I'm a real teacher now...?

I’m sorry it’s been so long since my last post. I’ve been incredibly busy almost every day since then. Things really geared up on the 11th when we started practicum. We had Chinese class every morning and then taught ESL classes in the afternoon. With five fellow teachers, I taught a class of 28 16 year olds. The students were star students from all of the Changsha schools who came to us for an oral English “camp.” Each day was broken up into three periods and an activity period. Because my teaching team was made up of 6 teachers, we ended up being responsible for three class periods each, which wasn’t bad at all.

I wasn’t nervous about standing in front of the students or teaching them English. I was, however, really nervous about planning a lesson that they would be interested in and would teach them something. It ended up going much better than I could have hoped. I taught a lesson on packing and modes of transportation. I brought the different travel items (clothes, passport, money, phrase book) into class to reinforce the vocabulary, which worked really well. My second lesson (and the one that I liked the most) was on Germany and the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales. I spent most of the lesson talking about Rapunzel. I read the story to the students and then showed them a Sesame Street News Flash where Kermit is “on the scene” when the prince comes to Rapunzel’s tower. The kids did really well and I think they liked it. My last lesson focused American music. As you might be able to guess, this lesson was a huge hit with the students. They were particularly excited when I played Hit Me Baby One More Time as an example of pop-rock. This entire nation is a huge fan of Britney because, as one of my students explained, she is sexy.

The students were really great. They behaved, for the most part. Their names were, by far, my favorite part of meeting them. In my class alone we had Sweet, Adward, Aldous, Black Tea, Spring (male), and God Mohan. Other classes had students named Teacher, Squid, Circle, and Orange. Who knows where they get these names and why they pick them. I’m sure I’ll have a bunch more good ones when I meet my real students in a few days.

On the second day Sweet and another girl asked the teachers if we wanted to go out for dinner with her the next day. In America it would be kind of odd for a group of teachers and students to go out together, but in China it’s normal for the foreign teachers to hang out with the students (probably because they don’t have any friends their own age), so we said we would. The next day the girls took us to a hot pot restaurant. I would describe hot pot as the Chinese equivalent to fondue. Every one sits around a table with a large, divided pot sunk into the center of the table. In the pot there are two types of broth; one spicy, one not. You order what ever you want to put in the pot, anything from meat and mushrooms to tofu and cake. Then you cook for yourself what ever you want by boiling it in the broth. It’s one of my favorite types of Chinese food. (You can get an idea of what it’s like from the picture of the entire group of students and teachers in front of the hot pot table pre-food. Notice that the yellow sign behind us says. “You rhot pots, your taste.” Some of the best English signage I’ve seen in a while.)

To order the food the waitress brings a sheet which lists all the different choices. You write directly on the sheet to order the food. Because the teachers don’t have great command of Chinese characters, we left the ordering up to the students. Bad idea. Never give four 16 year olds free reign at a hot pot restaurant. They ordered so much food that it took three servers to bring the food out. We didn’t have enough room on the table so they had to bring us a three tiered cart to put the food on. This all ended up costing about a total of $20, so the experience didn’t damage our wallets too much and provided a good laugh and good food.

Practicum ended on Sunday and since then we’ve been having meetings all day. Tomorrow all the liaisons and some school officials will be coming to Changsha to us up to take us to our placements. I’m a mixture of excited and nervous, but I’ll be glad to have a little more down time. We’ve been going, going, going since we got to China and it’s been wearing down on the group as a whole. A lot of people are sick and I just got over a cold myself. I’ll let you know how the move goes in the next few days. Until then, have a great week!

欧雅丽

The one word on everyone's mind: Olympics

As promised, I’ll start this entry with a description of my first Chinese health exam. The process was smoother than I imagined, but less smooth than it most likely would have been in the United States. The day before the exam the staff here in China explained that the health check process could be a rather frustrating one. Apparently, in previous years the health department did not accept many test reports that volunteers brought from America. The only exception was that if the test was done in 2008 and even then there was still the chance you would be forced to repeat the tests.

