Here I am again, still alive, still in China. Both of those looked doubtful, for a while, but things have certainly improved. I'm sorry for the long silence from my part of the world. I think that in a lot of ways, May was my most difficult month in China (yet; I'm cautiously optimistic about the future, though.) We had so many problems, it was just ridiculous. At the top of that list, and probably most to blame for my failure to blog, was the fact that our internet was out for almost two weeks, and before that it only worked in Josh's apartment.
As Julie Andrews likes to say, or at least as she said once, "Let's start at the very beginning." I just googled that line and realized that a ton of other people have used it in their blogs, and it just seems like a bad opener, so I've decided I don't like it. Anyway, at the beginning of May, we had a ton of problems in my apartment. The internet didn't work, the kitchen flooded every time someone used water in the building, and a few minor things. The situation got worse and worse, and although I called the school several times to fix it, nothing effective was done (although Jane was very helpful and came over with a repairman, they still did not solve the flooding problem.)
Then Josh's computer stopped working, so we didn't have the internet. We weren't able to call home on Mother's Day, which was too bad because I was able to do it two years in a row from Paraguay. The computer problem didn't get fixed for almost two weeks, although I talked to David several times about it (and even bought him a bottle of wine, hoping it would grease the wheels. Unfortunately, it seems that both Mussolini and Dwight Schrute got it right when they said 'Blood alone moves the wheels of history.') Things got to the point where one day I thought, "There's absolutely no reason for me to be here if I hate it so much." So I called Owen and told him that if my apartment didn't get fixed, we wouldn't stay in China any longer. He asked me to stay until he had time to come and see the apartment (and, even though I knew he wouldn't be able to come for a few days, I agreed.) Later that day David came to our apartment (surprise, surprise.)
Imagine that it took him less than an hour to get Josh's computer working again (which I could have done if they weren't using illegally obtained copies of Microsoft Windows.) So that was good progress. He talked to the landlord and said that the drain would be fixed soon.
The next day we left for an English competition in Yongzhou--Josh and I packed into a "bus," which was really an old minivan, with four students, David, Jane, and the driver. I don't think I have been in many situations more awkward than that one. Too my surprise, though, David and Jane were really kind about the whole thing, and they didn't seem offended by our threat to leave (Jane has always been good to us, so I didn't really expect any less from her.)
The competition was interesting. I was a judge, Josh was an observer. We had absolutely no guidelines for how points were to be awarded, what was expected of the students, or really why we were there. We just knew that we had the chance to award up to 100 points total. It was the biggest joke of a competition I've ever been involved with--it was extremely unfair, because the students were given random topics that ranged in ease from "Ping-Pong" to "I'm Beautiful Because I'm Young." What? They also had to talk about a picture for 4 minutes (the only students who got even close to that time were the ones who would say one word, then pause for 15-20 seconds, then say another.) The pictures were equally random, from cartoon strips with a clear topic like pollution, to a big picture of a Peking duck. Wow. My part though, was when a student got up to speak and I started wondering, "Is this a boy or a girl?" The first thing s/he said was, "I bet you're wondering if I'm a boy or a girl." S/he hit the nail right on the head.
The trip actually turned out to be a very pleasant way to spend our time (it took Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, so we had very little teaching that week.) We got to see a bunch of our friends from Buckland and we were able to relax and get away from teaching for a few days. Plus, who can pass up the chance to be a judge?
When we got back, things got a lot better. The drain was fixed by Saturday, with an old-fashioned Roto-rooter machine, and we haven't had any problems with it since. I started responding to emails, etc., but I didn't get around to blogging until today.
Since the trip to Yongzhou, we haven't had much in the way of excitement. We recently re-booked our tickets home because we found out, for sure, that we are done teaching on June 27th. Currently we plan to go to Beijing from the 6/28 to 7/1, and then be back to the U.S. by 7/3, but it seems that we may have a six day vacation next week. If we do, we may squeeze in a trip to Beijing then and try to visit Xi'an or another city at the end of June. Either way, we're excited to be home in time for a good old-fashioned BBQ.
This week I showed clips of Hamlet in some of my classes (those that were able to get DVD players.) I never thought I'd watch the first 40 minutes of Hamlet (the Zeffirelli version) 12 times in my life, but it seems I have outdone myself again. I'm sort of interested to see what the rest is like; I enjoyed the parts that I saw. Even Mel Gibson does a good job, although I have to agree with the students, who all told me that Glenn Close is not beautiful.
