Marks are done

Well, the semester is over. All I can say is that being here now has a remarkably “short timer” feel to it. I have been doing this for two and a half years and I have gotten a lot of experience. Not only in living in China; but also the professional experience I came here for. Very simply, I am comfortable, and competent, standing in front of a classroom.

Unlike when I arrived (and I was reviewing some of my first writings from China this morning) when I stand in front of the class I am prepared (because I have prepared) and I know it. The students have commented on my level of preparation, it shows. It shows in both confidence but also in an ability to change plans quickly. I develop several modules and if one fails to engage a particular student, while interesting others, the next one will will work with that student (while I do not develop modules with particular students in mind, I do develop them with the various learning styles in mind).

The finals went well and, again, relied on several different learning styles. There were sections involving quick research ( a crossword with the word list given; however, the word list was not related to the order in the puzzle leaving the students looking up words and then matching the definitions to the hints in the puzzle). One section in involved short answer questions with the option to answer the questions orally for more credits (after all, it is a oral English class). There was also a short speech given as a part of a group.

Very simply, it worked quite well. If course most of my students got good marks. The class was very “A” heavy, but there were still some lower grades. The lower grades were almost always easily correlated to poor class attendance.

It is interesting, I often wonder how much good these classes do for the students. However, I have had these same students for about a year and a half and I can have had the opportunity to speak informally with most of them during the school year. The students who have not come to class (and there are not may of those this year) on a regular basis have, simply, not shown the same level of improvement.

I still believe that informal conversation is one of the best teaching tools we have; however, to us that approach properly relies on the teacher being approachable. One of the things I have done in order to make myself approachable has been, simply, to eat my lunches in the cafeteria.

The Grinch

I felt like a total Grinch in Christmas. I have told most of the students that I am not returning; but some didn't get the word. As it happened, Christmas was the last day of classes, before I started my exams, for many of the students in my classes (regular exams started the next week). On that day I made sure that they understood that I would not be their teacher next term by stating it clearly. As stated, many students were expecting it, they were still saddened to hear it explicitly stated.

It was class six that made me feel like such a caitiff. They, as a class, had made me a card for Christmas, which the had all signed. A group of very pretty girls (of course, there all beautiful) had given it to me at the beginning of class (I do not know if I ever mentioned it, they prefer “Girls.” “Woman” implies that someone is married, or if applied to an unmarried woman... is improper)

Then (not directly, at the beginning of the second half of class) I gave them the news that I was not returning, like I had done in my other classes. They started crying. All I can say is that I felt terrible. It seems that, for them, this had been unexpected. What thing to do to them on Christmas.

My birthday, a party, and a museum

Sorry for the picture quality on this one. Most of these were taken with my pocket camera.

From 16 Nov 08

Some students have been reading my recent writing, instead of describing my comments as some would, as a jingoistic diatribe, they, universally, agreed with the accuracy of my comments and observations. They recognized the, ,near universal, disrespect for historic places and things. While recognizing that the attitudes look wrong when phrased the way I do, they see them as, just the way things are.

They found out that this week was my birthday. My Internet connection in the flat was not working (again) so I logged into my e-mail in the classroom, before class. As I was reading it several students arrived quite early. They happened to see the letter from Ken Lowdermilk and quickly passed the word.

That group of students then sent a member to purchase flowers, which are now in my classroom. In the next class a group of the students invited me to lunch and I ad a very good time. It does seem a bit odd to have students invite me to lunch, here it is not considered uncommon or unethical at all. They also purchased a small cake and a singing candle bomb (a candle thing that unfolds and lights more candles as it plays an electronic version of happy birthday).

From 16 Nov 08

From 16 Nov 08

From 16 Nov 08

My first class today then threw my schedule by bringing in a large cake which we shared at the beginning of class. As this had thrown my schedule I started a movie instead of using mu planned lesson (the lesson will keep, at least all but the daily news, which we did use) . I had a lot of reservations about this movie Tristan & Isolde; but, it seems to be going over very well. As my classes are about 20-1 in favor of the girls (and they prefer, “girls,” getting offended when I say, “women,”) I was mostly concerned as I see this as more of a, “guy film.” I will have a better idea next week when we do the discussion portion of the class.

