There are several reasons for this, but the main one is that since my return from France last month I have enrolled in this new Chinese school, with 4 hours per day of lessons. It is very interesting, but as it sounds, very intense.
Since our arrival my learning has been one on one with a young teacher, Qihua, a very nice young woman from Chongching. After several months of daily one and half hour classes, even if there was progress, I felt it was limited. I started to feel a certain lost in motivation. In fact what really triggered me is that my friend Paige, after a month of the 4 hours a day regime, was now pretty much at my level, with my 5 months of one and half hour a day diet. So I went for the big change, registered to the school and started the program.
Every morning we have two classes, a first one about writing and a second one about speaking. As a good visual learner, and with a good background from the method I followed before, I feel really comfortable with this class (probably a sign that I could be upgraded to a different class). But when it comes to the speaking class, I have been feeling like my brain in flapping in the wind with so many new words, and so much information intake. The classes are really fast, and I have to catch up on vocabulary that others in the class have having (the colors, clothing, etc). I assumed that since I started (less than a month ago) I have been seeing more than 200 new characters! Truly a challenge, since I have trouble finding extra time (beyond the hour and half I already spend for the homework). But outside of class I can feel a certain progress, so I do not despair.
So my blog is suffering, and you have been left in the dark...
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