"A Smile is the Same Around the World"

I remember some teacher telling me in elementary school that even if you don't speak the same language as someone, you can smile. And they will know what it means. I don't think that teacher ever lived in China...

I was teaching a class the other day and discussing the 2008 Olympics, which will be held in Beijing. My students were excited to tell me what they know.

Did you know that there are five Olympic mascots? Their names are BeiBei, JingJing, HuanHuan, YingYing and NiNi. It's from the phrase Beijing HuanYing Ni, which means, "Welcome to Beijing".

Did you know that they have given cassette tapes to all the taxi drivers in Beijing to encourage them to learn English?

Did you know they are cracking down on spitting in public in Beijing? Spitting is very common here, and not considered taboo or dirty.

Did you know that every Tuesday is "Stand in Line Day" in Beijing? Standing in line isn't a Chinese concept. For months I never got anything done when I moved here. I would stand behind another customer at the counter and wait for my turn. That person would leave, and before I could move forward, someone from behind me would cut in front. It's not rude, because everyone does it. So I learned. You just push a little through, with your money in your hand, and "take" your turn. If you wait for your turn, it will never come.

Did you know that they are teaching Beijing residents to smile at strangers on the street? In China you only smile at people you know. In America, we generally have a cheery demeanor, and may even give a cursory "hello" to passers-by on our way somewhere.

I explained this last concept to my class, and demonstrated by walking down the aisle of the classroom, smiling. One student said "you're crazy"! And she meant it. A smile is *not* the same in all cultures. In America it means friendliness, or at least acknowledgment.

In China, it means mental illness.

Ups and Downs

Hi all,

Well, I'm finishing my final chapter of life in China. In 26 days I'll be on a plane home. I must admit, I'm looking forward to it. It doesn't reflect poorly on China, I'm just ready for the next step in my life.

Things here are about the same. My graduating students graduated. I miss them already. They spent the first six weeks of the semester student-teaching. The next month or so they had class here at the University. And then they were done. They were a good group of students, and it was hard to see them go.

I'm trying to get my apartment in good shape little by little each day. The state of my apartment when I moved in was quite messy, and I don't want to leave that for the next people. I'm also packing up some boxes to ship back via the mail, rather than schlepping bulging suitcases across the ocean.

I have two and a half weeks of classes left, plus a week of finals. I'll have to turn in my final grades before I go, obviously.

So life is odd here - trying to stay in the moment; not to "check out" too early. But I also have a lot of work to do to get ready to go home. And I have to get myself mentally prepared to go back to the States and look for a job. Life is stressful here, but American life is stressful, as well. The stresses are just different.

Well, it's been nice. I'll keep writing for the next three and a half weeks. :)

Firewalls & Such

So every once in a while, the blogger site gets firewalled here in China. So that's why I've been gone for a while - sorry!

Let's see, since I wrote last:
-I made a recording for Huangguoshu waterfall, the largest waterfall in Asia
-We had our mid-term holiday the first week in May
-I decided not to go to grad school next year
-I started teaching the graduating students; they have their final exam this coming week
-I bought my ticket to come home

I'll write more about each of those things in the next week. Hopefully I'll be able to access this site from here until I leave (six more weeks).

As always, I'd love to hear from you! Feel free to email me at e.ludington@gmail.com.

Lesson Planning

Every once in a while I get a really good idea for a lesson. For example, this week is Easter. So I decided that I would cut out "Easter eggs" with English words and Chinese words. I'll hide the eggs. Each student will find one, and then they will have to find the person with the translation of their word. Then we'll write all the words on the board and they'll learn 25 new Easter vocabulary words!

