Friday, September 26, 2008
Hangzhou or Bust!
I'll be heading out to Hangzhou for the Oct. Holiday (Nationalist Day) from Sunday evening to Tuesday evening. Yay for mini-trip!
Monday, September 22, 2008
Amy & Karol "Explore" Shanghai as Westerners
[I finally figured out how to upload pics!]
Not really a true exploration, but it did involve metro-ing and walking around Shanghai. To parts of the city that I haven’t been to yet. I have Sundays and Mondays off from work, as does Karol. Karol also lives “next door” to me in the complex across the park. This requires a 3 minute walk to meet up at the gate. We had a very International/Western weekend.
The theme of the weekend? To be Western and to buy Western in China. And to amaze the natives with our ability to speak English “so well! and so accurate!” Because, it’s not like we were born and raised in America or anything. But that’s another story for another blog entry.
Sunday morning started off as a lazy morning. Karol messages me with her frustrations of getting her cell phone fixed and so was going to go to Head Office (HO) to have someone help her translate and get things squared away. She asked whether I wanted to accompany her and I said yes because my other option would have been to bum around the apt attempting hw and attempting cleaning house.
We took metro to HO which is located somewhere near Jing’An (maybe). Spent some time hanging out in the teacher’s office and met some of her Shane teachers. Saw Simon again and again he would speak so fast I would not be able to understand his English accent. When someone had helped Karol contact the Nokia care center, we got back on the metro and headed for Fuzhou Rd. at People’s Square. I definitely want to go back to People’s Square and just wander around. There is a sort of underground shopping mall. There are so many shops to look at (probably expensive though) and tons of people to people watch. We saw a church (I believe it is the Moore Memorial Church) whose peaceful atmosphere was a striking contrast against the bustling People’s Square crowds.
We watched Mr. Bean while waiting in the Nokia Care waiting room. After dropping off her cell phone to be fixed (~1 hour) we went next door to the KFC for lunch. KFC is really popular in China. But the funny thing is, the menu is completely different. For one, I don’t think they sell buckets of chicken or potato wedges, THE typical food of KFC. When we went in, just about everyone was eating shoestring french fries and had a drink. Where was the chicken?! (22-24RMB/meal) However, Karol and I did score some play straws that we could change into funny shapes.We also bought a hand-held sewing machine (15RMB) from a lady off the street. We were so amazed by it that she knew she had an instant sale. It’s kinda shaped like a stapler, but you can sew/hem with it!
After KFC, we walked across the street and saw a McDonalds. We bought ice cream cones (2.50RMB) As we were eating, we came across a huge bookstore. Of course we wanted to go in, but the security told us to finish eating the ice cream first before going in.
Karol wanted to find a China travel guide book. Couldn’t find any, however we did have some fun times in the foreign/bilingual book section. She wants to improve her Mandarin so she was looking through the learn Mandarin books. After laughing at some awesome titles as “EXTREME MANDARIN!” and “Romeo and Zhu Ying Tai Phrase Book” (probably the most awesome book by the way. It basically teaches a Western male step-by-step how to have a relationship with a Chinese female. The book is divided into such chapters as: Saying Hello, Compliments, Meeting the Parents, Fights (long and short ones) and Proposal among others) we came across some Chinese-English dictionaries.
Karol: Here are the pocket sized Chinese-English dictionaries.
Amy: Are you sure these are pocket sized? [points to a FAT dictionary]
Karol: hahaha, you can’t fit this in your pocket. [attempts to fit FAT dictionary in pockets]
Amy: Is that a Chinese-English dictionary in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
[laugh inappropriately for a good 5 mins. or so]
We also visited the Marxism-Leninism Literature. Which was located across from a portrait of Mao Zedong. You gotta love China. Later on, as we walked around the Shanghai Stadium looking for a place to buy Leehom concert tickets [epic_fail], we took pictures in front of Beijing 2008 signs made out of flowers.
On Monday, we attempted to buy train tickets for the upcoming weeklong October Holiday/National Day Holiday. We went to the Shanghai Railway Station to inquire about prices. We probably also pissed off the woman who was helping us because we were asking her to check every single day and for multiple locations: Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou. Well the mission was another epic_fail because we left empty handed. We went back home, stopped at Cross Regions Plaza (Foxtown!) to grab some spaghetti and pizza and then went home. We met up with Michelle and Lisa for dinner at Blue Frog which is a Western style restaurant that has buy 1 get 1 free burgers on Mondays. Karol and I decided to walk over to Michelle/Lisa’s apt because Karol said she knew how. She didn’t really know and we ended up walking somewhat in the right and wrong direction. Though a Chinese-American guy who was walking behind us suddenly asked us “So are you girls from the States?” We were surprised because we were in the middle of figuring out whether the Shanghai Indoor Stadium was different from the Shanghai Gymnastic Stadium when we suddenly hear this American voice over our shoulders. He’s from near Philadelphia.
