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Chinese Language Programme March Newsletter
An old town street near Mount Lushan in Jiangxi Province, China
Programme News ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Registration for the Spring Term Registration for the spring term has started. For registration info, please visit http://www.un.org/depts/OHRM/sds/lcp/UNLCP/english/registration.html. For our course schedule, please visit http://www.un.org/depts/OHRM/sds/lcp/UNLCP/docs/chinese_schedule.pdf. Students currently in a regular class except Level 9 do not need to register in person. They will be automatically advanced to the next level once they have passed the final exam. Students who wish to register for a special course need to register either in person or by form, even though they are currently enrolled in that special course this term.
Featured Special Courses Calligraphy Class After the absence of one term, we are offering the class again. This 12-week course on Tuesday from 6 to 7:30 pm will be taught by Mr. Zhonghua Pang. Mr. Pang is a household name in China, where he has acquired a celebrity status for being a master calligrapher. Millions of young people in China grow up learning calligraphy from him and his books. See the media report about him at Registration for our previous calligraphy class exceeded the limit and there is every reason to believe the spring class will be just as popular. If you decide to register for this class, please be committed, because if you are not, you will unnecessarily take up a spot, but will also incur a penalty of $100 from the Language and Communications Programme if you fail to attend 75% of classes (missing 3 classes). This policy actually applies to all the classes.
Intermediate Conversation Class This 12-week course meeting on Wednesday from 6 to 7:30 pm is particularly designed for students who will be participating in the summer China Study Programme, but is open to anyone who is interested. The course will be focused on topics relating to travel and everyday needs.
End of the Winter Term The winter term ends on 23 March. Final exams for regular classes will be held on Tuesday, 27 March and Wednesday, 28 March. Your instructor will inform you of the details.
Free Hands-on Workshop: Tai Chi and Health (registration required) T uesday, 2 April, 1:30 - 2:30 pm in DC2-200A
Tai Chi is a centuries-old Chinese martial art form that combines the strength and precision of physical self-defence with the mental health benefits of meditation. Sometimes referred to as “meditation in motion,” Tai Chi is gentle enough for almost anyone and has been shown to alleviate stress and anxiety, as well as increase balance, flexibility and endurance. This ancient discipline has its roots in traditional Chinese medicine and is believed to be able to delay aging, prolong life and aid in the treatment of illnesses, such as heart disease, high blood pressure and arthritis. Practitioners learn to regulate their mind and body through soft, flowing movements and focused breathing. This element of control is intended to help one understand oneself and achieve harmony for one’s physical and spiritual well-being.
To learn more about the principles and fundamentals of Tai Chi, please join us for a hands-on workshop, led by two World Champions of Tai Chi Martial Arts, Ceng Nailiang and Chen Sitan.
A highly esteemed martial artist, Ceng Nailiang has received multiple honours for his significant contributions in the discipline of Tai Chi. Ceng currently serves as Director of the Chinese Martial Arts Training Centre and has coached more World Champions than any other Tai chi master. Chen Sitan was the first person to become Tai Chi Champion at the Asian Sports Games in 1990 and has since gone on to achieve international recognition as a master of Chinese martial arts. Chen is currently President of the US Tai Chi Qigong Centre and continues to organize and demonstrate at various national and international competitions. Please RSVP to ho@un.org.
Useful Resources
1. Free Open Course Ware Download Full, downloadable program for learning Chinese that consists of a 283 page grammar book, workbook and downloadable voice files. Additional pinyin chart with voice files included also. Available on my Open CourseWare website here.
2. Online Chinese Language Learning from TELL ME MORE
TELL ME MORE provides a valuable online learning resource for those
interested in learning or
TELL ME MORE Chinese is available via CD and will soon have a new online
version! With over 300 hours of interactive learning and 1,500+
exercises there is plenty of courseware to support students at all skill
levels! Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced levels. Pronunciation
practice for over 1,500 words. Audio glossary of over 3,000 words!
Chinese grammar points. Over 400 photos that illustrate Chinese culture Click here for more details or to request a demo contact: reg.davis@tellmemore.com
Our programme has a set of the TELL ME MORE courseware and our instructors will use it in some of the classes. New Publication Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom by Stephen R. Platt
"Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom" is written by Stephen R. Platt, a young academic who has a Ph.D. in Chinese History from Yale and is an associate professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. It describes the story of the Taiping Rebellion, the Chinese civil war that lasted from 1851 to 1864, overlapping in its end with America's Civil War. Mr. Platt describes it as "not only the most destructive war of the 19th century, but likely the bloodiest civil war of all time." On one side of this war was the decaying 200-year-old Qing Dynasty of the Manchus. On the other side, the Taiping rebels, fueled by their messianic religious ideology that contained a whiff of Christianity, who wanted to reclaim China from the small alien Manchu elite. Mr. Platt doesn't linger overly long on the parallels between this civil war and America's but it is among his central points that Britain's disastrous intervention, for trade reasons, on the side of the dynasty in this Chinese war prevented it from becoming involved in ours.
For more information, click here.
