Language Tea Time Schedule Now Available!

The schedule for Chinese, Japanese and Korean tea times is now available!

These are informal events designed to allow a time and place for students to practice their language skills, share study tips, learn about the Language Exit Exams, and get to know other language students. Tea and cookies will be provided! All tea times are from 4:00 - 5:00 PM in the Sigur Center's Chung-wen Shih conference room, Suite 503.

Chinese - Thursdays: 9/04, 9/11, 9/18, 9/25, 10/02, 10/09, 10/16, 10/23, 10/30, 11/13, 11/20, 12/04

Japanese -Wednesdays: 9/03, 9/10, 9/17, 9/24, 10/01, 10/08, 10/15, 10/22, 10/29, 11/05, 11/12, 11/19, 12/03

Korean -Tuesdays: 9/09, 9/16, 9/23, 9/30, 10/07, 10/14, 10/21, 10/28, 11/04, 11/18, 11/25, 12/02

This schedule is based on previous interest in the various languages offered. The schedule may change later in the semester based on input from participants, so please let us know!

Download the current Fall 2014 Tea Time Calendar

Please RSVP for a Tea Time at go.gwu.edu/fall

Fall Internship Opportunit​ies at The National Bureau of Asian Research

The National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR) is seeking a paid, full-time (25+ hours per week) intern to be a member of the Political and Security Affairs (PSA) team for 3-6 months, extendable. The internship will include contributing to key projects and programs, such as the Strategic Asia Program, the China Security Studies Program, The Future of U.S. Alliances and Partnerships initiative, and other PSA projects. This position is supervised by PSA directors and managers.

Responsibilities

• Project Assistance: drafting and proof-reading project descriptions, concept papers, etc.; helping maintain project documentation, web-pages, and filing systems
• Research Support and Writing: providing substantive research assistance for project teams and scholars, providing market research, summarizing research papers, undertaking literature reviews, and performing other research and writing assignments as needed
• Publications Support: reviewing, fact-checking, proof-reading and formatting publications; assisting with publications distribution (including mailings), etc.
• Database Administration: maintaining and updating project databases; data entry and research for institutional and project databases
• Event Planning: providing administrative support to conferences, workshops, presentations, and briefings (drafting agendas; assisting with travel, accommodation, and venue arrangements; note-taking, etc.)
• Phone Support: answering incoming calls to the organization
• Participating in and supporting other NBR activities as needed

Qualifications

• Current BA/MA student or recent graduate, working towards or holding a relevant degree
• Excellent written, oral, and research skills are required, as well as substantive expertise and interest in contemporary U.S. foreign policy towards Asia
• The intern should be a motivated self-starter who can work independently or as part of a team, pays acute attention to detail, is organized, and works well under pressure
• Advanced Asian language skills a plus, especially Japanese, Korean, and Chinese
• U.S. work authorization (by time of application deadline)

Benefits

• Supervision: gain experience working for directors and managers and collaborating in a team setting
• Think tank exposure: learn how a think tank works and have the opportunity to talk with staff across the organization about their roles and departments
• Networking: make professional connections with people in your field
• Application of academics: use your degree or what you’ve learned to date in the classroom in a professional setting

Application Process

The deadline for applications is September 12, 2014; however, qualified applications received first will be given priority. Incomplete applications will not be considered. To apply, submit the following to NBR:

• Application Form: PDF or MS Word
• Cover letter that details your qualifications and availability
• Resume
• Brief writing sample on a topic related to your field of study
• Contact information of three references, including name, title, affiliation, relationship to you, phone number, and email address

Please send applications by email to: Ms. Kailani Cordell, Human Resources Director, email:employment@nbr.org, phone (206) 632-7370.

Job Opportunity: Sigur Center Staff Assistant (Part-Time, Federal Work Study Award Required)

Position Description: 

The Staff Assistant position is located in the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at the Elliott School of International Affairs. This position is primarily responsible for staffing the center's front desk which encompasses answering the main phone line, greeting visitors, and processing mail. Other administrative duties and special projects as assigned, such as creating spreadsheets and reports, data entry, editing, etc. as well as supporting Sigur Center events. The Staff Assistant also plays a central role in managing the Sigur Center's social enterprise -- our blog, Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr accounts. This is a great opportunity for someone interested in Asian Studies and International Affairs to work closely with Asian Studies faculty, staff, and students as well as visiting scholars from Asia.
  