At Blue Frog. So there we were, four Chinese-American girls, all of us more American than Chinese, sitting at a Western style restaurant eating burgers (40RMB with the discount) and speaking in English. We are super awesome. Bennett also went there for dinner, but he showed up with his Chinese friend when we were about to leave. We made a stop over at City Shop which is an International super market and couldn’t believe how expensive Western brands were. Well, we can believe it, but we were still shocked.
Karol and I departed from Michelle and Lisa and started navigating our way back towards our apts. We used landmarks and big buildings, “I recognize that building, we want to walk away from it.” I saw a store we now call the “2 Kuai Store” where everything in the store was 2RMB. It’s filled with useless stuff that you want to buy. While Karol and I were in there looking around, two Italian-Jewish guys overheard our English and walked up behind us asking us where we were from. It was all cordial in the beginning because we were speaking a mixture of Chinglish, English, Spanish, French and Italian with them, making small talk about being in China. The owners/workers of the 2 Kuai Store were loving us because here you had two white guys and two Chinese looking girls speaking to each other in a foreign tongue. We were probably bringing customers in for them. Then they started hitting on us and kept wanting to invite us out to a club/bar called Baby Face. Karol and I looked at each other and started sending messages to each other with our eyes and walked towards the door to make our purchase. They called out to us again, “Come on, let’s go!” which we politely replies, “sorry, we have classes tomorrow morning!” We asked an old Chinese man to take a picture of us outside the 2 Kuai Store holding the 2RMB plastic world globe Karol bought and then we left for home.
Not really a true exploration, but it did involve metro-ing and walking around Shanghai. To parts of the city that I haven’t been to yet. I have Sundays and Mondays off from work, as does Karol. Karol also lives “next door” to me in the complex across the park. This requires a 3 minute walk to meet up at the gate. We had a very International/Western weekend.
The theme of the weekend? To be Western and to buy Western in China. And to amaze the natives with our ability to speak English “so well! and so accurate!” Because, it’s not like we were born and raised in America or anything. But that’s another story for another blog entry.
Sunday morning started off as a lazy morning. Karol messages me with her frustrations of getting her cell phone fixed and so was going to go to Head Office (HO) to have someone help her translate and get things squared away. She asked whether I wanted to accompany her and I said yes because my other option would have been to bum around the apt attempting hw and attempting cleaning house.
We took metro to HO which is located somewhere near Jing’An (maybe). Spent some time hanging out in the teacher’s office and met some of her Shane teachers. Saw Simon again and again he would speak so fast I would not be able to understand his English accent. When someone had helped Karol contact the Nokia care center, we got back on the metro and headed for Fuzhou Rd. at People’s Square. I definitely want to go back to People’s Square and just wander around. There is a sort of underground shopping mall. There are so many shops to look at (probably expensive though) and tons of people to people watch. We saw a church (I believe it is the Moore Memorial Church) whose peaceful atmosphere was a striking contrast against the bustling People’s Square crowds.
We watched Mr. Bean while waiting in the Nokia Care waiting room. After dropping off her cell phone to be fixed (~1 hour) we went next door to the KFC for lunch. KFC is really popular in China. But the funny thing is, the menu is completely different. For one, I don’t think they sell buckets of chicken or potato wedges, THE typical food of KFC. When we went in, just about everyone was eating shoestring french fries and had a drink. Where was the chicken?! (22-24RMB/meal) However, Karol and I did score some play straws that we could change into funny shapes.We also bought a hand-held sewing machine (15RMB) from a lady off the street. We were so amazed by it that she knew she had an instant sale. It’s kinda shaped like a stapler, but you can sew/hem with it!
After KFC, we walked across the street and saw a McDonalds. We bought ice cream cones (2.50RMB) As we were eating, we came across a huge bookstore. Of course we wanted to go in, but the security told us to finish eating the ice cream first before going in.
Karol wanted to find a China travel guide book. Couldn’t find any, however we did have some fun times in the foreign/bilingual book section. She wants to improve her Mandarin so she was looking through the learn Mandarin books. After laughing at some awesome titles as “EXTREME MANDARIN!” and “Romeo and Zhu Ying Tai Phrase Book” (probably the most awesome book by the way. It basically teaches a Western male step-by-step how to have a relationship with a Chinese female. The book is divided into such chapters as: Saying Hello, Compliments, Meeting the Parents, Fights (long and short ones) and Proposal among others) we came across some Chinese-English dictionaries.
Karol: Here are the pocket sized Chinese-English dictionaries.
Amy: Are you sure these are pocket sized? [points to a FAT dictionary]
Karol: hahaha, you can’t fit this in your pocket. [attempts to fit FAT dictionary in pockets]
Amy: Is that a Chinese-English dictionary in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
[laugh inappropriately for a good 5 mins. or so]
We also visited the Marxism-Leninism Literature. Which was located across from a portrait of Mao Zedong. You gotta love China. Later on, as we walked around the Shanghai Stadium looking for a place to buy Leehom concert tickets [epic_fail], we took pictures in front of Beijing 2008 signs made out of flowers.
