My China Experience 9

Today was the first cooler morning so far. It’s a hint that hot sticky weather is NOT a year round occurrence here. I hope the two boxes of clothes I sent to me here about 5-6 weeks ago from Florida arrive soon. I took one of my daily strolls around campus today. Grabbed my camera and out the door. Getting pretty close to September 1st, my teaching start date. Still have no schedule, no books…I still do not know where my class IS. There are still a few days, so hopefully all will appear in time. I see more and more people on campus every day. At first there were a few scattered around. Now I see many. It’s not quite full yet but definitely increasing. I understand many will arrive this weekend, and the freshmen a few weeks later. For some reason they start later then the others. I see students in the little parks we have on campus, usually alone, but once in a while in twos, studying. Many are reading out loud. One young man is pacing a few steps as he reads. I can see and hear at least 5 people reading from where I’m sitting. Lee told me the only ones reading out loud are practicing their English. They are engrossed in what they are doing and oblivious to everything else. I start to walk a bit more and find myself passing one of the ping pong areas they have on campus. I see two young men playing so I stop at a little distance to watch. I need to take a few pictures of this national pass time. As soon as the camera is raised, so is the level of play. I can see it go from nice and friendly to “gotta look good for these pictures.” After a few minutes I try to leave and not disturb them any longer. One of the guys named “Sunday” approaches me to talk. He invites me to play some ping pong with him. I explained it’s been 15 years since I played. It seems more then just friendly, it seems it would really please him if we played, so I agree. He gets a big smile. We hit the ball a little, then I see others stopping from whatever they were doing and watching us. 1 or 2 even stick their heads out the windows from above to watch. Sunday takes it easy on my, at least for a while. After a few minutes I happened to take a little more aggressive shot, and Sunday smiled. The game is ON. Thank god he is not a professional like the ones I once saw on TV, where they stand 10-15 feet away from the table and slam that little ball as hard as any professional tennis star. I’m sure he won, but I know I scored at least 3-4 points on my own. I tried to make my exit, but we just managed to pause and talk a little. They are both very friendly. Now Sunday states it would make his friend very happy if I would play ping pong with him a little too. I had to be fair, so I agreed. We played about 10 minutes and I got a few more points. I know I take pictures of everything and everyone, but can’t get any of ME. I did something I never do, I asked the guys to take a few of me playing ping pong. I need a few of me doing something here in China to prove I was actually here. OK, I’m sweating pretty good now so I’m ready to go. We stop for a minute, and here comes another student, a female. She walk right up and dives into the conversation. She introduces herself as Kathy. In very short order, I see Kathy is not the shy quiet type. She likes to talk, to practice her English whenever she can. After about 10 minutes, I begin to wonder if Kathy is breathing, or if this is one long dissertation? I jump in and hit her pause button. I said that Sunday made an expression on his face like he may have something to say. It’s your turn Sunday. He gives me a BIG smile, a thank you, and talks a bit. These kids are real nice. They volunteer to be my guide, my translator, etc. I’m not sure if I will have any of these three as my actual students. Kathy saw me take some pictures of the two guys and asked if I would take one of her too please. I agree and ask her to pick up a ping pong paddle and pose. She runs to a nearby tree, and poses there instead. Kathy is a law major, Sunday is an English major and quiet guy (can’t remember his name) is a friend of Sunday’s but not a student here. I tell them that I’m thinking of having an “English Corner” this Sunday at a bakery near the north entrance. All of them smile. This is a social gathering, where everyone gets to practice their speaking skills in English only. It’s a casual arrangement and no cost at all to the kids. My new friend Vortek, the owner of the bakery, loves the idea as he will sell the kids some food and drink as we all talk. These three all said they will tell their friends, so I’m waiting to see how many show up. If we get a handful or more, this may be a weekly event.

Later that day, around 5PM, I get a phone call from someone named Kate. I don’t know a Kate. She talks and tells me she works for Dr. Li the head of the foreign language school, the big kahuna. She tells me she understands I’m a little concerned about not having my schedule or books yet. She asks if I’ll be home about 8PM and she will be by to give them to me. Kate is very nice too. She tells me my schedule, at least so far. She said that Owen may add a few classes to it later. She explains the two books she hands me. One is for students and the other for teachers. Now I’M smiling. At least now I have an idea what is expected of me. She even tells me the buildings I’ll be teaching in. I have some classes in the Engineering building, the newest biggest one on campus, and a few in building #3. I’ll have to look for #3 later today.

