This week I am teaching 2 extra classes, one for each freshman class, due to our upcoming Christmas vacation to Hong Kong which is a week earlier than when classes are supposed to finish. In English we call this a make-up class, and I forgot that might not translate into Chinese directly. My freshmen knew (I think?) that it was simply an extra class to make up for missing the last week of classes, but Leslie told several of her students that I was teaching a make-up class and when we met with them later, they asked how my cosmetics class went.
I forgot that make-up has multiple meanings and they were not aware of the one I was referring to! Bless their hearts! The shocking part of it all is that me teaching a cosmetic class was not a strange concept to them, the student just asked if I could she could join my next class :-P I was called a fashion (read: fashionable) woman in class by my students today, and have been asked on multiple occasions where I get my 'eyelash paste' (read: mascara) and how come I look so beautiful (read: any foreigner in China is beautiful).
On the note of beauty, I couldn't help but smile and laugh when 2 of the girls who come to my office hours each week were talking about makeup and asking what type of makeup I use when they said that bad eyeliner makes them look like a Panda! I've grown up calling that raccoon eyes, but am forever changing my expression - a Panda is much cuter!
We survived our 13.5 hour work day by eating lots of great food at the restaurant by school and discovering that our offices, as simple as they may seem, are quite conducive to afternoon naps (hey, we've got to do something during our 2-hr long breaks). English Corner tonight was about Christmas and as always there was absolutely no structure so we had a Q&A session for an hour or so. We did sing for the students though! This might have been the one time I would have liked to have a secret fly on the wall recording us - Leslie and I singing 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas' and 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' was probably one of the funniest things our students have seen in a while. Silly American teachers!
I guess we were just solidifying our rockstar status. I had at least 20 cell phone pictures taken of me while conducting English Corner, and all the boys there (and most of the girls, too) came up to me after and asked to have their picture taken. And they yelled at me when I tried to bend down to be on their level for pictures. I'm starting to feel more like a freak show than a rockstar: "Hey, look at that tall freakshow of a foreigner!!" On second thought, maybe I should stop wearing heels...
Monday, December 8, 2008
Clueless
I woke up early bright eyed (but definitely not bushy tailed) this morning preparing for a long (13ish hour) day. Walking to wait for the bus with my large load (13 hours leads to needing lots of books, papers, etc.) in tow, Leslie and I both had a minor panic attack thinking we had missed our bus. Finally we saw one of our coworkers who always takes the bus with us – phew!
Turns out everyone was by the school gate because some of the local people who live around the perimeter of the school were protesting at the gate and no cars/busses could get in or out of the school! How bizarre! Thank goodness our co-worker (fellow English teacher who understands perfect English but almost never communicates with us) told us to follow her, and we busted through the crowd together. People walking in and out was not a problem, they were trying to block vehicles for some reason. First I asked DanDan, the admin at our school who works with our students and their schedules, but she shrugged her shoulders clueless. Next I asked our co-worker and she said, “Maybe it’s because of the water problem?” My first thought was, “What water problem? My water worked just fine this morning!” Leslie asked one of her students who was shaddy and would not tell her what was going on (I think she just did not know but didn’t want to seem clueless in front of her).
We caught the bus outside of the school gate since there was not way it was entering the school (even though it could have easily taken out the 25ish people standing there, haha) and some other co-workers had to go to the back of the bus and direct the bus driver on how to back the [coach] bus out of the narrow road leading up to our school – hilarious! We are backing out of a small street because the demonstrators would not let us in, and in turn we went the wrong way down a one-way road to catch the high-way (okay so that’s not too out of the normal) and caused another traffic jam on top of the on outside of the school. On a Monday morning when all you want is to be back in bed, entertainment like that is definitely much more amusing than it should be. After the bus was moving in the right direction we asked another co-worker what in the world was going on and he told us “the farmers [motioning to the shack houses surrounding the school] are upset.” That’s as much of an answer as we got.
And that is typical for China – we don’t know what’s going on half of the time, but just have to laugh it off because that is all we can do!
