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Published: November 26th 2008
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Students doing Andrea's Class
I don't have pictures of mine. So we'll do a thought experiment. Imagine seeing a student on a table doing a pushup--that was part of my lesson. Whoa, what a day. I think the title says it all…Lost in translation. I know for myself, some of the science words are not typically words that English learners would learn—fulcrum, mechanical advantage, efficiency. So, I had to give my lesson today, and many of these words were lost (or some I’m told). It certainly was interesting. When I went to give my lesson, about 2-3 minutes into it, some big booms started going, and not just one or two. A couple dozen or more! I definitely jumped and stopped. I didn’t know what was happening. Should I be concerned? The students just stayed right on listening and waiting, but I had no idea what was going on—bombs, gunshots, fireworks? Was it something bad? The only other country’s education I’ve seen in Nicaragua’s, and the bombas are everyday—you really get used to it there. I definitely didn’t expect it. I later found out it was either fireworks for a grand opening or for a wedding. Looking back I think, “Oh fireworks for me! “ But during it I was definitely thinking it was something different—take cover kids! I feel really safe here (but obviously subconsciously I must feel otherwise), and they’ve
Rowdy Students
Students in China can't sit still either. This is what they were doing when Dr. Hua (from the University) was speaking. treated us like royalty. We couldn’t have asked for much better! Five star hotel with the best food and drink around. But I must think something else… It did take me a moment or two to regroup, but the students were pretty intent on the lesson , so that was good. They were just very eager and willing to do everything.
After the lessons activity, we it was discussion time. In our lecture hall, all the students and teachers we’d worked with came in to listen. One-by-one we all discussed and answered questions on our lessons. The students too were able to ask questions. At this time, we felt we’d really developed a rapport with the students. We were looking forward to the second half of the meeting where we’d be showing the students “life in the US.” Anytime any of the students we’d asked or met with asked us questions about the US, we always said we’ll show a couple videos, and you can see for yourself. We built up this discussion on the US—they were really curious. However, things changed. Instead of showing the students that we “knew” the videos and having a discussion about the US
It's all about looks
This is our table setup...this is just an average day. It has been so the aesthetics of it the whole stay (at least for food) has been amazing! with them, a couple hundred other students showed up to listen. It was kind of disappointing to us to not be able to share with the students “we knew” our life and the US student’s life.
Being gracious guests, we just ran with it though. We each showed our video, and I'd show it to you if I could...but the connection/computer is not letting me - I keep getiting an error message. I'll just say, it's a tear jerker. After that we had a short question answer period, which the students really seemed to enjoy. At some point I was talking about my life, and they ooh-ed and ah-ed when I said that I was working now at a university where most people’s primary language is not English but Spanish. They thought that was pretty interesting! Probably the other most memorable moment was another simple question to me: Do you know Chinese? I said “only Ni Hao,” which is hi. I know a few other words, but I thought that was the easiest. The gal then said to me, I would like to teach you a new phrase, so I said okay. I couldn’t quite hear her, so I went up into the audience, and they just seemed floored by the fact that I was up there with them. She was very patient with me, and it took me a couple times, but she taught me to say: I like China, and I like Wuxi. In a nutshell that wrapped up our day, and I’m exhausted!
Of course, in the evening, it was lots of food and lots of beverage. With the drinks, you can’t drink anything, water, juice or other unless you toast someone. By the end of the night, it just became a “xie xie” and "Zai jain" (a thank you and good-bye fest). People were toasting people to toast people. I guess there are many common denominators between China and the US that I wouldn’t have guessed. Tomorrow we leave to go back to Nanjing, the city we started at to celebrate Thanksgiving! So, to you: Happy Thanksgiving—Thanks for everything—It’s been a great ride and a great year!
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dad
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Happy Thanksgiving to all even though I'm sure it is not celebrated there