But the process of making these eggs was far more tedious than I anticipated!!
1. Cut out all the eggs
2. Find 25 vocabulary words
3. Look up words in dictionary

4. Type the words into a computer document with both the pinyin and the characters for easy future reference. 5. One by one, look up the pinyin in the index of the Chinese Character Book. 6. Find the character 7. If you're lucky, the character will have an example of the stroke order

8. Write the character in pencil, trace with marker 9. Repeat 25 times!!
Two hours later - I'm finally done!

Chinglish

I thought I'd give you a taste of my students' English levels. This was written by a sophomore, and it is one of the more well written assignments that I received. The class watched "Ocean's Eleven" and had to answer the question: who is the good guy and who is the bad guy in the movie? This is exactly what she wrote, misspellings and all:

We all know that it's illegal to rob money. But in my opinion all eleven persons are good guys. They do have special skills, for example, the little Chinese can turn somersaults and very flexible. They work together, help each other, united, brave and kind.
But my favorite memmber is Danny. He is brave man. He was free from the prison. after robbing, he was sent to prison again but without a word. He also a brilliant guy, he draws on his girlfriend to rob the casino boss - he put a cellphone in her pocket secretly, but it's no a sin. Last but no the least he is a handsome man and has handsome does. He loves her girlfriend always. It is the true love.
I don't like Benedict - the boss of the casino. Yes, he does have lots of money, but he has poor happy. Because he loves money more than love itself. He is a successful man in business, but a failure in love affair. He is a bad guy, otherwise Ocean's eleven would not rob him casino.


Well, I leave for Laos in 24 hours. I'm scrambling to finish everything I need to before I leave - handing in my final grades, doing laundry, cleaning my fridge... I'll try to write from the road, but otherwise have a good six weeks! I'll be back in Anshun February 16!

Catching up

Christmas is a small deal here. There are some Christmas decorations in shops and restaurants. You mostly see “Santa faces” everywhere. You don’t really see trees or wreathes or candles or anything – just Santa faces. It’s a little creepy, but nice. Last weekend we went to Guiyang to celebrate with the other foreigners who live there. There is a large foreign community in Guiyang, and we had a Christmas celebration service with probably 100 people. I was so happy to sing carols! It was a good time.

Well, it’s almost the end of the term here. Semesters are technically 20 weeks long, but foreign teachers are asked to give exams on week 18. We just finished week 17, the last week of classes, and next week is week 18. It seems crazy to me that finals week is the same as Christmas week! According to our contracts, we do not work on Christmas, so I had to reschedule my Monday class to take their exam Friday. It’s cool, though.

My finals’ schedule is as follows:

Tuesday 2-4 Writing Exam (they have a research paper due January 2^nd also)

Wednesday 8-10 Pronunciation Exam

Wednesday 10-12 Literature Exam

Thursday 2-4 Oral Exam

Friday 8-10 Listening Exam

Friday 10-12 Listening Exam

Of these exams four are written and two are spoken. For my Pronunciation and Oral classes I have the students signed up to talk to me for 5 minutes at a time. In Pronunciation they have a poem prepared, and an impromptu dialogue to read. I’ll assess their pronunciation this way. In Oral I will have cards that they will draw randomly and have a conversation accordingly. They have an idea of the parameters of the cards-it covers things we have learned in class-but they don’t know exactly what they will say. It makes for a long two hours, but there isn’t any additional grading to do, so that’s nice.

After December 29 I just have to collect the research papers from my writing class. That will probably be a bit of grading, but I can handle it. That’s why I get paid the big bucks. :)

The week of January 1-8 I will finish my grading. I have to hand in special grade sheets. Then I’ll prepare for my trip! Here’s the plan: we are taking a train to Kunming (the capital of Yunnan province) where we will stay for one week. We need to stay there to secure visas for Laos and Cambodia. Then we will travel to Laos. We’ll make our way south for probably a week and a half. That should take us to the Cambodia boarder. Again, we’ll go south and end up in Phenom Phen. We have flights from Cambodia to Thailand to Macau (all in one day) on February 8^th (I think). Once in Macau we’ll cross the boarder into China (near Hong Kong) and take a train to Beijing for the ULS winter conference. After four days in Beijing we’ll take a train back to Guiyang. That trip should be 29 hours – a long time on a train! Six weeks later I’ll be back in Anshun with probably one week before the spring term starts.