On Monday, we attempted to buy train tickets for the upcoming weeklong October Holiday/National Day Holiday. We went to the Shanghai Railway Station to inquire about prices. We probably also pissed off the woman who was helping us because we were asking her to check every single day and for multiple locations: Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou. Well the mission was another epic_fail because we left empty handed. We went back home, stopped at Cross Regions Plaza (Foxtown!) to grab some spaghetti and pizza and then went home. We met up with Michelle and Lisa for dinner at Blue Frog which is a Western style restaurant that has buy 1 get 1 free burgers on Mondays. Karol and I decided to walk over to Michelle/Lisa’s apt because Karol said she knew how. She didn’t really know and we ended up walking somewhat in the right and wrong direction. Though a Chinese-American guy who was walking behind us suddenly asked us “So are you girls from the States?” We were surprised because we were in the middle of figuring out whether the Shanghai Indoor Stadium was different from the Shanghai Gymnastic Stadium when we suddenly hear this American voice over our shoulders. He’s from near Philadelphia.
At Blue Frog. So there we were, four Chinese-American girls, all of us more American than Chinese, sitting at a Western style restaurant eating burgers (40RMB with the discount) and speaking in English. We are super awesome. Bennett also went there for dinner, but he showed up with his Chinese friend when we were about to leave. We made a stop over at City Shop which is an International super market and couldn’t believe how expensive Western brands were. Well, we can believe it, but we were still shocked.
Karol and I departed from Michelle and Lisa and started navigating our way back towards our apts. We used landmarks and big buildings, “I recognize that building, we want to walk away from it.” I saw a store we now call the “2 Kuai Store” where everything in the store was 2RMB. It’s filled with useless stuff that you want to buy. While Karol and I were in there looking around, two Italian-Jewish guys overheard our English and walked up behind us asking us where we were from. It was all cordial in the beginning because we were speaking a mixture of Chinglish, English, Spanish, French and Italian with them, making small talk about being in China. The owners/workers of the 2 Kuai Store were loving us because here you had two white guys and two Chinese looking girls speaking to each other in a foreign tongue. We were probably bringing customers in for them. Then they started hitting on us and kept wanting to invite us out to a club/bar called Baby Face. Karol and I looked at each other and started sending messages to each other with our eyes and walked towards the door to make our purchase. They called out to us again, “Come on, let’s go!” which we politely replies, “sorry, we have classes tomorrow morning!” We asked an old Chinese man to take a picture of us outside the 2 Kuai Store holding the 2RMB plastic world globe Karol bought and then we left for home.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Let's Get (a) Physical!
One of the requirements for foreigners to work in China is to pass a physical. There’s nothing tricky about the physical, you just can’t have a mental disorder or any STDs. Basically, China doesn’t want you to pass on your dirty, contaminated genes into their otherwise pure and clean society.
I don’t exactly have a phobia of hospitals but it’s still not on my top things to do in a foreign country. Nancy (welfare officer) gave me some photocopies, an address and told me that I would be able to get to the hospital a-ok. She did take me on a bus halfway there (it was on the way to the office) and then told the taxi where I wanted to go. I found the place alright. Before the physical, you basically wait in a room with other foreigners (and some of their translators) for your number to be called.
It’s an efficient process. They have it all figured out on how to expedite the process. You first check in, then they direct you to the waiting room. When your number is called you go in to have them check your paperwork and take a quick (ugly) photo of you so that as you walk through the stations, the nurses can make sure you are who you say you are. Then you go to the cashier to pay. Go to the changing room to take off half your clothes, wear a robe and shoe booties. You go from room to room where you are weighed and heighted. They draw some blood, check your blood pressure, test your eyes, look up your nose, chest x-ray, heart check, an ultrasound (?? to make sure my womb is empty??). I also helped the office make health check appointments for two other teachers.
Afterwards, I had to figure out how to get myself either to the office or to get home. I decided I had time to go home and rest before my afternoon of classes. Got in a taxi, told them I wanted the line 2 metro stop (which was supposed to be the closest station) and got myself back to my neck of the woods. However, I didn’t anticipate the distance being so great, so I ended up having something like an hour at home before I had to head back out. Sad times. I’m feeling really really tired these days.
I don’t exactly have a phobia of hospitals but it’s still not on my top things to do in a foreign country. Nancy (welfare officer) gave me some photocopies, an address and told me that I would be able to get to the hospital a-ok. She did take me on a bus halfway there (it was on the way to the office) and then told the taxi where I wanted to go. I found the place alright. Before the physical, you basically wait in a room with other foreigners (and some of their translators) for your number to be called.
It’s an efficient process. They have it all figured out on how to expedite the process. You first check in, then they direct you to the waiting room. When your number is called you go in to have them check your paperwork and take a quick (ugly) photo of you so that as you walk through the stations, the nurses can make sure you are who you say you are. Then you go to the cashier to pay. Go to the changing room to take off half your clothes, wear a robe and shoe booties. You go from room to room where you are weighed and heighted. They draw some blood, check your blood pressure, test your eyes, look up your nose, chest x-ray, heart check, an ultrasound (?? to make sure my womb is empty??). I also helped the office make health check appointments for two other teachers.