We will include that in the stuff that we will cover in class on Monday through Wednesday, when we talk about the movie. I also have the stock, “describe the characters of ...,” and, “did you like, would you recommend the movie, why?,” question. Ten is the killer question of, “did they do the right thing why or why not, explain your answer, “ stuff. The real purpose is to get them talking and to keep the discussion focused and to have a topic. Many of the students want to talk but feel that they have nothing to talk about, in some of these cases, movies can help.

Then, on Friday, after school, the girls (about 42 of them) in a couple of my classes had a party. I was rather pleased to be invited and, of course I did attend. The class parties are generally held in an unused classroom. It still seems to be a bit odd to me; but it is just the way. That did give them use of the audio-video equipment for karaoke, which there was a lot of. They also held several impromptu dance competitions.

Most of the girls do take a dance class as part of the PE curriculum. Asa result, most of them are pretty good dancers and can, quickly, put together a ,synchronized, group dance for a variety of types of music.

On Saturday He Zhi Qing came over and we went to the museum. It struck me as interesting, when I asked my student's if there was a museum I got a universal answer of, “no, there is not one,” from them. Then, I was out with the riding club and I asked what a particular, odd looking, building was. They told me, “it is the museum.” At that point I not only knew there there was one; bit, I also knew where it was.

From 10 Nov 08

Then, on my riding trip to Ling Shan, I found the one last bit of information that I needed. I found its name, Historical Museum of the Revolution of Xinyang, The Martyr Commemorates The Wall. I then asked some questions about it and was told that it is always open.

He Zhi Qing and I got to the museum and found that was not quite the truth. It was not open on Saturdays. She asked and was told that they would have people to open it for us on Sunday. At that point we returned to my flat and worked on material for my class. I played with the 'never ending story game' see if she would get the idea. If she, or Gao Jing, does not understand an instruction, then it is pretty sure that my class will not either.

We then went to Dio's for dinner. This is one of the more expensive restaurants in town. We usually go to noodle shops and such. That night I just felt like going somewhere nicer. It was a bit strange to me to have a person stand by the table the entire time I am eating just to make sure that my glass is never empty and that I have all I need. It was good; but, like I said, I usually eat at cheaper places.

From 16 Nov 08

I did try to make He Zhi Qing use a fork. It went reasonably well; however, it was obvious that she was more comfortable with chopsticks (kuaizi 筷子).

The next day we returned to the museum at the time they had given us. The person that we needed to pay to get in was at home so we had to wait about a half-hour. We spent the time walking around this, rather industrial, part of the city.

There was a lot of construction at one place and He Zhi Qing described it as, “a hospital, like in that movie 'flew over the co-co birds nest.” She agreed that this meant a psychiatric hospital, one would hope that it would not be like the hospital in one flew over the co-co's nest.

We then walked back to the museum, just as the person who was supposed to take our money was arriving. I wanted to take some pictures of the mock airplane in front; but the guard wanted to make sure that we would not get lost on the way to the entrance. The courtyard was quire large; but there was no way we would get lost.

From 16 Nov 08

I think he was also in a hurry to get us to the door so that he could unlock it and return to his heated guards room. This is the thing that was most noticeable, not that the heating and AC were turned off, not even that most of the lights were off; depending on the skylights for lighting instead. No, what was noticeable was that other than employees, and us, there was not one there. Even the guest book, which I signed, showed that there had never been many visitors.

From 16 Nov 08

From 16 Nov 08

From 16 Nov 08

From 16 Nov 08

From 16 Nov 08

From 16 Nov 08

Everyone who has read this far knows that I am a Museum lover. I make an effort to visit the museums in every city I go to (yes, I missed the Museum of Sexology in Wuhan). My criticisms of this museum need to be considered against the reality that it is a new museum; and as such, it does not have a large collection artifacts (interestingly, the word, “artifacts,” does not seem to translate, well, to Chinese). It also seems to lack focus. This is apparently a result of an effort to use whatever artifacts that they have on hand.

The purpose of the mock airplane in front was to recognize that the first airplane in the Peoples Army had crashed here. He Zhi Qing insisted that the information board said, “landed;” but when you land and lose the wings and landing gear, as shown in the pictures, I feel safe in calling it a crash.

From 16 Nov 08

The number of artifacts was disappointing. Further, they were often representative artifacts; such as, not the lamp use by a famous general, but a lamp 'like the one' used by a famous general. In general. The museum featured photos and a small number of assorted artifacts from the late 1800's to the mid 1950's. These were supported by a number of dioramas, some of which seemed unfinished. Even HZQ seemed a bit disappointed that the hall of Martyrs, the last exhibit on the museum, principally featured people who were not from the local area, or even province (state), and many of them had died well after the revolution.

