My favorite hero is...

The student seem to really enjoy handing in their work on the smallest paper they can find. While I only received one assignment on legal sized paper, I received plenty more on pieces of paper just as small as this blue one.

The list of favorite heroes continues with these gems:

My favorite hero is Bill Gates. He is from USA. He has a golden hair. He is smart. He is my favorite hero, because is the Microsoft CEO.

My favorite hero is Hu Jintao. He is kindly. He is friendly. He is my favorite because he love Chinese people.

My favorite hero is Zhou Enlai. He is from China. He is tall. He is kind. He is my favorite hero, because he is like country very much.

My favorite hero is Aishily. She is very lovely. She has golden long hair. She is a good teacher. She is my favorite hero, because she is kind. I love her!

And the kicker and my personal favorite…

My favorite is Martin.Luther.King because he is very great! He always help others. He is the first president of U.S.A. whose, skin is in black.

Team Building at English Corner

Dear Obama:第二个

I got some late letters submissions that I’d like to pass on you now.

Dear Abama,
Hi! My name is Harry. James. I am twelve years old. I am from China. China is a very beautiful country. There are so many “flowers” in here. So our young people certainly are the “flowers”. My hobbies are writing, listening to music, watching TV and running. So I am writing well and running fast. I am a clever boy. So I like math. It’s my fevourite subject. But I want to be a writer, because I love every word.
I give best wishes to you.
A Chinese Children.
Harry. James

Dear Abama,
I’m a Chinese girl. I’m a student of 12. I live in Zhuzhou Hunan. It’s a beautiful country. I have some friends, they’re from Japan, Singapore, The UK and Australia. And I like make friends to each other. I want to make friend with you. Ok? Now, let me introduce myself to you.
I’m a girl of 12. I study in Jingyan Middle School. My name is Xie Ziling. I also have an English name, it is Angel. It’s very interesting, right? I like reading. Because it can broden my view, widen my knowledge, increase my eyes, open my horizon and improve my language. I can know about different culture. And I can also gain education which is mot available in the school and which is most importance to our future career.
There’re 4 seasons in a year but I know summer best. Because summer is very hot, I can eat many ice cream and big green watermelon. Swimming is my favorite soprts.
I hope we can make friends.
Yours,
Xie Ziling

Dear Abama,
I’m a Chinese boy. I’m 12. I’m a student of Zhuzhou Jingyan Middle School and I’m Evan. I like to play basketball. Do you like it? It’s a good sport. It can make me strong. I don’t have any penpal and I want a penpal in America. Can I make penpals with you, thanks.
Now. Let me tell you something about mine.
I have a small family, but I think my family is happy. There are four people in my family, my father, my mother, my brother and I. My father is a manager. He is good at work and he likes working. My mother is an accounting and she is a good cook of my family. My brother is a student in university. He is a good student. He can speak some language in English and a little French. We are happy together.
My school is the best of ZhuZhou City. I have eight classes in day. But I like English class best, because I like English very much. So, I learn English every weekends. I join in English club in school. I think I can speak English well, But only a little.
What about you? Can you tell me? Please write to me soon!
Best wishes for you.
A Chinese boy,
Evan

Dear President Obama,
My name is Zhang Siyi. My English name is Vicky. I’m 12 years old. I’m a Chinese girl. I’m study in Jing Yan Middle School. My hobbies are listening to music and drawing pictures.
I know you for a long time. You’re president of America. I think you’re very marvelous and successful. You’re famous in China. So, I want to ask you some questions:
1. When is your birthday?
2. Please introduce you by yourself.
3. Are you happy every day?
4. What do you think of China?
5. Do you like China?
I should be very happy if you favour me with an early reply.
I hope America can get along with China forever.
A Chinese Student,
Vicky

Dear Obama

During last semester and the beginning of this one I taught a small class to a group of select English students called English Corner. While this class was the bane of my existence at times, I generally enjoyed working with a group of kids that really wanted to work on their English skills. A few weeks ago I taught them about the structure of a letter and then I had them write one to me. The letters were mainly all the same, telling me their favorite color and asking what mine was. At the end of that class I told them the next week we would be writing letters to President Obama. The students were super pumped! They have heard a lot about Obama through the Chinese media and he is generally liked among Chinese populace.

