Letter from the Director Charles Laughlin, IUP Director, with Jan Kiely, Director of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center

Dear Friends, This is for most of our current students the end of a remarkable year at IUP. During our farewell dinner on May 29, I reflected on the events of the past year, most of which are well documented in this newsletter, to give everyone a sense of what a special group this is. I suggested we express our collective gratitude for our superb teaching staff, which evoked a loud and long round of applause, which became a standing ovation that went on and on! That was an unforgettable moment. I also gave special thanks to certain students (a couple of whom slipped my mind at the time, so now I have a chance to make up for it!), like Alan

Gaskill for his musical and performative leadership, giving this IUP cohort its own special identity and atmosphere, Kitty Poundstone for her advice on health issues and constant pressure to get me to teach from my specialization, Chinese literature, notably through the organization of a literary translation group, Donald Debona for his advice on computer systems and equipment, Carol Liu who passed along lots of information about cultural events and even organized outings on more than one occasion, and Vivian Li whose elegant and rich newsletters document this year as well as anything. These are just outstanding examples; there are many other students whose initiative and enthusiasm beyond the classroom helped make this an extraordinarily successful year at IUP, and IUP and the rest of the students all benefited greatly from this. I wish those of you who are leaving all the best in your future endeavors, and remind you to make the most of your extraordinary Chinese ability, which you worked so hard to achieve. I am always available to write recommendations and certification letters based on all your teachers' comments on your work, and I hope you will continue to support the growth and development of the IUP alumni network! And for those of you who are staying, enjoy your break and I'll see you later this month!

Inside:

清华大学 | Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies (清华 IUP中文中心)

IUPeople Volume 2, Issue 7 June 2009

+ Nanjing trip

+ Working and IUP

+ Value of repeating IUP

+ First-year teacher’s reflections

+ Post-IUP plans

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Spring Destination: 南京

From May 8-10, IUPers and teachers took a spring trip to the vibrant city of Nanjing, visiting the many cultural and historical sites the city has to offer.

Zhang Wei and Sun Shuang happy to be in Nanjing

Cai Weisi, Genia Kostka, and Kerry Lee taking a break

Sun Shuang, Zhang Wei, Ma Lin, Qian Qian, Martha Kimmel, Sun Hongyi, Cui Yue, Zhan Shuang, and Xu Wei on Nanjing’s city wall

Seth Cook, Yuan Jing, Geoffrey See, and Will Meng

IUPers getting a tour of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center from the director, Jan Kiely

Li Li and Cui Yue on the road to the Sun Yat-sen mausoleum

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Life Outside IUP by Vivian Li

IUPers come from all walks of life, from

budding filmmakers to political science PhD students. But regardless of their background, the daily grind of studying Chinese full time at IUP—waking up at 6 a.m. to prepare for 8 a.m. classes, or the careful weighing of each precious hour of potential study time—is familiar to all IUPers. The rigorous IUP schedule though still did not stop some students from working on the side. For example, IUPer Matthew Lowenstein answered an ad posted by a Beijing consulting firm in the Beijinger. Beginning in October last year, he worked 15 hours per week performing research, translation, and helping to facilitate the company’s business plan. However, the responsibilities of work took time away from his IUP studies and he found himself tired and catching long naps during the day. Eventually, in February at the beginning of the spring semester, he decided to quit his job to concentrate solely on his Chinese studies. Alan Gaskill also had trouble initially adjusting to working while doing IUP. He taught guitar and played gigs around town, at times six or more shows per month.

Waking up for his 8 a.m. class after a night playing till 2 a.m. made him reconsider his Chinese study habits though.

“The more things you have the better you have to manage your time. I had to learn how to work smarter,” he said. At the beginning of the academic year, Gaskill would memorize how to write a new character, recite its sound at least five times, and break it down to the individual words in the character. However, when he was especially busy in March and April, he was forced to reevaluate his expectations and to adapt his study strategy to just learning how to recognize a new word and read it in context at least five times. Though he regrets not learning how to write the characters, Gaskill does not regret his decision to work. “It [working] was part of the whole experience living in China,” he said. Coming to China, he already planned to build a music career in Beijing. Working gigs around Beijing helped him lay the groundwork for life after IUP by establishing contacts and collaborations. Lowenstein does not regret either working while doing IUP. “I would do it again. It was good to get basic business experience in China. The atmosphere is very different than in America, where it’s more relaxed.” He suggested though that if he were to do it again, he would initially start working fewer hours to see how much he could handle, work only on the weekends, and not work on projects with fixed deadlines.

Gaskill also advises IUPers considering working on the side to “work while doing IUP if you are fully committed to life in China.”