Approximate Hours Per Week: 10-12

Hourly Wage: $10/hour

Qualifications:

* Interest in/knowledge of International Affairs and Asia

* Some knowledge of an Asian foreign language

* Experience living, working, or studying in Asia
* Strong customer service and interpersonal skills

* Administrative experience

* Must possess a Federal Work Study Award for the 2014-2015 academic year

Application Procedures:

* Apply via GWork to position number 802193 ASAP. You may contact gsigur@gwu.edu with any questions.

* Include the amount of your FWS award in your cover letter

* Specify the dates/times you are available to work in your cover letter

* Due to a high volume of applications only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. No calls, please.

First impressions of New Delhi

Hit the ground running but jetlagged, feeling like an extra in a zombie apocalypse flick.

Delhi is hot.  Descriptors are insufficient.  I land at 9pm and it feels over 110 degrees Fahrenheit.

Delhi is acrid.  Having lived in Beijing, I am prepared for the worst, surviving days with visibility so low you had to lie to yourself that it was fog to muster up the courage to go outside. I lack a keen sense of smell, something I have always cherished on long bus rides and in large developing cities, but even my dull nose can comprehend the pungent air; it feels like I am a prisoner of an unventilated parking garage in the desert.

Delhi is clean.  The extra bureaucratic funding and attention is apparent – streets are swept, medians are landscaped, and rotaries are decorated with extravagant fountains that mock the sweltering temperatures, Vegas-style.

Delhi is green.  Delhi must be one of the greener cities on the planet, even in the peak of the dry season before the monsoon.  Birds abound.

Delhi isn’t too loud.  Horns go off with high frequency, but without animosity.  With many cars, rickshaws, bikes, and carts sharing few lanes, a horn is neither antagonistic (unlike, say, Los Angeles) nor aggressive–it is a simple statement “I’m here.”

And so I am.  After 8 weeks of visa delay (don’t ask and I won’t tell) I am here.

My Internship

The Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) is he premier think tank in India funded by but autonomous from the Ministry of Defence. It will be my home for the next three months, thanks to generous grants from the Sigur Center as well as the Graduate School Career Development center.  Working at the East Asia Centre with Dr. Jagannath Panda, I will research the strategic triangle of India, China, and the United States, and how China both compels and constrains the India-United States relationship.  This complex subject touches on the most sensitive of issues--India's hallowed strategic autonomy, Chinese fear of encirclement, and the demands of the 'rebalancing' United States.

Despite my jetlag, big things are happening.  There is a Chinese charm offensive after Narendra Modi's recent election.  I meet Ambassador Weiwei.  He has a slick salesman vibe about himself, and is diplomatic enough to briefly chat with a mere intern and compliment my Mandarin; any nonnative speaker of Chinese knows even a 'hello' in Mandarin will elicit gushing compliments on your ability.  Regardless, I will chose to take the accolade at face value.

Ambassador Weiwei is at IDSA for a conference on the 60th Anniversary of Panscheel and its Relevance for India China Relations.  Panscheel, or five principles in Sanskrit, was first enumerated in the Agreement on Trade and Intercourse between Tibet Region of China and India signed in 1954.  This was the heyday of Nehru's optimism of a united postcolonial Asia, with India and China working together--hindi chinni bhai bhai.  This bonhomie was shattered just short years later by India's shocking defeat in the 1962 war. Any student of Chinese foreign policy sees the centrality of the Five Principles in official documents, but the Panscheel bring back bad memories and lingering suspicions for India.  In the same way the United States both engages and hedges with China, as does India, needing Chinese investment and trade as well as a stable border. I hope to explore Indian perceptions of both China and the United States to understand India's response to China's rise and what role the United States may play.  It is a large and sensitive question, but I am ready to get started.

