A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

It is fairly common here in China to find shop signs in both English and Chinese.  However, sometimes the English can be a little lacking.  It reminds me of the old adage which goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words."  However, that old adage takes on a whole new meaning here in China.  So today I've added a bunch of photos of these delightfully funny signs.  These photos were collected by both IECS team members and friends of IECS.

Time for Finals!

 

“I never teach my pupils, I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.”
― Albert Einstein

The past two days have been a grueling experience.  I’ve devoted my body, my mind, and my time to the academic duty of giving FINAL EXAMS!  It’s seems like only yesterday that I was preparing for my own set of final exams to take.  I can remember the nervous jitters, the mad rush to get everything done at the last minute, and the overwhelming doubt that there was something I had missed.  Hmm… Strange how not much has changed since then!

Don’t get me wrong, I was a good student and I did fairly well on my own final exams.  However, that never absolved the fear that I just might fail the next one.  Call me a pessimist when it came to predicting my own future.  I’m only an optimist with other people’s futures!

Anyway, I’m on the other side of the desk now with all those nasty final exams behind me.  Now it’s my turn to give the final exams rather than to receive (Clearly this is a case where it is better to give than to receive).  But, I can’t feel a little bit of empathetic nervousness for my students.  Perhaps it’s my post-traumatic stress syndrome kicking in from my own college days.  Whatever it is, I still want my students to do well.

I’ve been trying really hard the past few days to capture my feelings in words.  It’s been tough.  The closet thing I can come up with sounds like the noise some makes when they get their hand slammed in the car door, “grrrbfft.”  Okay, Shakespeare, I’m not.  There’s just something about setting and giving a final exam that’s a bit daunting.  The final exam is meant to be a test of everything the students have learnt up to this point.  As a teacher, I hope that I have given the students everything that they need to pass the final exam.  I’m like the master handing the tools to the apprentice.  It’s now their responsibility to use the tools properly and not screw it up.  However, the doubt that I feel is one of whether or not I’ve really prepared them to use the tools.  After all, I don’t want them to screw up the English language anymore.  It’s already screwed up enough!  Safe to say, I feel like the time that I’ve had this term with my students has been so limited.  I have almost 140 students and I’ve only got a total of eight hours a week to help them all.  It’s a highly improbably task…  But it’s still my task.

I’m quite thankful that I got the responsibility of setting my class’s final exam.  The textbook I was given to teach this class was absolute rubbish and I would have hated to have to give a standardized test from that piece of nonsense.  So that relieves some pressure.  The final is what I say it is!  So I designed it to be a real test of what they learned this term.

The focus of these courses was on oral English.  It’s about talking.  So, I taught them how to talk.  Now, you might not think that’s a tough assignment but what does one talk about anyway?  Sure, it’s easy enough to talk when we have something to say but what should we say?  It’s was my goal this semester to give the students something to talk about.  That way they could really practice their English.  That’s why we looked at everything from relationships, to food, to culture, and so much more.  Whatever the students wanted to talk about, we talked about… and in English!  So now, the question is whether or not my chaotic teaching methods would prove worthy.  That’s why we have final exams… Yes, the final exam: the ultimate test of both the student and the teacher. 

I set the final exam to work like a human-to-human conversation.  Each student would enter the classroom alone and speak solely to me.  I would ask them to talk about a topic and it was their job to talk about that topic.  Now, I did let them know the topics beforehand.  This is intermediate English after all and they needed time to prepare their thoughts.  I asked them questions about culture, English, relationships, food, and I even asked what they planned to do in the future when they graduate.  All of my students are freshmen and I’m their first real college examination experience.  Safe to say, they were all extremely nervous.  Some of the students were so nervous that they were literally shaking.  I knew they would be nervous so I mixed into the final a couple of fun and easy questions to put them at ease.  I asked questions about what they had done over the holiday weekend or whether or not they had seen any good movies recently.  They all seemed to settle down once they felt comfortable.  It’s hard to relax in the middle of an inquisition but it’s easy to relax if you’re talking with a friend over lunch.  I tried to give them a similar environment as the later.

I’m very pleased to report that a large majority of my students did extremely well with this final exam.  It showed that they had put a large amount of effort into preparing their answers.  Some of the presentations were a little bit shaky but most did really well.  Of course, there are always a couple of rotten apples in the bunch.  I had some students that put little-to-no time into preparing for this final.  Most of the slackers managed just enough proper English to squeak by with narrowly passing grade.  However, there were a few who were not so lucky.  I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to fail anyone.  But, that was not the case.

