Just had to sit down and write a quick blog about the generosity of Chinese people on this particular day. Before today starts, the school is already planning to throw a Christmas party for me tomorrow. They will also give me a gift of anything I want up to $200 Yuan ($30), which may not seem like a lot to you, but it goes a long way over here. I asked for a ping pong paddle which I had planned to buy tomorrow.
I woke up this morning practically still full from the dinner I was treated to the night before by a couple I met randomly on the subway.
7:50 am - I am with all the students and teachers at my school out on the basketball courts. The Chinese national anthem and flag raising has just finished, and I am wondering what the man on stage is talking about, as I do every Monday morning. A lady that I recognize as someone important (and therefore unable to speak English) comes up to me and hands me a slip of paper. after a bit of translating from a nearby English teacher, I understand that the school is giving me, and all the teachers, 350 Yuan (about $55) to spend on items at a nearby mall.
10:00 am - I return from teaching class and start trying to book plane flights to Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand for the 5 PAID WEEKS OF VACATION I HAVE COMING UP. This is quite difficult given the amount of Chinese characters you must understand to even deal with my bank. I have two different teachers helping me, Laura and Susan. they spend the morning checking different flights, calling my bank to ask questions, and calling friends for advice. I have to leave in the middle to go to the school's recording booth to tape a dialogue which will be used on an upcoming test for the junior 3s. "What does your sister make those beautiful kites for?" "On the weekends I like to spend time with my friends."...after working on my travel arrangements all morning, Susan even takes me to the bank during lunchtime to help me hook up online banking.
1:00 pm - After lunch I continue trying to book flights (I eventually had to use my US credit card, which WAMU decided to cancel after the first transaction for my security. After an unnecessarily long international phone conversation my card was back up and I was able to book my flights). Laura comes to my desk and tells me that one of the girls in her class thought today was my birthday (I’m not sure why). She then hands me a Tupperware full of sushi that the girl made me and brought to school! At that point I start feeling guilty because I don’t even know the student's name and I have never liked sushi. But it turned out to be delicious, and I thanked the girl profusely. I guess I like Sushi after all.
4pm - I return to my desk from the second batch of classes to find a brand new, creme-colored trench coat sitting on my desk. Apparently our school ordered these for all of the teachers (men and women) at my school, because winter is here. Being XXXL size as are most things that have a chance of fitting me in China, it is a bit wide for me, but it’s really nice. While I could see it invoking columbine/flasher emotions in Americans, it is a pretty common style in china. I wear this around for the rest of the day and receive praises of "ooh you so cool" and "oh so handsome" from the majority of people I pass (students and teachers).
4:30 pm - I am still trying to figure out how I will get to Laos for the beginning of my vacation, because the plane flights aren't working out. Laura is still helping me, and asks one of the PE teachers, Simon, to come help because he knows Yunnan province (the one from which I will enter Laos). I meet Simon for the first time, and after Laura explains to him what I hope to do, he tells Laura he will write out detailed instructions and give them to me tomorrow (Simon speaks almost no English). Pretty sweet guy. Then for some reason Laura tells Simon that the school is giving me a 200 Yuan ping pong paddle. Before I know what is happening, Simon has decided that this is not enough money for a really quality ping pong paddle, and he is going to give me one instead! I mean, are you kidding me?
6pm - My friend Alice, another English teacher, gives me a box of fancy chocolates and a very sweet Christmas card.
Needless to say, it was a pretty great day. And a much needed one to power me through the holidays with no family around.
Much love,
Danny
Monday, December 22, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
You gotta love Globalization sometimes
The little fruit shop by my school is currently selling apples from the beautiful State of Washington. Yes indeed, they have Gala and Red Delicious. I would recognize that Washington sticker anywhere. They are a bit pricey compared with the rest of the fruit, about $.60 per apple, but worth every penny.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Thanksgiving in China
Well it’s the 4th Thursday of November here in China. But it isn't actually thanksgiving in America until tomorrow, and it just feels like another day here. I am doing a thanksgiving lesson in my activity class today however, and I plan to explain to them that I should be sitting on the couch and eating stuffing while watching football. "This is what we like to do in America. We stuff our face with food and watch TV." God bless America. Oh I just realized that I haven’t posted since the election. Between Hong Kong TV and a fast internet connection I was able to watch all the results come in live, it was 12 noon here on November 5th when they called it. Needless to say I was ecstatic, and have never felt more homesick than I did that afternoon. I have this newfound pride in America that I have never felt before. It’s very weird, let me tell you. I think my expectations of Obama are so high that there is no way he will ever live up to them. But really, it doesn’t matter. He hasn’t even taken office yet and I already feel good knowing that on January 20th there will be a President in the White House that is not a moron. (sigh of relief)
But anyways, what is this blog supposed to be about? Oh ya, China! Since my last post I have done a bit of traveling. First was Hong Kong, which is actually very close. With public transportation it only takes about 2 hours from my school in Shenzhen to downtown Hong Kong. The most notable thing about Hong Kong is the number of foreigners there. I can actually walk around and no one stares at me! I'm like, hey come on guys, look at me, I’m American, I’m special! Jeez the least you could do is point at me and call me a foreigner. But in all seriousness, it’s nice to blend in again. Everyone there also speaks English, and the feel is very western.
Later that week I went to Macau. Macau is the self proclaimed Vegas of the East. It is a port city that was occupied by the Portuguese. It is technically part of China but has a high degree of autonomy, at least for the next 40 years or so. Portuguese is one of their official languages, and is written on many signs, but no one speaks it. The main draw of this place for most people, and for me, is the casinos. You can find pretty much any game you want in the city’s assorted casinos, however the minimum bet ranges from about $15 – 75 (US). At this rate, your $750 a month salary doesn’t last long. So after losing all I was prepared to lose on the first night, I had to find other things to do for the rest of the weekend. And it turns out there are a ton of sights in the area - old churches and temples, museums, and great restaurants. Little shops all over the city sell egg tarts, which are mini pies made out of egg custard deliciousness. This city is also very close to Shenzhen, only about an hour or two by boat.