I'm afraid that's all for now. I haven't posted any new pictures recently, in part because I loaned my memory card to a student, and in part because nothing picture-worthy has happened. I'll try to take some more of the school to put up, though, because I think some people would be interested in seeing how it is set up--almost like a miniature town within the town. Talk to you guys soon.
Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts
Friday, May 30, 2008
Sunday, April 27, 2008
English Competition & Dead Animals
Last week was, over all, an average week. Classes went pretty well, I think. I mentioned that we were doing disabilities in class, and I expected some hilarious sentences. I did get some good examples of disablities like "can't smile" and "doesn't have hair," which were hilarious, but on the whole the students did a really good job. For part of the lesson we talked about famous people that had disabilities, and they knew a lot of famous Westerners like Beethoven, Stephen Hawking, Helen Keller, etc. that had disabilities. I think that overall they did a good job. In the key classes, which have the best students, we talked a little about Milton's "Sonnet XIX" on blindness and about his disability. Oh, in the other classes I did a poem by Shel Silverstein about confusing an anteater with an aunt-eater, but no one got it, so I think they might not have enjoyed it as much as I did.
Another important update - I mentioned the mouse in our apartment. Well, he did disappear after we put out the poison (although he ate four out of the five piles of poison, so either it was incredibly delicious or incredibly slow-acting.) I thought that maybe our problems with him were over. However, this morning I woke up to find our kitchen flooded- at least an inch of water over all the floor. Fortunately it's set down a little bit from the hallway, so the water stayed in the kitchen, but it still wasn't a great sight. I got as much of the water mopped up as I could, and then I checked the drain. Now, we knew the drain wasn't working very well (the sink has a little hose that goes into a hole in the floor, so we could see the "pipes.") I pulled out the rubber hose and checked it, and it was working fine, so I figured that our drain was clogged further in and that the other apartments all used the same main drain, so our kitchen was flooding. I don't even know if that makes sense, but it sounded good to me. I thought I'd poke around down there with a wire hanger and see if I could dislodge whatever was blocking the drain (I assumed it was food, since there's no such thing as a garbage disposal.)
After a minute of pushing and pulling with the hanger, I pulled out a dark clump of (what I thought was) moldy food. I pushed it to one side and continued to poke around, but I couldn't find anything else. Then I noticed that the mold had a tail. Yes, yes, it was the mouse. Disgusting, of course. I picked it up using a plastic glove as a bag and put it in a trash bag, which we need to take up to the school dumpster today. As Charlie says on "It's Always Sunny," cleaning out the rat traps "takes an emotional toll." Regardless, I'm glad to know it's dead, and I hope it didn't have time to reproduce before it died. The drain is, unfortunately, still clogged, so David said he'd send the repairman over today.
On another note, yesterday was the English competition. Overall, I think it was good, although it wasn't the best experience of my time in China. We sat outside on the "playground," a.k.a. the huge dirt plaza in the middle of the school, under the burning hot sun. Jane, the vice-principal, lent us her umbrella for some shade, which was nice, and the school did provide bottled water, but still it was unpleasantly hot. Anyway, I ended up having a good time. The students had to give a prepared introduction and a recitation and then talk impromptu about another topic. They all did surprisingly well (especially my students, I'd like to add. It did help, of course, that my students were the oldest ones and have had the most time to learn English.) Some of the highlights were: a Senior 1 student (Josh's grade) came out screaming "We will rock you"; a student saying that many people were afraid of sharks after seeing the movie "Jews" (at least, that's how he pronounced it); a student holding up a piece of candy and saying how "sweet and friendly" it looked; numerous students beginning their speech by saying how they were "confidence" about giving their speech; and last, a student, on being asked to describe her English teacher, said he was "short, fat, and very clever."
Afterwards we were treated to dinner in the school cafeteria with some of the other English teachers, and it was actually pretty nice. The food wasn't that great, but it was ok, and some people actually spoke English to us, so it was an improvement. When we had finished eating, we were told that we could "go have a rest," because they wanted to stay and drink and "talk in Chinese, which you don't understand." It might have been the most interesting way that I've ever been asked to leave a dinner (I don't think I've ever been asked to leave before, but maybe I've just forgotten.)
Today we were supposed to go visit some caves nearby which have an underground lake that you can go across. Unfortunately (not really) it was raining today, so we'll stay home--although we will have to go out to eat, since we have a kitchen that is flooded and has decomposing mouse bits all over. We do, apparently, have a holiday this week. We may end up going to Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province. I'm not sure if we will - it's a 7-hour bus ride, and we don't really know anything about it, but it might be worth it just to get out of the house. Plus it has a Wal-Mart, so, way to go Sam Walton.
