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Toby came to me and said, "Hey, Kris, the Foreign Language Department is looking for foreign teachers to do a travel lecture. I thought you'd be perfect!" Well, when you put it that way, how can I say no?
Another teacher and I agreed to do the travel lecture, figuring that it would be pretty easy and something fun to do. We made plans to meet with the student coordinators to find out exactly what they wanted us to do. They'd sent us a few emails, but they'd listed so many things, we were sure there was some miscommunication. Usually, when foreign teachers help with events, most of the work is done for us and all we need to do is show up and talk; but the student had told me they wanted photos, my resume, tips and advice, and so much information about the countries we'd talk about that you'd think we were writing an encyclopedia article. Clearly, there were things to discuss.
From the meeting we gathered that they wanted to know who we were and why we were in China, our "traveler's resume", and which countries we would talk about. They said they could find photos
online, but obviously personal photos were best. Task minimized, we left feeling reassured. It still seemed like a small event... except that we were told the room would hold 200 people. But really, we thought, who's going to come to hear two foreign teachers talk about traveling?
I went home, chose too many photos, emailed back and forth with the students, and practiced. I had only 15-20 minutes to talk, so I wanted to be sure that I didn't run too long or too short. After a few runs through I figured I was averaging about 17 minutes and felt comfortable enough to just ad-lib the presentation. Both the other teacher and I thought this would be a small event, and were a bit worried about turn-out and whether there'd be enough people to generate questions for the question/answer portion of the night. Then, my invitation arrived. I had been expecting a piece of paper; I got a hand-cut, pop-up personalized invitation to speak. Suddenly, the magnitude and importance of the event jumped ten fold. This wasn't some silly, unorganized, half-planned shin-dig; this was an important, organized, well-planned event. I sat down and practiced some more.
The night
Invitation
Hand-made by the students of the lecture, I arrived a bit before seven o'clock to see the room was nearly full. So, to answer the question, I guess 170 people would come to hear two foreign teachers speak about traveling.
I spoke first, talking about my travels in India, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia. The students laughed at my jokes and loved my photos. The other foreign teacher spoke second, talking about countries in Europe, but none of his photos were personal (all his are back in the US on his old computer), and the students didn't seem as excited during his presentation. Then he and I did an question/answer session together. Questions asked included:
1. How much does it cost to travel?
2. How do you travel when you don't speak the language?
3. Where have you traveled in China?
4. Where do you plan to travel next?
5. How much stuff do you bring when you travel?
6. What is a favorite travel memory?
Needless, to say, we ran out of time!
After we finished, they gave us thank you gifts. Having heard stories about some of the more unique gifts teachers have received in the past, I was
Inside
It pops up! relieved to find that we'd been given flowered paintings. After we left, a Chinese teacher spoke about her travels in the UK; since she spoke in Chinese, we opted to leave early.
All in all, I was really impressed with how hard the students worked to put together such a special event. I heard from my teacher friends in the FLD that the students who attended really enjoyed it. I know I did. I call that a successful night!
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Elyse
non-member comment
Our Passion
I really enjoyed this blog as we both have the passion for traveling. What a great experience to share with others. I spoke to my cousin's 8th grade class and was given 35-40 minutes (whole class period) and still ran out of time as the students had so many questions for me. We are getting very excited about coming back in early September to Hangzhou.