Making the Most of IUP by Seth Cook

Coming back to IUP was something that I have wanted to do for many years. In fact, pretty much as soon as I left IUP in Taiwan, I had been wanting to return to take my Chinese to the next level. As it turned out, I had to wait until after I’d finished my PhD and been working in Beijing for four years to finally make it happen. I already had decent Chinese before I started, but I knew that I still had a long way to go. Very few foreigners can conduct professional negotiations effectively in Chinese, or give a good presentation in Chinese, or fully comprehend Chinese television, radio and newspapers. I wanted to be one of them.

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It took me awhile to figure out how best to make use of the wealth of resources available at IUP for learning Chinese. Although I had attended IUP before in Taiwan, it was a long time ago. I did remember though that I preferred to take fewer classes and spend more time absorbing material than the fixed pace of group classes often allowed. One of the beauties of IUP is its flexibility, so that you can really design your own curriculum once you have attained a certain intermediate level of competency. The teachers at IUP are not only very talented, dedicated and intelligent, but also extremely accommodating, and are more than happy to go the extra mile to help students glean all they can from their time at IUP.

The key for getting the most out of IUP is to figure out how best one learns and absorbs material and then arrange one’s classes and studying to suit that. At first one inevitably has a passive approach to learning, simply going along with the pace and structure set down by IUP. But sooner or later one has to take a more proactive approach. For instance, I figured out after several quarters that I needed to take individual classes for most subjects, as this way I could set the pace, get the maximum amount of speaking practice out of a given class, and also focus on the areas where I needed improvement. Some subjects like classical Chinese, however, were best done in group classes, as the focus of such subjects is on comprehension of the material, not on individual expression.

I started building vocabulary lists for key topics of interest, such as environment, rural development, international relations, etc. I also collected key phrases for different topics, which I would try to memorize. The Chinese educational system places a great deal of emphasis on memorization, in fact probably too much so, but after a few terms at IUP I really grew to appreciate the value of memorization, particularly of sentences built around key vocabulary, phrases or sentence patterns. That way one builds an intimate knowledge of a given word, phrase or pattern which reflects actual usage by native speakers, especially if the examples are given by one’s teachers.

I soon realized that I had to substantially revise my expectations for how much progress I could make in one year at IUP, and that my original goals were unrealistic. Not only is Chinese extremely difficult to learn, it is also very high maintenance. It truly is use it or lose it, and I regretted not maintaining the habit of studying after my first time at IUP in Taiwan. Learning Chinese is a lifelong endeavor, so better to be clear about that at the onset and enjoy the journey.

At the same time, a semester, a year or even a summer at IUP can substantially augment one’s Chinese language skills and establish a solid foundation that one can build upon ever after. Looking around and marveling at how much progress everyone has made at IUP this year is proof enough of that.

青春无悔青春无悔青春无悔青春无悔

张薇

05年，当时还上大学的我认识了一位美国人

M，此人的汉语好像我五岁时在墙上画的画。

时隔半年在街上偶然又见到这位仁兄时，怀疑

此人被施了魔法，一口流利的中文哗哗地往外

喷。看他的书，书名好像是《思想与社会》，

里面文章复杂，一堆难词。

我的天哪！这半年来，他究竟去了哪儿？

没有想到，两年后找工作的我来到了那个神奇

的地方，IUP。

能在众多佼佼者中被 IUP录取对我来说极为幸

运。然而事情并不一帆风顺，相信一同来的姐

妹都不会忘记刚开始不亚于军训的培训。大家

每天胆战心惊，几乎每天备课到午夜。我第一

次惊恐地发现，给外国人传授我最熟识的母语

竟然如此之困难。但是其实遇到难题的不止我

们，还有帮助我们的老师，我想尤其是在培训

我的时候，面对这个刚出校门还驽钝未开的学

生，一定让老师们很头疼吧。:P在这里真的非

常感谢王芃、崔越、刘瑞、张丽、姚玮、赵建

新、李璐、衣智萍、徐薇、孙一木以及很多其

他老师，他们耐心地为我们改教案，教给我们

怎么样设计合适的问题，在课堂如何应对不同

的情况，从而引导我们一步一步地走上教学的

正轨。最令人感动的是老师会把自己几年来摸

索得出的经验无私地告诉我们，让我们少走弯

路。这一份恩情，是感激不尽的。

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不了解 IUP的人说，IUP办得成功，不过是因为一个班学生少而已，没什么了不起。真的是这样简单

