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!

This message comes to you from the future!

Well, according to Facebook it does.

Friends Don't Let Friends Stare and Walk

A few days ago, my dear friend, Bridget, and I were walking down the street when a woman started to stare at us. As this is nothing new, (read previous post) we thought nothing of it and would probably not remember it today. Except that unfortunately for the woman, she didn’t stop to gawk at us; she kept walking, right into a large box. She toppled headfirst into the empty box and had to be helped out by a friend. Everyone around started to laugh at her while they continued to watch Bridget and I walk away. Apparently we’re more exciting than a woman in a box.

Let that be a lesson to you. Stop walking when you begin to ogle at the next Caucasian you see. Staring and walking don't mix.

I am Mickey Mouse

Imagine you are walking down the street of your hometown and you see Mickey Mouse coming toward you. As you watch, Mickey stops at a street vendor to buy an afterschool snack. He’s just doing everyday, normal things. You don’t worry about staring at the mouse, because it’s not rude, right? He’s the one wearing a huge Mickey Mouse costume and you don’t see that every day, so you might as well get a good look while you can. If you’re with a small child you more than likely point out the large mouse to them. You’ll probably encourage your child to say hello and they’ll have one of two reactions. The child will either become rather frightened or stare with large, excited eyes at Mickey. You might ask to if your child, or you for that matter, could get a quick picture with the superstar. Or maybe you just try to snap a quick picture without asking. You can only hope that your child will remember the day they saw Mickey walking down the street. When you go home that night you might tell your family and friends about how you saw Mickey around town and show them the picture the two of you took together. How exciting!

When in China, I am Mickey Mouse. My Caucasian skin and bone structure serve as my costume. Even my huge feet parallel Mickey’s oversized feet.

From the moment I step out my door in the morning until the second I return home in the evening I am stared at. It’s not that I’m conceded; it’s just a fact of life for a foreigner living in central China. It would happen to you as well if you were here. And sitting at your computer in your American home with insulation and indoor heating, you may think you know how this feels, but unless you are a celebrity, this is almost impossible to imagine. Every single movement you make is scrutinized by the on-looking public. You can’t feel lost, confused, or upset without many other people knowing and commenting to their friends about you. To compound the matter, staring isn’t considered rude in Chinese culture. Thus Chinese people stare unabashedly, the way many Americans would if they saw Mickey Mouse shopping at the local grocery store.

I don’t mention this phenomenon to complain or fuss about it, but rather because I just thought of the Mickey Mouse analogy this morning and I think works quite well. I admit that at first it was bothersome having my every move watched, but I’m over it now. I don’t particularly like everyone watching me all the time, but there’s nothing I can do about it, so I might as well not let it trouble me. For the sake of Mickey’s feeling, however, you might consider not staring if you see him at the mall. I know how he feels and he would probably appreciate the short break from stardom.

Morning "Exercises"

I realized quite recently that I hadn’t done any posts on the differences between school life in the US and China. As I spend a significant amount of time each week in a Chinese school, I’m able to note some of these differences daily. This will just be the first in a series of posts centered on the topic of Chinese school life.

Although I’ve only taught at one school, I’m confident that the millions of students all across China, no matter what school they attend, agree on at least on thing; they hate their morning exercises. Every Chinese student is required to gather outside with their class, regardless of the weather, to “exercise” along with the entire school everyday. Once all 3,000 students are out on the “playground” and lined up properly, the students perform a choreographed routine to music that looks more like a dance than exercise. The students learn the routine as Junior 1s and use it everyday for the next three years. Personally, I love to watch the students do their exercises. It’s not because I like to watch them being tortured, but because I find it fascinating to watch them all move in sync. Take a look for yourself.

When I first arrived in China, I asked myself why the Chinese decided to use 20 minutes of their school day to gather all the students together and make them dance. Although it’s not this way at Jing Yan, some schools have the students doing the exercises three times a day; early-morning, late-morning, and evening. That means that many students spend an hour per day “exercising” with their classmates. Throughout the course of a week, the students are losing five hours of class time for this seemingly pointless activity. The exercises don't replace gym class as a time for physical activity at school. Each class also has a P.E. class several times a week. Additionally, the student have been running around the track as a class for the first 15 minutes of the last period of the day lately.

As you saw in the video, the routine isn’t much exercise to start with and most students do it half-heartedly, which takes away almost all the exercise it provided in the first place. So then why spend all the time and energy making the students dance together? I think the title of a song some of my friends sang with their colleagues at the Teacher’s Day celebration at their school some months ago sums it up quite nicely: Unity Is Power. One way to teach the students unity at a young age is to get them to do something together as a school every single day. Apparently someone, somewhere, sometime in the past decided that mass-scale exercising would serve such a purpose quite well. And so the students continue to do it today.

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.

Happy Thanksgiving!