KTV

I haven't posted in a while because I've been really busy! Classes have properly started now which means 4 comprehensive, 2 oral and 2 listening classes a week for my level, 二年上，plus HSK Level 4 prep class - HSK is an internationally recognised Chinese language exam which means that I will be able to say I am at a certain standard if I pass it - and, my favourite, 唱歌学汉语 (Learning Chinese through song).

I mentioned in a previous post that I'd moved myself up a class as my previous one wasn't challenging enough and it's definitely safe to say that my new one is a challenge! The ability of students in the class varies considerably meaning that I am towards the bottom of the class whereas others have no problems with speaking and will happily stand up in front of class to talk about their home country/know all of the characters when we read through dialogues from the textbook. Being in the higher class means that I need to put more effort in with preparation as we are expected to know all characters in the texts as well as the assigned homework. We had a test last Monday for which I didn't do as much work as I should have done and got a C (terrible mark in China!) so I know now that I'll need to prepare more for the next one and how to prepare as I now know the style of questions. 

I find the HSK class to be useful as we go over grammar that we should already know as well as practising questions from previous papers meaning that I should be well prepared when it comes to the exam. HSK 4 has 1200 words that I need to know so every week we are having to revise/learn 150 of them for 听写 (dictation test when the teacher reads out the word and we have to write it in characters). The first one of these is tomorrow!

The singing class is definitely my favourite. It takes place 4:15pm - 5:45pm on Wednesdays which would normally be a horrible time for class but even if it was at 8am I don't think I'd mind! The teacher tends to give us lyrics in characters and pinyin (pronunciation) each lesson and we work through it as a class, translating the song and looking at characters we didn't know. We then sing through it together several times before splitting into groups to make the song our own and perform in front of the class at the end. The first song we learnt was 茉莉花 (Jasmine) - a Chinese folk song and the second was a pop song called 通话 (Fairytale). Anyone who knows me will know that I love learning languages and singing so this is the perfect class for me!

On Friday evening I thought I would put what I'd learnt in this class to the test by going to KTV with some friends and singing 通话. KTV is extremely popular in China. People go along to a KTV with a group of friends to get a booth and sing karaoke all night! My first experience of this was in Nanjing last summer when we went with our Chinese language partners. It was our friend Elliott's birthday that night so he joked saying that we could do karaoke all night. The Chinese girl organising it didn't get the joke and actually book it until the early hours of the morning, we had to explain to her that that wasn't what he meant and that 3 hours was plenty! 

KTV in Nanjing last summer

8 of us went on Friday and had a really fun time. It took us an age to get there as my friend had been recommended one in particular even though there are so many, but we got there in the end. When we walked in the people working there bowed to us and offered us a VIP booth for 100元/hour (about £10) rather than a normal one for 170元 (about £17). It was quite snazzy and even had its own toilet which wasn't a squat one! We sang a variety of songs and genres including Britney Spears, Queen, Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, "My Heart Will Go On" from the Titanic, Gangnam Style and 童话 just to name a few. Although the booth itself was cheap, drinks were expensive at 40元 (£4) for a bottle of 青岛啤酒 (Tsingtao beer) so we decided against drinking so had a sober karaoke evening instead. We stayed for 2 hours which was plenty and everyone had a go at singing which was good! I'm sure there will be similar evenings before this year ends.

The KTV we went to on Friday

Lake outside the KTV

Lexi, Izzy and Tom chillin' in our VIP booth

Izzy and I with out GANG NAM STYLE hats (I've hurt my knee in case you were wondering)

Izzy and Lex singing their hearts out

Gangnam Style!

Favourite photo of Robin ever

Me singing 童话. It has such a sad video!

Tom joining in

"Look at those hips" - Perfect timing for a photo of Izzy!

The group (minus me)