a cultural note

i don't think chinese people are thieves. i love china and there are many wonderful things about it. however, i don't like shenzhen that much and i'd say 99% of chinese people who do steal, live in shenzhen....it is after all where all the money is. most other cities in china are nothing like shenzhen and definitely don't have the pickpockets........the chinese even call shenzhen "the cultural desert"..... i'm afraid my anger in my post about my camera may have given the impression that chinese people are thieves. they certainly aren't.....but the ones that are, are damned good at it!

my class

the best class
Originally uploaded by organix.

this is my class 11. each class is numbered and they stay with the same class in the same room all day, the teachers go to the students... one day my friend jesse came to visit and took a picture and hung out with our class for a while. this really is a great class and they were sooooo excited when he came to visit. before he was even to the door, they were all screaming "nicole its your boyfriend, your boyfriend has come!!!" and i'm thinking, "really i didn't know i had one" and then jesse walks in the door to screams and cheering and ooohhing and ahhhing. of course their first question is "are you nicole's boyfriend?" and i say "no, he is my friend, he's an english teacher also" of course they are disappointed, but were still excited he was there.... i wasn't feeling so great that day, so jesse says, you can use me if you need to, to distract them. so of course they want to ask jesse questions.... one of the boys ligts up and is like "hey do your listen to nas, dr dre, outkast, etc..." jesse says "nas is one of my favorites" and immediately i'm no longer the coolest teacher they've ever met.... jesse has extremely curly hair and so one of the girls asks if he has ever thought of working on his singing and dancing and teaching "mr mcdonald" something... i am of course horrified, because she means ronald mcdonald.... jesse being the laid back cat that he is just says "no i'm not interested"... i apologized over and over to him, but apparently people think he is ronald mcdonald all of the time and they always ask him questions like that. then another girl asks him for his phone number and he says he has lost his phone (his was stolen as well) and she stands their mortified and i say, oh he won't give me his number either, do you have another question? she says "no i want to cry"... which i'm surprised she didn't, but i'm glad it didn't come to that.
i wanted to share jesse's and a few others from our programs websites. jesse's photos are amazing!
www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=jessewarren
or
www.flickr.com/photos/jessewarren
others:
-mike
www.downdream.org
some of the best photographs of china that i've seen
-christina
more great photos and insight into life in china
www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=smilehellokitty
or
www.flickr.com/photos/smilehellokitty
-tim kelley
www.timkelley.net
there are more, but i'll have to find them and post them later.
hope everyone is well!!!!!!!

city of thieves

my camera was stolen on friday. just as i was walking along the street in the middle of the afternoon with about oh, 100 people watching. literally, people saw it happen and just stood there. everything is a "non event" in china. people under react, are aloof, irritated.... if there is one thing in the world that i own that i would miss, its my camera.... i had just gotten it for christmas after going 5 months here with no digital camera. my other camera takes advantix film, which i can't find anywhere, so it was such a wonerful addition to my life. if one more person tells me to "just go buy a new one" i'm going to freak out. i don't happen to have money flying out my ass. so, if that is anyone's advice, keep it to yourself.... i am currently thinking of a design for a bag that zips,locks,double locks, and then shocks anyone who tries to get in without the secret code. also, it is going to be knife proof, so that no one can cut it off one's shoulder. so far, that leaves with me huge piece of metal strapped to my shoulder and its not so practical..... i will find a way.... in the meantime, i'm not carrying anything with me and my money will go in my smelly ass shoes and no one will want to touch it.
one thing that makes me feel better is the camera i had is only sold in north america... of course its made in china, but only sold in north america. it doesn't take regular batteries either and needs to be charged quite often. its not worth much to whoever tries to sell it. there is a huge electronics market here with everything!! parts, whole things, broken things, new things, used things, and most of all stolen things.... i'm sure this is where my camera now lives and the next time i'm there i'm going to look for it.... where i'm sure it'll easily be found, because i'm pretty sure its one of maybe 2 in all of shenzhen.....then i'm going to ask all kinds of questions and ask the seller to show me how to use it... then when it comes on and is only in english and he doesn't know what to do with it............. ok, so that is a huge exhausting fantasy and really i just to need to get over it, but i'm soooooooooooo angry. mostly because i knew it was happening and i went after them and they just "disappeared" and because there were at least 15 people who saw it happening and they all just stood there and watched it happened..... nothing stirs the attention of a chinese person.... nothing.
i have to go now, i'm getting pissed off just thinking about it. in the meantime, there will be no more pictures....
total loss this year:
-one purse with 200 rmb and precious american chapstick (stolen from a wedding i might add)
-one cell phone worth $100
-one digital camera (not sure monetary value, but it sure was a lot of fun)
-one attempt to steal something, i have been lucky enough to catch one guy. once again there was about 10 people around me as i was getting on a bus. i felt him feeling in my bag and tried to get his hand out of my purse. when i couldn't, i had to turn around and push him..... not as hard as i could, but just enough to get him to go away.... of course he just disappears and no one says anything, offers any solace, or has any kind expression really. i guess, like my mom said i should be thankful they didn't try to hurt me.... that doesn't really happen here though, there isn't violent crime, just thousands and thousands of thieves... a chinese teacher told me today that the police have no way to stop them...... saving face is so important, they even protect the thieves..........agggghhhhhh!!!
peace,love, and the city of thieves