My suggestion, one made in the guest book , was to increase the number of locally significant artifacts, And, to include more information on both the history of Xinyang and its significance, both to China and the revolution.

After the museum we went and did some shopping and returned to the college. I had a “meet the Foreigner” lecture scheduled for the math department at 19:00 so we ate at a shop that I have never tried (and liked well enough that I will return to it) near the main gate of the school. I then returned to my flat and left HZQ there and hurried off to be taken to the math building.

From 16 Nov 08

I returned just as HZQ was finishing watching Mean Girls; which she then recommended for my, nearly all girl, classes. I gave her a gift (some flowers) to be taken to Gao Jing, and she wandered back to her dorm.

And with that, another week has passed.

A place I often eat breakfast

Walking to the College this week

Purdin Forest

I was in class and we had pretty much wound down for the day. Some of the students had even left. I released them a bit early as we had finished the lesson plan for the day.

I was then approached by a couple of students that told me that they were going to the forest park on Saturday and asked if I wanted to come with them. I said, “yes.”

Their reaction was one of shock. I found it a bit funny. It looked to me like one of those moments when someone is invited with the hope and plan that they would say, “no.”

I was told that was not the case. They just had not expected me to be willing to come along.

I asked them the standard questions: when do we meet, where do we meet, how much should I expect to spend, and similar stuff. They had no answers. That was fine, I am used to how the Chinese plan. They told me that someone would call me with the details.

The details were, that we would meet at the main gate of the school on Saturday morning at 07:30 and take a bus from there. Further, I should bring at least two bottles of water (the standard bottle is 600ml) and a lunch.

So, the night before I insured that my daysack contained water, a camera, and extra batteries. I got up about 06:45 and was at the gate on time. Of course, the students were nowhere to be found.

I sent them a message (SMS is real big here) and someone came to meet me and guide me to where they were. They were eating breakfast in an alley that I often get my dinner, from various cart vendors, at. It seems that the bus they had charted had broken down on the way to the school. The good part was that my, muttered, comment, “this bodes ill,” was entirely un-understood by all around me. I had no wish to further jinx the outing. Even though they were behind the schedule that they had set, they seemed to be having fun.

The bus finally arrived and it was large enough for all that were coming, which was about twenty. It was at this point that I noticed that there were many more young men on this outing than I had ever seen in class. I asked if all the people with us were in my class V and I was assured that they were. I then pointed out that several of the people had a lot of explaining to do, as I had never seen them in class. It was at that point that some of the girls, grudgingly, admitted that they had brought their boyfriends along.

I saw no problem with it and, as far as I know, there is no rule forbidding it; however, there were comments to the effect of, “you wont tell our head teacher, will you?” So, from that I assume that it was, indeed, some minor infraction.

We got to the park and took the requisite pictures at the entrance. At that point they went to get the tickets for entrance.

I fully intended to pay the full price for admission (about 15RMB, or $2USD); however, my students had a different idea. They wanted me to get in at the student rate of 10RMB. So, they pointed out, truthfully, that I was their teacher. They then added that I was there to keep them put of trouble, the ticket seller was asked, “after all, you wouldn't want us to get into trouble would you.”

With that came the, aw shit, if for no other reason than merely by virtue of rank..., “I am in charge,” feeling. The good news was that this was, by Chinese standards, a well behaved group.

From there we wandered along the main path and I took quite a number of pictures, for which they were later grateful as my SLR took much better pictures than they had brought. I tried to get at least one good picture of each established couple. I ended up shooting a couple hundred pictures. Of course, most of them were trash, but there were a few gems in the pile.

They like to pose for pictures so it was sometimes hard to get pictures of them just having fun. This comes from the habits formed with film cameras where each picture was an expensive proposition. I later showed them the entire series, at the beginning of class, which got a lot of enjoyment and laughs.

We had lunch at a small pond that was partially drained for maintenance. I found the supports for the trees, in the pond, to be interesting. The students were bothered by the small amount of food that I had brought for my lunch (it was enough) and kept pushing more food on me.