Unfortunately, by the next week English Corner had been permanently canceled, to be replaced by an even more disorganized "English Club" and we were never able to write our letters to the US President. One student, however, took it upon herself to write a letter in her free time and gave it to me. She asked if I could still send it to him, which I will, but I decided to pass the letter on to you before I do because it is just so darn cute.

Dear Obama,
Hi! I am a lively Chinese girl, and my name is Kacie. It’s a great joy to write to you. Now, let me tell you something about myself.
I’m a thirteen-year-old girl in Junior One. Although my spoken English is not so good, yet I try my best to transtale some sentences. In class, I’ve a very good friend, who is warm-hearted and helpful to the weak. Therefore, I’m very proud of her. Oh, she has a lovely Chinese name as well, Yang Chunzi.
Would you like to know more about myself? Write to me soon, please!
Kacie

While I doubt very much that Obama would write back, I really hope that my students might get a form letter back from the White House. I’m waiting a few days to see if any other students write letters and then I’ll send theirs and Kacie’s to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. hoping to receive something as soon as possible.

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

This week I have been teaching the students about body parts. This consists of me singing “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” 72 times, leading 12 rousing games of Simon Says, and allowing the students to draw on the board. Like twelve year-olds in any other country, they find it exceedingly funny to draw a pig nose and vampire teeth on the stick figure on the board. Some of the bodies actually came out pretty well, so I thought I’d let you take a look at one.

Welcome to the middle school classroom in China! (Notice the claw-like fingernails and bearded stick-person who is also wearing a skirt. Perhaps it's a kilt.)

Legend tells of a legendary warrior…

About one day before it was too late I found out that I was required to give final exams to my students. Not just final any exam mind you, oral final exams, which means I had to speak to all 720 of my students one-on-one. I decided the most efficient and painless way to do this was to bring the students out into the hall nine at a time and have them fill in the following prompt: “Hello, Teacher Ashley. My English name is _____. My birthday is _____. I like to eat _____.”

You may be wondering why I would bring them out nine at a time. This was done for several reasons. 1. There is less dead time taken up by switching when the class is broken up into only six groups. 2. There are 9 students seated in each row. 3. Chinese students are “all up in each other’s business,” as some might say, so they have no problem testing in front of their peers. It’s normal for others to know how you did. Their grades for each class are posted up on the wall, listed by name, so it’s no secret which students are doing poorly. Well, it’s a secret to me, as I can’t read their names, but that’s a different story.

My final exam testing plan worked beautifully. I was able to test up to 64 students in less than 40 minutes and the students did very well. While I was testing students in the hall, I had to figure out a way to entertain the other 50 of them. Before Christmas I decided to show them a few Christmas specials, like How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, and The Snowman. After Christmas, however, I needed to find something else, so I turned to 功夫熊猫, which most of you know as Kung Fu Panda.

I’d never seen the film before showing it to the class, but I knew that they would love it. I finished the exams quicker than I had originally anticipated, so I ended up watching a majority of the movie close to 10 times. The movie’s really pretty good. It should tell you something that I haven’t gouged my eyes out yet; I watched it every day for the past 6 days, plus several additional days last week.

In many ways the movie, which is set in China, gives a pretty good representation of what it’s like to live in China. The country is populated by talking animals, everyone worships the Furious 5, and ducks have pandas as children. Just kidding. In all honesty though, apart from the obvious things, the movie is rather realistic. Noodle shops are popular, children love kung fu, children of shop owners are often expected to carry on the family business, and the mountains really are that beautiful. Disney obviously did a great deal of in country research before making this film. I was actually surprised how “China” it is. I think I might be in the perfect position to enjoy this film. No only do I speak fluent English and understand American humor, but I have a greater understanding of the Chinese culture and lifestyle than the average person. So if you’re in the mood for a good animated movie about China, Kung Fu Panda is my recommendation of the moment. I’ll have to watch Mulan again to see how she stacks up to my Life in China Test...

Another "Lovely" Card

I got another cute student card that I couldn't help but pass along. Although there are large chunks that I generally have no idea what he's talking about, I did grasp the meaning of some of it and he couldn't be more thoughtful and kind. Sometimes 7th graders can be so adorable.