breakthroughs

so, i've been feeling much more positive about this semester. maybe because its the home stretch and there is an end in sight. but i'm not sure, because i'm really not ready to leave and when i think about moving back to the u.s. its not all that exciting. i of course miss my friends and family and cant' wait to see everybody, but i'm not just grudging through my time here till i can leave. well, whatever the change is, not that i was unhappy last semester, i feel really good about this semester. i think one of the biggest reasons is that i'm finally starting to connect with my students and get respect and some days i even feel like they've listened and learned something. i think that was part of my frustration last semester.... i felt really unconnected with my job and the students truly didn't respect or appreciate me in anyway... i guess i hadn't realized how it had affected until they started paying attention to me. they like me, they really, really like me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
the real inspiration for this entry comes not from one of my students, but from one of patti's. many of you may know another language and if you have learned more than one, you definitely know the struggle. its not just pronunciation and vocabulary, but understanding, truly knowing how to communicate with words (unfamiliar words) and being able to express yourself, with limited experience. anyway, i say this because maybe its this understanding of knowing what its like to learn another language that makes what one of patti's students said really great and amazing. i think its also the teacher in me that feels so proud of a student to say something clever. whether you've helped the student or not, its really exciting to have a child say or do something really brilliant because you feel like there is at least one of 'em out there that might care or is at least trying..... having said all this i'm afraid i've set up too many expectations for what the student said..... remember too that chinese students are trained to take examinations, not think or have ideas.
so anyway, our students did a unit on food and healthy eating. patti asked her class "what food would you be and why?" these kinds of questions are the most conducive to creative thought, so they tend to have a lot of fun with them. anyway, one of patti's students said " i would be an apple.... but i would be a special apple. i would be the apple that fell on newton's head..." brilliant!!!! genius!!! a native speaker of english would have a difficult time thinking of this answer. i know it may not seem like much, but wow, it really is great when all the answers you are getting are,"i'd be an apple because they are lovely and delicious".....
it really brings a tear to my eye.....
ha! anyway, i've been doing the same with my class and haven't gotten really great responses, but in my last class i got a few good ones. i began the class by asking about their favorite foods. as i'm writing them on the board, one kid yells out "shit".... i of course tend to not make a big deal of these things, because they need to know those "bad"words, but i also don't want to give him any more attention than he's asking for. anyway, i turn around to him and say "you really enjoy eating shit?" "that is something you really eat?".... not expecting this reaction, he gets embarrassed and shuts up. eventually its his turn and he says "i'd be chocolate because its the same color as shit and i like shit".... i couldn't help but laugh cuz he had that "i got the last word in" look on his face, but these are the knobhead answers i get most days cuz no one takes the class seriously. it was funny though and the rest of the class of course got a huge kick out of it.
another student said "i'd be an egg. because then i could become a hen. and then i could lay more eggs. and really i'd never die" (slow clap an head nod here....) great answer! one girl gave a similar answer at least on the same lines of the death thing. she said, "i'd be rice. because then i'd have the biggest family of all food. when someone came to cook me, most of my family would die with me and that would be better than dying alone." now, maybe in the u.s. i'd be a little concerned with the morbidity of this answer, however, the fact that she didn't say "lovely,delicious,or pretty color" deserves a mention here today!!
as i've mentioned before, the chinese education system is based on examinations... how well a student does on examinations determines so much of their life. they test into the schools they go to (which means many have to live away from home at school, because they did not test into a nearby school), they test into the class they are assigned and there is continuous and insane amounts of pressure for them to stay where they are or test high enough to move up to a better class or school. so at the ripe ol' age of 16 or 17 (senior 2, soph/junior at home) they must decide their major for college. yes, they must decide what they will study at university, two years before they get there. the reason, when the students finish their last of high school they must take a national examination which determines whether or not they can go to university. because there are so many chinese people and not enough universities, it is extremely competitive and many students don't have a chance to go (i think less than 50% will test high enough). so during their second year of high school, the students decide their fate and begin a more intensive study on that subject so that they may do well on the exam and get to university. (the universtiy exam will test them on all subjects, their "major" subject will of course be more difficult on the exam?)
amidst this brief run down of chinese education is actually a story. this semester i have been asked to teach the senior 2 "english major" class. or the oral part i should say. so, once a week i meet with these students and practice oral english. well, yesterday we did proverbs like i had been doing with my senior 1 classes. i got a couple of really goo responses that i would once again like to share. now, i drilled into their poor restricted brains that i wanted them to come up with their OWN answers, something creative they have thought of themselves. so, i think they better understood than my senior 1's, but i still only got about 2 really good responses. i couldn't stress enough to them that they could not say "an apple a day keeps the doctor away", they absolutely had to think of something new. so one student said "an apple a day, 2 apples 2 days"...the other one that i think we can all learn from "what you don't know, is what everyone else is thinking about"......
in conclusion, if you are teaching english in china, its the rare, tiny, tiny moments that make you feel like you are actually a teacher and have given some small amount of insight to the trapped brains of chinese youth.
more later.......................................... p.s. spell check will not work i can not be completely responsible for spelling errors... its not my fault, its the computers...
(you see how i've learned to save face?)

