Frustrations....

First, let me apologize to all of my adoring fans for not writing lately. I know how desperate my adoring fan base is to hear from me....

Anyways, for the most part things have been the same old same old. I have class, the students usually are half interested in what I'm doing. But this week has been particularly different, and right now I just need to get it off of my chest. So I started the week off alright. I feel more comfortable in front of the class now and am beginning to care less about pleasing them. I've come to the realization that I can't make every class extremely interesting, engaging, and fun. Sometimes the students just have to buckle down and learn, but they just seem to want to play games and all. I don't know how many times I've been asked if we can watch movies in class. I think that it's time for me to step up a bit, I think that I'm going to start giving them out of class projects and grading more things.

This new approach was revealed to me through the things that happened in my classes this week. I did another round of what I thought to be interesting games for them to play. For the most part, this all worked out ok. I got all the students talking and working. They practiced their English....all in all, a good class.

The major difference between this week and the last weeks is that next week is a national holiday and none of the students have class. The way things work out here in China, is that in order to make up for not having classes next week, they like to squeeze a few in on the weekend. So three of my four classes have to have class this weekend.

Well that doesn't sound like much fun, I know. Before this fun filled weekend started though, one of the Chinese teachers that helps Monika and me out with some things suggested to me that I play some easy games with the students or just watch a movie with them, since they have to stick around for the weekend before they can all go home. So I decided to watch a movie with them.

So yesterday (Saturday) in class, I started by asking if everyone is ready to work hard in class today. Absolute silence, blank stares, apathy, all looked back up at me. Now this isn't the first time that this has happened. I usually think that they don't understand me when this happens....that I'm not clear enough, or I spoke too quickly. So I repeated myself, "Is everyone ready to work hard today?" Again, nothing. So I finally said, "Well, I was talking to another teacher, and SHE told me that since this is the last class before holidays, I should watch a MOVIE with all of you."

At this point, the entire class erupted into cheers and applause. It was so loud in fact, that I was afraid that the next class across the hall heard us loud and clear. I was expectedly taken a back by such a reaction. I had never seen them so animated before. I thought that I was doing well with certain games for them. In one sense, this reaction pleased me, it showed me that they were happy to do this. But another part of me was disappointed because I had to resort to letting them watch a movie to get such a reaction. What I had before interpreted as an inability to understand me, was actually them just being snotty and not paying attention or caring. I was told that the sophomores were no fun to teach because they all had this "big man on campus" mentality. I see more of it now.

The same thing happened in my last class period, but I played them a different movie. Unfortunately for them this one had no subtitles in Chinese, and they didn't understand much of it, so they grew bored and most of them put their heads down. I felt bad about it, even though I would kind of expect them not to use the subtitles as a crutch and still try to get it even if they can't read everything in their own native language. Anyways, we ran out of time. So with the last five minutes of class, I told them that I could tell that they didn't like the movie. I then asked them if they wanted to watch the end. I got a lot of people that said yes. I told them that I was confused, how could they not like the movie, not pay attention to it, and still want to watch the end. I asked how this was possible. Again, blank stares. But this time, I knew that they understood me, and simply no one was willing to say anything. So I told them that they weren't allowed to leave until I got an answer. They sat there for a whole minute, in absolute silence not saying anything, until finally one of the more outspoken students got up and explained that they still want to see how the movie ends. So I let them go, but I was fuming with a mixture of anger and frustration. Partly at myself, and partly at them.

Another thing that frustrated me is that I had them do a homework assignment of thinking of some songs that they like, and maybe some activity ideas that they want to try. All I got back was a bunch of Chinese bands that sing in English, and then Backstreet Boys and things like that. They also wrote that they want to watch more movies--with Chinese subtitles. So, basically they want to apply as little English to the classes as possible. They also don't want to have to speak at all. What the hell!?

So that really angered me a great deal to read that, but also made me realize that I'm just gonna have to make them do a bunch of things that they won't necessarily want to do. Oh well, I had to do it as a student, they'll have to live with it too.

More classes--coming soon, a trip to Beijing

So this week has gone by fairly well so far. I bought my train tickets to Beijing in preparation for the big b-day, and I leave tomorrow. I plan on hitting up the forbidden city, tiananment square, the great wall, and maybe the ming tombs. I'll be there for three days, so I think that I'll have plenty of time to find other things to see there as well. It should be good times.

Classes so far this week have been ok. In class yesterday, I tried to play a game with them where I toss a ball around while music is playing. Once the music stopped, they had to tell me something about themselves, or sing a song in English, or I could ask them a question. At first they were very timid about the whole thing, then they all started wanting to ask me questions. So I did, and that seemed to make things go a bit more smoothly with the whole thing. I then did another game where a student would have to describe a certain word to the class, and the class would have to guess what the word was. They did ok, for the most part. Sometimes they cheated by saying it in Chinese. Finally, I made them do skits for commercials. This was the most entertaining thing we did in class. They really seemed to have a lot of fun with this one. One of the groups did a commercial for cell phones. They asked me to participate, by being the model for the camera aspect of the phone. This was simple for me seeing that I'm a natural Zoolander. So when I started doing my poses, all the students loved it, and they clapped and everything. I think that by hamming it up a bit with them, they can feel at bit more at ease with me.

Next class went a little differently. With this class, I did the ball game again, but this time I made it clear that they could ask me questions. Then the entire class began asking questions. One of them asked me what I think about Bush, and then I went off on a tangent. They asked me some mundane stuff, like if I like chinese food and China, but they also asked me some more interesting things. One girl asked me if I had a girlfriend, another guy prefaced his question with telling me that I was very cool, then asked me how many girlfriends I have had. When I said four, they all gasped. Around here, it seems that they usually have one, who ends up being their spouse. All in all, this activity went much better with them than with the class before them. My mom always said that she felt sorry for her first classes, because those were the ones she would practice her lesson plans on. Her last classes got the benefit of her reformed lesson plans, after the trial and error process used on the earlier classes. I feel that it's the same with me.

After finishing that activity, I did the guessing the word one afterwards. But these students went through it much faster than the other class, so to fill up the time I told them that they could use their words to write a 10 line poem, 10 sentence story, or 10 sentence speech.

I got some extremely interesting answers from this. One girl, whose word was boyfriend, spoke of her own boyfriend, who was in the army and is now a policeman. She said that she doesn't get to see him very often, and that she does not think that they will make much money when they are together, but that love will sustain them. Wow...pretty intense. Then, there was another girl who went off on the government, and how she doesn't like it. Another girl told about when she realized she wanted to be an English teacher. One of the last girls to go, who seems like a huge flirt, had the word pizza. So she wrote about how she really liked pizza, and how the class likes it and all. Then she suggested that I bring a pizza in for the class, and that if I do, she'll give me a kiss. The whole class giggled at that one. This class really seemed to be opening up to me, and I really like that. I think that my Thursday morning class is my favorite so far.

Tomorrow I have "the bad classes" and I don't know how that will go. After class though, I will be leaving for Beijing to celebrate my birthday. Around Yangzhou, however, there isn't much going on. This town that I'm in isn't any major tourist attraction, so there isn't too much to do. When I say that, I mean that there doesn't seem to be much night life. I've had a few good days out, but I guess I just miss being able to hang out with the guys and have a few beers at a bar. Oh well, maybe my student who told me I was cool will go out and drink with me. Until then, I'll continue to pine away in my room....

Sweet Success!

So these last two days have been absolutely incredible! I did MUCH better with my last classes. I only had one class each day, but it worked out great! I thought that I was going to have to teach the same kids that I taught last Friday, but it turns out that not only are they different students, but also my class sizes are smaller. My two classes I had on Friday were both between forty and fifty people. My last two classes had no more than thirty people.

I started off the class the same way that I started off the other ones. I showed them pictures of Washington and Michigan, as well as Argentina and Ecuador. I also showed them a few pics of PLU, my graduation, and Tacoma. I started it off much better, with no technical difficulties, and I just felt more confident. This made them a bit more receptive I think.

After that I went around the room and asked them to say their name and what they want to do when they graduate. My first good class did just that, without any problems, and some of them even elaborated a bit on my question, explaining future travel plans and such. The second good class was even better in this respect, telling me they were happy to see me, where they were from, and things like that. One girl actually said that she hoped I open my heart to them. They all seemed a little impressed that I could speak Spanish, and one girl even asked me to speak a little. When I started talking in Spanish, she got really wide eyed and kind of lipped the words "wow", which I thought was pretty funny.

I was also much more prepared lesson wise this time. I worked the whole day on a lesson, and now I think that I have a bit better of a formula. With these last two classes, I got them started on an activity right after introductions. I gave them 20 words, got them into groups, and then asked them to write a story using the words. They immediately got into the groups and started working, even asking questions when they didn't understand things. In both classes, they worked through their breaks to get the first activity done. It was great!

Once that activity was finished, (which they did fairly well in) we had a break. After the break, I had a good song by Death Cab picked out for them to listen to. I had also written up the lyrics, with some words missing so that they could fill them in. Unfortunately for the first class, this didn't work out so well. The music wasn't working. So we jumped on to the next activity, where I put them in groups again and told them to come up with a sales pitch for soap. Again they actually worked fairly hard on it, and again they did pretty well. However, since this first class didn't get to hear the song, we had a bit of extra time on our hands, so we played 20 questions. That went fairly well, and then I let them go as I was beaming with pride.

With the second class, I managed to get the music to work, and to my great relief, they enjoyed the song that I played. We talked about it afterwards as well, and things went perfectly. It was after this that I did the second activity with this class. I have to say, that they didn't do as good of a job with it as the first class. These two girls in particular, who were flirting with the boys quite a bit during the breaks, were kind of getting a little out of hand. When I came to settle them down and get them to work again, one of them told me that they wanted to play games. I told them to do their work and maybe we would play games later on in the semester.

So those were my last two classes that I taught these last two days. I must also admit that I sweat much less while teaching, felt more calm, and confident, and I even felt kind of bored at times because they were all working pretty well and didn't seem to need my help. One of the girls from one of the groups who had finished their work before everyone else even said that I was very handsome. Well thank you Chinese girl who sits in the front row!

I even had the wonderful opportunity hear some interesting names. In one class I was blessed to have the students C-Man, Orange, and Beyond in my class. In my other class I had a wonderful girl named Candy. I don't know why more parents name their children these names in the States.....

On a different note, my birthday is coming up here pretty soon and I'm planning on going to Beijing to celebrate. I think that it will be pretty cool to have my golden birthday (I'll be 23 on the 23rd) in that city and get to see the great wall and all that jazz.

Anyhoo...I should probably do a little preparation. I have the two classes that I tanked in tomorrow, and I want to be prepared for that, they're kind of big and I didn't start off on the right foot with that one. So if anyone is reading this, wish me luck!

Just the usual

So these last few days have been fairly uneventful...after my first teaching fiasco I went out for that one night and had a good time. Since then, things have been fairly chill around here. I haven't done much, just hang around the dorms here and watch a lot of DVD's with Monika, the other PLU student here.

We've occasionally gone out someplace to get some grub, either in town or around the university. My stomach has settled considerably since I've been here...thank GOD! I'm beginning to enjoy the food a lot more around here. They do a lot of this kind of fondu thing around here, which is pretty good. Now all I need to do is learn how to order the food!

However, since I haven't had much to do, I've just been getting anxious. Right now I just teach Wednesday, Thurdsay, and Friday. This is because I'm only teaching sophomores. The freshmen (who I hear are the most entertaining and easy to teach) don't start until October. This is because they have to kind of go through a military training thing. From what I understand, this entails marching a lot, learning to say "Yes sir!" and shooting a gun five times. Our coordinator here said that they would probably let me shoot a gun too--I don't really know how I feel about that.

But because of this lack of things to do, added with a limited exposure to other people to hang out with, and an isolation due to not knowing the language, I kind of feel like I'm in a prison. Even with the distraction of the DVD's and all, I still have a lot of time to just sit and ponder....and I kind of don't like it. If last class had gone great, of course I would be looking forward to tomorrow. But since it didn't, I've been dreading it in some ways and in others, just wishing that the day would come so I can get a chance to do better. I wish that the freshmen would come so that I can have a full workload and actually have things to do. Right now it just seems like a waiting game to me, and I want it to end.

Just another day...

So these last few days have been fairly laid back. After my crash and burn with the students, and talking to a whole bunch of people about it I feel a bit better. I think that a lot of people have had a lot of the same issues as I'm having right now. I just gotta get used to how things are around here.

On a lighter note, I went out for a night on the town for the first time! Let me tell you, Yangzhou has a KILLER nightlife. And when I say killer, I mean that it doesn't really seem to exist....at least not in the Western sense. We like to hit up a bar and then maybe later, a club in the States, but here not so much. I asked Megan (Another American teacher here) about the nightlife in Shanghai and she said that it was really fun, that when you go out to the clubs it's full of foreigners. I think that when I go visit that city, it will be fun to experience it, but I don't think that that would be something I want to do all the time.

I'm just guessing, but I think that when people go out around here, they usually hit up a karaoke bar, or something like that. Here they're called KTV bars, where you rent out a room with a few friends, have a few beers and just sing amongst yourselves. I guess I'll find out if that's what they do in a few weeks when, hopefully, I know a few more locals.

Well, not much else to report so...until next time....

My First Day of Class, AKA--How not to teach

So today was my first day of classes, and I really wonder if it could have gone any worse. I had a nice little lesson plan all planned out. I had brought a few pictures with me to show the class, kind of a "get to know you" kind of thing. After that I was going to ask them all their names and what they want to be doing ten years from now, like what kind of job they want to have and things like that. Once we had all gone through with that, I had a few simple stories to show them that we could read over and then ask some comprehension questions about. I thought that this would be class and everything would be fine. I could not have been more wrong.

Instead of being able to show the pictures, my computer didn't work for maybe the first half an hour or so. So I tried to explain where I went to college by pretending that my hand was the US. Then I pointed to a corner of my hand and said that it was Washington. They didn't seem quite as taken by it as I had planned, especially seeing that I had no pictures.....

So then I talked about how I spent a lot of time in South America. I asked anyone if they knew where the continent was. Of course it only makes sense that none of them would know it, I mean, there's only seven continents in the world. So I stood there trying to make South America with my hand, to no avail...I was just met with more blank stares. One girl in particular just seemed to be looking at me with this angry look, as if she was thinking, "Why is he doing this!? I'm learning nothing!"

Pressured by such looks, I decided to jump into the lesson. Mind you, I believe that we were about 20 minutes into the class. So I asked them how far they had gotten in their textbook last year with the other teachers. Again I was met by the blank stares. Aparently no one speaks in class in China, because no one said a word. I had to pull it out of them like pulling teeth. Finally I managed to get out that they didn't really use the book at all. I know this can't be the case because my copy of the book was covered in notes from the last girl who used it.

But, since they said they didn't use the book I decided that I would start at chapter one, which was interviews. I asked them all to pretend like one person was the interviewer, and the other was the interviewee. They did that for a while, but they all speak so quietly that I couldn't hear them. Then, of course, the kids in the back were doing nothing. They were doing nothing because they did not hear me. God forbid they actually let me know ahead of time.

After fumbling around with this exercise a bit, we took a break. It was at this time that I finally managed to get the stupid computer working. So when break was over, they finally saw my pictures, where they oooed and awwwed a bit. Then I just spent the rest of the time making them write sentences about advice they would give to new students coming to this University for the first time, then making them read aloud to the rest of the class.