And so all 52 of us arrived at the health center around 8:15 am, ready for an exciting morning of x-rays, blood work, ultrasounds and the like. We were jammed into a small office to wait for instructions. After a few minutes of waiting in line, we were told to go to the “Visa Room” where they would check our information. The official in the visa room took a quick look at any documents we brought along from the US. Some people had x-rays or blood work and EKG reports that they had done especially for this day. I just had a few copies from the doctor of reports of test I had for other reasons a few years ago. I didn’t feel like spending a mint to have a multitude of tests done in the US, when I knew they would be much cheaper in China. It turns out I was right. Not only was the cost of the test paid for by the Department of Education, but also all of my tests were accepted. This saved me from having to do a urine test, x-ray, physical exam, EKG, and an ultrasound. (Don’t ask me what they were looking for with the ultrasound. Couldn’t they have just checked the urine test for a pregnancy? Even the men had to get an ultrasound.) I still had to get blood work done, but that was quick and relatively painless. I’m not sure why I wasn’t required to do some of the other tests because I didn’t bring reports on them. For example, I’ve never ever had an ultrasound. So what ever they were looking for on an ultrasound (or a urine test), I was never tested for.

It seemed completely arbitrary whether your tests were accepted or not, whether you were required to do one, two, or all the tests. Some people who had far more thorough and recent test results were required to do far more testing than I was. All I can say is… oh, China.

The other exciting thing going on around here is the Olympics. Olympic fever has swept China by storm. Granted the Chinese people have been preparing for and aticipating this event for years, the excitement reached a climax this week. All around Changsha Olympic stores are selling Olympic paraphernalia. Anything that you use in your everyday life that you might be able to put a Fuwa (pictured above) on, you can buy at an Olympic store. I’m talking bags, hats, shirts, key chains, stuff animals, tea pots, vases, and much more.

The program organized a little Olympic Opening Ceremony party for us to go to. As we walked about a mile from our hotel to the party location, we saw everyone gathering around any TV they could find. We passed a group of men huddled around a small black and white TV in the middle of a construction zone. You could almost feel the excitement in the air – or maybe that was just me. It was fantastic to be able to watch the Opening Ceremony live in China. The broadcast was in Chinese, naturally, so I wasn’t totally sure what was going on all the time. One of the Chinese teachers was sitting next to me for a bit. About 30 minutes into the ceremony a police officer came and said that some people had to leave. Apparently people saw us walking down the street and told the police, who came over to check it out. They were worried that there were too many people in one small room and it was unsafe. So all the non-Americans had to leave the party, which was too bad.

I won’t replay the ceremony for you. I’m sure you all watched it if you wanted to. The whole thing lasted over four hours, which I’m sure they cut down for broadcast in the US. I’m not going to lie. Even though I was really excited to watch the opening ceremony, I got really tired towards the end of it. Over two hours of country presentations was just a bit much. All and all, in my opinion, it was a fantastic opening ceremony.

I’ve been watching different sporting events for the past few days. Understandably, almost every single event shown is China vs. some other country. Hopefully I’ll get to see some US action in there somewhere. In fact, tonight is the US vs. China men’s basketball game. All the volunteers are pretty excited for that one. We’re setting up a projector to watch it together. One girl is able to stream TV from America, so hopefully we’ll be able to hook up some American commentary as well.

I hope you’re all enjoying American Olympic coverage. It would be a real treat to hear some English (or even German) commentary, so I hope you’re all making the most of it. :)

欧雅丽

Some call it Chinglish, others Engrish

Life is really settling down in Changsha. Well, as settled as it can be when you live in a hotel. Our days have been filled with forums on life and teaching in China, Chinese classes, and TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) classes. The forums and classes are interesting, but are getting to be a little much. I think everyone is beginning to feel really run down after a week of almost no breaks. Tomorrow morning we have Chinese government health checks, so that will be a break from the routine. And I’m sure it will provide me with more than a few interesting stories to share with you all.

I’m getting used to how things run in China, even if I can barely communicate with the locals. I’ve begun to really wish I had studied Chinese more seriously before arriving. As a group, we’ve really been relying on the people who speak more Chinese. Once I move to my site in a few weeks that will no longer be an option. I’m pretty sure than the four of us in the Advanced Beginner class will be the most advanced Chinese speakers of the group in Zhuzhou, which isn’t saying much. In a way I’m kind of looking forward to the move. Because I will really have to rely on myself to communicate with the locals, I think my Chinese will really improve… or I’ll starve. We’ll just have to see. It’s funny when I imagine conversing with the other teachers at my school. I always picture us having a wonderful conversation without any language barriers… that is until I realize that in my mind we’re speaking German. Unfortunately, I think you could probably count the number of German speaking people in Zhuzhou on one hand, probably more like one finger. Me. I’m sure things will get easier with time. That’s how it worked when I was in Germany the first time, and that’s how it’ll have to work this time around.