It’ll be nice to travel to the warmer climate and to see Southeast Asia. This will bump my number of visited countries from six (America, Canada, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Russia, China) to eight (Cambodia, Laos), also. If I count countries through which I’ve flied, the count is ten (I stopped in Brazil on my way to Bolivia, and will stop in Thailand in February).

I was talking to a student the other day and she asked me how many countries I had visited. I said 5 (I forgot about Canada) and her eyes got big. I said “oh, you’ve never been out of China?” and she said, “no, Guizhou province!”. I am fortunate for the opportunities I have had so far. It takes seeing a completely different way of life to realize how fortunate I am.

I have learned so much this semester. I’m very excited for next semester because I’ve already made so many mistakes that I hope I can avoid next semester. I know how long 18 weeks feels and how to pace myself. I know what teaching the students appreciate, what teaching I’m good at, and where to find the balance between the two. And I know the students. I am not teaching any new groups of students next term. We signed up for classes a few weeks ago. I will teach 3 Oral classes (all 5-year students), a Literature class (5-year), a Writing class (5-year) and a Listening class (3-year). I’m pretty excited.

Wow, that’s a lot of information. I know I haven’t been faithful in updating, and really wanted to let you all know what’s going on with me. I appreciate your thoughts and support!

Merry Christmas!

The week with all the power outages

So around here they just turn the power off from time to time. It's not that there was a storm and the lines are down or anything - they choose to turn the power off. There is only so much electricity to go around, and they will turn it off on campus buildings to do construction or to check wires or something.

It happened twice this week - Tuesday and Thursday. They turn the power off around 8am, and it comes back on at 6pm. It makes for a quiet day. And it means no internet connection, hence few blog updates this week...

The week was good. Still no Literature book... Sara, Kris and I decided to do a rotating dinner schedule. I cook Tuesday dinner, Sara cooks Wednesday dinner and Kris cooks Friday lunch. It's nice to cook a big meal and to have company!

We started this week and it went pretty well. I made scalloped potatoes with green onions. The only "regular" onions I could find were red, and I didn't really want pink scalloped potatoes :) So I bought a pound of green onions (which is a lotof green onions!) and just used the white parts. It was reasonably successful. Sara made "coca cola chicken" which was good, and Kris made cream of chicken soup and biscuits. Mmmmm, I may get spoiled on this plan!

This weekend has been delightfully quiet. I have done very little. Yesterday my accomplishments included some grading, doing dishes and sweeping. And I spread that out over the whole day! Since yesterday I have watched the entire A&E Pride and Prejudice - three hours yesterday and three hours today.

I bought some yarn and am working on a blanket for my sofa. It's coming along pretty well!

I needed this weekend. I guess one of the biggest aspects of culture shock is just that it takes significantly more effort to do "everyday" things. Buying groceries in a different language, taking a bus into a new city, climbing 106 stairs to get to your apartment... they all take a physical toll, you know? So down time and rest are vital in maintaining sanity!

Well, I have a meeting with my group here tonight, but nothing else is on the agenda for today. Maybe I'll take a nap... :)

Dao Guiyang

"Dao Guiyang" is Chinese for "to Guiyang"! Sara, Kris and I are headed to Guiyang for the weekend. We'll meet the rest of our ULS team there. I think we'll also visit Walmart.

There was a huge thunderstorm last night. At 4 in the morning some lightening struck so close - the sound was deafening! The electricity was out and I was groggily trying to close all of my windows and unplug my computer in the dark. It took me a while to get back to sleep because there was so much thunder and lightening!

I changed my Thursday 4-6 class to Friday 8-10. It means that my Fridays aren't free anymore. But to me, there is little difference between no classes and an 8 o'clock class. I still have the majority of the day free.