Community
Events
1. Asia Week in New York City City Wide Event, March 16 - 24
Asia Week New York is a collaboration among thirty-three leading international Asian art specialties, five major auction houses, and nineteen museums and Asian cultural institutes that will take place throughout metropolitan New York from March 16-24. The nine-day celebration is filled with a non-stop schedule of more than thirty simultaneous gallery open houses, sixteen Asian art auctions as well as numerous museum exhibitions, lectures, and special events.
For more information and a calendar of events please visit www.asiaweekny.com
2. Theatre, Life, and the Afterlife: Tomb Décor of the Jin Dynasty from Shanxi Exhibition, February 9 - June 17, 2012 China Institute Gallery Brick carving is a traditional folk art that was used to decorate architecture and adorn tombs. Excavations in recent decades have uncovered unique and theatrically-themed brick carvings from the Shanxi province, revealing a passion for theater and opera in this region during the Jin dynasty (1115–1234). The tombs of Shanxi, adorned with beautiful, intricate brick carvings and other décor, illustrate two kinds of popular entertainment: Za Ju, formal performances of written plays and San Qu, performances related to village festivals. An entirely reconstructed tomb will offer visitors a window into the ways ancient art patrons transferred the artistic joys of life into the afterlife. Theater, Life, and the Afterlife: Tomb Décor of the Jin Dynasty from Shanxi, brings to life the intersection of the brick carving and theater traditions.
For more information please visit China Institute website here.
3. Chinese Art in an Age of Revolution: Fu Baoshi (1904-1965) Exhibition, January 21 - April 15, 2012 Metropolitan Museum of Art
Perhaps the most original figure painter and landscapist of China’s modern period, Fu Baoshi created indelible images celebrating his homeland’s cultural heritage while living through one of the most devastating periods in Chinese history. He was eight years old in 1912 when China’s last imperial dynasty was overthrown and the Chinese Republic was established. He subsequently witnessed the divisive warlord era and Communist rebellion of the 1920s, the Japanese invasion and occupation of eastern China from 1937 to 1945, and the Communist Revolution and establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Over the last 15 years of his life, his art reflected China’s political transformation under Mao Zedong. Throughout his career, however, Fu remained one of China’s great individualist masters.
For more information please visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art website here.
Articles of Interest ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Basketball Star Raises Profile of Mandarin Exchanges By Chang Jun and Linda Deng China Daily, 17 February, 2012
LOS ANGELES - Kobe Bryant, the basketball superstar with the Los Angeles Lakers, spent his Thursday afternoon with 10 visiting children from China and their American peers at Gertz-Ressler High School, which since 2010 has had a Mandarin cultural exchange program that Bryant initiated. In front of this admirers from home and abroad, Bryant shared his basketball skills and his affection for China, a nation where he said he always " feels at home" and "enjoys a great relationship."
Click here to read the full story
2. More Picking Mandarin for Language Class By David Lariviere China Daily, 14 February, 2012
NEW YORK - Like a good academic, Jean Adilifu did her homework. The assistant principal for foreign languages at the Megar Evers College Preparatory School in New York had all the data at her fingertips before responding to the qustions about he receently released China Daily/Gallup poll. "Spanish is the No 1 foreign language offered in the schools across the country, French is second and Chinese is third - but growing exponentially," Adilifu added.
Click here to read the full story.
3. To Combat Modern Ills, Korea Looks to the Past By Choe Sang-hun New York Times, 1 February, 2012
YEONGJU, SOUTH KOREA - When he looks out from the time-frozen world of Korea's oldest private Confucian academy, Park Seok-hong sees the rest of the country "turning into a realm of beasts." He points to recent news as evidence: young people swearing at elderly passengers in the subway and children jumping to their deaths to escape bullying or the pressure of hyper-competitive school life. "We may have built our economy, but our morality is on the verge of collapse," Mr. Park said. "We must revitalize it, and this is where we can find an answer."
Click here to read the full story.
4. Are You a Hyperpolyglot? The Secret of Language Superlearners By Kay Steinmetz Time, 30 January, 2012
When God put the kibosh on the Tower of Babel, 72 languages were said to have been created from the one that unified those hubristic humans. In his new book, Babel No More, linguist Michael Erard seeks out the people who have put those pieces back together: hyperpolyglots, i.e., the most fluent mamma-jammas on the planet. Time spoke to Erard about phenoms who can speak more languages than they have fingers, whether anyone can do it and where the upper limits of human potential lie.
Click here to read the full story.
Interesting Videos 1. 'OMG! Meiyu' Introduces China to American Slang, Idioms and Jay-Z Combining the powers of social media and fluent Mandarin, Jessica Beinecke teaches American slang to eager Chinese minds half a world away. Hari Sreenivasan reports on Beinecke's success with Voice of America's online video program "OMG! Meiyu" and her role as an ambassador of American culture and language to China.
Watch the video at:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/
2. This Is Impossible... Watch the amazing acrobatic feat at: http://www.wimp.com/thisimpossible/
3. Ping-pong Playing Baby This short clip sees young Jamie Myska-Buddell, from Plymouth, returning shot after shot as he sits perched on one side of a table-tennis table. Watch video at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/9062289/Ping-pong-playing-baby-becomes-online-favourite.html
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