So I have gotten back home with an hour before I should think about sleeping, nothing to do and a somewhat talkative mood. I suppose that means I should put another entry into what is becoming a very thin blog. It’s not that I don’t enjoy writing for this thing. In fact I do. Whenever I can force myself to begin something, it doesn’t take long before I’ve put down an entire page or two, still wanting to write more. The problem lies in getting myself to start. See, I really have to have a perfect combination of free time, the right mood, and an interesting topic to begin with that is immediately on my mind. I always end up having plenty of weird stories to tell, but it never seems worth it to write any of them down unless I have one particularly important subject on my mind. After that, it just takes a moment before all the other strange tales come out.
The topic that is on my mind isn’t really that immediately interesting, nor is it even a very concrete subject. I was just thinking on my way home tonight that it would be a good idea to write about my general observations of my situation here, now that I’ve had plenty of time to get into the swing of things. There has really been so much going on that I feel it’s time for a state of the union sort of entry.
The first thing to mention is time. I have so much less of it than I expected (btw, I always felt it wasn’t correct to say “so much less,” seems rather oxymoronic, but oh well). Before arriving I had big ambitions about all the things I would do while here. Study Chinese, read loads of books, do some writing (meaning besides this blog), exercise, travel, see the city, meet the locals, start a barbecue restaurant (just you wait!). The sad thing that I have realized is just how limited my time really is. Teaching at the school leaves has left me pretty much exhausted by the time I get off work, which is usually a little after 4. Once I get home to change, it’s already time for dinner, which usually means quite a long expedition at a restaurant. After that I might as well start getting ready for bed before too long, since I have to wake up at 6:30. I probably have a little time each evening to study some Chinese, read some of my book, or talk to friends online, but not for all three. Whenever I try that, I just end up staying up too late and making myself exhausted by the end of school, something that already happens even when I get enough sleep. Then on the weekends we all go out and do something fun for at least one of the nights, if not both. Saturday or Sunday we have been going on some sort of day-long trip into town. One of the things that has really been taking up my time is playing football…er, soccer. Sorry, I am indeed becoming British. I of course enjoy every second of it, but it has become the biggest part of two of my days each week. Wednesdays we leave pretty much immediately after school is over to travel to literally the opposite side of town, where we play against another international school. Saturdays we play on a field a good bit closer. For both days we end up going out to eat afterwards, so the whole endeavor really ends up taking up almost the whole day.
What is most frustrating about my time limitations is that it means I really have to force myself to include the things I really feel I should be doing, or else the day could easily slip by without me doing them. This is mainly a problem with Chinese. I underestimated how much work I would have to put into the language to be able to improve a lot. My interactions with Chinese people could be incredibly minimal if I really wanted it to. With all the westerners I work with, it isn’t hard to keep myself in a foreigner bubble. While at work I make sure to talk with the Chinese teachers as much as I can, but even then I only get to say a few sentences back and forth. My pronunciation is also apparently horrid, and I find myself having to repeat the simplest phrases literally six times before I am understood. Part of it is the different dialect in Nanjing, but mainly I picked up very bad habits with my tones. I think this has come from me being a bit careless and lazy without having a teacher who would yell “WRONG!” at me every time I pronounced something slightly incorrectly. Maybe the traditional Chinese way of teaching, where anything less than perfection is totally incorrect, is what I needed all along. I actually seem to have switched around my ideas of what each tone sounds like, so when I know I am supposed to use a falling tone and try to say a falling tone, what comes out is a strange rising tone. I’ve been trying to practice this as much as I can, and already I can see what I have been doing wrong. I think my pronunciation has improved a good bit now, but it’s something I have to constantly concentrate on, or I will quickly slip back into my poor habits. This is a bit disheartening because I feel like I’m suddenly 10 steps further back from where I thought I was. When I thought I was ready to perfect my grammar and use complicated sentence structures, instead I’m back practicing the things people learn in year 1 of Chinese. I have hardly even been able to begin working on grammar. Yet, I think this is only a minor setback. I am constantly surprised at how much I do remember, although it may be buried deep inside my head. Once I improve my tones, I feel it won’t be long before I can do a lot with the language. Also I have managed to make some friends around town, which is the best way to learn the language. I think this has just been a snap back to reality on how much work it will require to really improve my Chinese. I am making sure to study every day if I can, and if I am serious about this I am going to have to continue doing that. Fortunately in a day I do spend a good deal speaking Chinese. Whenever I am not working or at home, I am using Chinese. As one of about three people who speak Chinese among the westerners at my work, I have pretty much become the translator for any outing. This of course I don’t mind, because it gives me plenty of chance for practice. The only real problem is that speaking and thinking in Chinese has made my English pretty unbelievably bad. Already re-reading some of my sentences has made me cringe a bit. But you know what? My time is precious, so most of the time I’m going to leave it how it is.
