中文 (Zhongwen)

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中文 (Zhongwen)

                I go to one of the two high schools in Iowa that offers Chinese as a foreign language.  I feel very blessed that I have the opportunity to take it, but I have to say that I am a bit puzzled by the way it is set up.  The first three years of Chinese to me were quite easy; I could basically show up and learn everything, getting perfect grades along the way.  However, now, in AP Chinese, there is a considerable amount of homework each night, and it just makes me wonder:  why couldn’t this have been more spread out over the four years?  If you’re wondering how I’m taking AP Chinese as a junior, it’s because I took Chinese 2 in the summer between freshman and sophomore year to increase the numbers in the class above me, by my teachers’ request. 

               The thing is, the first three years of Chinese we do follow the same series of textbook, so we do Chinese 1, 2, and 3.  After this, there are books for Chinese 4 and AP Chinese in that same series.  However, we go into the book that is used at most colleges and universities in the U.S., but level two of that book, so really, we are skipping the books for Chinese 4, Chinese Level 1 Part 1, and Chinese Level 1 Part 2, and are now in Chinese Level 2 Part 1.  Basically, we skipped three levels.  That probably accounts for the amount of work we have to do to make up for it.  The reason we go to this book is that this is how far the material on the AP exam tests. 

                Overall, in my school and across the nation, AP exam scores for all foreign languages are quite poor, almost to the point where you have to be a near-native speaker in order to get a 5 on the exam.  There are different parts of each exam for reading, writing, speaking and listening.  Reading is usually the easiest, as you must just interpret and integrate.  However, speaking and writing are a bit harder, as you must generate your own content and make it grammatically correct and fluent, and in my opinion, listening is the hardest, because the test uses voices that speak extremely quickly and use different sounding accents to keep students on their toes.  Even though all the odds seem to be against me, it is my goal to get a 5 on the AP Chinese exam when I finally take it.