From the lunch stop (at least they did not find it necessary to spend three hours for lunch, as is common) we continued to a playground. An American safety nut would, if they visited this playground, suffer from, “immediate exploding cranium syndrome.” For all the outlandish lack of safety, the students had a lot of fun and I got a pile of pictures. I also bumped into some of my students who were in other classes and just happened to be there at the same time.

We then walked some more. About the time we got to the end of the park the sky started to drip a bit so we began to walk back. They were sure that my bringing an umbrella is what caused it to begin raining (It seems that their logic says that if only one person brings an umbrella, then that one umbrella caused the rain). As I was wearing a hat I never did see a need to remove the umbrella from my pack. It really never did rain that hard.

We hot back and found that the bus, which was supposed to wait for us, had left. So, they called for its return and we waited bout an hour, or a little more, in the visitors center. The bus finally returned and we went back to the campus.

Preparing to return

As everyone is no doubt aware, the earthquake in China did not, appreciably effect this province. It remains in the news and more information can be found here, in China Daily . It was interesting to see the unifying effect that this had, and, unlike the Hurricane Katrina fallout, there was a much bigger focus on dealing with, and fixing, the problems than with with fixing the blame. It is what it is, a major natural disaster no one seemed to be trying to turn it into a tool of political advantage. Activities that just take time, energy, and resources from where they are needed.


I have been preparing to leave for the summer and have been packing and sending things at the post office. Zeneta asked that I ship both Giant bicycles. I have put them on the train to Zhengzhou. I still do not know if they will be able to fly with me. If they do not, then He Zhi Qing will bring them back to Xinyang.


I only managed to go on a couple of weekend rides this spring. I think part of the problem is that I have been too busy with the extra classes. I did manage to go on two rides. It turns out that both rides were to places that I have been to before. However, they were still enjoyable.


The first of the two I went on was to the restaurant on the top of the hill. It is a nice ride. I really didn't know where we were going when we left but when we turned through a village, I have been to before, I immediately knew where we were headed.

After lunch and hopping around on the rocks the owner of the restaurant wanted a picture with me. I think he didn't realize that I had been there before.

The next week we went to the waterfall place. This time we didn't try to pack our bicycles over the ridge into the next valley. Instead we rode back and had lunch in the town we had passed through on our way to the waterfall.

Some people wanted to rest for a couple of hours after lunch. I left with the people that wanted to get going. On the way back we rode at a much more sedate pace than we had used going out.. At one rest stop we pulled into a persons yard who had a nice concrete table and benches in his yard. He was trimming his flowers and we got to talking to him. It turned out that he had recently ridden his bicycle to Shanghai.

He let us into his courtyard and we got some fresh water (boiled, of course). He also recommended the side road that ran beside his house as a good alternative route to Xinyang.

It turned out to be a concrete road about three and a half meters wide that snaked through a number of farms and villages. Ultimately it ended in a small village that was somewhat unique for what I had seen in China. The buildings were single story. The road also met a dirt road there, which we followed the rest of the way back to Xinyang.

My packing is done and I leave in two days. I will use tomorrow for final packing and on Tuesday I will get my pay and head for the train station.

Decorations

Well, they don't understand the reason for it; but, our Chinese colleagues have given in on the point. We, the foreign teachers, have our own classrooms. It is great to not be lugging stuff all over the campus and to not be running from class to class. It has also given us the opportunity to do something very un-Chinese, to decorate our classrooms.

As the normal mode of operation is for the students, and the teachers to be constantly changing rooms, it is not common for anything to be done to them. Further, because no one is permanently assigned to a room, the rooms are, generally, filthy.

Along with rooms, one thing we requested were trash cans for the rooms. This is turning out to not be as easy as we had hoped. Getting the trash cans was no problem, the problem is getting the students to use them. They are conditioned to, just, throwing trash on the floor. Or, leaving it on the desks when they leave, for the students in the next class to throw on the floor. It is a lifetime of cultural conditioning that is proving to be hard to break (remember, we are teaching western culture as well as English, this is our job).

I also had the college provide me with a large thermos (or kettle). It seems that I do something very odd with this. I allow the students to use it. Remember, there are no drinking fountains and no one drinks tap water.

Before I go to class I pick up my kettle in the room with the boiler and fill it. I then pack it up the five floors to my classroom (this is China, no elevators). I then put it next to my desk. If a student needs water they can then fill the bottle that they have with them (all the students carry small water bottles); however, if they empty it, or I go to use it and the re is not enough, then the student who used it last will go and refill it. Then at the end of my day I take it back down to the boiler room and leave it for the night.