I think (hope) that my second week of classes was more successful than my first. The only exception may be my literature class. The students still don't have the book, and it's practically impossible to teach literature without a book! We spent two hours making a timeline of the authors and periods of American and British literature. It's a boring thing to do, but even more boring when the terms "Renaissance", "Neo-Classicism" and "Critical Realism" enter the conversation. The students were totally unfamiliar with those words, and it's very difficult to explain them! Thankfully their book (when they get it) is mostly in Chinese. So hopefully they can read some of the words in their own language and have a better understanding than I can give them!

Well, I need to pack since we're leaving in thirty minutes!
:)

Banquet

Monday night the English department had a banquet.

We all took a bus to somewhere (I have no idea...a restaurant, maybe) and sat in a little room and had a banquet. Most of the faculty were there: five foreign teachers (three with ULS, my organization, two with Peace Corps) and maybe 12 Chinese English teachers. The head of the department, Jack, was there too.

We sat around for a little while. Some of the teachers played Mah Jong for money (Kris said that teachers can rack up a huge debt playing mah jong: 20,000 yuan in one night!!)

Then dinner was served. We sat at a round table that had a very large lazy susan in the middle of it. They put platters of food on the lazy susan, and you would just spin it so that what you wanted was in front of you. There was a spicy pork dish, a whole fish (including the eyes) that you would just pick some flesh from and eat it, several soups, some rice noodle dishes, some mashed potatoes, some vegetable dishes... it was crazy! And everyone uses their chopsticks to take a bite or two of what they want. We had rice in our bowls and just ate and ate for hours.

It was really spicy and the only drinks were beer and hot tea. As I'm not much of a beer drinker, I drank hot tea from a plastic cup. The food was very spicy and the tea was very hot...that's not the best combination!

At one point the other table was laughing a lot at one of the teachers. He was saying "let's go" in all of the different tones. It sounded like "Let's! Go!", "Let's Go?" "Let's Go!!" "Let's Go..." I mean, it was obviously the same phrase, but they think it's so funny that the same words said in different tones still mean the same thing in English. I'm still having such a hard time with tones that I didn't even get the joke-I had to ask Kris!

We got home very late 9:30 and I think I just fell into bed. But it was a good night!

Classes

So, I'm teaching six classes this term: two listening, two oral, one reading and one writing. I only had five of them this week because freshmen don't start right away. It's amazing how tired I am from teaching only ten hours this week!

Monday was listening at 10:00. The classroom is pretty high-tech. Each student has a computer screen and a headset. I can put a book under a document camera and all of the students can see it at their stations. When I play the tape (it is a listening class, after all), the students all put on their headsets. It's a pretty easy class to teach. I play the tape, the students answer questions about the passage, I go over the answers. Rinse, repeat. There is very little preparation needed for that class. I teach the same class on Thursdays.

Tuesday I had both oral and writing. Oral is hard, just because it is a class of 41, and the goal is for them to learn how to talk. I can't possibly talk to each of them in the time given! I assign some pair work, but there is always the possibility that they will just talk in Chinese. We also do some "choral readings", but that's not a useful for learning how to speak "off the cuff". So that's an experience.

My writing class was challenging, only because the students didn't bring paper. I think I'll actually really like it. It is my most advanced class - they are juniors who are on the 4 year program. We wrote a collective essay on summer vacation, which was rather successful.

My last class is Literature, which has the potential to be my favorite class. The students aren't terribly advanced - they are only on the two year program. But I love Literature, personally. The book is really cool. It has just the most famous parts of the most famous literature. For example: this week we studied Shakespeare. The book had Hamlet's "to be or not to be" soliloquy and Sonnet 18 (Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?). I think that I may be more excited than all of the students combined, but that's OK!

I don't have many photos to share, because my batteries in my camera are dead. They are rechargable and I brought a charger with me. Unfortunately I don't have the right electricity converter to plug it in to the wall! Once I buy a new charger I'll take more pictures! I'm incredibly tired, but it's good. Life just takes a lot of effort here!!

Well, it's Saturday night and I'm just got back from doing some shopping, so I'm going to put things away.

:) Liz