Boot camp

Hi, folks! I hope you had a great weekend!

This weekend was pretty blessed. We hung out with our Chinese brothers and sisters for a fun game night on Friday. On Saturday, I got to hang out a lot more with the new team of girls here at our school. I'm enjoying getting to know them. Sunday, we went to fellowship, where I got to "think aloud" with a wonderful group of students from Indonesia. They also told me of crazy stories in Indonesia how their fellowships were burned down by Muslims, etc. They probably feel a lot freer in China, which is also crazy to consider!

After fellowship, Jodi and I hung out with Christine and Sarah, two girls on another Nanchang team who have also returned for a second year in this fair city. We ate lunch, chatted about what's going on with our campuses, and walked around the massive Ba Yi Square downtown. It is chock-full of revoutionary history - just like most squares in China. (See the picture).

Last night Jodi and I had the first of our series of "Open Houses" for our students. Each Monday night we are inviting half of a class over to our apartment to socialize, eat food, have fun, and discuss things in English. It was pretty successful, and I'm excited to continue it. It's a great opportunity to be hospitable and available to our students.

And teaching continues... I have one old class of sophomore Business English students, and three new classes of sophomore Business English students I didn't have last year. I've felt like I can pick up right where I left off with my one old class. We have good discussions, and they are pretty diligent. Then there's my other classes...

To be fair, I've only had the other students for 2 weeks now. They probably still have to warm up to me, but I feel like they are a lot lower level than my old class I have, even though they are the same class level. They are used to chatting in class, and the teacher will only talk loudly over them. That's not going to work for me. I cannot bellow over them.

So we are currently in Miss Laura's Boot Camp. Every day we discuss "RESPECT" and not sitting passively in class to receive information. I've become an expert at taking cellphones they are texting on. And one guy had his headphones on in class. He took them off quickly when I called him out by name, but he didn't see what the big deal was. (It's helpful to learn everyone's names early on).

In addition, a big part of an oral English class is to have THEM share and do the talking, because they don't have much experience with this. Usually their teachers do 90% of the talking. My old class can nearly effortlessly discuss things and speak in front of the class - maybe because I made them do it every day for the past year. It was painful for them at first, but now they've really grown. However, I don't think my new students did this often or ever. It seems to be a very foreign concept. There are a handful of really smart students, but many of the other students are nearly unintelligible when they are speaking, although they've been studying English for at least 6 or 7 years, and are in their second year at college. So speaking in front of others in English seems highly uncomfortable and strange for them.

That will be another important aspect of Miss Laura's Boot Camp - pronunciation, enunciation, speaking in complete sentences, and gaining confidence in front of others. It seems like a daunting task to do with 150 new students, but I'm appreciating the challenge. Thoughts are still always welcome!