Last weekend I went to Shanghai. My friends Shannon and Owen arrived in Shanghai on Saturday night, so I decided what the heck, Ill head up there for the weekend. I took the 2 hour plane ride up there on Friday morning, and went sightseeing by myself until Saturday evening. There is a lot to see in Shanghai. “The Bund” is a very famous street on the Huangpu River, and my hostel was located about a block from it. There is a lot of cool architecture along the Bund, dating back to the late 1800s and a monument to the people’s heroes of china. Across the river is Pudong, which has skyscrapers that at one point were some of the tallest buildings in China. However, the day that Shannon, Owen and I were there, it was extremely foggy and we figured it was not worth the money to go to the top floor just to see clouds. In the center of downtown Shanghai is people’s square. This area also has large park and a few museums that are pretty sweet. My favorite was the urban planning exhibition hall, which had incredibly intricate models of the entire city, and showed the mapping process for designing a city like Shanghai. Because of its history, Shanghai has a lot more tourists, and most Chinese people are frantically trying to sell you something or trick you into getting outrageously overpriced tea with them. This was quite a shock coming from Shenzhen, where every Chinese person I have met has been very nice and exceedingly generous.
While I enjoyed my trip to Shanghai, I missed the thanksgiving dinner that my program put together for all the foreign teachers last Sunday. So I am missing you all today, and wishing I could hang out in rainy Seattle with family and friends and thanksgiving leftovers for the next couple of days.
But I have an interesting weekend planned nonetheless. Tomorrow, I will be attending a job fair in Shenzhen, which I will be mainly volunteering at as an English speaker. I am not sure exactly what this will entail but I’m sure it will be entertaining. On Saturday, I will be accompanying students from my school to a competition where they will perform an English play that I have helped them rehearse. They got 1st place last weekend while I was in Shanghai, so they are in the finals this weekend. This event, I am also sure, will not disappoint.
That’s all for now. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
But anyways, what is this blog supposed to be about? Oh ya, China! Since my last post I have done a bit of traveling. First was Hong Kong, which is actually very close. With public transportation it only takes about 2 hours from my school in Shenzhen to downtown Hong Kong. The most notable thing about Hong Kong is the number of foreigners there. I can actually walk around and no one stares at me! I'm like, hey come on guys, look at me, I’m American, I’m special! Jeez the least you could do is point at me and call me a foreigner. But in all seriousness, it’s nice to blend in again. Everyone there also speaks English, and the feel is very western.
Later that week I went to Macau. Macau is the self proclaimed Vegas of the East. It is a port city that was occupied by the Portuguese. It is technically part of China but has a high degree of autonomy, at least for the next 40 years or so. Portuguese is one of their official languages, and is written on many signs, but no one speaks it. The main draw of this place for most people, and for me, is the casinos. You can find pretty much any game you want in the city’s assorted casinos, however the minimum bet ranges from about $15 – 75 (US). At this rate, your $750 a month salary doesn’t last long. So after losing all I was prepared to lose on the first night, I had to find other things to do for the rest of the weekend. And it turns out there are a ton of sights in the area - old churches and temples, museums, and great restaurants. Little shops all over the city sell egg tarts, which are mini pies made out of egg custard deliciousness. This city is also very close to Shenzhen, only about an hour or two by boat.
Last weekend I went to Shanghai. My friends Shannon and Owen arrived in Shanghai on Saturday night, so I decided what the heck, Ill head up there for the weekend. I took the 2 hour plane ride up there on Friday morning, and went sightseeing by myself until Saturday evening. There is a lot to see in Shanghai. “The Bund” is a very famous street on the Huangpu River, and my hostel was located about a block from it. There is a lot of cool architecture along the Bund, dating back to the late 1800s and a monument to the people’s heroes of china. Across the river is Pudong, which has skyscrapers that at one point were some of the tallest buildings in China. However, the day that Shannon, Owen and I were there, it was extremely foggy and we figured it was not worth the money to go to the top floor just to see clouds. In the center of downtown Shanghai is people’s square. This area also has large park and a few museums that are pretty sweet. My favorite was the urban planning exhibition hall, which had incredibly intricate models of the entire city, and showed the mapping process for designing a city like Shanghai. Because of its history, Shanghai has a lot more tourists, and most Chinese people are frantically trying to sell you something or trick you into getting outrageously overpriced tea with them. This was quite a shock coming from Shenzhen, where every Chinese person I have met has been very nice and exceedingly generous.
While I enjoyed my trip to Shanghai, I missed the thanksgiving dinner that my program put together for all the foreign teachers last Sunday. So I am missing you all today, and wishing I could hang out in rainy Seattle with family and friends and thanksgiving leftovers for the next couple of days.
But I have an interesting weekend planned nonetheless. Tomorrow, I will be attending a job fair in Shenzhen, which I will be mainly volunteering at as an English speaker. I am not sure exactly what this will entail but I’m sure it will be entertaining. On Saturday, I will be accompanying students from my school to a competition where they will perform an English play that I have helped them rehearse. They got 1st place last weekend while I was in Shanghai, so they are in the finals this weekend. This event, I am also sure, will not disappoint.
That’s all for now. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Life goes on
Hey folks. So they have just told me that i will have all next week off while the students are at military training. thats right, my 7th and 8th graders will spend all week at mandatory military training. In addition, many teachers have asked to use my oral english class time this week for extra test prep for midterms on thursday and friday. So I am basically off for the next 2 weeks. This would have been a great time to take a little vacation by myself, since no one else has time off and prices are cheap, but I want to be in the area for Halloween and the election next week. I think I will take 2 small trips, probably to Hong Kong and Macau over the next couple weeks, and just enjoy the free time. I am very excited that i will not have to work at all the day of or day after the election. i will be emotional either way, and really in no place to teach, especially if Obama becomes the next president of the United States. Picture Mr. Danny extremely hungover running around class and screaming, then trying to express to 12-year-old chinese kids what this means for America.