Afterwards, I had to figure out how to get myself either to the office or to get home. I decided I had time to go home and rest before my afternoon of classes. Got in a taxi, told them I wanted the line 2 metro stop (which was supposed to be the closest station) and got myself back to my neck of the woods. However, I didn’t anticipate the distance being so great, so I ended up having something like an hour at home before I had to head back out. Sad times. I’m feeling really really tired these days.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Stocks > Fruit
I’m supposed to be lesson planning right now, but all I can do is watch the stocks on Wall Street go crazy. Markets have just opened in the States on Monday morning and after the news of what happened in the financial market over the weekend ... all I can say is “whoa.”
Lehman Brothers (LEH) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after it wasn’t able to find any buyers for its apparently suffering company. I had not been keeping updated enough and didn’t even know there was financial troubles with LEH. I guess I didn’t pay enough attention to them because they are (were) a relatively large company. This goes to show that large companies can have large debts as well. Like $613 BILLION in debt.
Bank of America (BAC) also acquired Merrill Lynch (MER) over the weekend. This is a pretty large acquisition. One which did the usual of lowering the stock price of BAC and raising the stock price of MER. Expected financial results when it comes to mergers and acquisitions. What was NOT expected was just how much MER’s stock price jumped. I thought maybe like $1. Last I checked, up $5+!!
This is all pretty big financial news. Much more interesting than lesson planning for little Chinese kids a lesson about different types of fruits.
“What fruit is it?”
“[apple]!”
“What color is it?”
“red!”
What if instead I taught them:
“What do you do with stocks?”
“Buy low!”
“And then..?”
“Sell high!”
Now THAT is a good lesson.
Lehman Brothers (LEH) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after it wasn’t able to find any buyers for its apparently suffering company. I had not been keeping updated enough and didn’t even know there was financial troubles with LEH. I guess I didn’t pay enough attention to them because they are (were) a relatively large company. This goes to show that large companies can have large debts as well. Like $613 BILLION in debt.
Bank of America (BAC) also acquired Merrill Lynch (MER) over the weekend. This is a pretty large acquisition. One which did the usual of lowering the stock price of BAC and raising the stock price of MER. Expected financial results when it comes to mergers and acquisitions. What was NOT expected was just how much MER’s stock price jumped. I thought maybe like $1. Last I checked, up $5+!!
This is all pretty big financial news. Much more interesting than lesson planning for little Chinese kids a lesson about different types of fruits.
“What fruit is it?”
“[apple]!”
“What color is it?”
“red!”
What if instead I taught them:
“What do you do with stocks?”
“Buy low!”
“And then..?”
“Sell high!”
Now THAT is a good lesson.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Exciting News
The most exciting, fabulous, wonderful, awesome, [insert more synonyms] thing happened today. Maybe the best thing that has happened in the last two weeks.
I finally got Internet installed in my apt!!
Circa 10:30AM the China Telecom service guy knocked on my door and said "I am here to install your ADSL." I was so happy and speechless that he had to ask me, "Do you speak Chinese?"
I finally got Internet installed in my apt!!
Circa 10:30AM the China Telecom service guy knocked on my door and said "I am here to install your ADSL." I was so happy and speechless that he had to ask me, "Do you speak Chinese?"
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Atmos. Sci. 3 in Shanghai
I don’t think that I’m the “weather” type of girl. As a purebred SoCal girl, I will admit I am a bit of a snob when it comes to my weather. I prefer my days not too hot and not too cold. Not too dry and not too wet. Is that too much to ask for?
In the past three weeks or so that I’ve been in Shanghai, I’ve experienced humidity so high it should be illegal, rainfall that flooded half the city (resulting in organized chaos), sunshine so strong that Nancy asked me why I turned so dark suddenly, and today a spontaneous rainfall that went from slight drizzle to insane downpour in the matter of 2 seconds. Luckily I had my 19RMB Chinese umbrella with me. Unluckily, my shoes and pants were still soaked the whole way through. I believe the rain was falling at a 45 degree angle aimed directly at my feet. I am positive I did not step in any puddles, yet my feet still squished water on my walk back to my apt. There was also a small pool of water in my backpack. Though I still have yet to figure out how that got in there as I thought I had it zipped up completely and covered.
And now, with the rainfall gone, I’m enjoying a gentle cool breeze through my bedroom window on the 8th floor.
What’s more perfect than that? Two days ago I made a discovery that could rival Columbus’s discovery of America.....
My apt’s windows have sliding screens!
You don’t know how happy I was after this discovery. Now I can keep the windows open while worrying less about unnecessary mosquitos flying in and feasting on my body.