miscellaneous

my mop!!!!
Originally uploaded by morningmilk8.

i've posted some pictures of my broom closet that was taken over and then abandoned.... however, my mop and bucket are still captive because there is a lock on the door..... needless to say my floors are still disgusting because asking everyday for a new mop is not enough to get anything done here. i wonder what kind of gift is a good exchange to get MY mop back? hmmm... i really should just buy a new one. its the principle of the whole thing that's holding me back. someone taking over my space and then locking the door behing them.... asking and asking and asking for a new mop and no one listening. when will it end?!!??
so patti and i have been eating in the cafeteria again. mainly because they have fruit. delicious oranges and pineapple.... the key is that you have to get there early to get any. the cafeteria best demonstrates the survival of the fittest/communist attitude. you better run and run fast if you want any of the good fruit or food. its set up buffet style, but unlike many western countries (mainly america) there isn't an endless supply of food. what you see is what you get and if you're not fast enough, it'll all be gone. except the rice, there is always enough rice!! and its not just about arriving early, but taking more than your share, or at least not being afraid to. i mean people love their fruit and are not afraid to take 3 or 4 oranges and half a pineapple for themselves. so, in order to get what you want you can't be afraid to throw elbows, run, or push your way to the front.... i apologize now if this behavior follows me home, but a girl has got to look out for herself.....
on the other hand, i do have an advantage being a vegetarian. there usually are not many vegetarian choices, so i often have to deal with picking around the meat to get to the veggies and all the meat eaters pick through the veggies to get to the meat. therefore we can happily eat each others scraps.... i was really excited the other day when they had this really good tofu, but soon realized there was little pile of meat resting on top. once again, someone had picked all the piles of meat off the top and left just the tofu. while this sounds disgusting, its the way things have to be here. i eat around the meat infected area and just remember to be thankful that i have a free meal and if i'm fast enough and tough enough i get fruit too.
another interesting aspect of the cafeteria is the dynamic... mostly that its extremely segregated. all the men sit with each other, all the women sit with each and then....
well, there's patti and i. yes those crazy, weird, foreign teachers, all should be sure to avoid them and their democratic ways. beware of their suspicious eyes and never divulge any secrets. never make them feel comfortable, they are simply to be stared at and mocked and used for their language ability. don't ever stand in front of them during photo ops, we need to let the world think, we are proud of them and that we are working hard to promote foreign relations........ maybe this is a bit dramatic, but certainly there are days when it feels this way. nevermind though, i just wanna eat my damned fruit and go home to take a nap.
crazy things i've seen lately, that are actually common here: 4 people riding on a tiny motorbike get wiped out by a taxi...my contact teacher pick his nose for 10 minutes, scratch his ass, spit a huge lugee and farmer blow and never once seeing him wash his hands.... i'm pretty sure there is more, but i'll save those for another day.