After my last post i spent a week traveling with some folks from my program. We first took an overnight train to Xiamen. While they do have assigned seating on these trains, they also sell standing tickets. This means that the entire train is packed to the gills with people standing and sitting on the floor, bodies crammed into every possible nook and cranny. Sounds miserable, and when you have to pee it kind of is, but the train ride was actually a lot of fun. We ended up playing card games and drinking Bai Jiu (hard alcohol made of rice) with a group of chinese dudes and then passing out for the rest of the trip. all in all it was about 12 hours i think. Once in Xiamen we found a reasonably priced Hotel (unfortunately no room for the donkey friend) and just hung out for a few days. Around town, we checked out Nanputou Temple, a buddhist temple where you can hike up a mountainside and look out over the whole city. we also went out to Gulang Yu, a short boatride to an island where no cars are allowed. There are lots of little trinket shops and stuff like that, and a nice beach to hang out on. Nights were spent partying with random chinese people. It is amazing how little the language barrier impeeds making friends. Pretty much anywhere we go if we look like we want to party chinese people will come up and start drinking with us and buy us beers. The only really necessary words are Gang Bei! Which is like cheers but also means kill your drink. We have had some pretty sweet nights with sketchy, but ultimately awesome Chinese dudes.
We also had a great national day night in Xiamen with some ladies that we met on the train. After a fabulous dinner, we took a cab to the beach. upon arriving at the beach we noticed that just past a thin strip of sand, there was a traditional chinese play going on (faces painted white, costumes, chinese guitar music, all that). After watching for a little bit, our friends brought us down to the beach and told us they wanted to teach us a chinese card game. This turned out to be the game Mafia, which i have not played since I was a little kid. We had a lot of fun playing this and then just hung out on the beach for a while. throughout the night people lit lanterns on the beach, which are like mini hot air balloons. You light a candle at the bottom and it carries the lantern up into the night sky, taking your dreams with it. We lit some of our own, all with the soundtrack of the play in the background.
After a few days in Xiamen, we went out to Yongding. This is an actual rural area, my first in China. This village is known for its Tulous or "earth buildings" that the Hakka people used to live in. These are giant circular buildings that are open air and have a little courtyard inside. I believe the Hakka used them as defense, and could live inside them for long periods of time while keeping invaders out. We spent most of our time on tours going around to see these buildings, and were even able to sleep in one. We crammed 5 dudes into 3 beds covered only with wooden planks, and refrained from using the bucket in the corner for any bowel movements. It actually wasn't that bad, and was definitely a cool experience.
Since that trip I have been hanging out in Shenzhen. my weeks are busy teaching and private tutoring, and I spend my weekends mostly eating, partying, sleeping, and playing sports. I now have a regular ping pong partner and basketball game. Yesterday I spent all afternoon playing soccer with a couple other foreign teachers and a whole team of chinese guys. it was a lot of fun, and about the right level of intensity for me. These guys were average soccer players, and would be a lot better if they didnt take frequent smoke breaks during the game. Afterwards, of course, they took us out for dinner (Sichuan food) and a night of drinking ensued during which no American paid a dime. I am actually a little uncomfortable with how eager they are to pay for us. I think that our salary is actually quite high by chinese standards, higher than most teachers. And they pay for EVERYTHING, the food, the drinks, the pool table, the cab, and never give you an opportunity to even get your wallet out. It's great, but I need to find a way to chip in without being rude.
For Halloween I found a Jason mask at walmart, which i think will go well with the uniform of the maintenance staff at my school. One of the english teachers is on the task, so hopefully i will be able to borrow one. Most Chinese people will probably not recognize this costume, certainly not my students, but I think it is scary nonetheless.
Until next time.
Danny
After my last post i spent a week traveling with some folks from my program. We first took an overnight train to Xiamen. While they do have assigned seating on these trains, they also sell standing tickets. This means that the entire train is packed to the gills with people standing and sitting on the floor, bodies crammed into every possible nook and cranny. Sounds miserable, and when you have to pee it kind of is, but the train ride was actually a lot of fun. We ended up playing card games and drinking Bai Jiu (hard alcohol made of rice) with a group of chinese dudes and then passing out for the rest of the trip. all in all it was about 12 hours i think. Once in Xiamen we found a reasonably priced Hotel (unfortunately no room for the donkey friend) and just hung out for a few days. Around town, we checked out Nanputou Temple, a buddhist temple where you can hike up a mountainside and look out over the whole city. we also went out to Gulang Yu, a short boatride to an island where no cars are allowed. There are lots of little trinket shops and stuff like that, and a nice beach to hang out on. Nights were spent partying with random chinese people. It is amazing how little the language barrier impeeds making friends. Pretty much anywhere we go if we look like we want to party chinese people will come up and start drinking with us and buy us beers. The only really necessary words are Gang Bei! Which is like cheers but also means kill your drink. We have had some pretty sweet nights with sketchy, but ultimately awesome Chinese dudes.
We also had a great national day night in Xiamen with some ladies that we met on the train. After a fabulous dinner, we took a cab to the beach. upon arriving at the beach we noticed that just past a thin strip of sand, there was a traditional chinese play going on (faces painted white, costumes, chinese guitar music, all that). After watching for a little bit, our friends brought us down to the beach and told us they wanted to teach us a chinese card game. This turned out to be the game Mafia, which i have not played since I was a little kid. We had a lot of fun playing this and then just hung out on the beach for a while. throughout the night people lit lanterns on the beach, which are like mini hot air balloons. You light a candle at the bottom and it carries the lantern up into the night sky, taking your dreams with it. We lit some of our own, all with the soundtrack of the play in the background.
After a few days in Xiamen, we went out to Yongding. This is an actual rural area, my first in China. This village is known for its Tulous or "earth buildings" that the Hakka people used to live in. These are giant circular buildings that are open air and have a little courtyard inside. I believe the Hakka used them as defense, and could live inside them for long periods of time while keeping invaders out. We spent most of our time on tours going around to see these buildings, and were even able to sleep in one. We crammed 5 dudes into 3 beds covered only with wooden planks, and refrained from using the bucket in the corner for any bowel movements. It actually wasn't that bad, and was definitely a cool experience.
Since that trip I have been hanging out in Shenzhen. my weeks are busy teaching and private tutoring, and I spend my weekends mostly eating, partying, sleeping, and playing sports. I now have a regular ping pong partner and basketball game. Yesterday I spent all afternoon playing soccer with a couple other foreign teachers and a whole team of chinese guys. it was a lot of fun, and about the right level of intensity for me. These guys were average soccer players, and would be a lot better if they didnt take frequent smoke breaks during the game. Afterwards, of course, they took us out for dinner (Sichuan food) and a night of drinking ensued during which no American paid a dime. I am actually a little uncomfortable with how eager they are to pay for us. I think that our salary is actually quite high by chinese standards, higher than most teachers. And they pay for EVERYTHING, the food, the drinks, the pool table, the cab, and never give you an opportunity to even get your wallet out. It's great, but I need to find a way to chip in without being rude.