Kelly and Ashley (receive)
Peter (delivers)
Approaches a season in this snow falling thickly Christmas day;
I wish Kelly and Ashley can treat in China very am all happy;
Because here has your lovable student; Please do not have to light a fire in the Christmas day night in the stove,
Otherwise you can see to one the old parson cames from Africa;
Please do not have too to think you far in US's family members;
Because China also is your family;
Certainly I also must thank your guidance;
Finally wishes your Christmas to be joyful!
You student: Peter (First day a grade class)
on December 25, 2008

Dear Teacher Ashley, Merry Christmas! From, Your Student

Like teachers in America, I received many kind and thoughtful cards from my students for Christmas. I believe, however, that I received a few greetings and wishes that they did not.

Merry Christmas! I like you. Because you are very lovable. Especially your beautiful blue eyes. Although I am not so lovable, but I very hope and teacher you become a good friend.
Katie, Class 7

Merry Christmas. Beat wishes to you. You classroom is so lively. Send me very happy. You teach send me more like English. Express you happy. Merry Christmas.
Cindy, Class 9

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Dear Ashley:
I’m your student. I’m from class 16, grade 7. My English is not well.
Please excuse me, thank you. I think you are a wonderful teacher, I unforgettble your wings, your smile, your speech, your attend class ways, and your blackboard writing…….
But, I want to pose some suggestions. May you have a class are not sternly. I think your increase obedient. If you think the class will very quiet, you can adopt encourage.
Ok, I know this letter are bad very much, But it’s my regard.
Welcome write back for me.
Last, wish happiness to you. Merry Chirstmas and Happy New Year.
Thank you.
Your student, Chrystal

Only to Ashley… From Maybe
We are friend. Er… Although you are older than me.
Happy X-mas.
Let’s go to the 2009! The New Year is coming!
This winter is very cold.
Please put more clothes.
Don’t ill.
by Maybe

Merry Christmas!
Day Day Up!
You could do better!

Dear Santa

Last week my students all watched a 1930’s Christmas cartoon by Disney called The Night Before Christmas. Disney’s Silly Symphony cartoons from the early to mid twentieth century are prefect for my classes for several reasons. Firstly, they’re all pretty short, only 6-8 minutes, so we can watch them and still have time to do an activity. And secondly, they have little to no talking. As music and pictures are truly international languages, the students understand the videos regardless of their English level, which is always important in the multi-leveled, Chinese classroom.

In the movie the little girl writes a letter to “Santy” asking for a few things, like a doll and a rocking horse. After watching and talking about the cartoon, the students in my classes wrote letters to Santa as well. I had a template letter made up and students filled in things like if they were good or bad this year and what they would like Santa to bring them. While I wasn’t able to read them all, the following is by far the most interesting letter I saw.

Dear Santa,
How are you? I am fine. This year I have been very good. I listened to my father and helped my grandmother clean the toilet when it was very dirty. I would like a lovely puppy for Christmas.
Thank you and Merry Christmas!
From,
Melody

The more I think about it, the more I think Melody must be incredibly intelligent. Not only would her letter certainly catch Santa’s eye, but also would put her securely on the good list. Nobody likes to clean the toilet when it is relatively clean, not to mention when it is “very dirty.” If I was Santa, I would definitely give a dirty-toilet-cleaning-child a “lovely puppy” if she wanted one. Good thinking, Melody!

Hand Turkeys in China

Like many elementary school students in the US, the students in my classes made hand turkeys during the week leading up to Thanksgiving. For those of you who forget or who were never introduced to the joys of a hand turkey, they are paper turkeys made by tracing one’s hand and then adding legs to the bottom of the palm and a face to the thumb. Unlike the American kindergarteners, however, the hand turkeys in my class served a dual purpose. Not only were they a simple way to celebrate the holiday, but they also allowed the students to reflect on things they were thankful for. In each finger, the students were supposed to write one thing for which they are thankful. Of course, the children were thankful for some of the same things that American students might list as things they are thankful for. Family, friends, and school made the cut in most classes. There were, however, a few additions to the Chinese students’ lists that may surprise some of my readers in the West. I’ve been in China long enough to know to expect such answers. The complete list from Class 9 is posted below.

One specific student in class 9 showed particular devotion to her country when making her hand turkey. Nile couldn’t be restricted to just the four fingers when listing what she’s thankful for, so she decided to use her palm for two additional items.

