Wednesday 19 March 2008

New Semester (no pictures)

As I am sure that you realize by now, a new semester has begun. Most
of my time has been taken by reading and preparing lessons. I have
also been spending a lot of time helping students prepare for the
TEM-4, the national English exam for English majors.

I have been reading a series by Larry Turtledove. While he, having a
PhD in Byzantine History, generally writes in the genre known as
alternative history this series of four books features a Roman
scouting group of 1,500 being displaced (a common alternative
history theme) into a completely fictional, but very human, world.

As with any of the books I read, I downloaded these and am reading
the series on my PDA. While I have been using it for that and
scheduling purposes, I have been using my PDA less lately. I have
been using my, Linux based, Asus EeePC more. I have been using it in
class to keep records and am using it now, between my class that
ends at 18:00, and the next one that starts at 19:00.

Of course, I can not use any Linux based PC to connect to the
Internet here. First off, it should be taken as a given that the
campus is not blanketed with wi-fi. This is a culture that is not
understanding of the idea of free services. If it has value than it
should be charged for and if it has no value then it should not be
done. Actions taken for public benefit are, simply, not part of the
culture.

Further, as I have said in the past, the computer services are
married to Microsoft. Microsoft software products are viewed as
being, essentially, free. The result is that there is no way any
competing system can gain hold. For Internet access there is a
program that is needed to authenticate, remember that there is no
anonymous Internet access; users of public Internet access points,
or, Internet bars, are required to have an Internet users
identification and access card. Private computers must use the,
Microsoft only, authentication software. This all adds up to, I can
not use my Linux computers to access the Internet and have to
sneaker-net my files on and off them.

Lesson preparation is a bit different than it was last semester. I am preparing a single lesson for the non
English majors and delivering it several times in a single week. I
then develop two sets of lesson plans for the English majors to fill
four class hours. Three of those hours are used to cover the
material in the book and the other hour is used to prepare for the
TEM-4 test.

Last year no time was spent preparing the students for this, very
important, exam and it was a disaster. While, as I have mentioned, a
lot of the failure was due to campus politics, I would still like to
see the students do better. Toward that end I am beginning to spend
time working on preparing he freshmen for the exam. The most
important of the preparations, at this stage, is to get them
thinking about the exam and taking it seriously, if they learn
anything, so much the better.

In the other three class hours, per week, where we are covering the
material in the book, we do a number of language and speech drills
that center around forming sentences and reading comprehension
quizzes.

My weekends are also taken, to a large extent, in helping students
prepare for the test. Some of the students, who re now Juniors have
one opportunity to retake the test and I am helping them to prepare.
As a result I am spending a lot of time with He Zhi Qing working on
this.

I am also continuing to learn to play the violin. I will never be
good; but I am reaching the point that I can identify that I am
playing a tune, even if the tune itself remains somewhat elusive. I
am preparing to replace my current violin with a better one. The
plan is to take the D (high speed) train to Zhengzhou and look for
one there. I will take He Zhi Qing and the violin teacher with me. I
expect that for the extra cost of buying the teachers ticket I will
get a better violin just by having someone, with me, who knows
better of how to identify a good violin.

I do not want to be in a position that I am blaming the tool instead
of the user. I expect to give my current one to He Zhi Qing. She has
been attending the lessons with me and interpreting the teacher when
some point needs clarification.

What I have not been doing as much of has been evening rides. The
weather is just now getting warm enough that riding is even a
consideration. The dam that I normally cross, on my ride, is
currently under maintenance. So, I have been riding a different
loop. I also ride to school every day.

I also have to factor in the increase in my classes. Just being a lot
busier has cut into my riding. My new schedule looks like this.

[that sure didn't work]

Which means that I, really, only have Thursday and Friday evenings
available for riding.

Who's here

Here is a short list of the westerners that are here, teaching or otherwise. Of course, any person with even the weakest grip on the obvious will realize that I am here.

There is a South African is here. He has pretty much disavowed any remaining interest in South Africa and still plans to stay long term. He generally identifies himself as a Scott now.

The Browns are no longer here, Virginia has moved into their flat along with her sister. They are both form the Philippines

Soren, from Denmark, is next door to me and he is also teaching up at Hau Rui. He arrived during the winter holiday.

Dez and Lynn are still here. I do not see them much as they are both teaching at the University. They have a friend that is visiting them and she has been here for several weeks.

Mark and Joe, from Utah, USA, are still here; although, they are not teaching. The school has no need for their flats, as Joe’s uncle never did show up. So, there is no real pressure on them to leave as long as they keep paying their utilities. They did return to America for about a week; but returned. If one is going to "just hang out" for a semester, until their MBA program starts next semester, this is about as inexpensive a place to "hang out" as any other; and, provides them with interesting cultural experience.

That's pretty much it. There are the two western teachers at the Agricultural college on the other side of town. I seldom see any of them. And, there are the African Air Force personnel, who come form several different countries, that are attending at the Air Force College. I see them more often than the teachers at the Ag. College.

That is pretty much it. A foreign face really is less than one in ten-thousand in this town.