July 25, 2019
Today, we spent the entire day at the University again. We had two seminars on campus. The first seminar was about the Chinese language. We learned how to say different phrases, our names, numbers and much more. The second seminar was about Tai Chi and the Guqin. Tai Chi to me can be compared to yoga. It consists of slow movements that are meant to relax you body and mind, while strengthening you. The Guqin - in my opinion - can be compared to a mix between a piano and a guitar. It has strings and you have to strum them, but you lay it on a surface like a piano.
During the first class, we learned so many things about the Chinese language. She was a really great teacher. One of the first things we learned was the differences between three different greetings.
Nī hao --> Greeting others; Greeting your friends
Nín hao --> Greeting people of higher authority
Nī mén hao --> Greeting a large group
Next, we introduced ourselves.
This is my first and horrible attempt to say:
"Hello, my name is Kayla Grant."
But, after some practice, I did successfully say my name in Chinese.
Here is some of my classmates and Mr. Omar saying their names:
Everyone did a great job with their names. It was so cool to hear everyone talking in Chinese. Here is how you say that someone did a great job in Chinese:
After we finished our introductions, we had a ten minute break where we listened to Chinese music.
After the break, we talked about the Chinese vowels. We played two different activities to learn the vowel sounds. In the first one, we had to pretend like we were in a choir. Whenever the person lifted up the piece of paper we had to say it louder and when they put it down they had to say it lower.
The second game that we played was a little more complicated. Seven people were standing in the front of the room and they were holding a vowel. When their vowel was said they had to say "- down, - down, - down, then * down." - represents their vowel and * represents the other person's vowel. Then, that person would repeat the same thing and pick another vowel. Every time someone made a mistake, they would be disqualified. The winner ended up being Geo.
Next, we ate lunch at the university and then we went to our next class. One of our hosts introduced us to popular sports in China. Then, we played this game called Shuttlecock.
It was definitely harder than it looked.
After our games of Shuttlecock, we went back into the classroom for another seminar. This is where we learned everything about Tai Chi and the Guqin. The teacher decided to demonstrate after each part of the lecture. After we discussed Tai Chi and its importance, we went and did Tai Chi.
Tai Chi is very relaxing and surprisingly it takes a lot of strength sometimes. All of your movements have to be slow, which makes you focus more and feel more at peace. Personally, I thought that Tai Chi was not as easy as it looked, which is why I would compare it to yoga.
After that, we learned about a Chinese instrument called the Guqin.
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