So yes, time. It’s an issue. So much so that I’m going to have to stop things here, much sooner than I wanted to. I will try to write some more in the next day or two, just to make sure I jot down the rest of my observations about things here. I will just say that overall things are amazing and I am extremely happy here. I couldn’t think of a better situation for me to be in right now, in more ways than one.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
China blog 4
Teaching! It has finally begun, and oh what fun it is. I am really happy with the age group I have. Not only are they painfully adorable, but they are at the age where learning is exciting to them. Every single one of our students is eager to show us they can do something right, and they are all very capable of doing so. The only behavior problems we have are usually from over-excitement. Sometimes they may be talking out of turn (okay, lots of the time) or lose focus, but it is never because they refuse to do the work. They will always obey you when you ask them directly to do something, it is just sometimes difficult to keep the entire group on task at the same time. But overall they are very good. One of the most common ways they misbehave is merely by shouting an answer out rather than raising their hand, which I think is the best type of bad behavior. At least they are eager to learn and show us what they know.
Coming into the first day, I was a little nervous because I did not feel very prepared for the lesson plan. However, it seems that I do not really have to be very prepared, as Miss Neely is well versed in teaching and has plenty of ideas already thought up for the class. I merely have to help her and have a good time working with the kids. She is in fact quite the disciplinarian, which actually makes things even easier for me as I become the good guy by default. The kids are all really sweet and seem very excited just to have a big person to talk and work with them. This job has made me understand already how much I really do love being around children. Although both days required a lot out of us, I actually felt full of energy by the end of the day. My body was tired, but my spirit was pumped. I look forward to each day.
So yes, I am writing this after the second day of teaching. Both days have been pretty similar, with lots of light lessons interspersed with mostly organized play time. It makes me remember how fun school was at the beginning.
I am surprised at how well behaved the children are. Of course, they are young and wild and energetic, but that is to be expected. Like I said, they all do what they are told immediately when you ask them, so long as they receive the message you are giving. The “trouble child” that I was warned about, Yahya, doesn’t seem to be any different from the other kids, really. He has a bit of a snatching problem when playing with the other children, but other than that he is not nearly as bad as I was expecting. He does things that you ask him to do and is eager to help. He really wants to do the right thing, and I think proper communication and patience with him is all he needs. He is also incredibly bright and seems to know the answers to almost all the questions we ask of him.