(My Failed Attempt at) Watching the Flag Lowering Ceremony at the Tian’anmen Square

(This is the second post by Chunhua Chen, a Ph.D student of Political Science at GWU. This summer, she is doing field research for her dissertation in China supported by a Sigur Center Grant for Asian Field Research for summer 2014.)

My stay in Beijing this time is going to end next week. So yesterday, I decided that I needed to go to the Tian’anmen Square to watch the daily National Flag lowering ceremony before leaving the city.  It had been several years since I was last in the Square, and I had never watched the famous national flag-raising or flag-lowering ceremonies—strange, as I had lived in Beijing for six long years. I was sure they were scenes to marvel at. The national emblem and national flag are the symbols of a country and everything it stands for for its people. Ernest Renan says that “a nation is a soul, a spiritual principle” that necessarily entails “the possession in common of a rich heritage of memories” and “actual agreement, the desire to live together, and the will to continue to make the most of the joint inheritance.” It is in the same vein of Benedict Anderson’s definition of the nation as an “imagined political community” in the sense that the basis on which a nation is held together springs from its members’ minds. National identities, which are primarily formed on the basis of factors such as sharing the collective memories of history, awareness of oneself as belonging to the same nation as other members, and the sharing of the same culture, are all phenomena at the mental and spiritual level, based on the formation of ideas. The lines between different nations lie in, or stem from, in large part, people’s “imagination.” Ceremonies such as national flag raising and lowering are an important part of creating, sustaining, and triggering that imagination, which is essential for the very survival of any nation. Stephen Walt even calls nationalism “the most powerful political force in the world.”

            At about 6:30, following the stream of tourists, I walked slowly along the narrow street leading to the Square. In the souvenir stores were stuffed pandas, folding fans, cheong-sams, etc. At a porcelain store, I saw several big decorative plates with the portraits of the four generations of leaders of the People’s Republic of China painted on them. President Xi Jinping’s portrait, of course, was on display at the most prominent place. What’s noteworthy was that there was also a plate with the picture of both President Xi and his wife, Ms. Peng Liyuan. A former popular folk singer and performing artist, Ms. Peng charmed the whole country and the world with her glamour and fashion sense when she accompanied her husband on his first official trip in 2013 to Russia, Tanzania, the Republic of Congo and South Africa, and thus broke the tradition of Chinese "first ladies" not entering the limelight.

 

Left and right: President Xi Jinping; middle: President Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan

 Two little girls, dressed by their parents like Qing-dynasty princesses, were running and laughing on the street. Every several hundred meters there was a patrol team of three helmeted police officers and a white police car. I tried to take a picture of one of the patrol teams but was called off.

I went through the security checkpoint and finally stood at the Tian’anmen Square. Last time when I had been here, I, like many of my peers, had not known much about the history of the Square, especially what happened here back in the late 1980s. But now I had known better, and could not help recreating in my mind the scenes on the Square in that eventful year. Many tired tourists were sitting on the ground, waiting for the ceremony and playing with their handsets. The Monument to the People’s Heroes was still solemn and quiet, and the sunset was purple-orange-pink. Somehow it also looked like blood.  

At about 7, someone shouted, “it started!” Then people quickly formed a wall in front of the gate of Tian’anmen, or the Gate of Heavenly Peace. I could vaguely heard the national anthem, but was too far away from the flag-raising platform and too short to be able to catch a view. So what I ended up watching was countless cellphone screens ---people were all video recording the ceremony while watching it, or to be more exact, watching the ceremony through their cellphone screens.

  

I was watching numerous cellphone screens

More screens

 

The ceremony lasted for only several minutes. Night started to slowly fall upon the Square and police officers—both in uniforms and plain cloches—started to ask people to leave the Square and not gather. I finally saw the flagpole when the crowds were dispersed.

When I left the Square through another narrow gate, I saw many disappointed tourists being turned away by the officers guarding the gate. “The flag lowering ceremony has ended,” one officer said impatiently, “now the Square is no longer open to the public.”

8 Rupees

This is the second blog post by Diogo Bernardo Lemos, PhD candidate in Political Science at GWU, recipient of the 2014 Sigur Center Summer Grant for Asian Field Research:

Mario Miranda's interpretation of Mumbai's trains.