For Halloween I found a Jason mask at walmart, which i think will go well with the uniform of the maintenance staff at my school. One of the english teachers is on the task, so hopefully i will be able to borrow one. Most Chinese people will probably not recognize this costume, certainly not my students, but I think it is scary nonetheless.
Until next time.
Danny
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Teach Teach Teach
Hey all. So I have settled into my teaching schedule now. I have taught my intro lesson to all 20 classes, and most are fabulous (ooh, good vocab word). My intro lesson was about seattle, which after being told that it is in the state of washington, they all immediately think is in washington DC. I show a picture of the white house, where "boosh" lives, and explain that I am as far away as i can get. :)
I show them a beautiful picture of downtown with Mt. rainier and the space needle and tell them how much it rains and all that. then I show a picture of bill gates, who they all immediately recognize, and tell them that he lives in seattle. i do the same with Obama when I tell them i went to this school called "occidental college," for those of you who dont know Obama went to Occidental for 2 years. they all immediately scream Obama! when I show his picture, which always makes me happy. I showed them pictures of my family, highlights being trying find the word for Niece, A picture of me with my long hair (they all guess "your sister" when i ask "who do you think this is?"), and trying to guess Carter's age. They start at 50, and one kid in every class eventually shouts out 100! and they think it is a riot. After getting through this I get them to talk by tossing a beanbag to volunteers or random kids that havent spoken, asking questions about what they like to do for fun, what music they like, where they want to visit, those types of things. If the class goes well, which all but one did, I show them a powerpoint with nba stars and basketball vocabulary. They go crazy over this, and know an incredible amount about the nba.
My second lesson is on american slang, teaching them words like gonna, gotta, wanna, etc. and phrases like "what's up?" and "hang out." it is too much fun to say, whats up class? and have them all reply "not much, wassup with you?" This is followed by a game where they pull phrases out of a jar and have to turn them into slang. If they are able to do this they get to take a shot with a foam basketball i got from walmart, the hoop being me with my arms in a circle. They LOVE this, and the winner gets to pick an american song to listen to at the end of class. They like obscenely cheesy music, like backstreet boys, celine dion, and "Westlife" an even cornier boy band from the UK. but hey, give the people what they want.
There are a couple of rowdy classes but physical violence is a surprisingly effective class management technique (j/k). Students, even the troublemakers, really do not like to be called out. Bringing them to the front of class and making them speak english in front of everyone, or asking them to stand in the back of class quickly shuts them up. I also teach the fun class, so the threat of ending games or assigning homework is quite effective. Additionally, many of them think I'm cool because I'm a giant american and I play basketball and ping pong with them so i have it pretty good.
Really the most problems arise when the class does not undertand me. Often times they will split up two classes. so i teach, for example, class 5 and class 6, but class 6 has all the best students. So it is like night and day between what class 6 understands, and what class 5 understands. However, they don't tell me which is which prior to the class. so I get out of class 6 feeling like a superhero, and get out of class 5 wondering why i came to China. kids start glazing over and goofing off when they dont understand what the heck i am talking about. understandable, really. so what it usually comes down to is how interesting and appropriate the subject matter of my lesson is. I have newfound respect for all of the good teachers in my life, cause it aint easy. Especially with younger kids, their attention spans are short, so each lesson has to have a few good ideas to keep them engaged.
I am also now teaching "activity class" three times a week, to the top 3 students from every class. These kids speak a ton of english, and are very well behaved, so I can do more advanced lessons with them. However, it is a fine line to walk. For example, I did a madlib of "Eleanor Rigby" ("All the fancy toilettes, where do they all come from...") by the beatles with them, and their vocabulary is impressive. Next I wanted to show them some "Darwin awards" but ran into trouble introducing Charles Darwin, because the vocab involved in the evolution of species is a bit out of their league.
The school has also followed through with the "teach the teachers" class, which basically consists of me sitting down with all of their english teachers (all women) each week and talking about america for a half hour. this is kind of great, but also a lot of pressure. I try to make it clear that i only speak from my own experience, but I dont know if they are taking it with a grain of salt. I am hoping this will turn into more discussion of the differences between our countries, but so far it has been mostly me talking. Last week I talked about the education system and job market. Standardized tests, public school vs. private school, individuality, group work, debate, leadership skills, hierarchy in the workplace, etc.
I am on a regular schedule of 3 private lessons a week, which are a lot of fun. I found a huge resource of english board games online, soccer turned into a word game, snakes and ladders, all that good stuff. i actually turned down a job today teaching classes at a private school walking distance from my school. It would have been a lot of extra work, and only paid 3/4 what I make doing private lessons. Also, I have been feeling really busy. My activity class goes until 5:45 and I often have an hour private lesson after that, so i don't get done until about 7. Fortunately, its vacation time!
We have next week off for "national day." However, we did not know if we would have our permanent visas in time to leave the special economic zone until very recently, and most of our travel destinations were already booked (all 12 million people in Shenzhen have the week off, and it is a city of migrant workers). We did manage to get train tickets to Xia Men, which is a village (and when i say village, i mean like the population of Seattle) on the beach northeast of here. It is supposed to be beautiful, and ill be going with 7 other folks from the program. All hostels seem to be booked, so we are planning to figure it out when we get there. If we cant find a spot, I guess we'll just have to party all night. Hey, my name is Danny, I like to party.
Fun things to leave you with. First, awesome english names that students told me straight-faced:
Mars
Girl Named Andrew
Brilliant
Jackie Chan
Goofy
Next, an excerpt from the website of a hostel that, shockingly, was booked. the english translations here are hysterical, even in museums and on public posters.
"The culmination international youth hotel has provided comfortable luxurious, the honeymoon as well as the family anteroom for the donkey friends, simultaneously has also provided during neat, the simple and elegant standard for the back person who hires a prostitute, and the multi-worlds and so on many kinds. The hotel facility is complete, helps oneself washes clothes, the self-service kitchen, the Internet bar, the book shed, the parking lot, CD to engrave records, the personal safe cabinet, the goods to check, the text printing, the bicycle to rent, wireless network turning on, the home and the international call, the bar is momentarily open for the donkey friend; The bathroom 24 hours provide the hot water; The hotel provides the ticket clerk the service and the peripheral traveling consultation."