I went to see Lee’s school today, where she works. I flagged a taxi, then called Lee and had her tell the driver where I wanted to go. We drove a while then pulled into the campus. I called Lee and told her. She was looking for us. We drove all over the campus, but Lee said she was looking for us and saw no taxi arrive there. I gave the phone to the driver again and Lee found out we were in the WRONG campus. No wonder Lee did not see us. A small correction later and we were at the right campus, and there was Lee standing at the street to be sure she found us. We walked to her office and I got to see some of her campus. Very nice. Into the library and I see several rooms full of books and Lee describes to me what type of books are available in each room. We go upstairs (up, up…always UP) to her office. It’s pretty nice. We talk and I get to see her assist a few people that come into her office, some students and a few co-workers. I’m not sure if the co-workers really needed help or just wanted to see me. At 11:40 we leave for lunch. Lee wants to take me to lunch. We get to this nice restaurant, walk in and are greeted by a young lady in a long red gown. She talks to Lee a moment and guess what?? We go UPSTAIRS. I’m not really surprised any more. I’m starting to believe there is nothing at all in China on the first floor. We enter a room divided into a few smaller rooms with one table in each. We get to dine semi-private. We can still hear others in the other small rooms talking and one wall is all glass overlooking the street. The meal is very good, but it’s time to leave. I’ve been very careful not to embarrass Lee in public, but I feel we are alone here so I give her a hug and thank her for lunch. It was fine until we turned and saw several people in the street watching us. Lee’s face turned very red and we laughed the rest of the day.
CLASS STARTED TODAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Today was my first teaching day. My first class started at 8AM. I woke up a little early, around 5:30AM. Maybe I was a tad nervous. I wanted to get a routine so it would be a little easier in the mornings. Up early, shower, shave, throw up….oh. I did mention I was a little nervous, right? Let’s make that a bit closer to scared stiff. Even I have to admit I never saw myself teaching, not one person, but 35 at a clip. I was standing in the front, walking around the class room, talking, joking, asking questions, answering questions, catching some using cell phones, etc. The first 10 minutes were the worst. After that it got easier and easier. I think they liked me, and I know I liked them. I can see the different personalities in each one. Some are quiet, some more open. The more open ones add a little more fun to the class. I have one student named Nicole. She is very cute, and the shiest one I have. She will be my special project to get her more involved in class. I used to be at least as shy as her, probably a lot more. Now, can you believe it….I stand in front of the class and TEACH it. I spoke to some of the class and tried to talk about shyness without pointing out specific people. I told them about my stuttering and how bad it was when I was young. I was virtually unable to talk. My break through came one day when I realized, and told myself, there is NO ONE on earth better then me. No one deserves more good times, more friends, a better job, more anything then me. I honestly believe that. It took me a whole lot of years to come to that conclusion, but as they say, “better late than never.” I hope I can touch the life of just a few students here and make them realize just what I did. I’ll try to keep you informed on the status of Nicole. By the way, there is a possibility that my students will read this blog, so I lied about the student’s name.
On day one, I found out that the building I was in the first day, while it does have an elevator, it is programmed to not stop on floors 2-6. On day two my first class was in one building on 2nd floor and my second class was in another building on the 2nd floor. With 10 minutes between classes, I had to boogie. As I huffed and puffed my way to the 2nd class, there were two students in the hall actually looking for me to see if I was lost and to help me find their class. As I entered, they all applauded and said “thank you for being here, for being our teacher.” Each class is assigned one student to be class monitor by some authority higher than me. So far they all have been males. I have one more new class this afternoon, and I’ll see there too if it’s a male. I assign two students a task for them to do every day. I find one wearing a watch and appoint them class time keeper. Their job is to remind me about 5 minutes before end of class what time it is. I hate to run over and mess up their break. The other student, usually the monitor, I tell him he needs to find me a chair or stool every day before class. I have a podium in front, but nothing to sit on. A 2 hour class is tough, but two 2 hour classes back to back is impossible. My knees won’t take it. The kids seem to like it too. More relaxed, more personal.
After I ask for or assign an English name to everyone, I fill in names on my seating chart I made. I told them they had to use the same seats all year. Then I have each one, stand, tell me his or her English name, and tell me something about themselves. Do they have brothers or sisters, do they like music, like ping pong, whatever they want to tell me. I get to evaluate their English speaking skills a little more as well as learn more about them. I brought a few on my pictures to class and hid them in my podium as I sit next to it talking to the class. As soon as one of them says a few words about the topic of one of my pictures, I bring it out to share with them all. Basket ball brings out Shaq’s picture. Fondness for animals gets my Tiger picture. American music gets my pictures of Howie D from Backstreet Boys and his sister Pollyanna. It seems a smash hit with them. I told them I was a photographer so they understand how I got all these cool pictures. I get some pretty interesting comments when I ask for some information about them. Some like music, but apologize to me for not liking American music more. One stated he did not like to cook, but he did cook at home to help his parents that work very hard to send him to this University. Asked what they would change on campus if they could, many say the choice of roommates would be first choice to change. One pretty young lady stated, “Nothing, I would love the surroundings for the future.” It’s apparent she is very happy with her college life. When asked about the biggest problem facing China today, the most popular answers were: population, the big difference between city and rural life (money, education, etc), pollution and the good policies ordered by China’s central government are often not put into actual use by local governments.
I had no classes scheduled for today. I was walking on campus when I was spotted by a few of my students. We exchanged cordial greetings, then talked a little. They were practicing oral English. I asked one to please read something for me, and she gladly did. The next one looked anxious to talk too, so we went one by one. I made a few minor corrections in their grammar. All read pretty well and were smiling after I told them that. First it was 4 ladies, now 2 guys came over, then 2 more and yet another. We were just about having a class in the center of the campus courtyard. I asked for us to move to an area where we all could sit, relax and talk. They ran to an area where I could sit, cleaned off the step, and one very nice student even placed 2 books on the step for me to sit on. We were having a real nice question and answer session going both ways of course. I heard a strange voice, turned around, and saw three spies, not students of mine, had came into the group to join. When I looked surprised, they attempted to leave, but I stopped them and welcomed them to stay and join us.


Follow this link to part 10

http://my-china10.blogspot.com/