All right, I believe that's all for today. Oh, I almost forgot my other story. Twice this week I've been surprised to find animal heads where I least expected them. First, I was at the supermarket buying pork, and it's just all spread out on a metal slab and you just pick up the chunk that you want and have them weigh it. Well, I reached out, grabbed one, and realized that there was a whole pile of skinned pigs' heads looking up at me (eyes and teeth included.) That was pretty gross, but then yesterday at dinner I was helping myself to the mushroom and duck soup when I came across a big bone. Turns out it was the bill of the duck, with the whole head still attached. Also very gross.
Ok, enough. I'll tell you what we end up doing with our holidays. Oh, and I found out I have exams next week, so that means an extra day or two off. Not for Josh, unfortunately.
Take care.
Another important update - I mentioned the mouse in our apartment. Well, he did disappear after we put out the poison (although he ate four out of the five piles of poison, so either it was incredibly delicious or incredibly slow-acting.) I thought that maybe our problems with him were over. However, this morning I woke up to find our kitchen flooded- at least an inch of water over all the floor. Fortunately it's set down a little bit from the hallway, so the water stayed in the kitchen, but it still wasn't a great sight. I got as much of the water mopped up as I could, and then I checked the drain. Now, we knew the drain wasn't working very well (the sink has a little hose that goes into a hole in the floor, so we could see the "pipes.") I pulled out the rubber hose and checked it, and it was working fine, so I figured that our drain was clogged further in and that the other apartments all used the same main drain, so our kitchen was flooding. I don't even know if that makes sense, but it sounded good to me. I thought I'd poke around down there with a wire hanger and see if I could dislodge whatever was blocking the drain (I assumed it was food, since there's no such thing as a garbage disposal.)
After a minute of pushing and pulling with the hanger, I pulled out a dark clump of (what I thought was) moldy food. I pushed it to one side and continued to poke around, but I couldn't find anything else. Then I noticed that the mold had a tail. Yes, yes, it was the mouse. Disgusting, of course. I picked it up using a plastic glove as a bag and put it in a trash bag, which we need to take up to the school dumpster today. As Charlie says on "It's Always Sunny," cleaning out the rat traps "takes an emotional toll." Regardless, I'm glad to know it's dead, and I hope it didn't have time to reproduce before it died. The drain is, unfortunately, still clogged, so David said he'd send the repairman over today.
On another note, yesterday was the English competition. Overall, I think it was good, although it wasn't the best experience of my time in China. We sat outside on the "playground," a.k.a. the huge dirt plaza in the middle of the school, under the burning hot sun. Jane, the vice-principal, lent us her umbrella for some shade, which was nice, and the school did provide bottled water, but still it was unpleasantly hot. Anyway, I ended up having a good time. The students had to give a prepared introduction and a recitation and then talk impromptu about another topic. They all did surprisingly well (especially my students, I'd like to add. It did help, of course, that my students were the oldest ones and have had the most time to learn English.) Some of the highlights were: a Senior 1 student (Josh's grade) came out screaming "We will rock you"; a student saying that many people were afraid of sharks after seeing the movie "Jews" (at least, that's how he pronounced it); a student holding up a piece of candy and saying how "sweet and friendly" it looked; numerous students beginning their speech by saying how they were "confidence" about giving their speech; and last, a student, on being asked to describe her English teacher, said he was "short, fat, and very clever."
Afterwards we were treated to dinner in the school cafeteria with some of the other English teachers, and it was actually pretty nice. The food wasn't that great, but it was ok, and some people actually spoke English to us, so it was an improvement. When we had finished eating, we were told that we could "go have a rest," because they wanted to stay and drink and "talk in Chinese, which you don't understand." It might have been the most interesting way that I've ever been asked to leave a dinner (I don't think I've ever been asked to leave before, but maybe I've just forgotten.)
Today we were supposed to go visit some caves nearby which have an underground lake that you can go across. Unfortunately (not really) it was raining today, so we'll stay home--although we will have to go out to eat, since we have a kitchen that is flooded and has decomposing mouse bits all over. We do, apparently, have a holiday this week. We may end up going to Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province. I'm not sure if we will - it's a 7-hour bus ride, and we don't really know anything about it, but it might be worth it just to get out of the house. Plus it has a Wal-Mart, so, way to go Sam Walton.
