First Week at Fudan

For the last few days I have been pretty busy.  Orientation, Opening Ceremony, sightseeing, language placement exam, and beginning classes.  Orientation was interesting.  They were so many people from all over the world (England, Mexico, Korea, Sweden, Bulgaria, etc.) on the Fudan summer exchange program.  It is really refreshing to meet people other than Americans. 

Sadly, the language placement was not as easy as I thought it would be. The exam that was given was based on the number of years the student studied Chinese.  The levels were up to 10, although the highest level taken by a student was 5.  I took the level 3 exam and got a 49%. :(  The test was based on tones, grammar, and knowledge of characters.  I did not know the majority of the characters on the exam so I think the characters is the reason for my lackluster score.  The language courses are separated into 3 level: beginner, intermediate, advanced.  Apparently getting a failing grade on a language placement exam doesn’t mean much because I was still given the opportunity to take the advanced class but I decided to choose the intermediate course.

I just finished my first week of classes.  I am taking two courses: a Chinese language course and Chinese Culture and Business Practices.  I really enjoy my classes and the professors (both my professors remind me of Winnie the Pooh!).  Each class is 2.5 hours for 4 days a week.  I am taking 2 classes, but 5 hours isn’t bad.  The classes are not too different from those of UMW.  Classes are small and the professors just lecture and assign readings.  In my opinion, the only difference is the size of the classroom, which is just big enough to fit about 20 students. My only complaint, which really isn't a complaint, is that the campus is much larger compared to UMW. I have gotten lost so many times because they're just so many roads you can take to get to the classroom building.  I actually still don't know my way around campus but I'm working on it.