Life, life, life...or something like it

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Back to blogging…my absence hasn’t been due to lost enthusiasm, quite the opposite. Life here has settled down to where the absurdities now seem normal. Buying my fruit and vegetables at the market no longer evokes sweaty palms and a racing heart. I visit a few vendors who recognize my face and only speak Chinese to me out of habit. They all know that I will smile and nod no matter what they tell me. The latest fruit to arrive in season are mangoes, as I walk the streets few ballsy vendors call out to me, “Mango, Mango, Mango!!” When they call out in English is when I know they’re talking to me. I smile and acknowledge, but try not to encourage them by walking over. If I did someone the courtesy of obliging their English calls I’d be a busy lady (I hear a lot of enthusiastic “Hellos!” as I walk around, usually the only word these men know). Anyhow, the mangoes are superb. I have not, however, mastered a delicate way to eat them. I end up standing over the sink in my kitchen with orange mango juice dripping down my arms and onto my feet, with mango remnants smeared all over my face. But it is well worth it. Other notable mentions when it comes to fruit are the kumquats, strawberries, and bananas—and oranges. Vegan paradise...

Classes are overly routine, the first hour is reading/chit-chat time. I walk around and talk with students about their weekends, upcoming exams (which there always are), or just whatever is on their mind. I really enjoy this time, sometimes students give me travel tips, sometimes they ask me questions about what I did over my weekend—I’ve even listened to tips on playing World of Warcraft, but as long as it’s in English I’m happy to listen. It is during this time when sometimes the funnier questions come out. For example, the other day, Meteror, a bright young man, asked me what it means when you show someone your middle finger. The second he asked me the other 3 boys in class immediately looked over, smiling in anticipation of my answer. So I laugh and play coy, I asked them why they wanted to know. Of course they saw it in a movie, so as delicately as I could, I told them what it meant. I made sure to reiterate that they should never flip off an American unless they wanted to get into a fight, when they told me they understood, I left the 4 of them to giggle over their newly acquired knowledge. Not 3 minutes later, I look back at them to see them awkwardly throwing the bird to one another. Reminded me of a Flight of the Concords episode—you know the one where the fruit vendor doesn’t sell to them cause he thinks they’re Australians, then their friend Dave teaches them how to flip people off…yeah, that’s what it was like.

The second half of class is game time. The games we play are devised to get them up and talking—either to one another or to the entire class. Sometimes they’re a hit and everyone is laughing and wanting more. Other times they turn out to be a lame attempt on my part to make them speak English, when this happens I admit defeat and try to get some class discussion happening or just cut my loss and let them leave early.

When the games are a hit though, watch out! The class erupts into a frenzy of yelling (I don’t think they’ve EVER been taught the concept of “inside voices”) and running amuck. The other day, in my business classes, I had the brilliant idea of trying to teach them negotiation tactics. I thought this would be great, they’re already master negotiators in Chinese, so this will be fun to do as an English activity. The concept of the “game” was that they were opening a zoo and needed to trade some animals to get more. I gave everyone a piece of paper telling them animals that they already had and ones they needed to acquire. It was a slow start, but finally two girls got up and go the ball rolling…before I know it I have 30 students running around my classroom YELLING for animals. One guy was up at the board writing what he needed and what he wanted to trade. Another guy started making ‘trading cards’ of some sorts. Another person decided this was a chance to show his entrepreneurial skills and ‘open an animal trading center.’ I had students pushing each other in mock battles because they wanted the same animal from another student. Then there was me—I was running around the classroom constantly yelling, “ENGLISH!! ENGLISH!!” When all was said and done…it was a good game. Just to give you an example of the mayhem, I put up a video…

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Photos

Students
just my students doing student stuff

Sun
this is Sun, he is writing on the board the animals he needs to trade...he's a funny guy.