One child that has seemed to have the hardest time adjusting is a boy named Alex who is new to the school. He comes from a very unique situation, as he is from Denmark and looks completely European to me, yet his first language is Chinese. His mother is from China and his father must speak the language fluently, since from what I hear that seems to be the only language they speak around him. At first I really suspected he may have some special needs issues, as he was extremely shy and spent most of the first day completely off on his own. During P.E., he refused to join the circle or do any of the activities the other kids were doing entirely. We weren’t sure if he was really receiving the information we were trying to communicate to him. Yet, it turned out he is just really, really, really shy. He apparently had a hard time at his last school, a Chinese kindergarten, and has some separation issues with his parents. But I have already been pleased to see him warm up a bit. By the end of the first day, he was obeying directions and seemed to be much better settled. Then, he gave me a smile the next morning as he arrived. It was the first one I had seen him give! It quickly became apparent that he did not have any special needs and was in fact very bright. Near the end of lunch he did crawl back into his shell a good bit during an activity where we were trying to gauge everyone’s writing ability. The assignment was very difficult, and he seemed to be discouraged by the fact that he didn’t think he could do it. Almost immediately I saw him erasing on his paper, and it turned out that he had written his name very well but erased it. Then, he refused to write anymore and went away from the children on his own. Eventually, he actually went out into the hallway, squatted down and cried. When I told Miss Neely about it, she told me to go bring him into the room, but he absolutely was not willing to do so. So instead I sat with him and comforted him a bit, talking to him about being a new kid and how things will be okay. I stayed with him and began to talk about other things, like a bug that crawled across the floor and a poster on the wall, and he seemed to warm up a bit. Then, lunchtime arrived and he was willing to go into the bathroom to wash his hands before walking down with the class to the cafeteria. He seemed much better by that point. I began to realize what was needed with children this age. Sometimes you are not going to be able to get them to do what you have planned for whatever reason. The best way to deal with a student like this who is shy is not to force him into anything, but to be patient and build a good relationship with him. Hopefully he can learn to trust me and will be more willing to join in on activities. At the end of lunch I sat down next to him and talked to him for a bit as he finished his lunch. All of the other students from our class had already finished, so he was sitting next to only people from other classes. I was able to get him to respond at least with nodding and shaking his head by asking him which foods he liked. I think I made some big headway when I asked him in Chinese, “Are you full?” which led him to smile widely and nod his head. We are supposed to speak English to all the children to encourage them to do so, but in his situation I felt it was something that would help make him feel more comfortable. I had only an hour or so earlier first learned that Chinese was the language he spoke, and I was glad I decided to do that. It seemed to have a good effect on him. After that I helped him clear his tray and asked him whether he wanted to go play outside or in the library. He nodded at library, and so we went there, where I let him choose a few dinosaur and animal books for us to look at together. He seemed much more excitable, and said things like “Look at that!” to get my attention while pointing at pictures. Some of the other students were in the library too and came over with books for me to read to them. I read some of a book while still looking at the animal book with Alex, and it seemed to help him get gradually more comfortable with the other classmates. When we returned to the classroom I drew a dinosaur on the Smartboard while we waited for our first activity, and he excitedly shouted out “Dinosaur!” with a big smile. I was very happy to see him opening up more. He seemed to be making progress making friends with the other students as well. I noticed some of the Chinese speaking students speaking with him, and he responded well to that. I think it is only a matter of time. As he left I was able to meet his mother, who was very nice. She said he had told her about “Mr. William” the day before but couldn’t remember the head teacher’s name. It was nice to see him appear happy as he left.
One last thing that I find remarkable is the amount of Chinese the students know. On the first day I saw two students, one American and the other Pakistani, speaking to each other in Chinese as they played. In fact, that is the language those two prefer to use while playing. The same is true for two other students, one of whom is Chinese but the other of whom I do not think is. Several other students are amazingly competent in the language as well. I am extremely impressed, and I think these children are growing up in a great situation.
Coming into the first day, I was a little nervous because I did not feel very prepared for the lesson plan. However, it seems that I do not really have to be very prepared, as Miss Neely is well versed in teaching and has plenty of ideas already thought up for the class. I merely have to help her and have a good time working with the kids. She is in fact quite the disciplinarian, which actually makes things even easier for me as I become the good guy by default. The kids are all really sweet and seem very excited just to have a big person to talk and work with them. This job has made me understand already how much I really do love being around children. Although both days required a lot out of us, I actually felt full of energy by the end of the day. My body was tired, but my spirit was pumped. I look forward to each day.
So yes, I am writing this after the second day of teaching. Both days have been pretty similar, with lots of light lessons interspersed with mostly organized play time. It makes me remember how fun school was at the beginning.
I am surprised at how well behaved the children are. Of course, they are young and wild and energetic, but that is to be expected. Like I said, they all do what they are told immediately when you ask them, so long as they receive the message you are giving. The “trouble child” that I was warned about, Yahya, doesn’t seem to be any different from the other kids, really. He has a bit of a snatching problem when playing with the other children, but other than that he is not nearly as bad as I was expecting. He does things that you ask him to do and is eager to help. He really wants to do the right thing, and I think proper communication and patience with him is all he needs. He is also incredibly bright and seems to know the answers to almost all the questions we ask of him.
