INTRODUCTION

Chinese language has been something I feel that I can relate to, yet it is so 
different from my mother language, Japanese. I was born in Japan and lived there 
my entire life until I left a year ago to attend Uva, so it has been a very 
interesting experience for me to study Chinese in English. Because Chinese 
characters are related to Japanese characters, I knew most of the characters 
or at least had some sense of the meanings of characters for Chinese 101 class. 
I guess it was not too fair for other students with different backgrounds, but 
it was still tough for me to acquire a third language. Although there are so many 
things I need to improve, I feel that Chinese is becoming a part of me, thanks to 
Tseng laoshi and her teaching that it right to the point. I think the reason I 
felt comfortable studying Chinese was not only the clear explanations of Tseng 
Laoshi but also her discussion of the English language. When she asked a question 
such as "If you ask someone out to dinner, would you have to pay for the guest?" 
In the chapter on "Dates and Time," there are lots of interesting opinions of 
American students. That sort of discussion educated me in both Chinese and American 
culture. Next semester, I am going to take Chinese 102 and wish to expand what I 
have learned.

My Most Excellent Work

1. Lesson 4- Hobbies
2. Lesson 5- Visiting Friends
3. Lesson 7- Studying Chinese

My most excellent works are from weekly oral performance. These performances gave me 
enough stress to keep me practicing the pronunciation. I put the same amount of effort 
into all of my assignments. I believe these performances are an opportunity to develop 
what I learned in class. Most of my work was collaborated on with my classmate, Virginia. 
I think that without her creativity and cooperation, the works could not be excellent. 
In a dialogue from Lesson 4, Virginia’s line "Wo mei you pengyou" made everyone laugh. 
I really had a nice time working with Virginia and would like to thank her.

I used my diary for this work because my narrative in a previous assignment was not very 
good. I could learn from the mistakes I made in the first narrative and create a diary 
narrative with smooth flow in the content.

Self-Introduction:         Image File      NJ Star File     Audio File	
Hobbies:                   Image file      NJ Star File     Audio File
Visiting Friends:          Image file      NJ Star File     Audio File
Studying Chinese:          Image file      NJ Star File     Audio File