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?)