But Things Change, and that’s the Way it is

April 20, 2008

It’s been a pretty exhausting week this last one, infact its been like that over the past few. I’ve really turned it up a notch this year and am starting to feel it. In anycase I am a very pleased man. I want to talk about what I’ve been doing over the past couple of weeks.

Firstly there isn’t much new to report on for my exchange plans, I’ve just been submitting forms and seeing the doctor for my medical examination. Since I need to complete a full physical examination (thats blood test, ECG, X-ray and a general inspection).

Five Outta Six

I would like to talk about a new coincidence which has taken been in full effect over the past term, that is what I call the 5 out of 6 rule. I hope that I haven’t mentioned this already on the blog. It plays out like this; I have to do a lot of traveling to get around at Uni and essentially for every piece of transport that I take (buses, trains, walk etc) and every place I go, 5 out of 6 times I will run into someone I know; a friend of mine. The strangest thing about this set of coincidences is that I usually meet different people, it isn’t as though the same people are traveling in the same direction each week, oh no, its never like that. Which is why I can’t understand this.

This is all well and good but what has further baffled me is that this same rule has applied for the holiday period. Over the past 4 or 5 days, everyday I have been heading into town, every time though, without fail I will run into someone that I might have not seen for a while that I can talk to. Its always someone different as well. It all really is quite bizarre.

I feel as though this may sound much like an unreasoned attempt for me to justify that indeed I have friends (ah, just made myself laugh). Which is reasonable as this blog is almost entirely about me planning out my working life. But the funny thing is that since the start of the semester this rule, week in, week out the applies. I really am incredibly overcome by this strange phenomena. Of course, it is of great benefit to me so no worries there.

Generally Speaking Though

It has been a busy, productive and successful few weeks. I have managed to go out a few times with my friends, meet people at Uni and of course that 5/6 rule. Fortunately this holiday break I am not pinned down with mountains of homework which has provided me with some spare time for me to throw myself at.

This spare time has primarily been spent with friends and the last 5 days have seen me moving in and out of the city from dawn to dusk everyday. Namely seeing my international, Chinese friends whom I always enjoy spending time with. I’ve also managed to seize this opportunity to catch up with people whom I haven’t caught up with in a while.

Between this time I have been working on my blog, playing games, relaxing and spending time with my twin brother, the usual business. Same deal before the break as well, long days dedicated to pushing forwarded mixed in with such recreational activities.

In fact this has all been very pleasing. Even though the majority of this time has been pushing me to new levels of exhaustion, I feel as though its the happy kind of exhaustion. I am totally loving everything that I am doing, my courses at Uni, my friends, my blog everything has reached that point where there is nothing bad left to fret over. Each week there are no painful tasks or classes, only the anticipation of reaping the rewards that I have planted for myself. All very rewarding.

Some Points Worth Mentioning

I would like to highlight a few latest occurrences that have been particularly notable. I will start with my Chinese, over the past few days I have been meeting with my Chinese friends a lot. On Tuesday I met with a friend whom I haven’t seen since last holidays. I was very pleased meeting with this friend because it made something click.

You see, from my experiences, when you learn a second language you learn it in stages and every now and then you will feel your ability click over to the next notch. In this instance, I feel as though my spoken language has made the next progressive click.

To add further context, I find that often in my head I start to speak Chinese with myself. I mime out these sharp utterances to myself which are both complex but also hasty. I speak to myself(and back) in Chinese at the speed of a regular Chinese person. The problem is and I suspect that it is a problem for many language learners is taking that dialogue from my mind and putting it into speech. It is this process which I struggle with and it is this process which I have improved on.

This friend of mine is an extremely nice guy and meeting with him again has presented me with another cultural dilemma of uncertainty. One about the friendliness of Chinese people in contrast to westerners. This also became apparent a few days later when I did some karaoke with additional friends. I may bring up this observation in another entry though.

In anycase, to the point at hand, we spent most of a day; maybe 5hrs, talking to each other about various topics and for a good majority of that we spoke Chinese. Infact most of the first few hours was predominately Chinese. This I guess is nothing too out of the ordinary but it was as things progressed and when I caught up with him two days later that I firmly noticed the ‘click’.

He speaks to me just like any other Chinese person and I respond back to him as such, at the same speed etc. We can hold a conversation like this for maybe 30 minutes with no real major hitches with the exclusion of some word clarification. I am not sure but speaking with him, followed up with the other 4 days of large chunks of oral language has pushed me up. I now feel like my words flow much more smoothly from my head to my mouth. I have also become conscious of the volume of grammar I use (and use correctly), I am impressed with this step up.

Lastly, I wanted to share my thoughts on a game which I bought only yesterday with some friends. Jeane D’arc is a strategy RPG for the PSP and is exceedingly similar to one of my favourite strategy games; Final Fantasy Tactics. The two are very similar, two gorgeous SRPGs made by two respectable Japanese developers. What grabs me about Jeane D’arc is its vibrancy, everything in this game is lush and beautiful. The colours burst out of the screen, the music shares this same synergy. The gameplay is indeed similar to FFT but unique in it’s own right. Level 5′s knowledge of good design seeps through, the game is very intuitive (much more than FFT) and is overall a joy to play. Theres been a few niggly balance issues but overall this game has been buttering my bread. I don’t even care if this game continues to largely play out like a prettier version of Final Fantasy Tactics. Look forward to some more coverage on my Gamer Blog.

That is it for me. I apologize for the delay in posts I just write these things and forget to post them up.

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Head to the Grind Stone

Originally Written on the 13th April 2008

Another calamity week of organized chaos. I’d better start with my exchange updates as this has been the root of my stressfulness.

