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Published: March 5th 2006
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Losing Paul
This is the Good-bye picture I took with Paul and Camillo as they were getting on the train on March 6th to go back to Hunan. Paul has left Dalian for quite a long time. There was a complaint made recently by one of my friends that I shouldn't be writing on this site because I'm not really traveling perse - I'm just living here. What do you all think?
Camillo and I agreed on one thing yesterday. We both know a bit of the other's language. I don't really know how to compare him to the levels that I teach in because we tend to teach specific ideas, topics and even sentences in certain levels and he doesn't learn in those exact levels but I think he's about a K6 or so. I guess if I were to try and guess for myself I'd be about a K8 but it's really hard to guess on yourself like that. We both have taught ourselves and learned enough from others to be at a certain level of understanding but beyond that we're both having trouble going deeper into the conversation. When Camillo and I do have a deep conversation it's normally in Chinese and normally with a dictionary handy or a lot of patience. Camillo can't really have that deep of a conversation in English yet but he's slowly getting there. I'm trying to only speak
K5.5
This is the last day of my K5.5 class. The people in this picture are: with their backs to the camera: Cissy, Angel, Kevin. And then facing us: Betty, Michael, Andrew, Oscar. to him in English when he has the time and the patience and when I'm only focused on talking to him. If others are around and I'm talking to them and him obviously I'm not going to speak in English (because no one else would understand).
Yesterday was my first day of classes. I've basically taught the exact same first hour for all of my two hour classes. In the first lesson they all have a "Find Someone Who" activity so I've been giving them my rules first. I have 4 basic rules. The first rule is when I turn off the lights everyone should go and sit down and be quiet. Second rule is if I warn someone about something and they still continue to do it or if they don't do their homework then their name goes on the board for extra homework. Third rule is if I write the word Chinese on the board that means they're talking too much in Chinese and I will only give them another warning before I make everyone sit down and do a writing exercise. I have created two pet peeves from the last class. The first is that the word "because" should go in the middle of the sentence and not at the beginning unless one is talking. This is for the main reason that while in written English some sentences do start with because they are few and far between and they also still contain the two parts of the sentence. When my kids write a sentence starting with because they do not tend to have the two parts of the sentence which makes the sentence incomplete. So I make it easy and tell them to only put it in the middle. If I catch them writing it in a big letter they have to write because sentences for me (sentences with the word because in them). The second pet peeve is the word "usually". The majority of Chinese people say "urually" not "usually" so we have made up a little saying for them and every time they get it wrong I make them say it again.
Usually Chinese people say urually. But urually does not mean usually. Only usually is right!
I'm sure if one said this over and over and still got it wrong then I could add to this small saying to make it bigger but it seems to work for now.
Most of my classes have been good and these rules have definitely suited me so far. Discipline is a very difficult thing to learn to include in one's teaching but it does come with time. I find it also difficult to try and stick with the students who aren't getting something rather than moving to someone who can and asking them. Sometimes it's really hard to do that but it's definitely important. I have one EXTREMELY shy class (K7) and one extremely shy student (K8). They are definitely going to need some work.
My new schedule is as follows:
Monday: No Class
Tuesday: Tutoring from 4-7pm
Wednesday: 2-5:15pm K4 & K6 then 6:15-7:15pm K2
Thursday: No class
Friday: Tutoring from 3:10-6:30pm
Saturday: Class from 9am-5:15pm K4, K7, K7, K6
Sunday: 8-10am K8 class
11:15am-12:15 K3 class
1-3pm K6 class
4:15-7pm K2 class then tutoring
It's a bit strange schedule (especially on Sunday) but I can get used to it. I teach second hour for most of the lower level classes (K2-4) and I think that's the best because they've already been taught what things mean and are just reviewing and perfecting with me.
Anyways after class yesterday Kelvin, Cat and I went with Wayne to Pizza Boy (a nice little pizza joint here - pizza's pretty good). Then I went with Kelvin to buy some school supplies and then took a bus over to L-Salon. When I first got there he said to me "Mei Guo La" I was like "Huh?" And then he said it again and I realized he was saying it to mean "An American person just came". American is "Mei Guo" and when someone comes in you can say "Lai la" so he was combining these two phrases for me. I did a bunch of organizing while at the Salon and then Camillo actually washed my hair (for the first time ever). He's never washed it before as his job is dealing with the hair after it's been washed not the washing part (lesser experienced people do the washing part). He talked with me for a little bit and then taught the two new kids a bit. I forget their names but they were the last two to come to the L-Salon just recently. I've seen them around but never actually talked to them so when one of them said something to me my response was "Huh?" I asked Camillo why I couldn't understand them very well and he told me that their Hunan slang was much better than their Mandarin so it was a bit hard for me to talk to them. I think if I get to know them more it will be fine though. Just before we left the Salon Camillo told me I was a "Louvu". I had no idea what that meant so I asked him and he said "not clean" in English. To which I was pretty offended. He was saying it like he was joking around with me so I was a bit confused. I explained to him that's like calling me dirt and he was like "no, no, no" and then he was like "you know when a pig eats" and I was like "you're calling me a pig now?" We were joking all the while though so it wasn't that bad. I tried looking it up and he said "it's not going to be in there" I said "I'll call Stone" he replied "Stone's not going to know." Now we're almost to the point of play wrestling and we reach his house so I insist that Yenson and Eason explain it to me - to which they can't. Then Camillo finally hands me a dictionary to show me a similar word and it says "sloppy". I said "you're calling me sloppy?" That's not exactly something to say to a friend so I was a bit confused as to why everyone was cool with him saying it to me and why he insisted it wasn't a bad word. Apparently in Hunan slang one uses this word to describe a little kid. When the kid's nose is all runny and wipes it on his sleeves his mother will say "you're sloppy!" One can also say it when one doesn't have a sense of fashion. But it's mostly said to someone younger than you or someone in your family. I told Camillo "I'm not younger than you" and he immediately replied "I'm your older brother!" I realized that was true and am now glad that he's become so close he can use family teasing.
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Suzanne
non-member comment
Ignore the complaint. I am enjoying your blog and learning a great deal about the Chinese culture from your experiences.