Something about a TMBG song...

Yes, time is marching on...

I have finished my course. I have done the speaking and writing tests. I just have one more lesson to go over the test and a leaving party/lunch thing tomorrow.

How have I progressed in the language. Well, I could take that answer from the tests: I thought I could have done better in the speaking test, but I got a pretty good mark; today's writing test was pretty easy (although not easy enough to get full marks - but I'll find out how I went tomorrow).

But I think it is better to judge my progress by how my Chinese is outside class. I've been noticing that when I'm hanging around friends in higher level classes that I can actually get the gist of some of the things they say. I can understand what a waiter asks me in a restaurant. I can understand what Chinese people say, if they say it slowly three times. I still struggle with pronunciation and often can't remember the tone even if I remember the right word. My vocabularly is still very small. Hopefully I'll be able to practise what I have learnt and learn some more in the next month.

[Edit] Actually thinking about that paragraph, I've made it sound like I've learnt alot. Well, compared to knowing nothing I have learnt alot but in terms of actually communicating with people I still know almost nothing - 3 weeks isn't really that long.