinda hate my professor) and am a few chapters behind in dinosaurs simply bc dinosaur biology & anatomy is overwhelming for my brain so i keep putting it off

- meeting w academic coaching office this week to get help w above issues

- had my first performance over the weekend with the dance crew i joined on campus !! it was scary there was a much bigger crowd than i expected but it went well and now we’re preparing for a showcase at the end of term :)

Can anyone explain paradigmatic/syntagmatic relationships in semiotics w examples bc everything my professor has put in the lecture slides about it makes no sense to me lmao

looking for mandarin show/movie recommendations plsss

i currently watch street dance of china and used to watch the chuang series but i dont know how to branch away from the competition/survival shows

first day back from break ready for the hell to come in the next two weeks left in the semester, heres some updates.

- i have two movies to watch today (3 hrs total) and assignments along w them

- all the projects i have due by the 13th:

• dinosaurs group project 6; extinction (2 page report)

• controversies in archaeology; still havent chosen if im writing about gender roles in Çatalhöyük or Paleolithic art (1500-2000 words)

• ethnomusicology fieldwork project about music & rituals, must observe/participate in a ritual involving music (3-5 pages)

• ethnomusicology oral report & literature comparison; choose 3 articles to compare in written discussion and use 1/3 to present an oral report to the class (i am actually very excited for this one)

^^^ im doing the oral report on the culture/history surrounding break dancing and the music used in battles, im attending the schools breaking club beginner class tomorrow to observe their discussion about the music & see what ill be learning when i join the class next semester

- preparing for the end of semester dance show case !!

updates !! finally !!

got the last of my grades back for the fall semester :)) very happy w them and my gpa (3.425)

enjoyed my classes a lot this term (with the exception of ethnomusicology due to the professor).

did better in dinosaurs than i expected tbh but it was a super fun class even if some of the work was hard.

overall a good first semester at my new school, made some friends, joined some clubs, and love my program so far :)

Since my first term at my new school is over and I have above the required gpa I am finally eligible for study abroad!!!

I submitted my application for the program yesterday and have already been conditionally accepted to go by my school as long as i’m accepted into the program.

and the country i applied to is….. 🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁

Taiwan!

the program is in taipei specifically, and on a university campus. if accepted ill also have a chance to visit tainan and taitung.

i’d be going for about 2 months over the summer for an accelerated/intensive mandarin course. it’d be the entire intermediate level (= CHN201+202 in U.S. college credit). as far as I know I’d have class 5 days a week while there. i’m taking CHN 102 (upper elementary) in the spring here at home to prepare and spending my break reviewing stuff from 101 as well as teaching myself zhuyin/bopomofo.

if anyone has good resources for zhuyin, traditional characters, and/or taiwanese mandarin lmk!! im trying to find everything i can then i’ll compile a list of what was most helpful sometime during or at the end of the semester :))

so im trying to study mandarin at least an hour a day (or at least everyday that im not at work) for all of january (i need to review soooo much before the school semester starts) and i forgot to make daily posts lol so ill post a week 1 summary this weekend then update everyday after that

week 1 of studying chinese everyday in january

so ive (kinda) started over with mandarin to learn traditional characters rather than simplified, which is what i learned in the CHN101 course at my community college

this is because i’ll hopefully be studying in taiwan over the summer and that is where most of my interest is plus traditional should somewhat help with japanese as well as if i wanna learn cantonese in the future

i didnt record what i did daily so heres a summary so far

- have gotten an okay handle on zhuyin, just need practice and to learn where each character is on apples zhuyin keyboard since the site i used to learn used something else. i do like the concept more than pinyin but some of the final combinations confuse me (more on that another day)

- started reviewing my integrated chinese textbook as thats what both my old and current college use as their class resources. i bought the fluencylink (e-learning) account this time instead of the physical textbook and i looove it, its interactive, contains all the audio/video to go along and gives immediate grades on each section you complete. i did buy the physical workbook just to have in class though.

- have been taking some online classes through LTL and despite signing up/paying for group classes every class ive taken so far has just been 1 on 1 (i take them at like 3 am so i guess other people just dont sign up for those times) and have been enjoying it! online classes and tutors have made me anxious in the past and prior to this my online mandarin teachers almost never corrected my tones which i hated but these are great! i definitely feel like my pronunciation has improved but i still have to work a lot on sentence flow and tone sandhi/combinations.

- scouring the internet for taiwanese shows/movies/youtubers etc to get a feel for the accent differences and just for some listening practice (if you have recommendations lmk)

- also been going crazy looking for apps and sites that offer traditional characters as most are made for simplified/standard mandarin. i have a few that i like so far but hope to find more. i like to have a textbook to guide me through and give me structure but also various other resources to learn things that interest me or that i’ll actually talk about in daily conversation.

overall feeling pretty good and pretty excited to finally get back to studying languages and traveling.

oh and!!! i have mostly finalized what my chinese name is with the help of the teachers i’ve had so far, hence the username change as well and it is … 昕霓 ! (xīnní) i havent chosen a last name tho as im not sure if i need one atm but if anyone has ideas as to what would sound good im open to suggestions.

if anyone would want it im more than happy to post what resources ive been using, and/or what media ive been watching/liking that use traditional characters since its definitely been a little more challenging to find it all. lmk !!