In the past three weeks or so that I’ve been in Shanghai, I’ve experienced humidity so high it should be illegal, rainfall that flooded half the city (resulting in organized chaos), sunshine so strong that Nancy asked me why I turned so dark suddenly, and today a spontaneous rainfall that went from slight drizzle to insane downpour in the matter of 2 seconds. Luckily I had my 19RMB Chinese umbrella with me. Unluckily, my shoes and pants were still soaked the whole way through. I believe the rain was falling at a 45 degree angle aimed directly at my feet. I am positive I did not step in any puddles, yet my feet still squished water on my walk back to my apt. There was also a small pool of water in my backpack. Though I still have yet to figure out how that got in there as I thought I had it zipped up completely and covered.
And now, with the rainfall gone, I’m enjoying a gentle cool breeze through my bedroom window on the 8th floor.
What’s more perfect than that? Two days ago I made a discovery that could rival Columbus’s discovery of America.....
My apt’s windows have sliding screens!
You don’t know how happy I was after this discovery. Now I can keep the windows open while worrying less about unnecessary mosquitos flying in and feasting on my body.
I Spoke Too Soon
Another “Playtime” session a complete disaster. It’s not that I hate little kids, I just hate “playing” with them for 45 minutes using a language they don’t understand and receiving no feedback but still under the scrutiny of the Chinese teachers who are probably thinking to themselves (and each other, out loud) what a complete idiot I am.
The second class’s teacher is pretty much horrible. I can feel her giving me Looks. I know she’s thinking, why do we get the Asian-looking teacher? Where’s my blond hair blue eyed FOREIGN teacher? Just about every game I suggest she says it’s too difficult for the children. Dallas (another SES teacher ... who is white) was able to get his teacher to agree to dividing the class into two halves and doing two 20 minutes sessions instead of the one big group for 45 minutes session. Which makes so much more sense. I tried it with my first Playtime class today and at the end of the lesson, the teacher told me that she didn’t think it was a good idea because it was too short a session for each child and the parents would complain because they were paying money for the lessons. I’m thinking that if I had been a white person suggesting this, she would accept this idea because “the white, foreign teacher said it would be a good idea.” But no, I’m just a young, Asian girl who probably doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Because I’m Asian, they are more okay with saying “no” to me. Because then, they are not really offending anyone international.
I feel like it is time for me to talk with Cristina about these Playtime sessions. I always leave those sessions so depressed.
edit: New perspective. I took another look at the schedule and I really can’t complain. I have one of the nicer schedules. I am not commuting too much and I do not have to have random layovers at the office except on Thursday (and assuming my HS classes are canceled forever). I am stationed at one school basically, so that is “my” school. I just need to learn how to work better with the little pre-schoolers. Why couldn’t they all be super-brains so that I could have philosophical debates with them? In English, of course.
The second class’s teacher is pretty much horrible. I can feel her giving me Looks. I know she’s thinking, why do we get the Asian-looking teacher? Where’s my blond hair blue eyed FOREIGN teacher? Just about every game I suggest she says it’s too difficult for the children. Dallas (another SES teacher ... who is white) was able to get his teacher to agree to dividing the class into two halves and doing two 20 minutes sessions instead of the one big group for 45 minutes session. Which makes so much more sense. I tried it with my first Playtime class today and at the end of the lesson, the teacher told me that she didn’t think it was a good idea because it was too short a session for each child and the parents would complain because they were paying money for the lessons. I’m thinking that if I had been a white person suggesting this, she would accept this idea because “the white, foreign teacher said it would be a good idea.” But no, I’m just a young, Asian girl who probably doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Because I’m Asian, they are more okay with saying “no” to me. Because then, they are not really offending anyone international.
I feel like it is time for me to talk with Cristina about these Playtime sessions. I always leave those sessions so depressed.
edit: New perspective. I took another look at the schedule and I really can’t complain. I have one of the nicer schedules. I am not commuting too much and I do not have to have random layovers at the office except on Thursday (and assuming my HS classes are canceled forever). I am stationed at one school basically, so that is “my” school. I just need to learn how to work better with the little pre-schoolers. Why couldn’t they all be super-brains so that I could have philosophical debates with them? In English, of course.
"The Money Is In Your Pocket"
What can I say? I had a relatively good day at work yesterday.
Even though it was an early day, I had to meet Chris and Susan at the Xinzhuang metro stop by 7:45am, the day was ... good.
The high school class we were demonstrating in was half and half. The first class was a disaster since they wanted to keep it with 30+ students in addition to the small crowd of other English teachers observing, “just what the Western style of teaching was.” Chris and I tried to implement small group sizes but with the way everything was set up, it was just not going to work. We went around doing small group introductions and tried getting the students to open their mouths and speak. But the sentences they said were very rehearsed and by the book. The bigger disaster happened when I asked the students to pull out one of the books and they said they didn’t have it. What. An. Unfortunate. Thing.
The regular teacher quickly came over to help me work out what was the problem. And I told Chris to “entertain” the crowd as a couple of us tried to solve the problem. Switched up the lesson plan to using something that was already copied out of the (other) book. Needless to say, I felt like it was a disaster because of the slow-paceness and just boringness of the lesson. The other teachers observing the lesson asked us why they would need a foreign teacher to do something that a regular Chinese teacher could already do. What was the point of having us there?