I'd heard about Mumbai suburban railways' enviable reputation for crowds, accidents and thefts. To be sure, an estimated 7.5 million people ride its trains everyday, making this the world's second busiest rapid transit system. A quick survey online revealed a bifurcated appraisal: foreigners were advised either to entirely avoid it or to vigilantly embrace it. And so, for a moment, I too hesitated in jumping on its wagons to commute between South and North Mumbai. After all, the combination of cheap taxi fares and the fast route via the new 'Sea Link' viaduct ('shhhlik' according to one driver) made for an enticing alternative: why bother? But then again, I came to Mumbai to study its politics and few experiences provide better grasp of a city than its public transportation system.

So, there I was, one Mumbai morning in Grant Road station, negotiating my way across the gelatinous crowd towards a ticket booth. Seizing my precious audience with the seller, I inquired the fare to Bandra station. '8 rupees,' he said. I hopped on a train and, easily enough, arrived at my destination.

Emboldened by this experience, I then attempted to reenact it on the way back. Only, this time, the ride took place at rush hour. People, people all around me, people coming and going, people streaming by me as a tidal wave through the last standing tree. The thing about Mumbai's railways is that there are many lines and these change tracks frequently. So, unless you understand Marathi, you are in for a vigorous few hours of lapping in a human pool. After several failed requests for help, a lady (an 'auntie') pointed towards a train and said: 'It's that one. Quick - it's leaving!' As I flew across stairs and elbows, I heard her yell one last piece of advice: 'Take first class!' I would have forgotten this were it not for the coincidence that I plunged into a first class wagon. Or so I thought considering the much quieter and roomier car, which obviously led me to the conclusion that first class was the way to go with Mumbai trains.

The next morning, I planned to repeat the journey wearing the placid vest of experience. I returned to Grant Road station, validated coupons in the amount of 8 rupees, waited for the correct train to arrive, calmly searched for a first class wagon, and then proceeded to find a cushy seat inside. As the train began its slow march north, I remember vividly opening that morning's copy of 'The Times of India' and thinking to myself: 'I've become a Mumbaikar in a day.' The phone rang. It was my wife. 'Oh, what a perfect picture: I'm riding a Mumbai train, daily newspaper spread across my lap, and speaking with the wife on the phone.'

Few minutes later, I noticed for the first time a commotion on the other side of the wagon. Certainly, nothing too serious to drive my attention away from this cross continental phone call. The train pulled in the next station, commuters got off, commuters came in and I remained seated, conversing on the phone. The train jerked again into motion and only then I realized the reason for the commotion: a ticket inspector was steadily advancing towards me. A thought of doubt and disquiet burst into mind: was 8 rupees the fare for a second-class journey only? It was now too late to escape. I turned off the phone and prepared for impact.

I handed him the coupons. His deliberation took barely a second: 'You must pay a fine.' It's not possible. Yes, it is, he said. In fact, I was guilty of a double offense: I was not only riding first-class with a second-class ticket, but I also had less than the required 8 rupees. Somehow - believe it or not - I mixed-up the previous day's coupons with that day's and forgot to validate a new 5-rupee coupon. All in all, I was traveling first-class on a 3-rupees ticket. 'This is very serious. You must pay 500 rupees.' While I recognized I was in the wrong, I wondered whether the inspector was trying to take advantage of the situation. Lacking any better excuse, I apologize and said it was mistake. 'Yes, I know,' he smiled and punched, 'That's what I do: I catch mistakes.' Round 1 was his.

As with any incident involving a foreigner in India, this exchange was kindle for the curiosity of my fellow passengers. The inspector said we should get off at the following station to discuss the matter. I conceded the partial defeat. There, we found ourselves at the police station. This turned out to be an orderly, albeit spartan, chamber. We both made effusive display of our diplomatic skills: he repeated his indictment; I reiterated my defense (centered, at this stage, around my evident inexperience with the Mumbai suburban train system). We eventually drifted outside to the platform and I began to realize that I was winning through persistence. He had somewhere else to be. Finally, he uttered the magic words: 'This time, I'll let you go. But...' The condition involved validating a 5-rupee coupon and riding the rest of the journey on a second-class car. Moments later, I was back on a train holding the 8-rupee coupons on the way to Bandra. The taxi would have been more serene but it surely wouldn't have been this much fun.

