国产成人综合久久免费导航

Dear Keystone Community,

Two ideas and a story:

Learn the things you are taught every day.

Take care of yourself.

I sprained my ankle.

Sending you warm Wednesday greetings! The last few weeks I have been working hard studying for an upcoming Chinese language test. For the almost two years I have been studying Chinese, I have been less than devoted to learning the weekly hanzi that my teacher presents to me. My learning goals have been about speaking Chinese and communicating with my colleagues and friends.  So, I didn’t see right away how the tedious task of memorizing hanzi would advance those goals. My teacher did, of course, and she tolerated my lack of attention, with subtle warnings:  "You will want to do this.” But I ignored her and didn’t fill up the practice books like I see our students in primary school doing every day.  

Recently, it clicked. If I don’t devote some energy to this piece of my emerging literacy, I will be stuck at a conversational level and won’t be able to continue to advance. So, I’ve been drilling myself to learn the characters in HSK1 and 2. I’m getting better, with small efforts come small improvements. If I had been doing this all along, I’d be much better off now. It reminds me of a note I wrote to myself in 1995 in the middle of my first semester exams in college overwhelmed with content I had “kinda studied” throughout the semester. I wrote on a small 3X5 card: “Dear Emily, Learn the things that you are taught every day.  Love, Future Emily” I still have that little card, and I still ignore Future Emily’s wise advice.  

So now I am studying hanzi diligently and as a language teacher, I see how easy it is to learn—especially living here in Beijing—there is input everywhere!  I can learn by watching the amazing Grade 2 poetry performances on the subway, and practice reviewing the signage all over our campus; input is everywhere, I just had to pay attention. This last week I have been finding it hard to go to sleep at night because I do hours of activities and get to bed later than I would like. (Regular readers of this space will know how much I value sleep).  

When I left my Chinese class last weekend in Dongzhimen, I was walking and seeing the opportunities to learn everywhere. There was a beautiful mural that named the solar terms and had a small painting of each one with a phrase that summarized the feeling of each solar term.  I was walking and reading, soaking it all in on a beautiful spring day, then...

[now the story]

I stepped right off a curb and fell to the ground and sprained my ankle! Gah, so frustrating! I hate being hurt. But the only thing worse than being hurt is being hurt for a stupid reason like not looking where you were going.  My lesson in all this, which I guess I have been learning since 1995 (perhaps earlier!) is to do hard things—learn what you are taught every day. And learn at a manageable pace, in a sustained and mindful way. Maybe if I had been open to the idea of learning how to read all along, I wouldn’t have to be so intense about it now, with an exam on the horizon. Maybe I wouldn’t have walked off the curb!  

 It is delightful to be deeply and intensely immersed in learning, but we must always care for ourselves, watch every step, and move mindfully through the world.  I wonder how many of our students (and teachers and parents) can relate to this high intensity less than mindful moment. We must do the hard things, but we also must take care of ourselves, developing habits of achievement and excellence, not unsustainable bursts of effort that disrupt our equilibrium and lead us to fall off proverbial (or in my case, actual!) curbs.  

 Anyway, keep studying, learning, and caring for each other! And look where you are going! I wish you all a safe and peaceful Qing Ming Festival.  

With love,

Emily