The second class they wanted us to demonstrate a more “Western” style of teaching. We had the large class divided up into 2 smaller classes of about 15 students each. Chris took one class and I took the other. I felt sorry for Chris because SES had told him that he would just be helping me out and not teaching a whole class by himself, so he was basically thrust onto the stage against his knowledge.
To get the students to open up more and to talk more (a silent class is so boring as I know from past AAP tutoring experience), I had the students move away from their desks/computers and come closer to the center. Started with introductions to give each student a chance to talk and then I started on the presentation of the lesson, “greetings and goodbyes.” Yawn. I asked two students to come up to demonstrate a simple dialogue and from there it spiraled off to a wonderful tangent. I had each student come up in groups and asked the audience to give characters and scenarios. I could tell that the high schoolers were enjoying this because they were able to use their creativity and use more spontaneous English. This was a move away from doing things by the book and responding with a rehearsed sentence.
Every once in awhile I would sneak a peek at the observers in the back and I saw that even they were having fun! Here, the students were working on their English and having a fun time doing so. Even though the vocabulary was limited, I could tell the students were searching in their brains for similar words that could convey the meaning they wanted. A particularly funny one involved 3 boys who were given the roles of mother, father and baby arguing in a restaurant. The “baby” could speak English apparently.
Mother: I want to eat much food. I want to eat sandwich, hamburger, steak. I want to eat all the expensive food.
Father: You want to eat too much. I don’t have money.
Mother: Yes you do.
Father: No I don’t.
Mother: The money is in your pocket.
Father: No money in my pocket.
Baby: Mother! This is a bad father. Father has no money.
Mother: I leave now.
Baby: Mother! I go with you.
Father: Wait for me. I come with you.
There was also a hunter shooting down a singing bird, a robber robbing a rich old lady with the interference of a policewoman (the robber refused to go to jail because her father was sick), two strangers going to eat dinner, and a famous singer (me) charging her #1 fan 10RMB to receive an autograph.
I later found out that day that the high school classes are canceled until further notice. The overall impression I got at the meeting after class was over (whether the HS would hire a SES teacher) was that they wished I looked more “foreign” and want a guarantee that their students will be able to pass the listening portion of the Shanghai English Exam.
Later that day, I went to my usual school, ZFH, to teach the 3rd graders. They are probably my favorite group so far. They remembered my name and some of them even kissed my cheeks during introductions. That was too cute. And they are also at that age where whatever (lame) game you give them to play, they love it. Even when there are no winners and losers. We played a game where all they had to do was run around a chair to look at a flashcard, sit down and raise their hand to be called on to answer “what color is it?” Even when someone else answered the question, they got very excited because they had the same answer and it was validation enough that they had also “won.” And they are old enough to give me some feedback even if it is in Mandarin (which I pretend to not understand) or miming. Not to mention that they have a lot of energy and love to run back and forth.
Even though it was an early day, I had to meet Chris and Susan at the Xinzhuang metro stop by 7:45am, the day was ... good.
The high school class we were demonstrating in was half and half. The first class was a disaster since they wanted to keep it with 30+ students in addition to the small crowd of other English teachers observing, “just what the Western style of teaching was.” Chris and I tried to implement small group sizes but with the way everything was set up, it was just not going to work. We went around doing small group introductions and tried getting the students to open their mouths and speak. But the sentences they said were very rehearsed and by the book. The bigger disaster happened when I asked the students to pull out one of the books and they said they didn’t have it. What. An. Unfortunate. Thing.
The regular teacher quickly came over to help me work out what was the problem. And I told Chris to “entertain” the crowd as a couple of us tried to solve the problem. Switched up the lesson plan to using something that was already copied out of the (other) book. Needless to say, I felt like it was a disaster because of the slow-paceness and just boringness of the lesson. The other teachers observing the lesson asked us why they would need a foreign teacher to do something that a regular Chinese teacher could already do. What was the point of having us there?
The second class they wanted us to demonstrate a more “Western” style of teaching. We had the large class divided up into 2 smaller classes of about 15 students each. Chris took one class and I took the other. I felt sorry for Chris because SES had told him that he would just be helping me out and not teaching a whole class by himself, so he was basically thrust onto the stage against his knowledge.
To get the students to open up more and to talk more (a silent class is so boring as I know from past AAP tutoring experience), I had the students move away from their desks/computers and come closer to the center. Started with introductions to give each student a chance to talk and then I started on the presentation of the lesson, “greetings and goodbyes.” Yawn. I asked two students to come up to demonstrate a simple dialogue and from there it spiraled off to a wonderful tangent. I had each student come up in groups and asked the audience to give characters and scenarios. I could tell that the high schoolers were enjoying this because they were able to use their creativity and use more spontaneous English. This was a move away from doing things by the book and responding with a rehearsed sentence.
Every once in awhile I would sneak a peek at the observers in the back and I saw that even they were having fun! Here, the students were working on their English and having a fun time doing so. Even though the vocabulary was limited, I could tell the students were searching in their brains for similar words that could convey the meaning they wanted. A particularly funny one involved 3 boys who were given the roles of mother, father and baby arguing in a restaurant. The “baby” could speak English apparently.