Later donkey friends.
I show them a beautiful picture of downtown with Mt. rainier and the space needle and tell them how much it rains and all that. then I show a picture of bill gates, who they all immediately recognize, and tell them that he lives in seattle. i do the same with Obama when I tell them i went to this school called "occidental college," for those of you who dont know Obama went to Occidental for 2 years. they all immediately scream Obama! when I show his picture, which always makes me happy. I showed them pictures of my family, highlights being trying find the word for Niece, A picture of me with my long hair (they all guess "your sister" when i ask "who do you think this is?"), and trying to guess Carter's age. They start at 50, and one kid in every class eventually shouts out 100! and they think it is a riot. After getting through this I get them to talk by tossing a beanbag to volunteers or random kids that havent spoken, asking questions about what they like to do for fun, what music they like, where they want to visit, those types of things. If the class goes well, which all but one did, I show them a powerpoint with nba stars and basketball vocabulary. They go crazy over this, and know an incredible amount about the nba.
My second lesson is on american slang, teaching them words like gonna, gotta, wanna, etc. and phrases like "what's up?" and "hang out." it is too much fun to say, whats up class? and have them all reply "not much, wassup with you?" This is followed by a game where they pull phrases out of a jar and have to turn them into slang. If they are able to do this they get to take a shot with a foam basketball i got from walmart, the hoop being me with my arms in a circle. They LOVE this, and the winner gets to pick an american song to listen to at the end of class. They like obscenely cheesy music, like backstreet boys, celine dion, and "Westlife" an even cornier boy band from the UK. but hey, give the people what they want.
There are a couple of rowdy classes but physical violence is a surprisingly effective class management technique (j/k). Students, even the troublemakers, really do not like to be called out. Bringing them to the front of class and making them speak english in front of everyone, or asking them to stand in the back of class quickly shuts them up. I also teach the fun class, so the threat of ending games or assigning homework is quite effective. Additionally, many of them think I'm cool because I'm a giant american and I play basketball and ping pong with them so i have it pretty good.
Really the most problems arise when the class does not undertand me. Often times they will split up two classes. so i teach, for example, class 5 and class 6, but class 6 has all the best students. So it is like night and day between what class 6 understands, and what class 5 understands. However, they don't tell me which is which prior to the class. so I get out of class 6 feeling like a superhero, and get out of class 5 wondering why i came to China. kids start glazing over and goofing off when they dont understand what the heck i am talking about. understandable, really. so what it usually comes down to is how interesting and appropriate the subject matter of my lesson is. I have newfound respect for all of the good teachers in my life, cause it aint easy. Especially with younger kids, their attention spans are short, so each lesson has to have a few good ideas to keep them engaged.
I am also now teaching "activity class" three times a week, to the top 3 students from every class. These kids speak a ton of english, and are very well behaved, so I can do more advanced lessons with them. However, it is a fine line to walk. For example, I did a madlib of "Eleanor Rigby" ("All the fancy toilettes, where do they all come from...") by the beatles with them, and their vocabulary is impressive. Next I wanted to show them some "Darwin awards" but ran into trouble introducing Charles Darwin, because the vocab involved in the evolution of species is a bit out of their league.
The school has also followed through with the "teach the teachers" class, which basically consists of me sitting down with all of their english teachers (all women) each week and talking about america for a half hour. this is kind of great, but also a lot of pressure. I try to make it clear that i only speak from my own experience, but I dont know if they are taking it with a grain of salt. I am hoping this will turn into more discussion of the differences between our countries, but so far it has been mostly me talking. Last week I talked about the education system and job market. Standardized tests, public school vs. private school, individuality, group work, debate, leadership skills, hierarchy in the workplace, etc.
I am on a regular schedule of 3 private lessons a week, which are a lot of fun. I found a huge resource of english board games online, soccer turned into a word game, snakes and ladders, all that good stuff. i actually turned down a job today teaching classes at a private school walking distance from my school. It would have been a lot of extra work, and only paid 3/4 what I make doing private lessons. Also, I have been feeling really busy. My activity class goes until 5:45 and I often have an hour private lesson after that, so i don't get done until about 7. Fortunately, its vacation time!
We have next week off for "national day." However, we did not know if we would have our permanent visas in time to leave the special economic zone until very recently, and most of our travel destinations were already booked (all 12 million people in Shenzhen have the week off, and it is a city of migrant workers). We did manage to get train tickets to Xia Men, which is a village (and when i say village, i mean like the population of Seattle) on the beach northeast of here. It is supposed to be beautiful, and ill be going with 7 other folks from the program. All hostels seem to be booked, so we are planning to figure it out when we get there. If we cant find a spot, I guess we'll just have to party all night. Hey, my name is Danny, I like to party.
Fun things to leave you with. First, awesome english names that students told me straight-faced:
Mars
Girl Named Andrew
Brilliant
Jackie Chan
Goofy
Next, an excerpt from the website of a hostel that, shockingly, was booked. the english translations here are hysterical, even in museums and on public posters.
"The culmination international youth hotel has provided comfortable luxurious, the honeymoon as well as the family anteroom for the donkey friends, simultaneously has also provided during neat, the simple and elegant standard for the back person who hires a prostitute, and the multi-worlds and so on many kinds. The hotel facility is complete, helps oneself washes clothes, the self-service kitchen, the Internet bar, the book shed, the parking lot, CD to engrave records, the personal safe cabinet, the goods to check, the text printing, the bicycle to rent, wireless network turning on, the home and the international call, the bar is momentarily open for the donkey friend; The bathroom 24 hours provide the hot water; The hotel provides the ticket clerk the service and the peripheral traveling consultation."