This post is dedicated to the memory of Mario de Miranda (1926-2011).

Diogo Lemos

PhD candidate 

Department of Political Science 

GWU

Job Opportunity: Sigur Center Staff Assistant (Part-Time, Federal Work Study Award Required) (UPDATE: All positions have been fulfilled)

UPDATE: All positions have been fulfilled.

Position Description: 

The Staff Assistant position is located in the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at the Elliott School of International Affairs. This position is primarily responsible for staffing the center's front desk which encompasses answering the main phone line, greeting visitors, and processing mail. Other administrative duties and special projects as assigned, such as creating spreadsheets and reports, data entry, editing, etc. as well as supporting Sigur Center events. The Staff Assistant also plays a central role in managing the Sigur Center's social enterprise -- our blog, Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr accounts. This is a great opportunity for someone interested in Asian Studies and International Affairs to work closely with Asian Studies faculty, staff, and students as well as visiting scholars from Asia.
  
Approximate Hours Per Week: 10-12

Hourly Wage: $10/hour

Qualifications:

* Interest in/knowledge of International Affairs and Asia

* Some knowledge of an Asian foreign language

* Experience living, working, or studying in Asia
* Strong customer service and interpersonal skills

* Administrative experience

* Must possess a Federal Work Study Award for the 2014-2015 academic year

Application Procedures:

* Apply via GWork to position number 802193 ASAP

* Include the amount of your FWS award in your cover letter

* Specify the dates/times you are available to work in your cover letter

* Due to a high volume of applications only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. No calls, please.

Seoul Wanderings

 

A short video of my adventures in Seoul this summer. Enjoy!

         -Adena

 

 

Adena Peckler

B.A. Asian Studies, International Affairs 2015

Sigur Center 2014 Korean Language Fellow

Seoul National University, South Korea

 

For more posts from Korea:

Language Study at Seoul National University   

Update from Seoul

Looking for Chinese Tea-Time Leader!

The Sigur Center for Asian Studies is looking for a student to lead its weekly Chinese language tea-times. These are informal events designed to allow a time and place for students to practice their Chinese skills, share study tips, learn about the Language Exit Exams, and get to know other students interested in Chinese language. Tea and cookies are provided! All tea times are from 4:00 - 5:00 PM in the Sigur Center's Chung-wen Shih conference room, Suite 503. 

Tea-time leaders will be paid $15 per tea time. Native fluency is preferred but not required. Tea-time leaders are expected to have at least advanced speaking and listening proficieny.

If you are interested in becoming a Chinese tea-time leader, please contact gsigur@gwu.edu.

Maggie in Taiwan: Part Five

Dear Asia on E Street Readers,

Well, I did it! I finished my last week of school and last week in Taipei. To start this post I would like to share with you all three of my favorite things I have done and seen in Taipei.

One of my favorite things to do around my neighborhood in Taipei is to go eat DanBing（蛋饼） from this stand on near the corner of Heping East Road and XinSheng South Road, near Da’an park, off the alleyway/street of “Wenzhou Street.” This Danbing powerhouse, dare I say has, the best Danbing in the city, and from the long queue of people waiting to get their fix of Danbing, I think the people of Taipei agree. If you aren’t familiar with Chinese/Taiwanese breakfast/streetfood, you might ask what is Danbing? Danbing literally translated is “Egg pancake.” It is a flat, round piece of fried dough filled with scallions with an egg on top. You can then top off this tasty treat with thick soy sauce or, my personal favorite, hot chili sauce. The taste of Danbing is quite indescribable; it is crunchy, salty, and spicy, with the slight freshness of the scallions. This stand is also famous for a pancake like bun filled with shavings of turnip, but my addiction to Danbing prevents me from ever venturing to try this other food. Sadly, watching the cooks make the egg pancake is enough to convince you it can only be a once in a while snack, as their fundamental preparation is being fried in a massive pool of oil. 

