A little bit of guanxi [關係] helps the student settle in

Hey ya, now that I just finished my first week of classes, I have a bit of time to recuperate. In case you didn't know, I'm in Taiwan through a Foreign Language and Area Studies Scholarship (FLAS), by which I am (officially) studying Chinese at the Mandarin Training Center (MTC) at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) in Taibei. Things are starting to settle in, though it did take a few days. Without help from a friend, it would have been much more difficult. Allow me to explain (dot dot dot).

To begin with, it feels good to be studying Chinese formally again. The last (and actually, the first) time I studied Chinese was in an intensive summer program about five years ago. So, my skills have deteriorated a lot since then, and I really need a good review. As a new student, however, I was assigned (based on a screening interview and proficiency exam) to a level that, I felt, wouldn't offer much more than that. After the first day, I knew I wanted something more challenging, and the teacher said I could switch classes. I found out that moving to a different course meant finding a class with available space, or a teacher willing to admit more students.

ENTER, my friend. She had been a teacher at the MTC before, so she knows the ins-and-outs quite well, and she had already told me to call her the first day of class to help me settle in. She is now getting her PhD at NTNU in Applied Linguistics, and still has a lot of contacts among the teachers here. She had also been a teacher in the summer program where I had studied before, so since she knew what level I had already completed she had a general idea of what course here might help me the most. My friend arranged, with a good friend of hers, for me to sit in on a higher level course without having to change my registration, to see first if it would suit me. She also said she is energetic and friendly and a good teacher. The course turned out to be a really good fit, so I officially changed classes right away.

I realized what sort of favor I received when, that day and the next, different students kept knocking on the door to see if they could join our class. In each case, our teacher apologized and said the room was already too full. They then had to go off to find some other class to join, while I continued learning in peace, thankful that I didn't have to go through all that trouble. So, that was very helpful, and it's not the least of it (dot dot dot).

As part of the FLAS requirements, I have to be enrolled in a language course and an area-studies course. I'm essentially at the MTC because they apparently offer both, while another program I wanted to attend (ICLP at NTU) only offers language. Early on, however, a problem arose in that the culture courses listed on the MTC website were deemed, in the words of the FLAS administrator at Pitt, too "Mickey Mouse". Not at all related to an animated rodent, as you might think, but too hands-on or how-to, such as 'calligraphy' or 'cooking'. Though they allow you to experience and commune with traditional cultural practices, they don't really offer all that much content in the broader academic sense.

With further digging into the website, I found other more in-depth culture-related courses, though they were still oriented to language teaching rather than 'cultural content'. It seemed they might work though, especially the courses at the higher levels. My friend offered essential help here, too. She told me that though the courses are listed on the website, they aren't necessarily offered every semester, or at all. Obviously, that was a good thing to know in advance. The solution was that I could take one of the classes individually if there were no other options, so it was decided best to just come and see and figure things out after I got here.

So, after registering at the MTC, it was apparent that only the non-area-studies qualifying classes were being offered, and I would need an individual course. I could have tried to manage through official means to arrange things if I'd had to, but I think it would have been a difficult and time-consuming ordeal. I'm just another student out of hundreds. My friend knew my situation and what I needed, and found a good teacher for me by the third day. She said she had to ask a lot of her friends before finding someone agreeable, and I know it would have been a particular challenge to do on my own. I don't know if I would ever have been able to set up the individual course without my friend's help.

So, a little bit of guanxi (~connections) goes a long way. She's already helped me a lot before this, as well, and I owe her a lot. After thanking her profusely, she said "don't worry, I was already thinking of asking you for help with my English essays next semester." No problem, that's just sort of the way things work here sometimes, and I am very grateful. More later.

你親愛的朋友或家人，
白睿恩
(BB)