All right, so I won't be able to give an accurate description now because I really should have written this out on Thursday when the elation was actually flowing. But... basically, it turned out to be a very interesting day.
I always get the feeling that my Chinese teacher hates me a lot or is genuinely annoyed by me but I went to her office hours today and really good conversation which completely dispelled those beliefs of mine and I saw myself in her eyes in a completely different light. And even though she gave me some bad news about grading policies, I walked out of the room happy.
Then, in calligraphy class, I think I got another very interesting and insightful peek into this eccentric professor of mine. For the better part of the past three months, in these calligraphy classes, I have been trying to figure this man out because I really want to know what are the thoughts behind his actions. Anyway, regarding the class itself, it is one of the very challenging ones I'm taking this quarter actually because I'm really interested in succeeding in it and getting it right (more so than most of my other classes) and so sucking in this class is really not an option for me. However, I have not been particularly good with the brush and ink up until now. I've been of the opinion that my characters look pretty ugly and I think the teacher agreed because on his rounds (while we wrote), occasionally he didn't even bother to stop by and suggest improvements.
However, today, just a few minutes into the class and my having finished my first character, 心 (xin, heart), he comes by, looks at it and says that it is a very well-balanced character and I'm like, wow, I guess that's actually a compliment, because the best I've got from him before is a 不错 (not bad) or a 很不错 (very not bad). Anyway, it gets really happy when I was writing the last stroke of another character 金 (jin, gold) and he looks down at it excitedly and says "Please-a... finish-yit". I get really anxious when he's watching me draw strokes because (a) I think I'll make a mistake, (b) I think my strokes are ugly and (c) I tend to "correct" my strokes because I don't get them perfectly right on the first sweep and that is a total no-no according to him. Anyway, I finish the character and he says "well, for this a-character, I will giwe you three circles." Then, he of course proceeds to draw three circles near my character, and says "yin Chinese, this means an A. Yeach yindividual stroke is perfect and the balance and proportion is perfect. You can-a cut it out and put it up on your wall." And yes, vain as it may sound, but this gave me immense amounts of happiness, because it was such a culmination of eight weeks of trying to get it reasonably right and a lot of frustration. Anyway, I will reproduce the character that I drew/wrote here below and a yardstick computerized semi-calligraphy font as a yardstick:
So sure the computer one looks a lot more impressive and I could make excuses, but instead I'll just ask you to cut me some slack 'cause this is an enormous improvement from yesterweeks.
The rest of the day was less eventful, because 5pm to 1am nearly continuously (break for food) were dedicated to a CS problem set.
I feel I should find time to write about the other goings-on but there just is no time! Even now, I cut into my precious weekend sleep. So, I should go. 拜拜!
I always get the feeling that my Chinese teacher hates me a lot or is genuinely annoyed by me but I went to her office hours today and really good conversation which completely dispelled those beliefs of mine and I saw myself in her eyes in a completely different light. And even though she gave me some bad news about grading policies, I walked out of the room happy.
Then, in calligraphy class, I think I got another very interesting and insightful peek into this eccentric professor of mine. For the better part of the past three months, in these calligraphy classes, I have been trying to figure this man out because I really want to know what are the thoughts behind his actions. Anyway, regarding the class itself, it is one of the very challenging ones I'm taking this quarter actually because I'm really interested in succeeding in it and getting it right (more so than most of my other classes) and so sucking in this class is really not an option for me. However, I have not been particularly good with the brush and ink up until now. I've been of the opinion that my characters look pretty ugly and I think the teacher agreed because on his rounds (while we wrote), occasionally he didn't even bother to stop by and suggest improvements.
However, today, just a few minutes into the class and my having finished my first character, 心 (xin, heart), he comes by, looks at it and says that it is a very well-balanced character and I'm like, wow, I guess that's actually a compliment, because the best I've got from him before is a 不错 (not bad) or a 很不错 (very not bad). Anyway, it gets really happy when I was writing the last stroke of another character 金 (jin, gold) and he looks down at it excitedly and says "Please-a... finish-yit". I get really anxious when he's watching me draw strokes because (a) I think I'll make a mistake, (b) I think my strokes are ugly and (c) I tend to "correct" my strokes because I don't get them perfectly right on the first sweep and that is a total no-no according to him. Anyway, I finish the character and he says "well, for this a-character, I will giwe you three circles." Then, he of course proceeds to draw three circles near my character, and says "yin Chinese, this means an A. Yeach yindividual stroke is perfect and the balance and proportion is perfect. You can-a cut it out and put it up on your wall." And yes, vain as it may sound, but this gave me immense amounts of happiness, because it was such a culmination of eight weeks of trying to get it reasonably right and a lot of frustration. Anyway, I will reproduce the character that I drew/wrote here below and a yardstick computerized semi-calligraphy font as a yardstick:
So sure the computer one looks a lot more impressive and I could make excuses, but instead I'll just ask you to cut me some slack 'cause this is an enormous improvement from yesterweeks.
The rest of the day was less eventful, because 5pm to 1am nearly continuously (break for food) were dedicated to a CS problem set.
I feel I should find time to write about the other goings-on but there just is no time! Even now, I cut into my precious weekend sleep. So, I should go. 拜拜!
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