a-l-i-n-e.com

I just love checking the letter box in my floor to find envelopes addressed to me.

Today, I got :
my internet bill,
a returned Xmas card,
a package from Mauritius.

There’s nothing exciting about internet bills but I’ve been waiting impatiently for this one because I want to pay before leaving Shanghai. I sure don’t want to pay an extra amount when I come back. I wonder how much they make people pay if it’s a late payment.

The Xmas card .
I don’t know why they sent it back to me. Was it the address? I was so sure i wrote it right.
Sorry J. My card made it to HK but got sent back to SH. I’ll give you the card in person when I go back to MU in 6 months. I don’t want to go back to MU so soon but I need to renew my passport.

The package from Sab.
I got a lovely 2005 calendar with pics of Mauritius on each page.
Thanks girl!

I’ve been having fun with those webcam captures. In a weird mood today. hmm.. my hair looks so different. Maybe it’s the light? It’s a bit dark in my room. I had to turn on my desk lamp as well as the main light.

I’m so tired. I had my first end of the semester exam today. It was from 10:00 to 12:00 but I finished my paper at 10:35 . There was no essay writing this time. I was very disappointed. (The teacher seemed amused upon seeing the look on my face. )
Moreover I didn’t know what to do until 12:00. I went through my paper 3 more times and by 10:45, I had enough.
She corrected my paper within a few minutes. I got 99 marks. Arghh… Lost that one mark stupidly. I always lose marks in the easiest part of the paper. So careless.
I was worried about this paper because I hadn’t revised properly. Surprisingly, the last minute cramming worked. I was so worried that I wouldn’t be able to wake up early this morning. My mum called me from Mauritius to make sure I don’t miss my exam. Thanks mum!:wink:

I’ve been going out too much lately.
Still, it’s only my first year here. I’d better enjoy while I still can. My second year will be tough.

Tomorrow it’s Oral chinese exam. We didn’t have an Oral exam for mid-term so I’m kinda worried about this one. 阅读(yuedu) on Wednesday, 听力(tingli) on Thursday and then hols!!! I can’t wait.

My mid-term exams are finally over and I already got my results.
听力: 98.5
综合（语法,etc..）: 98
阅读: 94

My results are okay but I’m not really satisfied with them. I was aiming for 95+ marks in all my papers, especially since it’s my first term here.
Note to myself: Spend less time online, less time on MSN messenger, less time watching chinese drama series, etc…. Spend about an hour doing given homework and personal work everyday, i.e study more.

The阅读考试 was a bit difficult compared to the others. I don’t know what came over the teacher but the paper was full of words we haven’t learned yet. The other students and I had a lot of ‘guessing’ to do. I had to be extra careful when writing the answers but I still made two silly mistakes.
Same for my 综合 exam. I lost the 2 marks in the easiest part of the paper; pinyin and made no mistakes in the essay or grammar parts. My 语法 teacher knows that I hate writing pinyin.

I usually have no problems when it comes to reading pinyin but the writing part is another matter.
I write the pinyin right but sometimes I make mistakes when it comes to writing the tones. I have a problem with the 4th tone and neutral tone, the 2nd tone and 3rd tone. There are some chinese characters which are 4th tone characters but when there’s another chinese character in front of it (hence a compound word) , it becomes a neutral tone. Compound words with 3rd tone characters are read as 2nd tone in certain cases but the tone is still written as 3rd.

I didn’t expect having to write pinyin at university.
In Mauritius, the last time my Mandarin teacher made me write pinyin in an exam was back in primary school. In secondary school, the emphasis was more on the chinese characters. I guess that’s why I neglected my pinyin. My other Mauritian friend who’s in my uni also has the same problem.

When it comes to writing chinese characters, I forget how to write the characters sometimes. I never forget how to write the words I use quite often so I’m going to do more personal work and make sentences with the new words I learn. This way I’m more likely going to remember how to write them. I already talked to my 语法 teacher about it and she said that she’ll be glad to have a look at my sentences & essays and correct my mistakes.
Yes, it’s high time for me to do some personal work.

Unfortunately we don’t have Oral Chinese language exam for mid-term so I’m going to have to wait until the final term exam to know how an Oral chinese language exam is like.

I remember my first class at Tongji University.
Our first class was Oral Chinese language and we all had to stand up in turn and say our names, where we are from, our hobbies, number of people in family,etc.
The teacher asked us what we found most difficult when it comes to learning Mandarin. I said writing and remembering how to write the chinese characters.
My classmates said the speaking part (saying the tones right) or the grammar part. ah well.. It’s different for everyone.