Later donkey friends.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Settled in Shenzhen
Hey folks. So i write to you now from my school in Shenzhen. And i have pretty much hit the jackpot - let me try to put it in perspective: There are like 7 districts in Shenzhen. two of them are the main downtown area, and 5 of them are off in the middle of nowhere - factory districts, rural towns, all that. These people have to take a couple buses and it takes them like an hour and a half just to really get into the city. i am in the upscale downtown area called futian. you name it, i got it. Numerous Banks, two wallmarts, all kinds of fast food (and chinese restaurants), a short walk to many bus routes and the subway, a short walk to the electronics district where you can buy pretty much any bootleg (or legitimate) piece of elecronics equipment you could want. I also get free breakfast and lunch at my school, which would have made me much more excited if i wasnt absolutely sick of chinese food. but wait, it gets better. I am at a "Key school" of which there are only a handful, and they are the most selective schools in the city. So even though i am teaching classes full of about 40-50 7th/8th graders, so far they are amazingly well behaved and very sharp. I think my middle school is ranked like 2nd or 3rd out of all the schools in the city. I have a room complete with air conditioning, kitchen (microwave, toaster, fridge, etc), western style toilet, Washing machine (no dryers in the whole counry but it is hot and things dry quickly outside), tv with cable, dvd player, and cable internet (to all of you who told me i should bring a laptop, you were right, i hope you're happy :) but it doesnt even matter because I have a little cube with my own computer that has about the fastest internet I have seen so far in china. pretty much the same speed as at home. i have a key for the door and they say I can use it whenever i want. This is going to be very crucial when planning lessons on weekends and evenings. This may not sound like much to all of you, but this is about as good as anyone has it out of all the placements. I feel like it is too good to be true and they are going to switch me to another school any day now.
some goofy 7th graders just walked by my cube and said "hello, nice to meet you" and walked away. That happens multiple times a day. Now where was i...
My contact teacher is AWESOME. She is a tiny asian lady whose english name is Susan. She studied in the UK and her english is very good. She has a very cute chinese/british accent. She is very nice and very helpful with anything that i need. My school has a soccer field, a track, basketball and volleyball courts, and a room full of ping pong tables. I played ping pong a little bit with another teacher and was able to at least return some shots, so maybe he will play with me again. My school has a few campuses in Shenzhen, and i am the only foreign teacher at my particular campus, which I think has about 1500 students. however, i am very near a couple of our coordinators and some other foreign teachers. this is perfect for me because it will force me to learn some chinese, but im also near americans when i need them. I have Junior 1 (7th grade) one week, then Junior 2 (8th grade) the next, then back to the junior 1 kids. Classes are 45 minutes. ARE YOU DOING THIS MATH? I only see each class of kids for 45 minutes every other week. This means 2 things. 1) They really arent going to improve much - im ok with this. 2) I only have to come up with one lesson plan every 2 weeks. Some teachers see the same class 3-4 times a week. I also only teach 10 classes a week so far, and do not have any classes on fridays.
like i said, Im trying not to get too excited about this yet, because things are subject to change at any moment around here.
Most sentences that are said to me begin with the word "maybe." I feel that many years ago someone in china got the meaning of this word wrong and it just stuck. Here are some examples:
Chinese authority figure: "How many classes you teach per week?"
Me: "I believe the contract says up to 15."
Chinese authority figure: "oh...Maybe you can do more." "Maybe you teach class for our english teachers as well." (They havent actually followed through with this yet, but who knows)
Chinese authority figure: "You teach tomorrow?"
Me: "Yes, I have two classes in the morning."
Chinese authority figure: "Oh...Maybe you teach them on thursday instead."
Chinese authority figure: "You come tomorrow?"
Me: "What's happening?" (its like 6 oclock)
Chinese authority figure: "It is teacher day. Maybe you come to ceremony at ten to 8."
I think the real reason for this is that they want to be non-confrontational. However, they have no problem punking me as long as they begin the sentence with a "maybe." Yesterday, after numerous commands beginning with "maybe," I ended up dressed nicely at the back gate of our school where a bus picked me up and took me to a teachers day celebration with the mayor of shenzhen. Let me try to paint this picture. Very fancy stage and audience of Chinese people, important chinese people giving speeches during wich i mostly only understand the word for teacher, very warm, starting to dose off..........and EXTREMELY LOUD CIRCUS MUSIC STARTS BLASTING. Attractive young chinese women appear as if from nowhere dressed like stewardesses and hand plaques to the important men sitting at a table on stage. teachers parade onto stage, the important men give the plaques to the teachers, then little girls come out holding flowers and stand in front of the teachers and do a salute. then they all leave stage and it happens again with another group of teachers. Next scene, Im riding the subway last night and see the ceremony on TV. I was really hoping to be on TV after having my picture taken so many times while sitting in the audience, but the crowd shots are all from afar.
Sitting at my desk earlier today one of the english teachers propositioned me with a tutoring job. After a bit of discussion, i will now be tutoring three 11-year-olds for an hour twice a week (starting tomorrow). As of this afternoon my going rate for tutoring is $30 an hour. Hell ya. Jeez I better figure out what I am going to do with these kids...
Well thats all for now. If you are reading this, I probably miss you :)
Much love,
Mr. Danny (Oh ya, that is totally what they call me)
some goofy 7th graders just walked by my cube and said "hello, nice to meet you" and walked away. That happens multiple times a day. Now where was i...
My contact teacher is AWESOME. She is a tiny asian lady whose english name is Susan. She studied in the UK and her english is very good. She has a very cute chinese/british accent. She is very nice and very helpful with anything that i need. My school has a soccer field, a track, basketball and volleyball courts, and a room full of ping pong tables. I played ping pong a little bit with another teacher and was able to at least return some shots, so maybe he will play with me again. My school has a few campuses in Shenzhen, and i am the only foreign teacher at my particular campus, which I think has about 1500 students. however, i am very near a couple of our coordinators and some other foreign teachers. this is perfect for me because it will force me to learn some chinese, but im also near americans when i need them. I have Junior 1 (7th grade) one week, then Junior 2 (8th grade) the next, then back to the junior 1 kids. Classes are 45 minutes. ARE YOU DOING THIS MATH? I only see each class of kids for 45 minutes every other week. This means 2 things. 1) They really arent going to improve much - im ok with this. 2) I only have to come up with one lesson plan every 2 weeks. Some teachers see the same class 3-4 times a week. I also only teach 10 classes a week so far, and do not have any classes on fridays.
like i said, Im trying not to get too excited about this yet, because things are subject to change at any moment around here.