One child that has seemed to have the hardest time adjusting is a boy named Alex who is new to the school. He comes from a very unique situation, as he is from Denmark and looks completely European to me, yet his first language is Chinese. His mother is from China and his father must speak the language fluently, since from what I hear that seems to be the only language they speak around him. At first I really suspected he may have some special needs issues, as he was extremely shy and spent most of the first day completely off on his own. During P.E., he refused to join the circle or do any of the activities the other kids were doing entirely. We weren’t sure if he was really receiving the information we were trying to communicate to him. Yet, it turned out he is just really, really, really shy. He apparently had a hard time at his last school, a Chinese kindergarten, and has some separation issues with his parents. But I have already been pleased to see him warm up a bit. By the end of the first day, he was obeying directions and seemed to be much better settled. Then, he gave me a smile the next morning as he arrived. It was the first one I had seen him give! It quickly became apparent that he did not have any special needs and was in fact very bright. Near the end of lunch he did crawl back into his shell a good bit during an activity where we were trying to gauge everyone’s writing ability. The assignment was very difficult, and he seemed to be discouraged by the fact that he didn’t think he could do it. Almost immediately I saw him erasing on his paper, and it turned out that he had written his name very well but erased it. Then, he refused to write anymore and went away from the children on his own. Eventually, he actually went out into the hallway, squatted down and cried. When I told Miss Neely about it, she told me to go bring him into the room, but he absolutely was not willing to do so. So instead I sat with him and comforted him a bit, talking to him about being a new kid and how things will be okay. I stayed with him and began to talk about other things, like a bug that crawled across the floor and a poster on the wall, and he seemed to warm up a bit. Then, lunchtime arrived and he was willing to go into the bathroom to wash his hands before walking down with the class to the cafeteria. He seemed much better by that point. I began to realize what was needed with children this age. Sometimes you are not going to be able to get them to do what you have planned for whatever reason. The best way to deal with a student like this who is shy is not to force him into anything, but to be patient and build a good relationship with him. Hopefully he can learn to trust me and will be more willing to join in on activities. At the end of lunch I sat down next to him and talked to him for a bit as he finished his lunch. All of the other students from our class had already finished, so he was sitting next to only people from other classes. I was able to get him to respond at least with nodding and shaking his head by asking him which foods he liked. I think I made some big headway when I asked him in Chinese, “Are you full?” which led him to smile widely and nod his head. We are supposed to speak English to all the children to encourage them to do so, but in his situation I felt it was something that would help make him feel more comfortable. I had only an hour or so earlier first learned that Chinese was the language he spoke, and I was glad I decided to do that. It seemed to have a good effect on him. After that I helped him clear his tray and asked him whether he wanted to go play outside or in the library. He nodded at library, and so we went there, where I let him choose a few dinosaur and animal books for us to look at together. He seemed much more excitable, and said things like “Look at that!” to get my attention while pointing at pictures. Some of the other students were in the library too and came over with books for me to read to them. I read some of a book while still looking at the animal book with Alex, and it seemed to help him get gradually more comfortable with the other classmates. When we returned to the classroom I drew a dinosaur on the Smartboard while we waited for our first activity, and he excitedly shouted out “Dinosaur!” with a big smile. I was very happy to see him opening up more. He seemed to be making progress making friends with the other students as well. I noticed some of the Chinese speaking students speaking with him, and he responded well to that. I think it is only a matter of time. As he left I was able to meet his mother, who was very nice. She said he had told her about “Mr. William” the day before but couldn’t remember the head teacher’s name. It was nice to see him appear happy as he left.
One last thing that I find remarkable is the amount of Chinese the students know. On the first day I saw two students, one American and the other Pakistani, speaking to each other in Chinese as they played. In fact, that is the language those two prefer to use while playing. The same is true for two other students, one of whom is Chinese but the other of whom I do not think is. Several other students are amazingly competent in the language as well. I am extremely impressed, and I think these children are growing up in a great situation.
China Bog 3
So I have an idea about this blog. First off, I’m not sure how much time I have and I don’t think I want to be slaving away for a long time tonight retelling everything that’s happened since my last entry. Secondly, I feel like this thing has already become way too much of a recap of events than a real journal, and that’s making it a little dry and a lot less fun to write. So how about I try to just start writing down what I’m thinking and see what happens.