Mother: I want to eat much food. I want to eat sandwich, hamburger, steak. I want to eat all the expensive food.
Father: You want to eat too much. I don’t have money.
Mother: Yes you do.
Father: No I don’t.
Mother: The money is in your pocket.
Father: No money in my pocket.
Baby: Mother! This is a bad father. Father has no money.
Mother: I leave now.
Baby: Mother! I go with you.
Father: Wait for me. I come with you.
There was also a hunter shooting down a singing bird, a robber robbing a rich old lady with the interference of a policewoman (the robber refused to go to jail because her father was sick), two strangers going to eat dinner, and a famous singer (me) charging her #1 fan 10RMB to receive an autograph.
I later found out that day that the high school classes are canceled until further notice. The overall impression I got at the meeting after class was over (whether the HS would hire a SES teacher) was that they wished I looked more “foreign” and want a guarantee that their students will be able to pass the listening portion of the Shanghai English Exam.
Later that day, I went to my usual school, ZFH, to teach the 3rd graders. They are probably my favorite group so far. They remembered my name and some of them even kissed my cheeks during introductions. That was too cute. And they are also at that age where whatever (lame) game you give them to play, they love it. Even when there are no winners and losers. We played a game where all they had to do was run around a chair to look at a flashcard, sit down and raise their hand to be called on to answer “what color is it?” Even when someone else answered the question, they got very excited because they had the same answer and it was validation enough that they had also “won.” And they are old enough to give me some feedback even if it is in Mandarin (which I pretend to not understand) or miming. Not to mention that they have a lot of energy and love to run back and forth.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Chinese Laundry
Today, I did my laundry. Chinese style.
Well, actually half-Western, half-Chinese. While washers are relatively common in China now, dryers are still considered rare and more of something “them foreigners” use. My apt has a washer (whew!) but no dryer. Instead, I have a lovely balcony to hang my clothes up to dry. It is actually quite neat though. Because the clothesline(rod?) can move up and down when I turn the knob. I was a bit worried initially because it was too high up for me to reach.
My “balcony” is enclosed so it’s not like my laundry is hanging for the whole world to see. Even though that wouldn’t be weird here. Since China is more humid than SoCal, the key is to do laundry in the morning so that the afternoon sun has a chance to dry it. I wonder how fast laundry dries during the winters. I might miss soft, fluffy clothes though.
Well, actually half-Western, half-Chinese. While washers are relatively common in China now, dryers are still considered rare and more of something “them foreigners” use. My apt has a washer (whew!) but no dryer. Instead, I have a lovely balcony to hang my clothes up to dry. It is actually quite neat though. Because the clothesline(rod?) can move up and down when I turn the knob. I was a bit worried initially because it was too high up for me to reach.
My “balcony” is enclosed so it’s not like my laundry is hanging for the whole world to see. Even though that wouldn’t be weird here. Since China is more humid than SoCal, the key is to do laundry in the morning so that the afternoon sun has a chance to dry it. I wonder how fast laundry dries during the winters. I might miss soft, fluffy clothes though.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Home Sweet China?
This was written a couple days ago. So the dates and timeline is a little off in real time. And I still don't have Internet. I'm using a friend's internet right now. Deal.
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I moved into my apt today. I have no Internet. I have not completely unpacked yet. Nancy helped me move my luggage over and then we walked over to IKEA to find bedsheets. Rather, I went to find bedsheets because Nancy had to go back to the office and i guess she figured that I knew enough Mandarin to survive.
Chinese people seem to love their IKEA. It was pretty crowded and people were walking around taking pictures of the furniture and room set ups. I wonder if many people really were buying things or just wanted to pass the time. It was almost like a museum for them to see how Westerners decorate their homes. Except my home back in America certainly doesn’t look like IKEA. And the IKEA food court was really crowded as well.
I spent so much time looking at the bedsheets. First of all, I didn’t know what size my bed was. It wasn’t a twin and I didn’t think it was a king, so I was going with the assumption that it was a queen. Problem was, I didn’t know how big a queen was in centimeters. Blasted metric system. I finally realized that I could just go over to the mattress section and find a bed that looked like mine and look at the measurements on that. So after I figured out that I was looking for 200cm x 200cm it made things easier. Though for a moment I thought maybe I could do things cheaper and just get a twin size quilt, only to realize that that would make things more complicated and riskier in whether it would fit or not. Plus I like to roll into a comfort pod, so I went default and just picked things out. Since I am still in the process of getting my deposit money together, I knew that I had to spend as little as possible.
I got back to my apt and dropped things off. And then I was hungry so I thought this was a prime opportunity to explore my new neighborhood. The reception/lobby lady is really nice to me and told me to go to her if I ever needed something. She even gave me some laundry detergent because she knew that I hadn’t been able to find a store nearby that sells it. Her and other people who were in the lobby tried to direct me to a China Construction Bank. But when I found out that I had to take the metro to another area just to go to the bank, I decided to save that trip for another day. Maybe I’ll make a stop to the Jinhui (JH) office tomorrow and use the ATM there because I know where it is. Plus it was starting to become evening and I didn’t want to have to travel too far away.