Turns out everyone was by the school gate because some of the local people who live around the perimeter of the school were protesting at the gate and no cars/busses could get in or out of the school! How bizarre! Thank goodness our co-worker (fellow English teacher who understands perfect English but almost never communicates with us) told us to follow her, and we busted through the crowd together. People walking in and out was not a problem, they were trying to block vehicles for some reason. First I asked DanDan, the admin at our school who works with our students and their schedules, but she shrugged her shoulders clueless. Next I asked our co-worker and she said, “Maybe it’s because of the water problem?” My first thought was, “What water problem? My water worked just fine this morning!” Leslie asked one of her students who was shaddy and would not tell her what was going on (I think she just did not know but didn’t want to seem clueless in front of her).
We caught the bus outside of the school gate since there was not way it was entering the school (even though it could have easily taken out the 25ish people standing there, haha) and some other co-workers had to go to the back of the bus and direct the bus driver on how to back the [coach] bus out of the narrow road leading up to our school – hilarious! We are backing out of a small street because the demonstrators would not let us in, and in turn we went the wrong way down a one-way road to catch the high-way (okay so that’s not too out of the normal) and caused another traffic jam on top of the on outside of the school. On a Monday morning when all you want is to be back in bed, entertainment like that is definitely much more amusing than it should be. After the bus was moving in the right direction we asked another co-worker what in the world was going on and he told us “the farmers [motioning to the shack houses surrounding the school] are upset.” That’s as much of an answer as we got.
And that is typical for China – we don’t know what’s going on half of the time, but just have to laugh it off because that is all we can do!
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Teacher or Judge?
Lately it's felt as though I spend as much time judging various competitions as I do teaching! Tonight we judged our third competition - the first 2 were English speech competitions, this one was an English Song competition. This time it was more than just Leslie, me, and one other person; we were part of a 6-person panel. I'm kind getting used to being a judge but it's still a rather weird feeling. Tonight's was especially awkward and hilarious! First, I do not and can not sing (besides to myself in my apartment when, of course, I sound just like a superstar). Second, it's really weird when some of our students are up on stage and we have to be impartial! Regardless, I played the role of an American Idol judge tonight (I'd like to think I was the nice one like Paula, the Chinese teacher next to me was being very harsh!).
To make the situation even funnier, we didn't recognize a lot of the songs on the list! Popular English songs in China are either A) 10-15 year-old songs or B) Songs NO ONE in America has ever heard of. Here's the night's playlist:
-If I Ain't Got You by Alicia Keys
-Crush on You
-Far Away from Home
-No No
-Drowning by the Backstreet Boys
-Skater Boy by Avril Lavigne
-Nobody's Fool by Avril Lavigne
-Tell Me Why
-Anything But Ordinary by Avril Lavigne
-It Is Your Chance
-Bring It All Back
-Hey Jude by the Beatles
-Whenever Wherever by Shakira
-Baby One More Time by Britney Spears
-Because of You by Kelly Clarkson
-Just One Last Dance
-Wanna Be by the Spice Girls
-Whistle Down the Wind
-When There Was Me and You
-Walk Away by Kelly Clarkson
Needless to say I had many middle school flashbacks watching the show :) OH China...
To make the situation even funnier, we didn't recognize a lot of the songs on the list! Popular English songs in China are either A) 10-15 year-old songs or B) Songs NO ONE in America has ever heard of. Here's the night's playlist:
-If I Ain't Got You by Alicia Keys
-Crush on You
-Far Away from Home
-No No
-Drowning by the Backstreet Boys
-Skater Boy by Avril Lavigne
-Nobody's Fool by Avril Lavigne
-Tell Me Why
-Anything But Ordinary by Avril Lavigne
-It Is Your Chance
-Bring It All Back
-Hey Jude by the Beatles
-Whenever Wherever by Shakira
-Baby One More Time by Britney Spears
-Because of You by Kelly Clarkson
-Just One Last Dance
-Wanna Be by the Spice Girls
-Whistle Down the Wind
-When There Was Me and You
-Walk Away by Kelly Clarkson
Needless to say I had many middle school flashbacks watching the show :) OH China...
Monday, December 1, 2008
Mrs. Ding?