All right, I believe that's all for today. Oh, I almost forgot my other story. Twice this week I've been surprised to find animal heads where I least expected them. First, I was at the supermarket buying pork, and it's just all spread out on a metal slab and you just pick up the chunk that you want and have them weigh it. Well, I reached out, grabbed one, and realized that there was a whole pile of skinned pigs' heads looking up at me (eyes and teeth included.) That was pretty gross, but then yesterday at dinner I was helping myself to the mushroom and duck soup when I came across a big bone. Turns out it was the bill of the duck, with the whole head still attached. Also very gross.
Ok, enough. I'll tell you what we end up doing with our holidays. Oh, and I found out I have exams next week, so that means an extra day or two off. Not for Josh, unfortunately.
Take care.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Respect / Michael Jackson (again)
Well, I'd like to be the first to tell you that all the rumors that Chinese students are incredibly respectful is a bunch of bull-plop. 3 or 4 of my classes are terrible! And this is coming after my experience as a sub. Now, I haven't had any really bad encounters with students yet, but I can see that a few are on the horizon (I think that I'm going to have to make examples of a few students to get the rest back in line.) The problem is the language barrier - the bad students just pretend not to understand me. For example, in one class I asked two disruptive students to leave the room (there isn't a principal or an office or anything like that). They just sat there and stared at me until someone translated for me. Then one tried to haul the other one out bodily. I ended up letting them stay because it was like a comedy of errors.
Today half of my classes made fun of my laugh. Ok, I know that my laugh sounds funny, and by now I'm pretty used to other people's reactions. But this was like a circus show, it was ridiculous. It wasn't a big deal except for the fact that I couldn't get one of the classes to settle down after that. Don't worry - I got my chance to laugh at them. Some of the attention desperate kids were showing these karate moves as they explained something about the Olympics, and I was so surprised that I started laughing in the middle of class. Fortunately, now I know that they've never heard an American laugh before, so I'm going to control myself from now on.
Tonight is English Corner again. I sort of dread it because, unlike the classes, I can't just teach something and then give them stuff to work on. Instead I have to be a one-man show for an hour (usually Josh and I split up so that we don't have to cram all the kids into one area.) Well, after Tuesday's experience with Michael Jackson, I decided not to give up too easily. Tonight I found a nice little YouTube video with the lyrics for the Jackson 5 ABC song. They said they wanted to learn a song, so I hope this works. Of course, it doesn't help that the internet is so slow right now that I still haven't been able to download the whole song.
All right, I've still got stuff to do before English Corner at 6:00, so I'm gonna go. I know, I still haven't put up the other stuff, but I'll do my best. I am planning on taking more pictures, too, but it's been so rainy that I don't think it's worth it right now.
Today half of my classes made fun of my laugh. Ok, I know that my laugh sounds funny, and by now I'm pretty used to other people's reactions. But this was like a circus show, it was ridiculous. It wasn't a big deal except for the fact that I couldn't get one of the classes to settle down after that. Don't worry - I got my chance to laugh at them. Some of the attention desperate kids were showing these karate moves as they explained something about the Olympics, and I was so surprised that I started laughing in the middle of class. Fortunately, now I know that they've never heard an American laugh before, so I'm going to control myself from now on.
Tonight is English Corner again. I sort of dread it because, unlike the classes, I can't just teach something and then give them stuff to work on. Instead I have to be a one-man show for an hour (usually Josh and I split up so that we don't have to cram all the kids into one area.) Well, after Tuesday's experience with Michael Jackson, I decided not to give up too easily. Tonight I found a nice little YouTube video with the lyrics for the Jackson 5 ABC song. They said they wanted to learn a song, so I hope this works. Of course, it doesn't help that the internet is so slow right now that I still haven't been able to download the whole song.
All right, I've still got stuff to do before English Corner at 6:00, so I'm gonna go. I know, I still haven't put up the other stuff, but I'll do my best. I am planning on taking more pictures, too, but it's been so rainy that I don't think it's worth it right now.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Yesterday's Stories
For some reason, yesterday was full of hilarious stories. It all started off with my lesson plan - this week we are working on expressing opinions. Most of the students have done a good job with this. After a warm-up and an introduction to the lesson, I usually get them to write a few sentences that are opinions, and I walk around the room and help them as I go. I got about halfway around the room when I stopped and read this one girl's practice opinion. It read:
"I wish that China could be the master of the world."
Chairman Mao would be proud indeed!
Another opinion was that:
"I believe that China will beat the U.S.A. in basketball."
I tried to joke around with the students and say, "No, no. I don't want China to win." They just stared back at me, so finally I added, "But maybe America will lose. After all - you have Yao Ming." By the way, they worship Yao Ming here. They also expect me to know all their other Olympic athletes' names. I don't know how to tell them that I don't even know America's Olympic athletes' names, let alone China's.
