Imagine a large jar, and surrounding the jar are large rocks.  One by one you place the large rocks into the jar until you cannot fit anymore.  Is the jar full?  It is not.  You can take the smaller gravel pieces around the large stones to fill in the holes.  So you do that.  Is the jar full now?  You see that the large stones and small gravel are just specs in an ocean of sand on which it lies.  You pour sand into the jar, and watch it trickle down and fill the gaps that the large and small stones fail to occupy.  Finally, it must be full you say.  Not so!  Even between the sand particles are spaces that not even the smallest sand particle can fill.  So you add water.  

The point of this illustration is to show how difficult it is to learn a language, and how incomplete it would be to sit in a classroom and hope to absorb the characters, pinyin, definition, grammar that we learn four days a week.  Nosiree, as large as those rocks are, they simply will not fill.  That’s why we have Chinese roommates or homestay families, (are forced to) speak in Chinese 24/7, and meet with tutors.  All these outside-the-classroom activities work together to perpetuate our learning after 12:15, solidifying the lessons through repetition and appropriate contextualized use.  However, I am especially appreciative of the fudao that IES has arrange for me, and all the ways that she is able to tailor to my needs to help me have a more complete Chinese learning experience. 

I meet with my fudao four times a week, usually at the IES building.  Our tradition is always the same: we greet, we sit down, and we get to business.  In an hour’s time, I am usually able to get familiar with the grammar points, read through the passage, and complete the next day’s homework.  However, what is interesting to note is the magic that occurs when we’re not on task.  We chat about our day and what we did that day.  I pause to ask my fudao what her opinion is on the day’s topic such as the one child policy, bicycle maintenance,  or George W. Bush’s visit to China (notably outdated, I know).  I ask her how 特别，特色，特殊 are different, even though my book says they all mean “special”.  I ask her to help me create crazy, nonsensical (but grammatically correct) sentences for my homework.  It’s like having a second teacher that is more willing to keep up with my Chinese learning antics. 

But it’s not always rainbows and butterflies.  Some say that their fudao experience is quite bad.  They complain that their fudao seem unresponsive or disinterested during the meeting.  Or perhaps that their fudaos reschedule too often or are unwilling to trek to the IES building to meet with them.  To those individuals I can do nothing but offer my condolences.   But as for me,  I can honestly say, without any degree of exaggeration, that my life has become fundamentally and holistically better because of my fudao.  She is the water that fills my jar; my cup overfloweth.