Well right now I am technically Miss Ding (Dīng Shān Shan, to be exact) but my freshman class 3 (one that invited me to the picnic) today tried very hard to convince me to marry a Chinese man and stay in China. We are discussing families & love/marriage in class this week but this class got me off-topic and on tangents for practically the entire class! Their arguments for why I should marry a Chinese man:
1. The man's family pays for the wedding (Dad would like that one haha)
2. Engagements are unnecessary (who needs to wait that long for a wedding anyways, right?)
3. Instead of calling your husband/wife's parents your in-laws, you simple call them your mom and dad (I'd gain another set of parents - not that mine aren't great already!!)
4. I could be a teacher and only work 20 (that's how many hours they think I work...I didn't want to admit that I work less than 1/2 that, haha)
5. Chinese get over 4 weeks vacation/holiday in a year
6. Many companies give extra vacation for a honeymoon (even more vacation!)
7. A woman can get up to a year off work when she has a kid
8. You must be 20 to legally marry (perfect, I'm older than that)
Despite all these arguments, staying in China to marry is definitely not in my future at the moment. They forgot that I would most likely tower over my husband and never get to see my family and friends! Students trying to marry me off = just another day in the classroom here in China. My students never cease to amaze and amuse me and they have an uncanny ability to make even Monday mornings turn into a great time :)
1. The man's family pays for the wedding (Dad would like that one haha)
2. Engagements are unnecessary (who needs to wait that long for a wedding anyways, right?)
3. Instead of calling your husband/wife's parents your in-laws, you simple call them your mom and dad (I'd gain another set of parents - not that mine aren't great already!!)
4. I could be a teacher and only work 20 (that's how many hours they think I work...I didn't want to admit that I work less than 1/2 that, haha)
5. Chinese get over 4 weeks vacation/holiday in a year
6. Many companies give extra vacation for a honeymoon (even more vacation!)
7. A woman can get up to a year off work when she has a kid
8. You must be 20 to legally marry (perfect, I'm older than that)
Despite all these arguments, staying in China to marry is definitely not in my future at the moment. They forgot that I would most likely tower over my husband and never get to see my family and friends! Students trying to marry me off = just another day in the classroom here in China. My students never cease to amaze and amuse me and they have an uncanny ability to make even Monday mornings turn into a great time :)
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Sara's Series of Unfortunate Events
Everyone's got their good weeks and bad weeks, and it's no different in China. This ever-present concept of "luck" was not on my side this weekend, and the klutz genes were in full force.
It started Monday when I walked into my first class of Sophomores excited to tell them we're watching a movie this week and I'll let them out of class early, only to learn they've already seen Dead Poets Society! I knew my other 2 sophomore classes had not seen it so I (ignorantly so) assumed they hadn't seen it either. Wrong! Apparently one of their teachers had shown it last year. On-the-spot lesson re-planning had to take place, but I'm getting semi-used to being a teacher so that went well.
After school Tuesday we volunteered at the Fifth Tone (coffee shop) English Corner where I've met some awesome people who come every week (new Chinese friends to take us shopping and show us around) but this week I got stuck with 4 guys, 2 very smart university students with great English, and 2 junior-high schoolers with practically no spoken English skills. I had to juggle the 2 university students talking my ear off (both go to the Business College so they love chatting it up about the business world with me) and getting watched over my shoulder (literally) for most of the 2 hours by the concerned mother of the younger guys. She was concerned they did not understand anything. Maybe she should get tutors instead of throwing them into an English corner then getting mad at me for them not understanding! Ugh! Everyone else was with my favorites having fun conversations and I was painfully trying to make 4 guys make up a story about a picture of a cowboy riding a horse, ha! Anyways, at the end, one of the younger guys said he was very happy after the English Corner because he finally got to practice his English so I that was rewarding.