Another funny thing that happened was the English Corner, which is sort of like a club for kids that really like learning English. The kids that come are always really fun, and we do it twice a week. It's actually sort of nice, but it's hard to come up with something a large group can do for an hour. Anyway, last night we did music videos, and the artist that THEY picked was Michael Jackson (who, by the way, is incredibly popular here. I am convinced that most 3rd world countries are operating about 20 years behind the U.S.A., and this is evidence.) Anyway, I've never seen someone be scared of the Thriller music video (especially when it is played on a sunny afternoon), but the girls kept screaming and gasping. I'm not sure they have anything like the horror genre of films here. After that we watched Billie Jean and Beat It.
The best part, though, was that I ran out of things to do, so I panicked and started telling them about Michael Jackson singing with the Jackson 5. One of the students (whose English name is Longer, by the way, and his best friend's name is Shorter), cut me off and said that he knew the story. He starts telling a story about how Michael Jackson's dad wouldn't let him learn how to play the piano, so one night, when he was three, he snuck into his sister's room and started playing. . . Sound familiar to anyone? Well, I thought to myself, that sounds like Mozart, but since I don't know anything about Michael Jackson, I'll let him keep going. Then another student, whose English name is Little Stone (and whose big brother's name is Big Stone), cut Longer off and said, "That's Mozart."
So what do I do? I say, "Yeah, but I'm pretty sure it happened to Michael Jackson too."
Ok, I had no idea what to say, but I had to do something. After that I told them it was time to go, because I didn't want to get myself into any more trouble.
After English Corner we went to try a "McDonald's- style" restaurant. We had to point to the value meal we wanted, which actually worked out rather well, until we got our food: Hamburger, fries, chicken nuggets. All pretty good, or at least decent. And then, to drink: Hot milk. Interesting combination. Fortunately I found peanut-butter / chocolate oreos in the supermarket and ate a whole pack (not a U.S. size pack, just so you know - only like 10 cookies) to compensate.
Ok, time to wrap this up. I promise I will tell some of the stuff about the flight next time.
"I wish that China could be the master of the world."
Chairman Mao would be proud indeed!
Another opinion was that:
"I believe that China will beat the U.S.A. in basketball."
I tried to joke around with the students and say, "No, no. I don't want China to win." They just stared back at me, so finally I added, "But maybe America will lose. After all - you have Yao Ming." By the way, they worship Yao Ming here. They also expect me to know all their other Olympic athletes' names. I don't know how to tell them that I don't even know America's Olympic athletes' names, let alone China's.
Another funny thing that happened was the English Corner, which is sort of like a club for kids that really like learning English. The kids that come are always really fun, and we do it twice a week. It's actually sort of nice, but it's hard to come up with something a large group can do for an hour. Anyway, last night we did music videos, and the artist that THEY picked was Michael Jackson (who, by the way, is incredibly popular here. I am convinced that most 3rd world countries are operating about 20 years behind the U.S.A., and this is evidence.) Anyway, I've never seen someone be scared of the Thriller music video (especially when it is played on a sunny afternoon), but the girls kept screaming and gasping. I'm not sure they have anything like the horror genre of films here. After that we watched Billie Jean and Beat It.
The best part, though, was that I ran out of things to do, so I panicked and started telling them about Michael Jackson singing with the Jackson 5. One of the students (whose English name is Longer, by the way, and his best friend's name is Shorter), cut me off and said that he knew the story. He starts telling a story about how Michael Jackson's dad wouldn't let him learn how to play the piano, so one night, when he was three, he snuck into his sister's room and started playing. . . Sound familiar to anyone? Well, I thought to myself, that sounds like Mozart, but since I don't know anything about Michael Jackson, I'll let him keep going. Then another student, whose English name is Little Stone (and whose big brother's name is Big Stone), cut Longer off and said, "That's Mozart."
So what do I do? I say, "Yeah, but I'm pretty sure it happened to Michael Jackson too."
Ok, I had no idea what to say, but I had to do something. After that I told them it was time to go, because I didn't want to get myself into any more trouble.
After English Corner we went to try a "McDonald's- style" restaurant. We had to point to the value meal we wanted, which actually worked out rather well, until we got our food: Hamburger, fries, chicken nuggets. All pretty good, or at least decent. And then, to drink: Hot milk. Interesting combination. Fortunately I found peanut-butter / chocolate oreos in the supermarket and ate a whole pack (not a U.S. size pack, just so you know - only like 10 cookies) to compensate.
Ok, time to wrap this up. I promise I will tell some of the stuff about the flight next time.
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