David Giltinan |
Thirty-two years ago I had the great privilege of studying Hindi with the legendary John Roberts, UVA professor emeritus of linguistics (retired). Back in 1970 I was not so much interested in learning Hindi as in taking any class, from this renowned instructor. Hindi happened to be the only course he was teaching that year with an opening for an underclassman such as myself. That class has enriched the rest of my life by inspiring in me a love of language that has lead to many wonderful friendships over the years along with fluency in French and Spanish and a generous smattering of German, Hebrew, Greek and even Haitian Creole. In the years since 1970 I never expected to meet a language instructor to be compared to Professor Roberts, but after taking Chinese 101/102 I can testify that Professor Tseng compares very well indeed. Tseng Laoshi was simply born to teach Chinese. Coming back to UVA via the Citizen Scholar Program along with my wife and spending my lunch hour in Professor Tseng's Chinese class for the past year has been a delight. Having said that, I hasten to add that taking a year of Chinese has also required more hard work than I could have imagined (had I known how much I might not have had the courage to sign up). Even after spending hours learning new characters there are moments of panic at times when Tseng Laoshi points at you in her rapid-fire fashion and the newly learned character simply disappears. Learning Chinese can be profoundly humbling as well as exhilarating. It is, however, NEVER boring. Tseng Laoshi's class is the fastest hour on the planet. You don't mind the stress and the late nights of homework because you can see the hard-won results. Besides, outstanding teachers are like that --- you want to walk through fire for them. Then you realize -- it wasn't for them, it's for YOU. If you want to learn Chinese, RUN, do not walk, to sign up for this class. |