And so this is Christmas

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…..I can't believe it's the week before Christmas & that this is the 16th edition of the YYW. The lesson plans this week have been concentrating on Christmas, with a (very simplified) version of the Christmas story coming up next week for Grade 3. I tried it out on the advanced Grade 7 class that Peter I share between Tuesday & Thursday lunchtimes & it was quite interesting what they did & didn't know. This week I have discovered that the Chinese term for Christmas, Shèng dàn, from 2 characters meaning “sacred” & “birth” is borrowed from the term for an Emperor's birthday, Santa Claus is Shèng dàn Lǎo rén or “Christmas old person” &, my favourite, turkey, translates as huǒjī or “fire chicken”.....

…..my fame as a TV star has been very modest (indeed) & short lived. A few of the Chinese neighbours & teachers saw it & none of the students, as far as I am aware & Dr. Wei didn't seem concerned about being just the translator's voice in the background.....

…..my first dream in which I speak Chinese (not well of course), trying to show a friend, actually one of those dream hybrids of 2 people I know, the way to a music venue in a place that looks a bit like Adelaide. We stop at a stall selling food & knick-knacks, run by Chinese. Two Chinese visitors in the queue say something about fruit (shui guo), so I ask, “Ni xihuan shui guo ma?” (“Do you like fruit?”). As usual I don't understand the reply......

…..Paul, another Australian teacher arrived this week. He's from Perth, a bit older than the others (but still younger than me, in his 40s!). He's a big fella. He has been teaching in Korea so will probably hit the ground running as a replacement for the young Canadian teacher who left after some disagreements with the administration & now works across the river in Zhenjiang. We are aiming to go to the Dong Fang Hong (the Restaurant Across the Road) tonight for a welcome dinner & maybe to postpone his introduction to the Chinese cafeteria.....

…..now that I have the Internet connection working on my laptop the useless, derelict, mongrel, diseased, virus-ridden, cyber-midden of a network at the school has refused to connect me so no access to E-mail tonight. Aaaaaaaaargh!!.....

…..(later that same evening), Ah, OK, it's decided to reset itself & connect me again.....

…learning a language is such a gradual process that it's easy to feel that you are not making much progress at all so I'm always on the lookout for encouraging signs. Whatever it is that the checkout girls say at the Da Ren Fa has always been met with a “Sorry, I don't understand Chinese very well”. I asked at the school & was told they always ask whether you have a store discount card, (card is “ka”). Armed with this crucial bit of knowledge I was able to recognise, “Ni you KA ma?” (“Do you have a card”), &, looking unnaturally pleased with myself, respond proudly, “Mei you” (literally, “Don't have”).....

…..I also managed, with help from my Chinese lesson transcripts, to at least end an SMS message in Chinese characters & sign my name. With the phones here (I didn't look on my phone in Australia - I never saw the need), you can switch from Roman alphabet to Chinese. To find, say, “Wo” (I) , you type in the 'w' & it gives you a whole list of Chinese characters starting with that sound, then 'o' &, if you're lucky there will only be a few words listed. Then pick the appropriate Chinese character & Bingo, you're writing Chinese. Ok, I wouldn't want to negotiate a business deal like that but “lesson at 9.00, tomorrow?” is manageable.....

…..a recording of each class singing John Lennon's “So this is Christmas” is a tour de force of enthusiasm rather than a demonstration of musical ability, in every class. Still, they have learned another chorus, a few new words & seem to enjoy the song. “Hello, Goodbye” is still their favourite though.....

…..a little psychology seems to be paying dividends, not large ones but any improvement is welcome, especially with the notorious class 3/9. Other teachers pale at the mention these numbers, the Chinese equivalent of 666. Picking some of the more objectionable, noisy, inattentive & discourteous ratbags in this class & paying them some attention, making sure I know their names, giving them questions that I know they can answer & making sure I greet them if I see them in the corridor means that they are, almost imperceptibly, becoming human. It's not a quick fix but it's better for me than the continual urge to commit murder.....

