What inspires me to write is seeing how interesting and insightful other people's blogs are. I always hope to accomplish an entry worthy of reading but always feel I fall short somewhere in terms of substance or style. Nevertheless, I chug on and hope that maybe somewhere within my blog there will be something worth reading.


It is basically the eve of my junior year in college, and I am now an economics (BA) major. I will begin a Mandarin language course designed for native speakers, and which concentrates on reading and writing, this fall, in addition to my other economics requirements. I think this Chinese course will be the deciding factor into whether I will declare a second major in Chinese. I figured I may as well take the plunge, since taking this "native" class places me at an advantage in that I become exempt from the beginner Mandarin courses. What's more, the rest of the major requirements consist of electives such as literature, Chinese culture, and other non-language CHIN electives that are taught in English. So why not major in Chinese?