Ahhhh! So much mouth watering deliciousness....
cooking in a vat of hot oil 

Finished product (minus hot chili sauce)

Another one of my favorite things about Taiwan/to do in Taipei is to frequently treat myself to a nice cold cup of bubble tea (珍珠奶茶). Taiwan is the home of bubble tea, so for a bubble tea fanatic such as myself I have been in heaven this summer as there is a bubble tea shop on nearly every block in Taipei and the price (usually 1$ a cup) cannot be beat. In fact, I live very close to one of the locations where bubble tea may have been invented! This store offers incredibly high quality bubble tea and at all hours of the day there are long lines. The most unique part of their bubble tea is that their tapioca pearls are soaked in a batch of hot liquid brown sugar – the molasses flavor is second to none. However, my favorite bubble tea chain is Coco. Coco is very common Taiwanese brand and is found not only on the Mainland, but also has locations (which I have visited) in New York and Los Angeles. Unlike on the Mainland, here in Taiwan you can pick how much sugar and ice you want in your tea, perfectly adjusted to match your preferred taste. I am very much going to miss all the bubble tea when I return to the United States, I will have to rely on the Bubble tea food truck that can often be spotted near Gelman library on GW’s campus called “The Cream Shack.”

This is the famous bubble tea place in Gongguan,
if you look closely the man on the sign is actually standing behind the counter taking orders!

Me and my Coco - happy as could be!

 Last, one of my favorite things I have had the chance to do during my stay in Taipei was go and enjoy an hour and a half at the Starbucks on the 35^th floor of Taipei 101. This Starbucks is one of the better-hidden things to do in Taipei, as you have to sneakily go in the business entrance of Taipei 101 and acquire a free pass from security before being able to ascend on the superfast elevator. When I recently went, I was lucky enough to have a clear day and was able to see for miles across the city. Unlike other big cities in the world, like New York or Hong Kong, besides Taipei 101, the rest of the city is rather short and thus there doesn’t seem to be a large difference from going to the 89^th floor of the building (visitors deck – for $450 TWD) or the Starbucks on the 35^th floor (where you just have to buy a drink for a fifth of the price) – the view is still great and isn’t something that should be missed by a visitor to Taipei. Sadly to keep crowds moving along you can only sit in the Starbucks for 90 min before being hustled along – luckily this does not stop you from returning!

This is the view from the Starbucks on the 35th floor of Taipei 101

Taipei 101 from its base

Now that I have discussed some of the highlights of my Taipei experience I would like to present a more critical view point of Taiwan and Taipei, specifically with reference to my language program. As I discussed in my first blog post, ICLP is a one of the most famous places to study Chinese in Taiwan. Before the US established relations with the PRC, it was one of the main destinations for Americans looking to study the language. ICLP is known for its intensity and for specializing on developing student’s spoken Chinese, opposed to reading, writing, and listening capability.

That being said, I cannot say that my experience at ICLP was ideal. To sum it up, my experience was a great example of Murphy’s Law – anything that could have gone wrong, (basically) did go wrong. Despite ICLP’s advertisement that they cater to students who wish to learn simplified characters, against my strong protesting, I was placed in a class that used a traditional character textbook. My first few weeks were dominated by trying to fix this problem, which in the end resulted in packets upon packets of a poorly photocopied version of the simplified textbook. These packets often omitted important parts of what I was to prepare for class, sometimes rendering my hours and hours of studying completely useless for class the next day.

In addition to this textbook issue, I was dissatisfied with my one-on-one class teacher. My teacher was an old Taiwanese woman who had been at the program for quite some time. While she meant no harm, her somewhat stern nature and seemingly strong desire for me to memorize the textbook made me uncomfortable and incredibly nervous and stressed in class – sometimes to the point that I could not get a single coherent sentence out without messing up. At ICLP we are not allowed to open our textbooks during class, so to avoid strict criticism I ended up copying the entire day’s lesson into my notes and during class would slyly look down for clues as to the specific wording of a sentence used in the text. I am not a Chinese teacher, so I cannot say with any certainty, but I do not believe my ability to memorize the textbook is a good reflection of my ability to freely use to the new vocabulary and sentence structures to speak or write my own thoughts. When listening to fellow classmates discuss their one-on-one class experience, mine was not the standard. Many students happily discussed how they used the text as a springboard to discuss their own interests, and use these interests to practice new vocabulary words and sentence structures.