Clearly, Chinese students love their "motherland," a term they often use to describe China. I think you would be hard pressed to find an American student who would list "the USA," "the Libertarian Party," "Atlanta Olympics," and "my homeland!!" when making a hand turkey in a foreign language class. Maybe that's just me.

Lessons from the Countryside

An extended weekend trip to the Hunan countryside with over 450 Chinese seventh grade students and more than 20 teachers, nurses, and “leaders” can provide one with a wealth of new information. I’m not sure if I would have ever learned many of these fascinating facts had I not done just that. As most of you will likely never have a similar experience, I though I would share all that I learned with you. I wouldn’t want to keep this information to myself, as in some cases, it could save your life.

1. When traveling with so many young people, it is likely that on average, one student per bus will suffer from motion sickness. In my case, that means about 12 students were puking their guts out in the bushes upon our arrival in Yanling.

2. The student who is car sick on your bus will be sitting right next to you. He will barf all over the floor of the bus and the Chinese teachers will do nothing about.

3. When Chinese teachers tell you that the food at the camp will be “not delicious,” they mean it will be nearly inedible.

4. It is perfectly acceptable for the teachers and “leaders” to drink beer for breakfast when on a school trip.

5. If you eat sweet potatoes you cannot get cancer. It’s not that you can lower your risk of getting cancer by eating a sweet potato every now and then. Or that eating sweet potatoes on a regular basis is evidence of a healthy life, which, combined with other factors, can help lower your chances of getting certain types of cancer. No. If you eat sweet potatoes you cannot get cancer. Period. This is according to the psychology and health teacher at the school. A pretty reliable source. As this information could save thousands of lives, I encourage you to share it with everyone you know and love.

6. One way to entertain to seventh graders is to put loaches in a fountain and have the students catch them with their hands. Sure most of the fish will die, but the kids will have fun.

7. Another way to keep the students out of trouble is to walk them a mile to the riverside, give them a few cooking supplies, raw food, and a few matches and tell them to go at it. No really, we did this. The students carried the food supplies, which consisted of pork, bean sprouts, spam, two eggs, peppers, and rice, to the riverside. Once there, each group got a pot, a wok, a huge knife, a cutting board, a spoon, a pot stand, and a bundle of wood. They collected river rocks to build a fire circle and then started a fire to cook the food.

8. It is possible for 450 pre-teens to cook their own meals with fire and sharp knives and not kill themselves or each other. Granted the cooking might have gone a little smoother had someone taught them how to build a fire, but that’s splitting hairs.

9. Rinsing dirty pots in the same river that humans use for a bathroom makes them clean.

10. Mahjong is a fun and super confusing game. It is acceptable to gamble while playing Mahjong on a school sponsored trip, as long as the Assistant Headmaster is invited to play. If you want to play for spicy dried mini-fish in a vacuum-sealed package instead, find the young, poor teachers.

11. Teaching Chinese students the Chicken Dance and the Macarena is considered a performance. The students will love it and you’ll see them doing these dances during their breaks back at school.

12. Traveling with almost 500 of your students and collogues, though frustrating at times, should not be missed and I encourage you grab the opportunity whenever possible. I know I will.

***

Photos of the trip can be viewed here. Thanks again to Kelly.

Poor dogs

In addition to the 12 classes I teach weekly, I also lead two “English Corners.” These classes are made up of the best four students in each class (as chosen by their Chinese English teachers). Although there has been a room assignment problem during every single English Corner and getting things started has never been easy, these have quickly become some of my favorite class periods. I love working with a smaller number of students (32 in each class) at a higher level. The students are far more driven to learn English and a majority are very lively and participate. I’m able to have the students do more interesting activities in class and get them up out of their seats.

Because the Chinese school system focuses on the one “right” answer to every problem, there is little room for creativity and students tend to struggle when I ask them to come up with something on their own. It has become my personal goal to allow (and, in some cases, teach) the students in these smaller classes to be more creative. In order to get them talking and get their creative juices flowing, we made up stories as a group last week. I started the students off with a prompt like, “yesterday my mother moved to the moon,” and had them make up the rest of the story, one sentence at a time. They came up with some pretty interesting ideas. Surprisingly, eating hair and talking bugs was an integral part of the plot in both classes. It must be a Chinese thing.

Building off the activity from last week, I had them come up with a stories in small groups this week. The prompt was, “yesterday my mom bought me a dog,” and after 10 minutes to prepare, I had the students share their stories with the whole class. Here is one example. I left their mistakes to give you an idea of the level that the best students are working at.