Most sentences that are said to me begin with the word "maybe." I feel that many years ago someone in china got the meaning of this word wrong and it just stuck. Here are some examples:
Chinese authority figure: "How many classes you teach per week?"
Me: "I believe the contract says up to 15."
Chinese authority figure: "oh...Maybe you can do more." "Maybe you teach class for our english teachers as well." (They havent actually followed through with this yet, but who knows)
Chinese authority figure: "You teach tomorrow?"
Me: "Yes, I have two classes in the morning."
Chinese authority figure: "Oh...Maybe you teach them on thursday instead."
Chinese authority figure: "You come tomorrow?"
Me: "What's happening?" (its like 6 oclock)
Chinese authority figure: "It is teacher day. Maybe you come to ceremony at ten to 8."
I think the real reason for this is that they want to be non-confrontational. However, they have no problem punking me as long as they begin the sentence with a "maybe." Yesterday, after numerous commands beginning with "maybe," I ended up dressed nicely at the back gate of our school where a bus picked me up and took me to a teachers day celebration with the mayor of shenzhen. Let me try to paint this picture. Very fancy stage and audience of Chinese people, important chinese people giving speeches during wich i mostly only understand the word for teacher, very warm, starting to dose off..........and EXTREMELY LOUD CIRCUS MUSIC STARTS BLASTING. Attractive young chinese women appear as if from nowhere dressed like stewardesses and hand plaques to the important men sitting at a table on stage. teachers parade onto stage, the important men give the plaques to the teachers, then little girls come out holding flowers and stand in front of the teachers and do a salute. then they all leave stage and it happens again with another group of teachers. Next scene, Im riding the subway last night and see the ceremony on TV. I was really hoping to be on TV after having my picture taken so many times while sitting in the audience, but the crowd shots are all from afar.
Sitting at my desk earlier today one of the english teachers propositioned me with a tutoring job. After a bit of discussion, i will now be tutoring three 11-year-olds for an hour twice a week (starting tomorrow). As of this afternoon my going rate for tutoring is $30 an hour. Hell ya. Jeez I better figure out what I am going to do with these kids...
Well thats all for now. If you are reading this, I probably miss you :)
Much love,
Mr. Danny (Oh ya, that is totally what they call me)
Sunday, August 31, 2008
good evening, or whatever time it is over there
Whatup folks. still in training in zhuhai, and getting a little sick of going to school all day, but we are almost home free.
We have found an awesome restaurant near our hotel and often walk there with a herd of americans, which makes me a bit uncomfortable, but i think they like the business. Ive eaten there pretty much every day for the last week and have yet to be dissapointed. the dumplings are to die for.
I have been spending most nights at bar street with assorted groups of americans, which always proves interesting. there are some pretty upscale bars and clubs (expensive by chinese standards, but still very cheap. however, when you can get a giant beer in the corner store for 60 cents, its amazing how quickly you start to think that 3 dollars for a beer is outrageous), and an astounding number of chinese people drinking and partying on weeknights. most of the tables have cups with 5 dice in them, and they play this game called bullshit. basically turn your cup over and look at your dice, then continue around the table one upping the person before you about how many of each number are on the table (ex. i think there are 9 4's between everyone. ok, i think there are 11 4's, etc) until someone calls bullshit. then you add up all the dice and if the bullshitter is right, the person they called out chugs their little glass of beer. If they are wrong, they do. quite fun, and also good practice with chinese numbers. if you sit down at a table with guys and start playing, the waitresses (and more than likely prostitutes) sit down and start playing with you. makes me feel a little weird, but they are fun to party with. hey, my name is Danny, i like to party. id introduce myself that way, but i think they might misunderstand my meaning.
after drinking heavily for 4 nights in a row, on thursday night i decided to go get a massage. I was a little uncomfortable not speaking the language and not sure exactly what was going to happen, but one of the girls in our program who speaks a lot of chinese was able to tell them what i wanted. so i got myself an hour long, full body massage for 7 bucks. not too shabby. It was kind of tickling in the beginning and I had to seriously stifle my laughter so as not to look like a weirdo when I couldnt explain what i thought was so funny. i remember thinking at one point wow, this chick is really strong. and then realized she was standing on me.
Interesting fact about China - They won't give you a bag in the supermarket for your groceries. Great, right? reduces waste. however, I went into KFC and ordered a meal, and my cup of soda came in a bag. not just in a bag like they do in mexico, in a cup and then in a bag. go figure.
they are also still obsessed with the olympics over here. most channels have world leaders praising China (no matter how obscure, they had the president of iceland on the other night), or are just replaying every event.
we turned in our preferences for teaching assignments today. I requested to teach Junior or senior (not primary) in one of the Special Economic Zones downtown. Ive been told that our schools will have cable tv, but most only have dialup internet. however, we only teach 15 classes per week, and they are less than an hour, so i should have plenty of free time. Hope all is well in the states.
who the hell is Palin? What a lame attempt to steal Clinton supporters. Hopefully the fact that she is a nobody and most notable for being anti-choice will prevent that from happening.
We have found an awesome restaurant near our hotel and often walk there with a herd of americans, which makes me a bit uncomfortable, but i think they like the business. Ive eaten there pretty much every day for the last week and have yet to be dissapointed. the dumplings are to die for.
I have been spending most nights at bar street with assorted groups of americans, which always proves interesting. there are some pretty upscale bars and clubs (expensive by chinese standards, but still very cheap. however, when you can get a giant beer in the corner store for 60 cents, its amazing how quickly you start to think that 3 dollars for a beer is outrageous), and an astounding number of chinese people drinking and partying on weeknights. most of the tables have cups with 5 dice in them, and they play this game called bullshit. basically turn your cup over and look at your dice, then continue around the table one upping the person before you about how many of each number are on the table (ex. i think there are 9 4's between everyone. ok, i think there are 11 4's, etc) until someone calls bullshit. then you add up all the dice and if the bullshitter is right, the person they called out chugs their little glass of beer. If they are wrong, they do. quite fun, and also good practice with chinese numbers. if you sit down at a table with guys and start playing, the waitresses (and more than likely prostitutes) sit down and start playing with you. makes me feel a little weird, but they are fun to party with. hey, my name is Danny, i like to party. id introduce myself that way, but i think they might misunderstand my meaning.
after drinking heavily for 4 nights in a row, on thursday night i decided to go get a massage. I was a little uncomfortable not speaking the language and not sure exactly what was going to happen, but one of the girls in our program who speaks a lot of chinese was able to tell them what i wanted. so i got myself an hour long, full body massage for 7 bucks. not too shabby. It was kind of tickling in the beginning and I had to seriously stifle my laughter so as not to look like a weirdo when I couldnt explain what i thought was so funny. i remember thinking at one point wow, this chick is really strong. and then realized she was standing on me.