Wednesday mornings I have office hours for 1.5 hrs during the period where I do not have class. I have a group of about 6 regular girls who come in and talk with me the entire time. Although I get no work done, it's fun to talk to them and help them conquer their fear of speaking in front of me and the class. I also take advantage of their time with me and have them help me out with how to get around the city, or where to buy things I need (last week they wrote down their favorite spices in Chinese for me so I could go to the store and get good spices to cook with since I can not read any of them in the market!). Anywho, this week I was greeted by a newcomer - 15 minutes before my office hours even begin! Leslie and I were still eating breakfast so I had to ask her to come back. I felt a little rude, but as we were warned, you've got to learn when to say no because the students will literally take up every morsel of your free time if you let them. It's actually quite liberating when you get the "no" word down. I'm always a little flustered after office hours though because I have to run to my next class. Coffee cup in hand (my students laugh at my coffee addiction, "it's not good for you") and purse and school bag in tow, my graceful self bit it UP the stairs in the classroom building. Thank goodness one of my best sophomore students was behind me because I broke the coffee mug, sliced my hand and wrist on the broken pieces, had coffee all over myself, and bruised both kneecaps on the fall down. Oh did I mention that this was all 30 seconds before class was to start? And I was very advantageous that morning and was wearing my suit! What an oxymoronic sight I must have been. I shamefully walked into class trying to hide my battle scars. I thought I was covering it up well until Vicky, a little bit of a brown-noser but a sweetheart whose mission is to make sure I am completely satisfied with my experience here, told me I had "soil" in my hair. Note: soil=coffee. Oy vey! I came home in pain from my fall and decided to forego Chinese lessons for a nap to sleep off my embarrassment!
To top if off I got ripped off at the DVD store and my second season of Lost was missing a DVD. Thursday we showed Dead Poets society for those sophomores who had not seen it but had to go into school 4 hours early because of the bus schedules. We chose not to tell our students we'd be in our office since it was technically our day off and we'd had a long week already - but we helped Bernie and Jane (girls who took us on the trip for the National Holiday) practice their speeches for the final round of the competition, and then talked to them forever! Bless their hearts, they bought us dinner and told us they'd help us book our flights to Hong Kong for xmas.
And now I'm sick for the 3rd time here! My immune system sucks! Someone told me I should live in a bubble and I'm beginning to think that is a better and better idea :) Jane booked our flights today and we'll be gone Dec. 24-Jan.3 in Hong Kong and the surrounding cities - so we'll get to spend Christmas AND New Years in Hong Kong. I can not wait!! I guess the misfortunate events turned into better luck by the end of the week - but it certainly adds to the hilarity that is life in China!
One of my freshmen classes has invited me to their class picnic tomorrow (saturday) morning. I am too nice and said I would attend, so I'm venturing to the other campus by public transportation for the first time tomorrow morning to mingle with their class for an hour or so. The picnic is from 9-2 but there was NO WAY I was going to meet them at 9am to have my ears talked off for 5 hours!!
It started Monday when I walked into my first class of Sophomores excited to tell them we're watching a movie this week and I'll let them out of class early, only to learn they've already seen Dead Poets Society! I knew my other 2 sophomore classes had not seen it so I (ignorantly so) assumed they hadn't seen it either. Wrong! Apparently one of their teachers had shown it last year. On-the-spot lesson re-planning had to take place, but I'm getting semi-used to being a teacher so that went well.
After school Tuesday we volunteered at the Fifth Tone (coffee shop) English Corner where I've met some awesome people who come every week (new Chinese friends to take us shopping and show us around) but this week I got stuck with 4 guys, 2 very smart university students with great English, and 2 junior-high schoolers with practically no spoken English skills. I had to juggle the 2 university students talking my ear off (both go to the Business College so they love chatting it up about the business world with me) and getting watched over my shoulder (literally) for most of the 2 hours by the concerned mother of the younger guys. She was concerned they did not understand anything. Maybe she should get tutors instead of throwing them into an English corner then getting mad at me for them not understanding! Ugh! Everyone else was with my favorites having fun conversations and I was painfully trying to make 4 guys make up a story about a picture of a cowboy riding a horse, ha! Anyways, at the end, one of the younger guys said he was very happy after the English Corner because he finally got to practice his English so I that was rewarding.