So I am wandering and wandering around the streets near my apt and I pass the same stores like 3 times. I think it was a lot easier having Ryan around because I could use him as my excuse for not knowing how to read all the items on the menu. “Give us a moment, I am translating the menu to him.” I finally pick a restaurant that had a pretty large picture menu (and English menu as well!). I think it was because it’s located so close to the Shanghai Stadium where they had some of the Olympic Games. While I’m waiting around for my food, I txt msg Lisa, Ryan and Karol because they started work today (not Karol as I found out later). Karol replies saying that she is at IKEA and I thought that was just dandy because that was just around the corner!
I met up with Karol at IKEA (second trip in one day) and I help her pick out a couch and coffee table. And other random things. It was great to see someone I knew! We got some looks because we’re both Chinese girls speaking perfect English. IKEA stuff is cheaper in China than in America. Or at least I think it is. I told her we had to stop converting things into US Dollars otherwise we’d buy too much stuff. We have to start thinking only in the Chinese currency. As evidenced when we were comparing two couches that were a 300 RMB difference (~ $43) and were like “you might as well, only a $40 difference” and then realized, ”wait a minute, you can do a lot with 300RMB in China. Like eat 5RMB bowls of noodles for 2 months. Or buy a ticket to Leehom’s concert.“
I show her my apt and tell her to visit whenever she wanted. Poor Karol is pretty much by herself in another part of town. I need to start lesson planning now. My first day of teaching English is tomorrow!
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I moved into my apt today. I have no Internet. I have not completely unpacked yet. Nancy helped me move my luggage over and then we walked over to IKEA to find bedsheets. Rather, I went to find bedsheets because Nancy had to go back to the office and i guess she figured that I knew enough Mandarin to survive.
Chinese people seem to love their IKEA. It was pretty crowded and people were walking around taking pictures of the furniture and room set ups. I wonder if many people really were buying things or just wanted to pass the time. It was almost like a museum for them to see how Westerners decorate their homes. Except my home back in America certainly doesn’t look like IKEA. And the IKEA food court was really crowded as well.
I spent so much time looking at the bedsheets. First of all, I didn’t know what size my bed was. It wasn’t a twin and I didn’t think it was a king, so I was going with the assumption that it was a queen. Problem was, I didn’t know how big a queen was in centimeters. Blasted metric system. I finally realized that I could just go over to the mattress section and find a bed that looked like mine and look at the measurements on that. So after I figured out that I was looking for 200cm x 200cm it made things easier. Though for a moment I thought maybe I could do things cheaper and just get a twin size quilt, only to realize that that would make things more complicated and riskier in whether it would fit or not. Plus I like to roll into a comfort pod, so I went default and just picked things out. Since I am still in the process of getting my deposit money together, I knew that I had to spend as little as possible.
I got back to my apt and dropped things off. And then I was hungry so I thought this was a prime opportunity to explore my new neighborhood. The reception/lobby lady is really nice to me and told me to go to her if I ever needed something. She even gave me some laundry detergent because she knew that I hadn’t been able to find a store nearby that sells it. Her and other people who were in the lobby tried to direct me to a China Construction Bank. But when I found out that I had to take the metro to another area just to go to the bank, I decided to save that trip for another day. Maybe I’ll make a stop to the Jinhui (JH) office tomorrow and use the ATM there because I know where it is. Plus it was starting to become evening and I didn’t want to have to travel too far away.
So I am wandering and wandering around the streets near my apt and I pass the same stores like 3 times. I think it was a lot easier having Ryan around because I could use him as my excuse for not knowing how to read all the items on the menu. “Give us a moment, I am translating the menu to him.” I finally pick a restaurant that had a pretty large picture menu (and English menu as well!). I think it was because it’s located so close to the Shanghai Stadium where they had some of the Olympic Games. While I’m waiting around for my food, I txt msg Lisa, Ryan and Karol because they started work today (not Karol as I found out later). Karol replies saying that she is at IKEA and I thought that was just dandy because that was just around the corner!
I met up with Karol at IKEA (second trip in one day) and I help her pick out a couch and coffee table. And other random things. It was great to see someone I knew! We got some looks because we’re both Chinese girls speaking perfect English. IKEA stuff is cheaper in China than in America. Or at least I think it is. I told her we had to stop converting things into US Dollars otherwise we’d buy too much stuff. We have to start thinking only in the Chinese currency. As evidenced when we were comparing two couches that were a 300 RMB difference (~ $43) and were like “you might as well, only a $40 difference” and then realized, ”wait a minute, you can do a lot with 300RMB in China. Like eat 5RMB bowls of noodles for 2 months. Or buy a ticket to Leehom’s concert.“
I show her my apt and tell her to visit whenever she wanted. Poor Karol is pretty much by herself in another part of town. I need to start lesson planning now. My first day of teaching English is tomorrow!
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