The concert

Another week goes by. It seems strange that I am preparing to leave China for the last time; or, at least for a long time. I have lived I this, cold, flat for longer than I lived in Sacramento, Redding, Burney, or Alturas. I am not sure if I have lived here longer than In lived in Chico. I doubt it; but, it has certainly been an interesting episode in my life.

This weeks lessons went very well. In general the students liked the movie. As I have stated, I generally do not like showing movies I class, I consider t to be cheating. There just isn't enough time spent talking as it is. The big problem, the same problem as in language classes around the world, is that the students do not spend time working with the target language outside of class.

We talked about the movie and even the students that did not like it were willing to discuss why. The main reason for students to dislike it was the tragic ending. The students like the pollyannic endings that are so common in the movies that they choose to watch. However, I was extremely pleased that they were willing and able to express this.

The, overall, liked to disliked ratio was about 9-1. I asked them to tell me about why it had to have suck a tragic ending, how they would have liked to see it end, all that stuff. Keep in mind, the point is not film appreciation; instead, it is produce speaking. I have learned a lot of lessons about what works, and what does not, in showing films in class for the purpose of teaching English. This may be the last film I will show, I have not decided yet. A lot of that depends on when I am to conclude classes.

I have begun preparing my final exam for the term. I have floated it past some of the students with the question, “will your classmates be able to do this?” They all agree that their classmates can do it; however, they feel that it will be hard for some of them. That is the reason that I decided to have the exam done in groups of three, so that the stronger students can cover for the weaker ones. This works OK if it is a case of one weak student with two stronger ones. It does not work as well when there are two weak students, leaving one student trying to carry the whole group. The worst case, that fortunately does not happen often, is when the groups break out with all the strong students in their own groups and all the weak students in others.

In addition to classes, I went to a large student party on Friday. I have to add that I am seeing some real changes at this school. As many of you know, this is a new school and is still in its formative years. It is establishing it's culture. Toward that, the leaders here at Haurui are making a great effort to make this into a school that students want to be at, instead of a school they are stuck at.

The party was in the upstairs area of the old cafeteria. This gave them a large open room with space for a public dance area. It was much more of what I would think of as a party than most of th student parties I have been to. The people running it even lost control of the event and it self transformed from the usual 'presentation' format into a free party format. The bad news is that I did not know I was being invited and did not take my camera.

All the same, there were some excellent presentations. One of the students did a great solo dance routine. As I have said, most of the girls at this school are good dancers. This girl stood out above the rest. It is a good thing that she went last; because, once she did her routine the solo dance competition was over. There were games of charades, this is the first time I have seen Chinese playing this game at a party.

They pulled me out to dance with them several times. That does reflect a problem at this party. For over 300 girls there were less than twenty guys. That reflects a problem at this school, not just the activity (… problem...? What problem...? I don't see any problem...). It was a mask party; yes, we were to wear masks. I put my glasses on the outside of my mask, they all loved it, it was suitably silly. Other than the lack of beer, this party could have been mistaken for one anywhere in America.

I left well before the end of the party and the next day returned to the student area of the campus for a concert that was being held at the track. In simple terms, it was a loud rock concert. Most of the bands were student bands of varying quality.

A lot of my students were there and they all seemed to be having fun despite the concert being held outside in the cold. One of the students talking to me commented on how orderly the crowd was being. Yes, compared to a similar crowd of Americans, it was a remarkably well controlled group.

I took my pictures and listened for about an hour and a half. Then I returned to drop off my camera and go to meet with Gao Jing for dinner. While I was waiting for her I happened to run into Fish and she went to dinner with us. We went to Korean restaurant that I have gone to before with Fish (the rice rolls are pretty good). With that, another week passes.