Firstly I cannot under take the teaching spoken english project, well I can but I just wouldn’t get the credit for it. On further investigation I discovered that for me to receive credit I would need to complete several excess courses which simply isn’t worth it. So scrap that.

This leaves me with either the fully paid scholarship or doing an exchange with an exchange partner with my home University in ShangHai. I have been applying for both with the hope that one of them will ensure an exchange. For the fully paid scholarship I just need to get all of my forms back to the Chinese embassy before the end of the month, this includes a complete physical report with X-rays, bloodtest etc. With such a limited time frame I may not be able to apply in time.

Last Monday I finally found out the outcome of the ShangHai exchange which is that they will still accept my late application (which I think is completely reasonable). I was incredibly surprised to discover that my home University has offered me a $5000 scholarship and a further $1000 travel grant. This as well as some more positive impressions from a little more extensive research has me leaning in favour of this option.

There is still a massive catch. Firstly I find out the result of the fully paid scholarship by the time I have committed myself to study in ShangHai. This is obviously highly problematic. Even though I get full fees paid (including tution, so yes, a free semester an then travel costs) I would rather not pull out of this other deal to ShangHai, especially when I have been provided with another scholarship.

So the way I am slicing it now is that traveling to ShangHai is the main goal and the fully paid scholarship is Plan B. This way is a much more secure way of thinking as I have already been accepted at this ShangHai University, I just need to get enrolled and I will be content.

God this is a painful situation to try and explain to everyone. I still don’t want to keep my hopes up until everything is finalized. So hopefully by the next time I report in I will know my fate.

I’m not really in the mood to write about anything else really. Thats not to say that there isn’t much to talk about rather I can’t be fussed writing it down. Its currently holidays and I have spent most of the first weekend trying to recoup my energy and clear out some work first up so that the rest of my time can be spent on relaxing.

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Not Feeling Very Proactive Today

April 1, 2008

Blogging and Online

I should probably start here for today. In the past 2 weeks my proactivity online has really dwindled. Usually when I get the free time online I’ll be running around contributing on forums, networking with other bloggers and doing a whole bunch of that stuff. But lately I have felt a lack of motivation for participating in these areas. I’ve been preferring to sit back, unnoticed and just read and investigate issues instead of participating in discussion. I’ve also realized that my posting frequency over at my Gamer blog has been pretty solid, I have some how got into a rhythm for posting up an article once every two days. Also I feel that my writing style is shifting as well, less software driven and more industry and issues driven.

Chinese Exchange

This is in converse to my regular life which has been bouncing along at a fruitful pace. I have been feeling exceedingly pressured lately by the prospect of this Chinese exchange in September. My problem is that I am running out of time and I keep on hitting dead ends.

You see my original plan and it’s back up plan have been thrown out of the window. Fortunately I have secured a second back up plan which should guarantee me a spot in China this September. You see my original plan was to go on an exchange through a program set up with my home University. Unfortunately I have not heard astounding (but still okay) things about the only University in which I can study at through my home Uni. But even worse I cannot go on an exchange this year as I missed the cut off back in November which is ridiculously early. Of course I could just go next year but unfortunately it doesn’t work in well as the Chinese institutions start school in September (hence a year abroad doesn’t work when I only have ½ a year).

So my second option was to check out what my second University offers (I only study Chinese there). They have a fantastic selection of Universities, unfortunately as I am not a full time student I cannot participate in any of these. Now just yesterday my Chinese tutor told me that it is possible or at least it has been done before with other cross-institutional students. So I still have to check out that.

Finally my last option was recommended to me by some one in one of my linguistics classes. They have a son which undertook this program with great success. Essentially I can go to China and teach oral english, I get accommodation, fantastic support (like a dedicated person in Australia who I can contact 24/7 for help) and a lot of help with the whole process (flight, visa etc.). One of my Chinese friends also knows someone whom successfully par took in one of these exchanges. I teach for 15+ hrs a week and get my own pay. This is only for 5/6 months.

So, I am unsure about what to choose be it this or next year. Essentially I can’t do an exchange with my home University this or next year. I already missed this year and otherwise it doesn’t match up. Also judging from the listings of previous exchanges no one at my University has done an exchange to China for some time. Hmmmm

I don’t want to pay my own way either so just forget that. This leaves me with two choices either teach over in China this September or see if my secondary University will allow me to do an exchange. I’ve been stuck on the idea of the teaching program as I out of all the options it gives me the best support and a lot of free time to explore, make and spend time with friends, do some photography. Where as studying over there either binds me to:

a pre-planned language course
a full on regular course

One runs the risk of being a waste of time and too easy, the other I guess would be suited well to my level.

The Long Haul

In the past year I have had this constant idea ringing in my head and it continually frustrates me beyond belief. You know, this year is the seventh year of me studying Chinese? This fact frustrates me exceedingly because I am currently an average student in a class of students whom this year is their third. I feel as though the 5 years of study at school almost counts for nought. I feel very frustrated about this because I feel that I am continually being overtaken.

The majority of my Chinese study has been in the past 2 years which I have soley focused on the study. Before that my study involved 4hrs a week of classes at school for several years. I guess if I look at it like that then I should not feel as bad as the majority of that time has not consisted of concentrated study and infact is quite forgettable.

Theres two other things that I want to factor in; firstly my progress over the past ummm 8 months which has been huge, seriously leaps and bounds. Secondly is the prospect of over seas study, I think that this will help me continue on the trend of leaps and bounds and will help me make the next leap to fluency. I can feel myself slowly closing in on this goal, so it shouldn’t be too long before I get there. Probably less than 2 years I suspect.

Still, having this weight of 7 years around is just so infuriating.

Well thats what I’ve been doing over the past week. Well not really, but its what has been on my mind lately.

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Nexfinity

For your consideration, a blog about video games as written by myself: