Back in Langfang

My winter vacation has come to an end and now it is time to go back to school.  But I'm happy to be back in Langfang.  All the students have returned and once again Langfang is teaming with life.  The main road outside of the campus is completely jammed with cars, bikes, buses and people as soon as the Number 8 primary school lets out.  It was a little eerie during the holiday when the streets were so empty.  The metal doors were closed tightly over the shop windows and bits of loose paper made their lonely dance across the streets in the hurried wind.  Now, however, one can hardly walk the sidewalks due to the number of bikes parked along the curb.  All the shop owners have opened their stories and the venders are back in full force.  The local locksmith had to move his key stand from being the only one on the main street to now number twelve in the back of the side street next to the middle market.  But he still sees plenty of business.

I’m glad that we have a key to Building 5’s side gate, again.  Last term we had a key for a little while but students started making copies and the school changed the lock so the students couldn’t sneak out at night.  Hopefully, that won’t happen again.  The wall around the campus keeps us from easily accessing any of the buildings.  Last term we had to walk, or bike, to the main gate before we could get inside.  It’s not too bad but it does take fifteen minutes to make the long walk.  There is also the make shift ladder behind the library that students use to climb the wall but… shh… “No one’s supposed to know about that.”

I’m back to doing Tai Chi again.  I really missed not doing Tai Chi for the past two months.  I’ve found that I slept better at night having worn out my body with exercise.  It’s also good to be back with my Tai Chi family.  All of the other members were happy to see me and they welcomed me back with a hearty "hurrah."  With a smile on his face and twinkle in his eye I could tell that my shifu was also very glad to see me again.  He and I talked for a bit in Chinese before beginning the lesson.  He was very pleased that I’d be practicing during the holiday.  Last night he drilled me for two hours learning the second set.  It was tough.  The movements are far more complex than the first set.  I’m awfully sore this morning but I slept well last night.

This term I’ve made it my goal to really hunker down on learning Chinese.  I’ve made an equal exchange deal with a few of my students so that I’ll tutor them in English for one hour and they will tutor me in Chinese for one hour.  One of my tutors is a sophomore whose English skill is very low.  We are actually on the same level with our respective languages.  However, this couldn’t be better.  The best way to learn a language is through total immersion and that’s exactly what we’ve got going.  We use only pictures, gestures, and the original language to explain things with absolutely no translation.  It’s a challenge but it’s a lot of fun.

It’s great being back in the classroom.  I’ve got all of my students from last term, again.  The students are happy to see me and the feeling is mutual.  We’re starting up this second term with Oral English II.  Now, I’ve been told by the college that Oral English II is whatever I went it to be so I’m trying a new experiment.  My idea for the class comes from my personal experience through being both homeschooled and through my college experience as an English student.  Both of these educational environments encouraged the reading of fictional novels.  I can remember how every semester I would walk out of the college bookstore with 50 American and English novels.  We read everything from Austin to Twain.  It was a really fun education and it’s prepared me for communication far better than any textbook could.  Furthermore, homeschooling has taught me that education is best done through the joy of learning.  Humans have this innate characteristic were they balk at being given a command.  Students don’t like to be told what to study.  They do, however, like having the freedom to choose what they want to study.  My homeschooling experience was one where I was allowed to choose what I wanted to study.  Yes, there were certain requirements that had to be fulfilled, but nothing ever felt like a burden.  It was an enjoyable education and it prepared my siblings and me to excel in college.  So, I decided to employee these two methods in the classroom.  I asked my students if they wanted to use a novel or the given textbook.  Now, they know that the novel is going to be harder than the textbook as there are far more unknown words in an English novel than in a textbook.  However, the vote was unanimous and with a hearty cheer they all choose the novel.  So I chucked our textbook aside and we started to read a story.

The big theme of this term is the idea of a story.  A good speaker knows how to captivate an audience and nothing woks better than a good story.  My students know the basics of communication.  But, they lack the ability to capture someone’s imagination in conversation.  It’s my goal to teach them how to do this.  For the class time I’ve chosen to read aloud Lloyd Alexander’s fantasy novel, “The Book of Three.”  It is a great adventure story for young-readers.  During the class I will read and act out the story.  We have to stop a lot to learn many new words but it never gets to be a slog.  I use the students and props to make the new vocabulary fun and entertaining.  Such as yesterday's class when I pulled some students up front and demonstrated with them the fine swordsmen’s art of “thrust” and “parry.”  Now, we were in want of some swords so a couple of brooms had to play the part.  The students all chuckled as I failed to parry Ryan’s final thrust and the broom pierced my side.  Oh, what an agonizing death that was… and the students all loved it!

Like I've said before, it's great to back in Langfang. The students are great and life is good.  The weather's also gotten nicer as the warm air and sunny skies seems to be almost welcoming me back.  However, I could do without the Spring dust storms.  I left the windows in my apartment open the other day and went out.  I just so happened that while I was out a terrible dust storm rolled through.  I came back to my apartment and found a 1/8 inch of dirt and sand covering my back porch.  Oh, well.  I needed to clean out there anyway.