last week i was teaching my kids proverbs in english. side note: they say an apple a day keeps the doctor away as well... anyway, i typed up a bunch of common ones and left some of the words out so that they could come up with their own proverbs. well this presented a challenge because chinese students are not taught to think for themselves they are taught to do well on the 8,000 examinations they will take in their lifetime. so, when i say "use your own words" that usually means nothing and everyone writes the same thing, or they already know the proverb and just finish it... so, i tried and tried to get them to use their own words, which has little value and/or meaning in the chinese classroom, but for those students who weren't afraid to think for themselves, they ended up really good and pretty funny, which was the intention of the excercise. i thought i'd share some of their responses... remember i have about 400 students and of these 400 i only got about 10 worth mentioning... i'm trying, but i feel it may be dangerous to encourage such awful behavior as thinking outside the examination box.....
"Beauty is on the inside,Beauty is maybelline"
"He who plants a tree, plants patience"
"Curiosity killed people's minds"
"Time is gold"
"Time cures sad"
"The best things in life are no homework"
"Time is hell"
"Curiosity killed ourselves"
"Never have a gift horse in your mouth" (the student did however know the meaning)
"Old soldiers never lose way, they clever"
These are the future leaders of the world...
More later.
nrj

happy women's day!!!

happy women's day to all of you wonderful women, or men who wish you were women.... china proudly celebrates this most important day of the year and although its mostly like any other day my students gave me a present and a card this morning and it really made my morning!!! i was so excited and it was really thoughtful. they gave me a set of candles and some incense, along with a card. i most loved the card and i wanted to share it with all of you. partly because its so sweet and partly because of the bad english. the card was not written by my students, i'm pretty sure they can do better and its a very typical chinese-english translation or creation, i'm not sure which it is. anyway, they did write on the inside "we love you not only as our teacher but also friend". then a girl drew a picture of a watering can with some flowers sprouting around it. so cute, i'm so proud.....
anyway, here is a copy of the card... please also keep in mind that this was for women's day... of course there is no right or wrong thing to say on this joyous occasion, but... anyway enjoy.....
Wishes for you
sometimes life can make you crazy
it can really put a body to the test you try so hard
to make sure everything is light and you find
you've only wound up with a mess
its a common situation
when though you feel abandoned and alone child
you ain't first to experience a hart so don't panic when
you hit the danger zone that you need's
little change of heart

forget this fear and frustration
love will always play the greater part
when your battles wear you down
here's my advice
when you're feeling down and out
and you've got troubles on your mind
love will save the day when you're feeling
full of doubt and year has got you in a bind
love will save the day
when your world's falling apart
all you got to do is say a prayer
love will save the day

amen, halelujah (my words)
happy women's day!!!!!
watch for my next post soon.... Propaganda and blue suits