…..posted a few incredibly late Christmas cards in the knowledge that the big Christmas mailout won't happen this year & E-mail & Skype will be the preferred media of communication. There appear to be no self-adhesive envelopes here. It is quaint having to take your letters to the glue pot & brush & stick before posting them....

…..I get the guitar case replaced (again) due to another broken zip, no questions asked. I think it's becoming a class joke, is teecha's guitar case broken this week?.....

…..riding over the New Bridge in the morning & again this afternoon against that Siberian north-westerly wind makes me think I should get a thicker hat, or hooded coat, or hibernate. I get the zip on one of my boots fixed at a little stall at the Da Ren Fa. Instead of having to leave them for a week the man takes the zip apart, does some magic with pliers & incredibly good eyesight & charges me ¥3, or about Au$ 0.50. I pedal on to Shou Xi Hu (Slender West Lake) Park & it's absolutely beautiful in the winter sunshine. Still cold, even with gloves on. I notice a couple of small ponds covered with a very thin film of ice.....

…..I get a call on the way back that some teachers are going to the Dong Fang Hong, known to YYW readers as the Restaurant across the road, where I thaw out & we try some new dishes after the waitress & manager have asked us all our ages. That may have started before I arrived with Alex getting confused between “jǐ” (how many, as in “jǐ suì?” - how many years?) & “jī” (chicken). I know it looks the same to some of you, just as it sounds the same to us, spoken quickly in conversation. I'm not sure we'll ever get it.....

…..Qiao Tian Yi, or George, to give him his English name, has his first session with his English tutor, (me), this morning. He is one of the nicest kids I've ever met, anywhere, & very bright too. We spend rather more than his hour's session chatting, looking at pictures, writing down new words that crop up & generally having a good time. His dad is at work (at a meeting on Sunday morning), but grandma is busy cooking & mum is on hand, quite unnecessarily, to ensure he is well-mannered & attentive. We finish up with a feast of fish, prawns, chicken, beef, various vegetables & rice. I take some photos of George which I'll post on the Photobucket site if I can get the editing software working (having lost Photoshop in the reformatting I just found Photoscape, a freeware program, but have never used it before).....

…..I phone Dr. Wei to say thanks for my new student. It appears that working as a doctor in the Paediatric Emergency department is hard going, particularly on the night shift when you are the only doctor on duty & you can get between 50 & 70 patients in a night. That's about 7 to 9.5 minutes per patient, which doesn't sound like much in an emergency ward situation. Then again I'm not medically trained.There's probably nothing to it ....

…..I have two pairs of trousers which have lain in the bottom drawer since I discovered they each had a small hole in the backside. However now they are great value as lining for the others & I have been wearing 2 pairs all week. Some foreign teachers & numerous Chinese people have been concerned that I might be cold wearing my black, padded waistcoat but in fact it's warmer than my fleecy jacket & zips up to my chin, invaluable. Still I will have to look for a padded jacket soon, preferably with a hood.....

…..Now that a good number of the other Foreign Teachers have Christmas lights up at their windows I decided not to be a Scrooge & invested ¥22 or about Au$3 in 2 sets of 50 small LED flashing lights. One set doesn't work so I'll need to go back to the Da Ren Fa. Not tonight though, it's just too cold & we have to practice our songs for the Christmas Show next Wednesday.....

…..Christmas day forecast; fine & +2C max. -7C min. I'll take this opportunity to wish you all a VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS or 圣诞快乐 (Shèng dàn kuài lè). Thanks for sticking with this rambling collection of scattered thoughts about life in China. Let's see if 2010 is as eventful as 2009. ....

Great photo, audio or video opportunities missed this week:

…..the concern on the face of a middle aged woman at Shou Xi Hu park asking me if I was cold (actually my fingers were freezing as I'd been taking photos without my gloves but the remainder was OK).....

…..the kids in class 3/9 at the end of the lesson attempting to retune the guitar as I turned my head to clear up my folder. I have learned how to say “Bu mo” (don't touch), with the correct intonation & said it very emphatically INDEED. They haven't touched it since.....

…..a child of about 4 or 5 on the number 32 bus, sitting on his mum's lap wearing a winter suit made to look like a panda (swallowing a small child).....

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