吗？如果你问我 IUP的成功是什么，除了教师，我会说更重要的是有非常优秀的领导者，中文近乎于完

美的罗老师以“为人民服务”的精神对 IUP各个方面的周到和细心；当然还有可爱的学生们，他们是清

晨阳台上朗朗的读书身影，是桥咖啡里的点灯夜战，是图书室中的奋笔疾书，更是考试失败不服输的倔

强，受挫后擦干眼泪继续前行的那一份坚强。

有这样许多勤奋、上进的精英，我们怎么能不算是顶尖的中文项目之一呢？

几日前，去听学生们的演讲。学生们的进步，真可以用“突飞猛进”来形容。尤其当看到几个去年暑期

和秋季来 IUP的学生，从当时的一般水平甚至较差的基础居然到了可以颇为自由驾驭语言的地步，令坐

在后面的我不得不感叹唏嘘，给我一种不曾有过的感动。那种喜悦，不断地从心底溢出。仿佛看到一株

株小苗，发出新芽，长出绿叶，最终开出朵朵绚烂似锦的繁花。

一霎便一年了。虽然学生们进步飞快，但很多人也要离开了。回顾过去，一只无形的笔在眼前勾勒出那

些洋溢着朝气的脸庞。温柔恬静的安宁，谦谦君子的子英，如同有脚的小太阳一样，走到哪里温暖哪里

的玛莎；像白菜一样淳朴，像农民一样勤奋的杰夫；极富表演才能，连眼睛眉毛都会说话的珍雅；大眼

睛吧嗒吧嗒地眨呀眨，“老师，外面有飞机”的柯乔；具有哈里波特的脸，火星人的思维和正宗老北京

农村郊区口音的石磊，还有丁柏扬，上课动不动就高兴地从嘴里“嘎”地发出一声炮一样的爆响；还

有，在雨莎、君杰、兆涵那个课上四人看了“梳过去”、“老鼠尾巴”后的前仰后合，也想起寒刚和安

宁故意欺负子英并让他“跳黄河去吧！”的场景，并记得在哲民他们的那个班上课总像在过年，笑声不

断。但耿耿于怀的是有一次我鼓起勇气偷偷触犯规定用英语解释“癞蛤蟆”是什么，没想到他们的笑声

差点把天花板震掉了，那极大地打击了我可怜的英文的自尊。“哎呀老师！你怎么能用英国口音来说这

种垃圾一样的东西！”

…….

一幕又一幕，电影回放般地闪过。我独自享受这一场，静静的欢乐。却又为什么，这一张一张鲜活的面

容，如花的笑靥，忽地潮湿起来，在我的眼眶中微微颤抖而落。

这些人还未远行，我却已充满了深深的眷恋与思念。不过相聚离开，都有时候。最重要的是我们无愧于

我们的汗水和青春年华，只要我们还在追求梦想的路上前行并奋斗，无论是谁都永远是年轻人。感谢你

们，IUP的每一个人，在大学毕业后的第一年里认识了你们并与君同行，是我前世修得的福分。

继续前行吧。让我们悄悄地把这一段光阴藏在心底，希望在未来可以再次重逢，找回当年曾经的记忆。

--献给所有的 IUP人

Congratulations to the selected 2009-2010 cohort of teachers who will be teaching at host institutions in the U.S.:

衣智萍衣智萍衣智萍衣智萍 廖庆睿廖庆睿廖庆睿廖庆睿 苑苑苑苑 菁菁菁菁 李李李李 璐璐璐璐 University of Yale University University of Virginia University of Pennsylvania Michigan

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End-of-the-Year Report Joe Narus, 那俊兴那俊兴那俊兴那俊兴 One of the best parts about attending IUP is the opportunity it affords to get to know so many interesting and talented people, all from different backgrounds and with different reasons for studying Chinese. Where else can one learn about so much about China and the world over a casual lunch or the occasional cold beer? We come from backgrounds in music, art, literature, politics, law, business, science and even geography – what an eclectic group we are! But it adds so much to the richness of the IUP experience, and this experience is so distinct from “daily life,” where we are often only exposed to people who share a similar profession, field of study, background, or demographic. In this respect, and in so many others, IUP really is a 世外桃世外桃世外桃世外桃

源源源源。。。。 Best of luck to everyone in your future endeavors, and thanks for a great year! Dan Alderman is returning to George Washington University to finish his M.A., and will also be working at the National Bureau of Asian Research as a Bridge Fellow. After four years in Beijing, Lila Buckley is headed to England this fall to study for a Masters of Science in Environmental Change and Management at Oxford. Genevieve Cheng will be doing an internship in Singapore this summer, possibly heading to North Korea as part of a cultural exchange program, and then will return to the US to finish her undergraduate work at Smith College. Seth Cook plans to find a Beijing based position in environment, energy or sustainable development, most likely with a foundation or development agency, once his time at IUP ends in August. Alan Gaskill will be remaining in China to work as an actor and