GUYS THIS HAS BEEN THE BEST WEEK OF MY LIFE I SWEAR. I THOUGHT THEY WOULDNT LET ME KNOW FOR A WHIIILE OMGOMG IM GOING TO TAIWAN

suggestions and advice on how to remember and memorize characters? it's the part I'm finding the most difficult

i struggle w this too rn bc of the pace my professor has been going at. if you dont have a practice workbook i def recommend those bc they show the stroke order and just give space for you to write repetitively. otherwise just try and write sentences using the characters/words you know or generally practice writing/reading as much as possible.

i like skritter a lot for practicing characters or learning new vocabulary related to things im actually interested in and would talk about in real life rather than a lot of the stuff ill learn in class.

because of the lack of alphabet a lot of people (me included) tend to rely heavily on pinyin but since ive started learning zhuyin i’ve definitely felt it helps. not having romanization means i have to actually try and cant just fall back and give up like i would if something was shown only in characters + pinyin.

i specifically like using my ipad or an external monitor when im studying characters so i can blow up the characters and look at them like an image rather than a letter (im learning traditional these little things have so many strokes i like to make sure i can see/recognize all of them) then also i feel like it stays better as a visual in my brain.

im still taking elementary level mandarin so realistically i dont know all that much, only what ive been trying and what works for me if anyone else has tips pls feel free to reply

updated fall semester schedule!

- realized i have to take a math class 😭 so i did my placement exam today and changed my schedule around a little

- applied to work in the library for fall so i can be on campus more! (w these new classes ill be there 5 days a week which will take away availability for my off campus job) will also be applying to the bookstore and wherever else i can find

anyway here we go

- Ballet 1

- Hip-Hop Dance

- Anthropology of Mass Violence

(^ all stayed the same, new classes below)

- Ancient Cities & States

- Quantitative Reasoning (Math)

annoyed abt math but i should get it over with, excited for ancient cities & states, hip-hop may still end up being dropped and moved to a different semester depending on my chinese placement in the summer.

i want to make videos while im in taiwan studying abroad, is there anything people would want me to cover about studying abroad or studying in taipei specifically?

HIII im back fr this time lol here are updates on life and my studies

- did not get enough funding for my planned study abroad in taiwan sadly, BUTTTT i last second was able to get into a summer program at korea university in seoul!! (will post summer + fall schedule after this)

- ended up failing a class this semester because the listed grading system on the syllabus was apparently not what was used but its fine ill live, just need to do reallly good in the fall to bring my gpa back up (it went from 3.425 -> 3.0)

- im either switching my minor to east asian languages or dropping it all together and focusing on anthropology/archaeology in school and languages in my own time :) i already dropped the chinese minor as i dont want to continue taking courses with the single professor at my uni but still want my credits for the mandarin and japanese courses ive taken to count towards my degree if possible

- currently trying to rest during my short summer break before i go to korea so im not burnt out there or in the fall but also starting to read ahead on the classes im taking there when i have the energy

finally comfirmed all my summer courses so heres the schedule!

for context: im studying at Korea University in Seoul for a 6 week semester abroad.

Period 1 - North Korea: History, Society, Politics

Period 2 - Media & Popular Culture in South Korea

Period 5 - Beginning Korean 1

im very interested to see how the class on North Korea will be, i have started some of the recommended reading as well as doing my own research & finding friends in the class and looking forward to it. definitely not a course i could ever find/take at a university here at home.

media & pop culture also super excited for bc i want to dive deeper into studying pop culture, performance art, fandom spaces and more within the realm soso bad

korean 1! i do have some korean learning and time in the country under my belt already but ive never taken an actual class (my speaking is very casual/informal bc of who/where i learned from lol) i feel like i definitely have missed or not fully understood a lot of grammar in the past also so i wanna kind restart the learning process w more structure :)

if anyone has questions abt the classes/program/study abroad/ etc lmk and ill do my best to answer !! excited to be back and motivated and study the things i love after a pretty difficult spring semester

I find this very educational and insightful.

Creating situations and conditions

English added by me :)

I used to get super confused by these when I started learning Mandarin, but I promise it gets easier every day if we keep practicing!

书 vs. 本子 – Books

Another little differences I was taught by Yoyo this week!

书 / 書 / shū / book; full-length

本子 / běn zi / book; short, a few pages

Examples:

书 = novellas/novels, textbooks, dictionaries

本子 = menus (菜谱 and 菜单), notebooks