Wednesday mornings I have office hours for 1.5 hrs during the period where I do not have class. I have a group of about 6 regular girls who come in and talk with me the entire time. Although I get no work done, it's fun to talk to them and help them conquer their fear of speaking in front of me and the class. I also take advantage of their time with me and have them help me out with how to get around the city, or where to buy things I need (last week they wrote down their favorite spices in Chinese for me so I could go to the store and get good spices to cook with since I can not read any of them in the market!). Anywho, this week I was greeted by a newcomer - 15 minutes before my office hours even begin! Leslie and I were still eating breakfast so I had to ask her to come back. I felt a little rude, but as we were warned, you've got to learn when to say no because the students will literally take up every morsel of your free time if you let them. It's actually quite liberating when you get the "no" word down. I'm always a little flustered after office hours though because I have to run to my next class. Coffee cup in hand (my students laugh at my coffee addiction, "it's not good for you") and purse and school bag in tow, my graceful self bit it UP the stairs in the classroom building. Thank goodness one of my best sophomore students was behind me because I broke the coffee mug, sliced my hand and wrist on the broken pieces, had coffee all over myself, and bruised both kneecaps on the fall down. Oh did I mention that this was all 30 seconds before class was to start? And I was very advantageous that morning and was wearing my suit! What an oxymoronic sight I must have been. I shamefully walked into class trying to hide my battle scars. I thought I was covering it up well until Vicky, a little bit of a brown-noser but a sweetheart whose mission is to make sure I am completely satisfied with my experience here, told me I had "soil" in my hair. Note: soil=coffee. Oy vey! I came home in pain from my fall and decided to forego Chinese lessons for a nap to sleep off my embarrassment!
To top if off I got ripped off at the DVD store and my second season of Lost was missing a DVD. Thursday we showed Dead Poets society for those sophomores who had not seen it but had to go into school 4 hours early because of the bus schedules. We chose not to tell our students we'd be in our office since it was technically our day off and we'd had a long week already - but we helped Bernie and Jane (girls who took us on the trip for the National Holiday) practice their speeches for the final round of the competition, and then talked to them forever! Bless their hearts, they bought us dinner and told us they'd help us book our flights to Hong Kong for xmas.
And now I'm sick for the 3rd time here! My immune system sucks! Someone told me I should live in a bubble and I'm beginning to think that is a better and better idea :) Jane booked our flights today and we'll be gone Dec. 24-Jan.3 in Hong Kong and the surrounding cities - so we'll get to spend Christmas AND New Years in Hong Kong. I can not wait!! I guess the misfortunate events turned into better luck by the end of the week - but it certainly adds to the hilarity that is life in China!
One of my freshmen classes has invited me to their class picnic tomorrow (saturday) morning. I am too nice and said I would attend, so I'm venturing to the other campus by public transportation for the first time tomorrow morning to mingle with their class for an hour or so. The picnic is from 9-2 but there was NO WAY I was going to meet them at 9am to have my ears talked off for 5 hours!!
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Some pics
Picking out fresh veggie from the local market; In front of the entrance to the campus at which we live (tau hua ping); Very cute little baby at the campus where we teach (zhong gong ling); The massive amount of students who came to my English Corner
Happy Singles' Day!
Or Happy Bachelor's Day...whichever you prefer. Yes, November 11 (11/11 - all singles, get it?!) is Singles Day in China. Haha Les and I had a good laugh when we heard this - it's the greatest thing ever! Kind of like a big F*** you to Valentine's day, huh? We taught all day long so no celebrating for us girls, but some of my students told me they will celebrate by having a BBQ tonight. So innocent of them!
There was a random mid-autumn monsoon in Changsha (and most of southern China from what I understand) last week (Wanted: rainboots) but now it has cooled off significantly and has been sunny and beautiful the last few days. We've even had blue skies with coulds (you may laugh, but that is rather rare here!) We've been spending our spare time pretending to be professional photographers (Wanted: actual nice camera) so you all can see what life's like here.
Hm, what else? Chinese lessons are going well! We've graduated from Pronunciation (hold the applause, please) and are on to the basics of the language. The characters are VERY hard to learn - we will not learn them in a year - but the pin yin is actually fairly simple to learn. We've found that taxi drivers and the people at our local markets are great people to practice with! I am sure we have made some people's days by our attempts at holding conversations. Our students would be ideal teachers but they are so intent on improving their English whenever they are around us that speaking Chinese with them would just be a joke. Oh well...taxi drivers it is then!
