Got up at 7:30. Today wasn’t hot for once, with a light drizzle on the walk over to class. Class was fine again, continuing the drill from earlier. During break I went to get a snack, and saw the seaweed wrapped rice cakes in the foreign student shop. They wanted $5 for it, which is ridiculous, and I have decided not to get anything from them again, because the cakes aren’t worth more than $1.
After class, walked back to my dorm, and studied plus homework. I still had the two parts of the math problem, and really didn’t make much progress on that. I did get all the various papers that have been accumulating scanned into my computer. I also searched the internet a bit and discovered some independent chinese artists, and finished my homework for thursday.
At 3:30, my math teacher came over. He had gotten the email I had sent yesterday, and had prepared the two problems to go over with me. A lot of time was spent translating the various terms, the ones I remember are
Supremum = 最小的上界 (literally: the smallest upper bound)
Suppose = 说明
A is an element of B = A在B中
Derivative = 微分 (literally: Small cuts)
Integral = 积分
Calculus = 微积分
(also 啥 ＝ 什么, apparently a dialectical shortening)
Rationals = 有理数
Integers = 整数
b^r = b的r次方
b^2 = b的平方
b^3 = b的立方
It was really interesting. And I’m glad I’m doing this. He left me with the chinese version of the textbook, which is apparently also used in china, and said I could borrow it for the semester. We decided to skip next week since I’ll be gone, and reconvene the week after.
After meeting with him it was time for dinner, I got green beans with chicken pieces, and a sweet bun for desert. I went with a larger group from our program, the first-year students were complaining that their teacher was too strict and pushing them too hard. I got to smile inwardly at that.
I came back, transferred my old math work over to my laptop from home, because I wanted to show the guy that I’d taken an abstract algebra class, but couldn’t really convey what we’d studied.
I read through Chinese stuff again, wrote up various things that needed to be written up, and managed to pass the time without being too board. I have a pretty decent grasp on the characters for tomorrow.