Interesting fact about China - They won't give you a bag in the supermarket for your groceries. Great, right? reduces waste. however, I went into KFC and ordered a meal, and my cup of soda came in a bag. not just in a bag like they do in mexico, in a cup and then in a bag. go figure.
they are also still obsessed with the olympics over here. most channels have world leaders praising China (no matter how obscure, they had the president of iceland on the other night), or are just replaying every event.
we turned in our preferences for teaching assignments today. I requested to teach Junior or senior (not primary) in one of the Special Economic Zones downtown. Ive been told that our schools will have cable tv, but most only have dialup internet. however, we only teach 15 classes per week, and they are less than an hour, so i should have plenty of free time. Hope all is well in the states.
who the hell is Palin? What a lame attempt to steal Clinton supporters. Hopefully the fact that she is a nobody and most notable for being anti-choice will prevent that from happening.
Monday, August 25, 2008
lets see if this works
So, i have finally made it to the internet cafe. I just walked around with a guy whose mandarin is much better than mine for about an hour trying to figure out where an internet cafe is and how to buy a card and actually use it. We walked into a couple places full of guys playing warcraft before figuring out the system.
the flight down and bus to zhuhai, pronounced juhai, was a serious fiasco. We couldn't fly into Hong Kong initially because there was a typhoon over here so I was stranded in San Fran for a day. I was able to meet up with some people from the program though, so that wasnt too bad. Once arriving in Hong Kong things got a bit out of hand. I won't go into details, but just say that so far i have not been impressed with this programs organization skills. everything is subject to change at any moment, including what we are paying for or not, and they have very little useful information about the city they chose for our training. but anyways, enough griping.
The people in the program seem pretty cool, and every chinese person i have met is very friendly. Except for the first guy looking at my passport when I arrived in Hong Kong, who proceeded to show my passport picture to the lady next to him and tell me i looked like a girl with my long hair. My mandarin is actually pretty good compared to most of the people in my program, and I got myself out of the elementary class. We have a very good TEFL(teaching english as a foreign language) instructor, and I am excited about teaching.
Walking around the gigantic supermarket yesterday was quite an experience, many things I have no idea what is in the package. However, I often feel I can trust anything with Jackie Chans face on it. This guy slangs pretty much anything over here, from beauty products to snacks to you name it. In most restaurants I often have to point at something that looks edible and hope for the best. However, it is usually delicious. Lots of fried rice and dumplings accompanied by strange vegetables.
This place is TROPICAL, which i was not expecting. It is humid as hell, sort of like florida weather, and I feel a bit foolish for bringing all of the warm clothes that I did. The smells are also very strange. one minute it is a delicious scent from a nearby restaurant, then urine, then another delicious restaurant, then overwhelming dumpster smell, then restaurant...
After walking accross a bridge to an island nearby, we found that you could walk up a set of stairs to the top of this island. on the way down, there was a view of the bay, filled with fishing boats, and large highrises in the background. as we proceeded down the steps, a man started playing his chinese guitar and i realized that this is EXACTLY how i pictured china. every city I have seen is filled with what I can only call neighborhoods, which consist of hundreds of skyscrapers that are entirely filled by tiny apartments. It remindeds me of that scene from the matrix where they are growing the humans. These buildings are totally black at night, which is a bit eery. We will be in Zhuhai for about another week, then we move to Shenzhen. I look forward to unpacking and getting to know the surroundings I will live in for the next year.
the flight down and bus to zhuhai, pronounced juhai, was a serious fiasco. We couldn't fly into Hong Kong initially because there was a typhoon over here so I was stranded in San Fran for a day. I was able to meet up with some people from the program though, so that wasnt too bad. Once arriving in Hong Kong things got a bit out of hand. I won't go into details, but just say that so far i have not been impressed with this programs organization skills. everything is subject to change at any moment, including what we are paying for or not, and they have very little useful information about the city they chose for our training. but anyways, enough griping.
The people in the program seem pretty cool, and every chinese person i have met is very friendly. Except for the first guy looking at my passport when I arrived in Hong Kong, who proceeded to show my passport picture to the lady next to him and tell me i looked like a girl with my long hair. My mandarin is actually pretty good compared to most of the people in my program, and I got myself out of the elementary class. We have a very good TEFL(teaching english as a foreign language) instructor, and I am excited about teaching.
Walking around the gigantic supermarket yesterday was quite an experience, many things I have no idea what is in the package. However, I often feel I can trust anything with Jackie Chans face on it. This guy slangs pretty much anything over here, from beauty products to snacks to you name it. In most restaurants I often have to point at something that looks edible and hope for the best. However, it is usually delicious. Lots of fried rice and dumplings accompanied by strange vegetables.
This place is TROPICAL, which i was not expecting. It is humid as hell, sort of like florida weather, and I feel a bit foolish for bringing all of the warm clothes that I did. The smells are also very strange. one minute it is a delicious scent from a nearby restaurant, then urine, then another delicious restaurant, then overwhelming dumpster smell, then restaurant...
After walking accross a bridge to an island nearby, we found that you could walk up a set of stairs to the top of this island. on the way down, there was a view of the bay, filled with fishing boats, and large highrises in the background. as we proceeded down the steps, a man started playing his chinese guitar and i realized that this is EXACTLY how i pictured china. every city I have seen is filled with what I can only call neighborhoods, which consist of hundreds of skyscrapers that are entirely filled by tiny apartments. It remindeds me of that scene from the matrix where they are growing the humans. These buildings are totally black at night, which is a bit eery. We will be in Zhuhai for about another week, then we move to Shenzhen. I look forward to unpacking and getting to know the surroundings I will live in for the next year.
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