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I finish some of my lesson plans and put on clothes, make up and shoes. I head out the door to work (note, not to
classes but to
work). On my way down to the English school, I am approached by a woman on a bicycle. She jumps off and starts slow-walking next to me, the whole time carrying on a rapid conversation in Chinese.
Woman: "Do you ?"
Self: "No speaky."
Woman: "Blah blah blah. Do you ?"
Self: *shrugs noncomittally. Grins at woman noncomittally.*
Woman: "You ." Smiles up at Self.
Self: *shrugs* : "I dunno."
Woman: : "You know China?"
Self: "No."
Woman: "Ah...Do you .
*Repeat entire conversation for two excruciating blocks.*
Finally, I make it to the school. I have a demo tonight, which basically is a sample of the things we do at our school--our lessons, the games, and more! The demo is outdoors--so that all the folks in Jining can watch the foolish white monkey dance and make a fool of herself publicly. However, the demo is called off tonight, and instead a coworker and I are shipped across town to hand out promotionals in front of children's schools. Actually, the schools are located on the same block as my apartment, forcing me to ask myself why I bothered walking all the way to school in the first place.
We hand out fliers for an hour. It's not like handing out fliers in the United States, where most people evade and deny contact. Here, everyone I ask takes a flier, and in fact people approach you and hold out their hands as if you were giving away free money. Because everyone wants a flier from a white girl with bi-colored hair that glows in the dark. I tell them, "Hello! Come to !"
One man grumbles as I walk past.
"So rude," my coworker says. I ask what it was he said. "He said, 'Go away, you're not supposed to be here,'" she informs me. And you and I know that, reading between the lines because this is China, what he really said was, "Foreigner, go home," or perhaps worse. People have thrown bottles at me from cars and refused to speak to my (fluent) Mandarin-speaking Western friends. When I encounter things like this, even though I remind myself that the perpetrators are the people with the problems, it's the sort of reason I haven't learned a word of Chinese despite my seven weeks in China. I try to imagine something like this happening in America--and then I realize we have a word for this type of behavior. And it's called a "hate crime" when it results in injury.
Shrugging off the hatred with supreme apathy, I go back to the school for a help session with an intermediate student who has missed a class. He does not show up; it is possible that no one had actually signed up for the session this week. I have a debate with a coworker on the nature of climate change. He is convinced that climate change is either not happening or not man made. I, however, know better.
Next I have my tutoring session with a student who will shortly be attending the University of Michigan and would like practice speaking English with an American. We go through the textbook, which happens to be about department stores and giving directions. I send him on a scavenger hunt to find the Snickers bar I bought him. We get bored and play 20 Questions. Class is over, but I am expected to show a movie to intermediate English speakers. No one has signed up for the film, so I am free for the night. First I check my email, and then, when it is apparent that the computer is once again misbehaving, I decide to take off. I scan my thumbprint and high-tail it home. It takes me a half an hour to walk. I go to my apartment but plan on heading back out in an hour to watch my friend perform in a nightclub.
Before I depart, I say to you, "Thank you for joining me at work today. I hope our time together has been both informative and mildly interesting. See you tomorrow, goodbye!"
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Susan
non-member comment
Thanks for sharing. I did find this interesting for its very mundaneness. All in all it doesn't sound like too bad a day.