I’m tired. Not quite sleepy, which is a good thing because it’s still a bit early to sleep if I want to wake up later than six am, but I’m tired. Fortunately my room is an amazing place to lounge. Comfortable bed, nice couches, A/C, whatever you need. Anyways, it’s late and I’ve had a pretty good day so far. Things that were funny about today:
-We went to an arcade and shot around on a basketball game, a group of six of us. After playing one game I turned around and noticed there was a crowd of about twenty Chinese people standing behind us, just watching. Apparently we had drawn a crowd. I was not expecting that, but hey, that is China. Foreigners are still, well, foreign to them. I still find it interesting that they are really that fascinated in what we are doing. I don’t mind it much and just find it amusing. I’m glad that we are able to entertain them that much just by existing. I suppose I would feel the same way in their situation.
-Today we went looking for used bikes at a place that Daniel I. had found on Sunday. The guy had a lot of selection, but he was asking a little too much for me, 250 kuai. While $35 for a used bike ain’t a bad deal, I still feel like we could find something better. So we went next door to what turned out to be a bootleg China Mobile store. Daniel A. still needed to buy a phone, and this was exactly the kind of cheap backdoor place that I had been waiting to find. They had quite a lot of options, from NOKLA to Monterolla. Daniel decided on a Monterolla, only 100 kuai! And it actually worked! We will see how long that lasts. I found it odd, however, that the salesman was unwilling to bargain. He told us 100 kuai and would not change the price. It honestly was a good deal so I didn’t push too much. I found it odd, however, that they asked us how much we made at our job after we bought it. They seemed really interesting in knowing that, but we wouldn’t tell them.
-On the way back we found what we thought to be a gym—a giant building called “Milky Way Spa.” Instead, it was a bathhouse that also offered massage. That explained why the employees wiped the floor and laid out a towel for us as we approached. It really didn’t seem that sketchy, though. It was a huge place that had to make a lot of money to stay in business. Bathhouses are supposed to be a common old Chinese staple. I think it may actually be a legit spa for relaxing and not just getting yourself a happy ending. If that’s the case, then I might be interested. We will be back.
-This morning we went in for our physical exam, which is required to get a professional’s visa. The process was amazingly quick and painless. The international health center we went to was very well done. All the doctors spoke good English and were very good at what they did. I found it strange they gave me an ultrasound, though. It’s a girl!
-On the way there our bus driver knocked into the side mirror of a much larger bus, and boy was the driver not happy. She proceeded to drive next to us and yell at us through her window, then eventually got out and stood in our way until we stopped and fixed what we had done. Funnily enough, the police were right in front of us but never got involved. Apparently if your car is hit in China, you don’t call the police. You just yell at the driver until they come fix what they did by hand. Sounds very Chinese to me.
-Last night we went to a Cultural Revolution themed restaurant. The waitresses were all dressed like soldiers and the walls all had Mao Zedong pictures on them. The waitresses seemed particularly amused by us, though. They burst out laughing over and over while interacting with us. Eventually it started to get a bit annoying. They also lost points for lying to us about which dishes had meat. We had a vegetarian with us who was barely able to eat anything at all. Yet, I feel like she’s fighting a losing battle anyways. If you came to China, you might as well just accept that your life will be loads easier if you eat meat. I’m sorry but it’s true. She said something like “This is the last time I’m going to eat at restaurants, sorry. That’s just ridiculous. The food was really tasty, especially the eggplant! They had the kind I absolutely love, which I found out is called “san wen yu qie zi,” or three fish sauce something or another eggplant. I’m glad to finally know the name.
-School training has started and I’m getting a little nervous. This is going to be a lot of responsibility working at this school. The parents are very demanding about the education their children need. We will have to wear a tie everyday, something I find a bit pointless and irritating. But I feel similar to how I did when I first was training for waiting tables at Carol Woods. It seemed like something ridiculously impossible that I can’t imagine ever doing, but I’m sure I will get used to it soon. It’s only because I’m doing something new. This happens often in life, and it only increases your skills to get through it. It will happen.
I think I like this format, a little more stream of conscious-like. Hopefully it will keep me sane by giving me a vent without feeling like homework. I’m sure I will do some tweaking soon, but that’s it for now. Goodnight!
