Rain and Rappelling

(Look what we found right outside our bathroom window this morning-- a very jolly young guy rappelling off the side of our apartment! He was installing PVC pipes on the outside and he was so kind to smile for this photo.)

I think the phrase I hear most often in China in English is this: "The weather is so changeable!" My students will say to me nearly every day: "The weather is so changeable!" The other Chinese English teachers will earnestly report to us: "The weather is so changeable!"

Yes, I finally agree. Yesterday the sun appeared just long enough for us to go wreak havoc by rollerblading through all the neighborhoods. My team leader also got rollerblades, so now there are three of us very foreign looking girls who run wild on the streets with slick skates. Little children raced us, and bicycles nearly crashed as the riders craned their necks to observe this crazy sight.

So the weather was nice, because it wasn't raining. But I forgot to wear gloves on our long skating excursion through Nanchang, so I'm sad to write that I once again have chilblains on my fingers. Sigh... I just hope I haven't damaged my fingers for life.

Then today it was rainy again. Joelle and I crammed on the bus to Metro, a German store in Nanchang with some foreign, i.e. German, goods. It took the mandatory 3 hours to buy just a few things. We were in transit or looking for transit for about half of that time.

Then my heart was sunnier, because my student came over to study the word again and to eat some American food. She was here most of the late afternoon and early evening. I made us some spaghetti for dinner, which she had never eaten before. I gave her a heaping bowl of spaghetti, with a fork. It was so fun watching her eat, because she was totally unfamiliar with using a fork. I offered to give her chopsticks, but she was up for the challenge of eating with Western utensils. All in all, I think she thought the spaghetti tasted rather good and that the fork was a rather novel idea.

Thanks again for your thoughts! The time with her was truly blessed, just like last time.

Teaching teachers

Today was rainy and cold again for the sixth consecutive day. I have to remind myself that it is much needed rain, and that I shouldn't get whiny about it.

I only taught one class today during my 7:30 to 4:45 day. The rest of that time was filled with a million office hours, and eating lunch with a student.

My class was okay, and then Joelle, Jonathan, and I went to the student cafeteria for lunch with some of our students. My student and I ate heaping bowls of undercooked dumplings, while listening to the regaling stories of Jonathan's student, who is sort of a part-time male model.

During the day we also discovered that we will be teaching in additional ways. On Thursdays, starting next week, we will still go to English corner, and some of us will teach an hour class for the top English students on the campus. On Saturdays, we will also rotate teaching English to a class of auto mechanics. Yes, some auto mechanics.

Instead of English corner today, we went to visit the office of about a dozen other English teachers. They were all so kind and friendly. Most of the Chinese English teachers were in their late-twenties. We were sent there to talk with them and try to offer them some advice on teaching. We sat on little wooden chairs, as they faced us eagerly expecting some sort of help.

The majority of them have been teaching English to non-English majors for about six years, and they are bored stiff and frustrated in their jobs. Their students are not motivated to learn, and the teachers get the blame when the students do not do well on exams. They have been teaching much longer than we have, but they looked to us as the experts. They were never trained as teachers, although their English is pretty good. They also aren't provided with any resources. They only know how to teach in a very traditional way, which bores them and doesn't do anything to motivate their students.

So basically all we did was try to encourage them as best we could. I just felt a little overwhelmed by these teachers who were really eager for any advice. Or maybe it was hope they were looking for?

Tonight the girls on our team and I made a gigantic salad for dinner. We only eat food doused in grease and oil and MSG, so once and a while it is worth the effort to find some lettuce and wash all the dirt and fertilizer (manure) off of it. Yummy! :) I also found some strawberries at the market for about 50 cents. Gosh, they were heavenly.

It's getting late and I can't think straight anymore, so I'll say goodbye for now.

Ideal attributes

Guten Tag from drizzly China!

Today it is still rainy and cold, but my spirits were in better shape today. I taught four hours of classes in a row, which always wears me out, but I managed to maintain my energy level.