My next class, later on that day was a bit better, but just a bit. I managed to start the class off just the way I had planned this time because my computer was working. However, after showing them my pictures and getting their names is when it all began to fall apart. One of the students told me that they didn't use the book at all, and all they did was play games with the previous teachers. After talking to Ursula and Phil, the two Australians here, I now know that this is certainly not the case. Hmmm, I don't quite know what to make of this. It reminds me of when I was a child and I would lie and tell the babysitter that my parents let me stay up late when they really didn't.

Anyways, I tried to play some games with them, but nothing worked! I tried doing an innocent game of "I never," saying things like "I've never been to Beijing". The funny thing is that when I said that I had never drunk chinese wine, 95% of the class sat down. It was then that I realized that most of the students in class apparently have a different side to them than their timid little selves they portray in class. Again....hmmmmmmm.

After this "I never game" I tried to play the whole, "Give your name and an adjective that starts with the same first letter of your name" thing. Each person had to say all the names and adjectives that came before them. Unfortunately I have like 40 something kids, and none of them speak loud enough to hear what the other is saying. So I got about half way through that before I just quit and made them write sentences again while I tried to come up with something else for them.

What I came up with was to have them listen to a song, which I thought would be fun. They could listen to a song and then we could talk about it, what they think it's about, and stuff like that. Well, I needed something simple, repetitive, and with a clear message. Looking around my music library I found "Crazy" by Aerosmith. "PERFECT!" I thought, this couldn't be any clearer. The message is so clear, if they don't understand anything else, they could at least get the chorus. "You drive me craaaazy! Craazy! etc. etc." So I play the song for them and then ask them if they liked it. Everyone says no, so I ask someone why and she says that it was a noisy song. Furthermore, I have heard the music they listen to here, and it seems to me that most all of it is of Backstreet Boys quality, sappy, overproduced pop music. "But that's besides the point," I think to myself, "at least they understood it, right?" Wrong....apparently they couldn't understand anything that Steve Tyler said. After hearing this, I just got so frustrated I let them out ten minutes early.

And that was my grand first day. It looks like I have a lot to learn and a lot more planning to do. I talked with the Australian couple, and they're going to give me some of their supplies, and some ideas for what to do. So on the positive end, it seems that I already hit a pretty low spot and the only place to go is up. So if anyone has actually made it this far in this rant, cross your fingers for me! Until next time....

Finally!

Ok, so I finally managed to get a blog. It took me a little while because of China's wonderful censorship. So having this thing is kind of sticking it to all those people out there trying to filter what I say.

Anyways, my first week has been pretty eventful. My first class is on Friday, so until then I've been trying to just get my bearings around the town and adjust to the new environment.

So I got into Shanghai about a week ago and stayed the night in town before heading off to Yangzhou the next day. It was about a four and a half hour drive, which was pretty interesting. Before going to China I was told that people here could be a little loud, and I knew that their driving would be much like it was when I was in south America, but it didn't really sink in until this drive. If I hadn't known better, I would have sworn that our drive was on cocaine. Anything that guy said came out ridiculously fast and loud--he seemed pretty high strung...Anyways, he was also weaving in and out of traffic like a madman. He almost killed about a dozen people, and that was just for when we got to Yangzhou.

After we got settled into our dorms in Yangzhou (which are pretty much hotel rooms) we all went out for dinner with some of the other foreigners who will be teaching with us this year. There were four other foreigners in total, a retired Australain couple who are really nice and have shown Monika and I around the town some, and then two Japanese guys who can't really speak English. They both knew who Ichiro was though. One of them very adamantly tried to tell me about visiting Seattle and Vancouver, for the most part I just smiled and nodded my head, with an occasional "Oh really!?"

The last couple of days have been devoted mostly to sitting in my room, watching cheap DVD's (you can get them for a dollar here,)nursing my stomach woes, and waiting for one of the cultural exchange oordinators to come and get me for random things I need to do, like learn how to operate my classroom, and sign contracts and things. They sort of show up without warning, which is kind of how things go around here.

Well, that about all I feel like writing for now, I need to go check on my laundry. It's the first time that I'm doing it here soooo, there might be some problems. All the directions were in mandarin, so I don't know what setting I put the damn thing on. Oh well, live and learn.....