Speaking of students, we were asked to be judges for an English Speech Competition last night! Me, a judge?! What?! I'm no expert in my own language but I pretended to be last night :) Okay, so it wasn't that bad, but I do have a newfound respect for judges of all kind. I felt so bad for those who choked in the spotlight but we had to judge fairly! It was fun to see our students practicing their English in a different environment, and fun to see the skills of the other majors (there were broadcast majors in the competition, engineer majors, etc...it was open to anyone on campus). The most difficult part was remaining unbiased white still keeping up our guanxi (relationship building). Some students who come to us for help often and who have taken us out to eat and show us around (oh, and on a 4-day vacation) were in the competition!! None-the-less I think we remained pretty unbiased. Our students are SO smart and had some great things to say about the topic - What my University means to me. Only downside was we were gone for 14.5 hours (relying on busses is getting a bit inconvenient!)
Teaching is going well all-in-all. I have a group of 5 girls who come into my office hours every Wednesday morning who are just adorable. They stay there the whole 1.5 hours (Im not able to get any work done but it's okay!) and talk about anything from traveling and places I need to go, to recommending good spices for me to cook with, to looking in awe at my American magazines and getting to know me. One of them, Maggie, really wants to study abroad in America and I've made it my newfound mission in my spare time to find some charities/organizations in the states who have scholarships for Chinese students studying abroad in the US. In fact, I have several students who have actively sought out my help in how to study abroad. The cost of their education here is ¥28,000 for 4 years (¥7,000/year). When I tell them the average US yearly tuition is $20,000 (or ¥130,000) they are really crushed. We'll see if I'm successful, but if I could even help one student get a scholarship to go abroad it would make my year. So, if anyone knows of such organizations, please let me know!
There was a random mid-autumn monsoon in Changsha (and most of southern China from what I understand) last week (Wanted: rainboots) but now it has cooled off significantly and has been sunny and beautiful the last few days. We've even had blue skies with coulds (you may laugh, but that is rather rare here!) We've been spending our spare time pretending to be professional photographers (Wanted: actual nice camera) so you all can see what life's like here.
Hm, what else? Chinese lessons are going well! We've graduated from Pronunciation (hold the applause, please) and are on to the basics of the language. The characters are VERY hard to learn - we will not learn them in a year - but the pin yin is actually fairly simple to learn. We've found that taxi drivers and the people at our local markets are great people to practice with! I am sure we have made some people's days by our attempts at holding conversations. Our students would be ideal teachers but they are so intent on improving their English whenever they are around us that speaking Chinese with them would just be a joke. Oh well...taxi drivers it is then!
Speaking of students, we were asked to be judges for an English Speech Competition last night! Me, a judge?! What?! I'm no expert in my own language but I pretended to be last night :) Okay, so it wasn't that bad, but I do have a newfound respect for judges of all kind. I felt so bad for those who choked in the spotlight but we had to judge fairly! It was fun to see our students practicing their English in a different environment, and fun to see the skills of the other majors (there were broadcast majors in the competition, engineer majors, etc...it was open to anyone on campus). The most difficult part was remaining unbiased white still keeping up our guanxi (relationship building). Some students who come to us for help often and who have taken us out to eat and show us around (oh, and on a 4-day vacation) were in the competition!! None-the-less I think we remained pretty unbiased. Our students are SO smart and had some great things to say about the topic - What my University means to me. Only downside was we were gone for 14.5 hours (relying on busses is getting a bit inconvenient!)
Teaching is going well all-in-all. I have a group of 5 girls who come into my office hours every Wednesday morning who are just adorable. They stay there the whole 1.5 hours (Im not able to get any work done but it's okay!) and talk about anything from traveling and places I need to go, to recommending good spices for me to cook with, to looking in awe at my American magazines and getting to know me. One of them, Maggie, really wants to study abroad in America and I've made it my newfound mission in my spare time to find some charities/organizations in the states who have scholarships for Chinese students studying abroad in the US. In fact, I have several students who have actively sought out my help in how to study abroad. The cost of their education here is ¥28,000 for 4 years (¥7,000/year). When I tell them the average US yearly tuition is $20,000 (or ¥130,000) they are really crushed. We'll see if I'm successful, but if I could even help one student get a scholarship to go abroad it would make my year. So, if anyone knows of such organizations, please let me know!
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