Almost a Year - Living and Learning
July 7th, 2006 to June 26th 2007. I thought I would make it at
least a full year in China- 365 days, but I won't. 354. That said, I
will be returning and teaching here next year. The school is giving
me a plane ticket, so I should use it.
Today one of my best friends here, Charles, took off. He has been
in China since July of 2005. He was really ready to head home. Back
in late April, when I first learned I'd get a plane ticket and had to
figure out an itinerary, I thought "but I'm not ready to head home"
Now that I'm a week away from leaving- I am looking forward to Hermosa
Beach, San Francisco's 4th of July, a Tommy Burger, a taco, Ligueria
Foccacia bread, and most importantly seeing family and friends.
I have learned a lot over here, far more than I could ever put on
an internet posting. I have learned about China, about teaching,
about Chinese language, life, and relationships. May you live in
interesting times, or at least in an interesting place. Nanchang is
not the most interesting place in China, but it is plenty interesting
for me.
The teaching has gotten much easier. It's also gotten much better.
I trace it back to an experience as a lawyer. I spent a good five
years endlessly complaining about clients who would talk and talk and
talk into my ear while I was trying to concentrate in court. I gave
clients a pen and paper and told them to write things down. No luck.
Would tell them to shut up. No luck. Would tell them they needed to
listen to what was happening. No luck. Would tell them I couldn't do
a good job if they were distracting me. No luck.
Of course had these folks bothered to write, be quiet, listen to
others, and take advice they would not have been my clients in the
first place. Then one day Darryl, the smoothest lawyer in the Public
Defender's office came into court and of course his hearing began
before mine. His client came out of the holding cell and immeadiately
started blabbing into his ear. Ah I thought, even the old pros have
this problem. Wonder how he'll handle it. Then Darryl pointed to a
police officer seated next to the judge and in front of him and his
client (and who was looking at them) and said to his client "Do you
see him? That's Officer Joe Schmoe. He sits there because he can
read lips". The client kept his mouth shut for the rest of the
hearing.
The lesson? There is a smart way around any problem, stop
complaining and think creatively about it. You can see my post from
back in August, where I tried to teach kids about jazz? Not only did
the lesson fail miserably, but also I had the humiliating experience
of using JOHN DENVER to save the class. Jazz don't work here.
However, 'Boy Named Sue' by Johnie Cash does. If I spend enough time,
90% of the students get the gist of the story and see the humor in it.
Also, singing helps the male students with their voice. Johnie Cash
has a good manly voice, John Denver doesn't. It's also fun listening
to the students calling each other 'sonnofabitch'.
I also had (& still have) a terrible problem with students of
different English ability in my classroom. So now I write the grammar
patterns on the chalk board or in a handout. When I ask them a
question, I just point to something they can read and they read it to
me. The better students get questions that call for the grammar
pattern, but are very different. I have noticed that many more
students graduate from the first group to the second one.
Relationships is also a learning curve. With our own sorts of
people, we can include and exclude potential boyfriends/girlfriends in
minutes. Maybe even seconds. We can make snap judgments about
people, usually from templates we constructed in high school. It
weeds certain people out and others in. We complain about, rightly
condemning the shallowness of this decision making. Dividing the
world into jocks, geeks, hipsters, wannabe's, fratboys, etc. is
superficial, but show me someone who claims to not do this and I will
show you a liar.
Over here, with people who speak a different language and grew up
in a completely different environment, using high school stereotypes
to size people up is impossible. I still haven't figured out where
Moonlight would have eaten lunch at Mira Costa High School and whether
she would have been voted prom queen. Oh well, she's pretty and I
enjoy her company. Her parents have no idea how to size me up, but
they know that as a foreign teacher in a Chinese University I have a
very respectable position and earn a good salary.
Of course, I can't figure them out either, but their are some
humorous stories I'll get to in my next post. All for now.
I will arrive in Los Angeles June 26th, go to San Francisco July
4th to July 7th and return to China later in July.
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gbru's journal
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