The more time I spend in China, the more I realize how important English teachers are. One quick look at the cover of my new Chinese class notebooks shows the need for quality English teachers. “Sweet and New Topic. Give surprise everyday maybe sweet maybe mild, but we must learn to be happy. The most comfortable method of life is to live with the people you love, to be pertato couches, talk together,watchTVtogather and Enjoy each other. Do you like qimei notebook contain the best ruled foolscap suitable for writing.” I hope you have gleaned some information from all that. It took me a little, but I think I got the whole thing. This sign posted at the Changsha Number 1 Middle School is another example of the wonderful English the Chinese people read everyday without realizing how ridiculous it is. And this is posted at a school! (Sorry if it's a little hard to read. The sign is made out of a reflective metal, as you can see. It says, "Love your life Look out for fires.") It is also interesting to note that Changsha Number 1 Middle School is located in the heart of Changsha, a city of over 6 million people, not a forest. Who knows what they were thinking. I'm sure the characters would give us some insight on that. Perhaps I’ll use all of this crazy English in one of my lessons.

I think that’s about all I have to report right now. I’ll let you know how the health check goes. I hope you’re getting excited for the Olympics! Only a little more than 46 hours till the Opening Ceremony! Let’s hope everything goes as planned.

欧雅丽
(Ou Yali: my Chinese name)

Firsts in Changsha

I made it to Changsha! We arrived in Hunan only a few hours after I last left you. A bus picked us up at the airport and drove us the 40 minutes to our hotel. I was really happy about that because, as some of you heard, my bags are super heavy and I’m not sure I could have transported them too far. We got settled and had the rest of the day to relax. We few Chinese student volunteers took us on a walking tour of Changsha. It was nice to get an idea of what the city was like, however, the seven mile tour was extremely tiring for the six or so jet-lagged Americans who were along.

Now that I’ve been in China for two and a half days, I feel that I can safely say that this year is going to be quite a trip. Some things are exactly like I thought they would be, and some things are totally different. I’ve had so many first in these few hours, it’s amazing. As most of them are completely random, I’m going to make a list.

• My first interaction with a Chinese local completely in Chinese: I know it sounds lame, but I was totally pumped yesterday when I bought an ice cream all by myself from a Chinese woman, in a little shop. Granted the conversation didn’t include any verbs and was made up of a number of gestures, but it still rocked. So if you are ever in China and need help buying an ice cream, let me know.
• My first visit to a Chinese grocery store: Imagine Black Friday shopping in a Walmart-like place with loads of Chinese people and you’ll have idea of what this is like. People everywhere pushing and shouting in Chinese. Completely odd items for sale. No ability to communicate the fact that you’re looking for a watch for a male that is not adorned with Mickey Mouse.
• My first run-in with the Chinese police (no, I wasn’t arrested): While I was at the grocery store some of my friends, one girl’s wallet was either lost or stolen. With the help of a dictionary and the few English words the cashier knew, we were able ask for her help. She quickly alerted the security team, who took us to a customer service- like counter where we tried desperately for over a half an hour to communicate to them a few details of the crime. They decided it would be best to call the police, at which time we realized that we needed a translator that knew more than 6 words of English. We called the program directors, who came over to help us out. We were ushered into the VIP Room (it was literary called the VIP Room) to wait for the police officers to arrive. In the end everything worked out. It turns out the wallet was picked up by a small child, who took it home with them. When the parents discovered their kid had the wallet, they took it to the police, who called us to come pick it up. Thanks to the Carrefour employees who insisted we file a report, we got the wallet back.

The other firsts I’ve had I can either not think of right now or don’t seem worth reporting, so I think I’ll leave the list at that. I wanted to announce, however, that I have been getting on Skype every morning before breakfast. This happens around 6:45pm EST, so feel free to hop on and we can chat for a bit.

I hope everything is going well back in the US. Don’t forget to comment, email, or call to let me know how you are!

Ashley