I have done a couple of things, so far, to decorate my class. The first thing I did was to get some plants. He Zhi Qing and I went and got some plants. We then had them delivered on a motor trike. He then dropped them off on the ground floor. At that point He Zhi Qing said that I should goto the dorm and call out my name and for my students to assemble (something like, "English majors! classes 5, 6, 7, and 8! Assemble in the front!"... she says this is how things are done...), grab a few "volunteers"out of the number that do respond and have them pack them the plants up the stairs.

This seemed too weird to me so I grabbed on side of one of the three, large, potted plants and told her to grab the other. We then packed it up the stairs. Her expression when she realized what we were going to do was evidence that she has mastered the, female, "your an idiot, and I'm being to forced to do something that I don't want to do because your an idiot," (...as she read this, she claimed to have no idea what I was writing about here). When we finally got to my classroom she told me to wait there; which was fine, I had something I needed to do. In about ten minutes she walked into my classroom with a self righteous grin on her face; you guessed it, she was followed by a number of the young men in my classes, carrying the rest of my plants.

In addition to plants, I have also ordered some posters. It is important that the posters be in English. This is to set to tone of the class. I found that several US government agencies will send free posters on request; so, I requested them. So far, the only ones I have gotten (they arrived on Friday, after class) are a set of tourism posters and maps from the Maryland Department of Transportation. I am also expecting some from the EPA.

The students seem to be very excited about the attempts to make the classroom more attractive. It is just not commonly done in China.

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.

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.

End of fall/winter 2007 Semester

The semester is now at a close. Some of the teachers have left, several to never return. Zeneta and I are planning our vacation. And, the snow has started to fall.

This is pretty much the end of the semester. I have given my finals and am, nearly, done grading papers and submitting my grades. The final was pretty subjective; so, what I am grading on is: first, did they answer the question, and second, can I make any sense of the answer. This can be phrased as, did they clearly state a position and support it. This is being graded quite loosely because the Chinese method of education assumes that there is only a right answer. It is not necessary to say why it is right; because, it is right.

This, of course, tests if they understood the question. Because I sometimes speak in obtuse circles the questions were reviewed by several teachers, all of whom used the same questions. We did this to insure that the questions were simple and clear and that we, the foreign teachers, were providing some level of consistency.

I also did something that I have done with some of my classes before. It is a much harder assignment than it seems, both for me and the students, because it tests reading, comprehension, vocabulary, and speaking.

I gave them, in pairs of two students to one story, newspaper shorts. These are short two to three paragraph stories from China Daily, the official English language news paper of China. The assignment is to discuss the newspaper story with their partner, using as much English as possible, and prepare to tell the class about the story. I will then find a way to force both partners to speak during the presentation, usually by asking a question or by just asking if there is anything more that the other partner can tell me about the story.

This is a lot of work for me because I, first, must know enough about each of the, over fifty, news stories to both ask questions and lead the presentation; let alone know if they have interpreted it correctly. I must also move to all of the pairs of students (and with classes that often exceed eighty students, this involves a lot of moving) and check to see if they have any questions about the article or the words in it. I then put some of the words on the board, really a projector, as it is easier for the students, in the back, to read. Those words, or phrases, such as, "stock trade," and ,"obstetrics," would then be explained to the class. While I realize that, ideally, the articles, at this point in the class, should not include any new educational material, the use of authentic material, for exam purposes, almost guarantees that there will be some new words, or uses of words.

There were a couple of surprises when I used this exercise. This is the first time I have used it as a general exercise; as a result, I was not prepared for some of the issues that arose. The first thing that surprised me was that the Chinese students have no sense of world, or even national, geography. By this, what I mean is that the students were, at many times, unable to even identify the names of the Chinese Provinces and Autonomous Regions as being places in China. World geography left the students batting a total zero; they simply have no idea where the countries of the world are (on a different exercise, when I asked some students where Europe was, they had pointed to Canada). I was told, by a student several years advanced from them, that this is a result of the "memorize it and forget it" approach to education in China.

The second interesting thing from this exercise was what they were trying to read into the news stories. This is also a result of the educational system and the nature of reading material for students, in China. The students kept trying to tell me what they should learn from the story in the form of a message or moral.