It also helped that the lesson I had prepared was informative, but also somewhat entertaining. We discussed engagement and marriage, which of course made all my little innocent students very excited.

My favorite activity was when we made a list on the blackboard about the ideal attributes in a boyfriend/girlfriend.

Here were some of the girls' ideas for the "perfect" boyfriend:
-Loyal
-Handsome
-Tall
-Responsible
-Honest
-A gentleman
-No smoking

Here were some of the boys' ideas for the "perfect" girlfriend:
-Good cook
-Not too fat
-Not too thin
-Have a long hair (To this I asked, "Only a long hair?" Then they realized their grammar mistake after we all had a hearty laugh).
-Well-educated
-Mature
-Beautiful
-White skin
-Kind
-Should have two eyes, two ears, one nose, one mouth

Anyway, lately I've had a hard time getting around the fact that I feel like my students are all two-dimensional. Is that a terrible thing to say? I don't know. I don't mean it in a demeaning way. It's just something I've been thinking of lately, especially when I try to get them to think critically. They haven't been taught to think critically or outside the box. So when you try to get them to, they have the tendency to shut down or to withdraw in confusion. A few students rise to the challenge, like it is something very new and interesting, but then the other kids in the class will just look at them quizzically.

That's another thing I've noticed, people in China don't thrive on independence or sticking-out of the crowd like most Americans. There are a lot of cultural and social norms that they must adhere to, just because that's the way it's always been. It's not right or wrong, I guess it's just different and it's something I have to adapt to when I'm teaching my students.

I think that's all of the profound observations I have for today. Have a happy Wednesday!

P.S. I was gnawing on a chocolate bar my mom had mailed me. I stopped my gnawing when I noticed this piece of advice on the label: "Enjoy in moderation." Wow, that was aimed right at me!

Toasty toes on a cold day

Receiving packages in China is a wonderful, much-anticipated event for us here. Although several packages that were mailed to us between December 1st and February 1st seem lost in a black hole, other packages have arrived. That includes amazing chocolate from my Mom and "toasty toes" from my aunt.

Today is the third or fourth day of cold and rain here. I'm sort of losing count, and it's supposed to be raining until next Thursday at least. If that happens, it will be raining for 12 days straight. But I'll try not to dwell on it! I should be thankful that the drought is ending here.

So I'm back to teaching in the classroom with a winter coat and gear on. But it seems that my extremities aren't as frigid anymore! I've got self-activated and self-heating "toasty toes" inside my shoes now. Those are little packets that outdoorsmen wear to stay warm. Maybe a Nanchang school building isn't as rugged as a Montana mountain, but I'd almost argue that it is. I mean, it is freezing cold in the classroom, you still have to go to the bathroom in a hole in the ground, you have to hike (up endless stairs), and you have to battle wild animals/students. :)

There isn't too much else to report from here. One of our recent lessons has been about "honesty." It's been a fascinating lesson, probably because it's been so bizarre. I think that my students understand the concept of honesty, but they think every situation has an exception to it. I've discovered that the majority of them think it's sometimes okay to cheat on an exam, or to sometimes not pay bus fare, etc., due to a variety of reasons. In China there are definitely a lot more "gray" areas.

It was also interesting to listen to my students and their logic. I asked the question, "Why is honesty important in society?" My favorite answer: "Honesty is important in society, because honesty is important." OR "Honesty is important in society, because honesty is important in society." Then I would reemphasize the WHY part. Most of them could not come up with a reason, so I made sure to supply them with a variety of reasons, which they seemed confused about.

So we will be teaching until June. We found out, though, that we have two days off for a holiday between now and then. My favorite is that we will have one day off in April for tomb-sweeping day. This is important in China, because everyone goes to clean and pay their respects at their relatives' graves. I'll keep you posted on my plans for this day. :)

Well, how can I be thinking of you? I'm sure you have good/strange/frustrating days too. Have a blessed Tuesday!

P.S. The funeral music finally stopped playing after one week!