I have a small dog, it’s white. Yestoday we going to naterpark [nature park], The naterpark have many animal. It’s very happy, I’m happy, too!
-written by Shuke, Ford, Anita, and Andy.

You may think it’s not much of a story, but I can’t express how pleased I was when they shared that story with the class. I’m happy when they stay on task and speak English, so I guess it doesn’t take much to thrill me. Here’s a second example.

If I have a little dog. I will playing game with it! and I will give it name. It name is “Mike Jackson hot dog.” Last, I will eating this dog. The dog is very healg [tasty].
-written by Tom Brown, Roy, Harry, Jake, and Tom.

The dog that was eaten in the last story was not a hot dog, but an actual dog. Another story featured a dog name Alice that was consumed by the student’s father. In fact, the dogs in four out of the five stories became dinner before the story was finished.

While it is common to eat dogs in China, it is uncommon to eat animals that were formerly pets. The dogs that become dinner are raised on farms for their meat and are available for purchase at the market. According to many of my Chinese friends, dog meat warms you in the winter and is enjoyed by most girls. Although I am worried about staying warm this winter, I don’t think I’m going to try that specific method.

The stories just prove that apparently I need to think more closely about the animals I choose for my story prompts, if I don’t want to the animals to dinner at the end. Actually, I’m not exactly sure what animal would be safe choice. Maybe giant pandas...

Teacher's Day!

Today is a very important day in the life of every Chinese teacher: Teacher’s Day. Teacher’s Day is an ancient Chinese tradition that honors the work of teachers every September 10th. I guess the equivalent in America would be Teacher’s Appreciation Day, but in name only. This day was more like Christmas than a Teacher’s Appreciation Day in the US that most students are completely ignorant of. Every student that crossed my path in the hall changed their greeting from the everyday “Lǎoshī hǎo” (Hello teacher) to “Happy Teacher’s Day!” And at the beginning of each class, the students shouted "Happy Teacher's Day" at the top of their lungs. Just imgaine 65 little ones screaming like they just saw Justin Timberlake and you'll get the idea. It actually began to hurt my ears the fourth time around. When it comes to gifts, I really made out like bandit. I received over 15 cards, two carnations, some type of candied Chinese fruit on a stick, a bouquet of fake flowers, a key chain, a lollypop and a Chinese knot. I never expected this type of out pouring of affection. It really made me feel appreciated by the students! So, on May 6th, show all the US teachers you know a Chinese-style Teacher’s Day. They’ll never see it coming! :)

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

T-minus one week and counting!

I have been trying all day to wrap my head around the fact that I will be leaving for China in only one week from today and have found it to be close to impossible. During most times of the day I would say that I am equal parts excited and terrified about this adventure. It is, however, not an entirely steady balance. Right now for example, I’m hanging on the terrified side of the scale. Not to worry though, I know I’ll bounce back to the excited end in a few minutes or hours (…or days…). At the very least, I know that I’ll be meeting some very interesting people over the coming months. I’m looking forward to meeting the other volunteers, the Chinese teachers, and perhaps most of all, the students at my school.

Speaking of the students and my school, I should probably give you the run down on that. I have been assigned to Zhuzhou Number Two Middle School, also known as Er Zhong. As the name suggests, the school is in Zhuzhou, Hunan. Zhuzhou is a city of about three and a half million people located southeast Hunan about 45 minutes from the capital of Changsha. The city is known throughout the province for its industry and is one of the most polluted cities in the area. There are no tourist attractions in Zhuzhou itself, which means there will be very few everyday people who know even a little English. This will not only give me a more authentic view of the Chinese, but also make most every conversation a challenge. I’m sure things will get easier over time, but I’m nervous about the first few weeks.

I don’t have any information on what grades I’ll be teaching at this point. All volunteers teach middle and high school, so I can be sure that I won’t be working with first graders. I did read, however, that in China middle school begins in the fourth grade, so there is the possibility of teaching a group of pretty young students. I’m not sure if I would prefer the younger ones or the older students, but I guess the point is moot as I don’t have a choice. I should know at the end of August, following a few weeks of orientation, what my grade assignments will be.

I think that I will leave it at that for now. I hope you are having wonderful summer and feel free to check back for updates as time goes on.

Ashley