Almost immediately after delivering his last exam, Collin Brown, the very experienced teacher from Australia, left China for the last time. His wife, Bronee had already left, in order to complete her M.A. and the physical separation was unworkable for them.

He informed us of this the Sunday before he left, before church services. We then arranged for a going away dinner for him on Thursday. Of course, we also put in dibs for his stuff. About all I needed, that he had purchased here In China, was his laser printer. Arrangements were also made to donate several items, such as the TV and DVD player he had purchased, to the local Lutheran church.

On Thursday we all mt at the restaurant, near the East Gate, where we like to eat. In particular, Collin likes the sweet and sour pork and we have been told that it is made with chicken, not pig. The cook makes a lot of other food we like, including candied bananas. In general, it is a popular place with the westerners; even if it is a hassle to get to.

Before going to the last dinner with Collin, Zeneta, Gao Jing, He Zhi Qing , and I went to pick up my suit. Before going to the tailor, Zeneta needed to go by the Veterinarians, with Jing, for Wa Dou. As a result, I waited in the flat, with He Zhi Qing for Zeneta to call us and say that she was dome at the Vet. Well, she never did call. It seems that she had, again, left her phone behind. As a result we got to the tailor well after she and Jing had arrived.

So, instead of just picking up my suit, I was told that she had commissioned three dresses to be made. The owner of the shop still wants me to help his son work on his English over the winter vacation and has offered to make me a free suit if I can do this. His son is attending a university in another city; however, he will be back for a month as the schools release all of their students. I have told him that I will wait and see if I am in town.

At that point we caught a cab back to the restaurant and were in time to meet all of the others. Unlike the cab Mark and Joe took earlier in the same year, our cab did not get stuck, while passing a truck, in an open manhole on the sidewalk that the driver did not see because it was covered with water. There were so many things being done wrong in that last sentence that it elicited an, "only in China."

I am not sure if I will be in town because Zeneta and I have not finalized our plans for the holiday. My travels this year will be a lot less than they were last year, when i traveled with Michelle. On Zeneta's list of, "must do," things is to see the Panda Bears (xiong mao). This is best done at the Giant Panda Research and Breeding Facility in Chengdu. She also wants to go to Hong Kong (Xiang Gang) to see both Disneyland and the LDS Temple (who we have no way of contacting). However, Getting to these places is further complicated by train schedules and Wa Dou's illness.

I did not want to leave him with the girls when he was sick and that leaves us trying to get our tickets at the last moment. Further, for train rides that will take more than a day, I am a bit insistent that we travel in sleeper cars. This has left us facing a shortage of transportation. Today Zeneta and Jing will go back and try to get tickets in a manner that will do what she wants.

There is the final little thing that it has been snowing all weekend. Collin was worried that it would start snowing before he got to Wuhan, on Friday afternoon, as Mr. Gao, the head of the college was driving him there. However, it did not. It started on Friday and continued through the weekend. Wa Dou is not all to excited about the snow. He was already unhappy with the cold and the snow is, to him nothing but cold in a more tangible form.

New Year parties

Following the Christmas parties, there were several New Years parties. Keep in mind that while Western New Year has already taken place, Chinese New Year is yet to come. What is more, the school will be closed down on Chinese New Year.

As a result, we had a couple of New Years parties. The first was with the administration for XYNU and the foreign affairs office. The second was at Hau Rui.

The dinner with the administration was at a restaurant that I had been to before; however, it turned out that most of the other foreign teachers had never been to it before. As usual we went to a large room with several others. About half way through I realized that Ju Hai Ying, Mrs. Jhang, and another person who had come with us were not present. I discovered that they were eating in another room and, considering that some of our party had left, heaving plenty of room for them, found them and asked them to join us.

I ended up eating something that did not set well with me and spent the next week with a sour stomach. These things happen on occasion...

Later in the week several of us attended a New Years celebration at Hau Rui. It was in H2, the new building, on the fifth floor in the new sports room. Last year, the place that this room is now, was an empty, open air, patio.

The master of ceremonies was one of the English teachers.

Of course, the head administrators needed to speak.

The teachers chior provided the singing.

And, there was dancing.

There were also games.

The goal of this particular game was to push hard enough to pop the balloon without knocking your partner over. Near the end, we, the foreign teachers were asked to go up and sing a song for the other teachers. In all it was a good time; however, several of the western teachers were glad when it ended, simply because it was getting cold ( remember, no heating).