I’m tired. Not quite sleepy, which is a good thing because it’s still a bit early to sleep if I want to wake up later than six am, but I’m tired. Fortunately my room is an amazing place to lounge. Comfortable bed, nice couches, A/C, whatever you need. Anyways, it’s late and I’ve had a pretty good day so far. Things that were funny about today:
-We went to an arcade and shot around on a basketball game, a group of six of us. After playing one game I turned around and noticed there was a crowd of about twenty Chinese people standing behind us, just watching. Apparently we had drawn a crowd. I was not expecting that, but hey, that is China. Foreigners are still, well, foreign to them. I still find it interesting that they are really that fascinated in what we are doing. I don’t mind it much and just find it amusing. I’m glad that we are able to entertain them that much just by existing. I suppose I would feel the same way in their situation.
-Today we went looking for used bikes at a place that Daniel I. had found on Sunday. The guy had a lot of selection, but he was asking a little too much for me, 250 kuai. While $35 for a used bike ain’t a bad deal, I still feel like we could find something better. So we went next door to what turned out to be a bootleg China Mobile store. Daniel A. still needed to buy a phone, and this was exactly the kind of cheap backdoor place that I had been waiting to find. They had quite a lot of options, from NOKLA to Monterolla. Daniel decided on a Monterolla, only 100 kuai! And it actually worked! We will see how long that lasts. I found it odd, however, that the salesman was unwilling to bargain. He told us 100 kuai and would not change the price. It honestly was a good deal so I didn’t push too much. I found it odd, however, that they asked us how much we made at our job after we bought it. They seemed really interesting in knowing that, but we wouldn’t tell them.
-On the way back we found what we thought to be a gym—a giant building called “Milky Way Spa.” Instead, it was a bathhouse that also offered massage. That explained why the employees wiped the floor and laid out a towel for us as we approached. It really didn’t seem that sketchy, though. It was a huge place that had to make a lot of money to stay in business. Bathhouses are supposed to be a common old Chinese staple. I think it may actually be a legit spa for relaxing and not just getting yourself a happy ending. If that’s the case, then I might be interested. We will be back.
-This morning we went in for our physical exam, which is required to get a professional’s visa. The process was amazingly quick and painless. The international health center we went to was very well done. All the doctors spoke good English and were very good at what they did. I found it strange they gave me an ultrasound, though. It’s a girl!
-On the way there our bus driver knocked into the side mirror of a much larger bus, and boy was the driver not happy. She proceeded to drive next to us and yell at us through her window, then eventually got out and stood in our way until we stopped and fixed what we had done. Funnily enough, the police were right in front of us but never got involved. Apparently if your car is hit in China, you don’t call the police. You just yell at the driver until they come fix what they did by hand. Sounds very Chinese to me.
-Last night we went to a Cultural Revolution themed restaurant. The waitresses were all dressed like soldiers and the walls all had Mao Zedong pictures on them. The waitresses seemed particularly amused by us, though. They burst out laughing over and over while interacting with us. Eventually it started to get a bit annoying. They also lost points for lying to us about which dishes had meat. We had a vegetarian with us who was barely able to eat anything at all. Yet, I feel like she’s fighting a losing battle anyways. If you came to China, you might as well just accept that your life will be loads easier if you eat meat. I’m sorry but it’s true. She said something like “This is the last time I’m going to eat at restaurants, sorry. That’s just ridiculous. The food was really tasty, especially the eggplant! They had the kind I absolutely love, which I found out is called “san wen yu qie zi,” or three fish sauce something or another eggplant. I’m glad to finally know the name.
-School training has started and I’m getting a little nervous. This is going to be a lot of responsibility working at this school. The parents are very demanding about the education their children need. We will have to wear a tie everyday, something I find a bit pointless and irritating. But I feel similar to how I did when I first was training for waiting tables at Carol Woods. It seemed like something ridiculously impossible that I can’t imagine ever doing, but I’m sure I will get used to it soon. It’s only because I’m doing something new. This happens often in life, and it only increases your skills to get through it. It will happen.
I think I like this format, a little more stream of conscious-like. Hopefully it will keep me sane by giving me a vent without feeling like homework. I’m sure I will do some tweaking soon, but that’s it for now. Goodnight!
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