Me and Lu Laoshi, one of my teachers

My last criticism of ICLP is that its structure was not conducive to building community and many of its students did not seem solely focused on language learning and development. When embarking on intensive language student, it is important that you have fellow dedicated students to “吃苦” with, a Chinese phrase, meaning “eat bitterness.” Intensive language study is often not a euphoric activity and requires a high level of dedication and determination to progress. Pursuing goals of language development is hard when you do not have a community with the same goals and level of dedication. I learned the importance of having such a community last summer during my intensive, CET Kunming, where there were only 20 students, almost all of who were determined to abide by the language pledge and worked their damnedest to make large strides in their language abilities. That being said, at ICLP I often found myself wondering where these types of students were. On more than one occasion I would arrive to some of my classes the only one who had thoroughly prepared, or on one or two occasions the only one to show up at all. While I spent many hours doing homework and preparing for the next day’s lesson, my roommate/fellow ICLP student would spend four hours watching Harry Potter.  

My favorite teacher, Weng Laoshi, and me on the last day.
She was a great teacher, making every class fun and fast paced 

This isn't to say there aren’t hardworking students at ICLP. I think ICLP is one of, if not the most rigorous program offered in Taiwan and it indeed attracts high caliber students from the world’s top universities. I, however, did not find the community of language learners that I desired at ICLP. My final conclusion about this whole situation is that ICLP is more suited to graduate students, who perhaps feel less of a need to achieve at all aspects of the language/curriculum and can better sift through what material they truly need to grasp and what can be forgotten. I also think this lack of community and student quality is a symptom of the summer program, as this issue does not seem exist to the same extent during the formal school year (the student population significantly decreases, thus relationships are more easily built).

Again, to restate, these have been my experiences at and thoughts on ICLP, and I know they are the exception and not the rule. The majority, if not all of the students/classmates/friends I have met this summer praise ICLP and have had an amazing summer studying Chinese. Overall, I am happy to say that I have had the experience of studying Chinese in Taiwan. I think that on two levels this experience has been meaningful; one, I am glad I have been exposed to some of the dialectical elements of the Taiwanese version of standard Mandarin and Taiwanese. I think more exposure to the various dialects, or local languages that constitute what we westerners call “Chinese” pushes me as a language learner. Two, I am happy to have gained a greater understanding of Taiwan as a place, people, culture, and political system. For anyone studying China and/or international politics, it is important to be exposed to the Taiwan issue and the thoughts of the Taiwanese people. I feel like I am coming away from this summer with a better understanding of Taiwan, Cross-Strait Relations, and how the Taiwanese view themselves within Cross-Strait Relations.

My favorite classmates at ICLP, all hardworking and humorous!
 This photo is from our final presentation, which I will be uploading soon. 

If I was giving advice to a fellow undergraduate looking to study Chinese on location, I would advise them to go to the Mainland. I would advice them to find a program that offers a tight knit, small community with a pledge to speak Chinese 24/7. Not only do I think this type of program made my language ability excel and excel rapidly, I think I came away from that previous experience with amazing friends and abundant memories. More specifically I would advise them to, if possible, find a program in a tier two city, not Beijing or Shanghai, where their connection to locals are more direct and there are fewer foreign English speakers or people who speak English in general.

 I am grateful for my time in Taiwan and I view it as an important step on my journey to mastering Chinese.

With that I sign off my written summer blog posts (except for one last video of my final Chinese presentation). I hope you all have enjoyed reading about my experiences in Taiwan and my thoughts about the language program I attended. If there are any people out there who wish to know more about my experience, or have specific questions, I would welcome you to email me at mwedeman@gwmail.gwu.edu.

Maggie Wedeman