Chinese at KULeuven, quite a challenge, but one that's worth the effort!
In an impulsive mood in September 2003, I went to the University of Leuven to talk with an assistant at the Chinese Department to ask whether it was totally crazy or maybe possible to combine working with studying Chinese on a fulltime basis...
Since I am rather crazy I thought it might be possible... Well, 10 months later I can tell you it was an interesting ride! A hell of a year, but I finally started making another dream come true... being able to read, write, understand and speak Chinese!
When I was 18 I had no idea what to do with my life, nor what to study, so when they accepted me at the Lemmens Conservatory I thought I might as well give it a shot and study saxophone, before thinking of studying Chinese, but 7 years later I was still as intrigued in Chinese culture as before, so I decided to give it a try...
I can tell you now that it's like no language I've studied before, I have no reference points what so ever to memorise the words or characters and their culture is so different from ours that we laugh quite a lot in class with those strange Chinese people, but as a professor told us... as long as we laugh in astonishment, with an open mind, eager to learn how they live, think, feel,... it's ok!
I will probably have to redo my Chinese exam, because I was too busy teaching 17 hours, being on the train 18 hours and following classes another 17 hours every week to keep up studying all the new characters, grammar and making exercices... but that's what summer is for, and I intend to move to Leuven in order to fully commit to this new challenge!
我在鲁汶大学学习汉语还我很喜欢 ! These were supposed to be Chinese characters, but I guess the site builder can't decode Chinese yet... A new challenge for my totally unexisting computerskills! To be continued? Maybe you can try a right mouseclick and then go to "more" at the bottom, search for "Chinese" (simplified GB 2312) and hopefully you will see the right Chinese characters. If you don't understand what it says and you really want to know, just contact me!
http://www.kuleuven.ac.be/kuleuven/