playwright, and to establish English-language music and creativity programs for Chinese youths as a representative of the NGO MIMA Music. Eleanor Hyun is heading to Taiwan for the summer session at ICLP before returning to the US to continue her doctoral work in Art History at the University of Chicago. Michael Jacobson plans to work in the legal field in Beijing before returning to the US to begin law school. Christian Kaas will work in Shanghai in July-August and then go back to Carleton College in September to finish his B.A. Faaria Kherani will spend several months in Yunnan doing field research before returning to Princeton to finish her undergraduate work. Richard Kim will direct a Health Education Program at a Beijing-based NGO (Compassion for Migrant Children), before returning to Yale to finish college. Martha Kimmel will work with the Critical Language Scholarship program in Suzhou, acting as their resident director, and will continue studying Chinese. Vivian Li is off to the University of Michigan to begin a PhD in Art History. Ashton Liu is staying in Beijing to work with New Oriental on organizing a summer liberal-arts education program for Chinese high school students. Carol Liu will be staying in China for an extended period of time to continue her work directing and producing films. Charles Loi will visit family in California for a few weeks before taking classes at George Washington University this summer, then will return to Yale for his senior year. Kristen Looney is returning to Harvard this summer before spending next year in China, South Korea, and Taiwan doing dissertation research as a Fulbright-Hayes Fellow. Matthew Lowenstein is off to Columbia University in NYC to begin an MBA program. William Meng is going back to the States for an extended period of travel, part of which will include a tour of baseball stadiums that makes the author of this article green with envy. Jon Milburn will be starting work in London at Clifford Chance, an international law firm. Abigail Moyer is returning to the US to work as a lawyer in the field of immigration. Sharon Nakhimovsky will be at IUP this summer before starting at the John’s Hopkins SAIS program in September. Joe Narus will stay at IUP this summer, then will work in Seattle as a Bridge Fellow at the National Bureau of Asian Research while completing his M.A. in Geography at Portland State University. After the summer IUP session, Kitty Poundstone will stay in Beijing doing short-term public health consultancies with the World Bank, UNAIDS, and the Chinese CDC, while also hoping to help start a Chinese-English literary translation agency. Chryssa Rask is returning the US for the summer before returning to China in the fall to start working in

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business or consulting. Ben Roth will be working at the China US Center for Sustainable Development in Portland, OR this summer before returning to Yale to complete his senior year. Jillian Schultz is spending the summer at IUP and then staying in China to continue her work in the art field. Francis Tong will be doing work with Hatsune/Block 8/Karaiya, a restaurant group in Beijing, and down the road will do graduate school in the US. Jeff Volinski will be in the first group of volunteers to go to rural Yunnan, as a part of the Princeton in Asia China Education Initiative, to teach English for a year. Peter Witherington is returning to north California for the summer before returning to Beijing in the fall to work and continue studying Chinese. Jackson Woods is off to George Washington University to start his PhD in Political Science. Roy Eriksen will continue studying at IUP this summer before entering the Hopkins-Nanjing Center in the fall. Jessica Gordon is attending the summer session at IUP before moving to Hawaii to be a Fellow at the East West Center. Charles Kennedy is taking off for a grand traveling excursion around China. Genia Kostka will be finishing her PhD in Development Studies at Oxford University this summer before returning to IUP in the

Warning Students studying advanced

Chinese through IUP may

experience some

noticeable life changes.

Fall. After the summer IUP session Alanna Krowlikowski will be doing dissertation research in China and finishing her PhD in Political Science at the University of Toronto. Kerry Lee is continuing at IUP this summer before returning to the US and finishing her law degree at Harvard next year. Brian Marterer will be attending IUP until January 2010, after which he plans to work in China, in finance. Kate Monaghan is off to Taiwan for the summer ICLP session, after which she will continue studying Chinese. Mariel Montouri will be studying at IUP this summer and then staying in China to work. Megha Rajagopalan plans to return home to the Washington DC suburbs and hunt for her first post-college job, most likely in the media industry. Shin Kyoung Mun will be at IUP in the summer and fall, and then will continue his dissertation research in China as a student in the Political Science Department at MIT. Michelle Wan will begin her career as lawyer. Donald Di Bona will be starting business school at UNC Kenan-Flagler in the fall. Geoffrey See will be visiting China's northeast border to look for North Koreans and will take up a Fellowship at Yale's Center for East Asian Studies once fall begins.

The IUPeople Newsletter is published monthly by the Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies. Wen Bei Lou, 502, Tsinghua

University, Beijing, China 100084. Visit us at http://ieas.berkeley.edu/iup. Editor-in-chief: Charles Laughlin, Managing Editor: Vivian Li

inset: Ben Roth on the IUP fall trip to Luoyang last October; Ben Roth at the IUP farewell dinner in May

Photo: B

en Roth