I’m not really surprised a handful of students failed.  I merely hopped that they would have done better.  The problem is that this handful of students is led by young woman who doubts my authority to teach English.  She has questioned my methods from day one and blatantly refused to do any of the work.  I’ve tired appealing to her reason and I even thought I was making some headway.  However, today’s final exam proved differently.  She approached the final exam with a flippant attitude and even laughed when she failed to come up with the correct words.  I didn’t see anything funny with the inability to construct a sentence.  The problem was that this student’s attitude has spread to her posse.  They too were treating the whole ordeal rather flippantly.  I’m not sure what they thought was going to happen.  It’s merely speculation and conjecture on my part but perhaps they thought their buddy, the English teacher, would spare them a failing grade.  Oh, how little they know me!

I failed the lot of them.  I think the initial shock of being failed was disbelief.  However, quickly they soon realized that I was dead serious.  It took only a moment of silence before the students were begging for another chance.  They all had tears in their eyes and even the ring leader of the posse said to me, “Do you know what it means for a Chinese student to fail?”

I looked at her and replied, “Yes I do.  Do you?”

I was really torn in this moment.  In a way I felt saddened that these students hadn’t even cared enough to give a mediocre effort, let alone a good effort.  It saddened me because I knew they could do better.  I’ve seen them in class really make some progress.  However, today was a major setback.  This final exam is worth 60% of their grade.  Why wouldn’t they work for that?  Maybe it’s a spirit of entitlement, maybe of laziness, but I don’t think they thought I would fail them.  From my position, this is probably the easiest exam they will ever get in college… and yet they still failed.

Now, the Chinese education system has certain rules and failure isn’t really an option for teachers.  The school will just make me give the students another chance.  However, the students don’t know this.  So I felt it might be best to bring home a little fear of failure for the night.  I told the students that I would “consider” giving them another chance.  However, they would have to write a 1-page paper apologizing for their poor effort and give me a detailed list of what they will do to improve themselves as students.  Within hours I had four papers waiting in my inbox.

These bad apples are a drastic contrast with some of the better students.  In my final exam study guide I gave fifteen possible exam questions.  I only used four of them.  However, I gave directions for the students to prepare conversation points on each of the topics.  One of my students actually researched each point, wrote a composition on each point, and memorized each of her compositions word-for-word.  Now, I’d say that what she did was above and beyond the call of duty.  I was very impressed.  Safe to say, she got an A+.

Teaching is not easy.  It’s a challenge to give the students an environment where they can learn on their own.  I could lecture them for hours and not a single bit of knowledge would sink in.  On the other hand, homeschooling has taught me that efficient teaching is to teach the student how to teach themselves.  Basically a good teacher is constantly striving to work themselves out of job.  A good student should only need the teacher so long as they don’t know how to teach themselves.  That’s what I’m trying to do with these students.  I feel like I’ve succeeded with most.  They’ve improved their English, they’ve grown in their skill to communicate, they’ve learned how to voice their opinions, and they’ve learned how to get over their shyness.  That’s why I’ve very pleased with most all of them.  They’ve really been a great bunch of students to teach.  I hope I will get to teach them again next term.   

 

Christmas in China

Christmas in the Classroom

It’s been an incredibly busy Christmas week but it’s also been a fantastic experience.  The week really got going last Friday with the class Christmas party here in Langfang.  One of the privileges I have here in China is the ability to share about western cultural and personal family traditions.  This means that I get to share each American holiday with my students.  Sharing about Thanksgiving was fun but sharing about Christmas was the best!

The Christmas celebration for classes 1 and 3 started out with decorating the classroom.  I brought an assortment of glittering garlands and various knickknacks to spruce up the place.  The students quickly got to work with my bag of goodies and they put together some impressive displays.  They actually took some green garland and made an outline of a Christmas tree on the wall.

Once decorating was complete we moved into the meat of the Christmas celebration.  I lectured briefly about the history of Santa Claus and ended my talk with a reading of, “Twas the Night Before Christmas.”  The students had a hard time following some of the words but I had a PowerPoint presentation with pictures to help illustrate.  Then we moved on into Christmas carols.  The students even shared with me the Chinese versions of such classics as Jingle Bells, which in Chinese is called “Ding! Ding! Dong!”  Then it was time for presents.  I had previously asked the students to all bring a small gift to the class and everyone was ready.  We used the gifts for a white elephant gift exchange. 

The day before I had gone to the super market and picked up a load of candy and cookies.  I knew that it just wouldn’t be a good Christmas party without treats.  So I pulled out my Santa bad and gave everyone cream covered rice cakes and tiny jelly cups.  The students just loved ‘em and they all cheered.  Finally it was time for the greatest surprise of all!  A dear friend back in the states had collected and mailed to me a bunch of one dollar bills.  The American currency came with implicit instructions that it was to be used as Christmas present for the students.  There were enough bills to go around but I decided to make a little game out of the distribution of this gift.  I only pulled out five of the bills and claimed that five was all that I had.  We then proceeded to raffle off the five bills to randomly selected students.  The students were super excited and it was clear that they all wanted their own dollar bill from America.  They were literally on the edge of their seats during the raffle.  Each time a name was selected from my Santa hat the tension would grow.  The students were of course happy for the other students who won but there was clearly disappointment when their own name wasn’t called.

The best part of the whole raffle came at the end.  I reached into my hat to pull out a self-planted ticket that read, “Everyone.”  At first the students were confused and I played it off as some kind of mistake.  However, it was no mistake.  In my mock confusion I checked under the desk for any possible gifts that Santa might have left behind.  Sure enough, there was the stack of bills for the other students.  When I pulled out the stack the room went crazy.  The students were so happy.  I distributed one dollar bill to each student and they couldn’t be happier.  Many of the students told me that they would, “cherish the gift forever.”  It’s a small gift but it really did mean a lot.  After my little charade was over I confessed the whole thing and told the story of how the bills had been collected by my friends back home.  The students all send their thanks.

Christmas in Boading

 This week has been simply littered with Christmas parties.  On Saturday and Sunday, my team made their way to Boading for the IECS teacher Christmas get-together.  We were so graciously hosted by team HFU for the weekend.  I feel like most of the weekend was spent eating, although I’m not complaining.  We ate some really good food!  We started out Saturday luncheon with donkey burgers.  Yes, I said “donkey.”  Boading is famous for their fried bread sandwiches with pulled donkey meat.  It’s actually really good and tastes similar to deer meat.  Saturday evening was Christmas dinner where everyone pitched in to make an assortment of American Christmas dishes.  We had roast chicken, green bean casserole, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, and all kinds of other good foods.  The evening ended with a fun white elephant gift exchange where there was no shortage of gag gifts.

Sunday morning was the time for the real gift exchange.  We did a secret Santa gift exchange with each of the more serious presents.  I ended up getting a beautiful handmade Chinese scroll and a t-shirt with panda bears doing Tai Chi.  I love ‘em.  The day ended off with us going to a really nice Italian restaurant in Boading for Pizza, pasta and salad.  Then we played games into the late hours.  It was a lot of fun.

Christmas with the College

 As I retrospectively write this blog I am reminded of just how many Christmas parties I’ve been too in the last week!  We came back from Boading on Monday and Monday night we went to the Langfang Teacher College’s Christmas celebration.  It was a major production in the main meeting hall with nearly a thousand or so students and facility in attendance.  It was mainly a talent show whereby students showed off an assortment of dancing, singing, and other skills.  Even us Americans got to get in on the act when we got up and sung the “Twelve Days of Christmas” with funny actions for everyone to follow. It’s a little odd to think of a Christmas production as having a mixture of Chinese marital arts demonstrations, traditional Chinese music, solo modern songs, and even synchronized dancing to Korean pop music!  I don’t normally associate Girls Generation with traditional Christmas music… but oh, well!

Christmas in the Hospital

 On Christmas Eve, after the school celebration, I got a call from my good friend DC that my shifu (the old man who teaches me taiji) was in the hospital.  He had gone into the hospital over the weekend due to internal stomach bleeding.  At the time of the call the doctors still did not know why this was happening but they were in the process of running tests.

That night the doctors performed a small operation and placed a camera tube down his throat to find the problem. The good news is that the shifu simply had an open ulcer and nothing more serious like cancer.

The doctors will keep the shifu in the hospital for a few days to make sure that the bleeding stops but they say he should heal quickly and be back to good health in a matter of weeks.  They have put him on a strict diet of soup and water while he heals, which my shifu was not too happy about.  But he is being a good patient.

On Christmas morning I went to visit the shifu in the hospital.  The shifu does not speak English but his daughter was there and she is a very good translator.  The shifu did not want DC to tell me about the trip to the hospital as he did not want me to be worrying about him over Christmas.  He knew that this was a special time for me as an American.  I told the shifu that I am glad DC told me and I told him about how my friends back in America were all hoping for his good health.  The shifu's daughter was greatly moved by this act and it took her a moment before she could translate my words into Chinese.  Upon hearing this in Chinese my shifu smiled, started crying, and then he even bowed to me in gratitude.

It was merely a moment on the side of a hospital bed on Christmas morning in China... but it was a powerful moment.  I got to share a little joy with an old Chinese man and his daughter on Christmas.