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Published: January 10th 2008
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Gordon the philosopher
Out of all my classes, Gordon is one of my best students. I would definitely say that he is my closest Chinese friend here in Dongying as well. Being such as young teacher here is quite interesting. When I'm in class, I look, talk and act the part so I get the respect and attention that most teachers demand. Outside of class, I can be a much closer friend to these kids because we are so close in age--Gordon is only a year younger than me. It creates an ideal atmosphere where I can teach as much as possible to the students, but also learn from them as much as possible simulataneously. It's been a while! The end of fall semester has finally arrived! My apologies for slacking a bit on interesting and exciting entries. There are good reasons for this. First, given the 100+ written exams on top of the four classes of oral examinations, I have been pretty crazy the past few weeks with everything involved in the evaluation process and pretty much learning everything on the fly to boot. The second reason is very simple: Dongying is neither very interesting nor exciting so a certain degree of stagnation setting in is almost inevitable.
The first thing that I want to talk about for a bit is a new book I've had my nose in recently. It's entitled, "The World Is Flat" by Thomas Friedman. As you may infer from the title, the book expounds upon the concepts of globalization and sheds light on this interconnected, information-oriented, latte-injected world that is now. Overall the book has some really good examples of how technology (most notably the internet) has literally transformed every aspect of our lives. Furthermore, he shares with the reader a multitude of first hand accounts (he is a journalist and I think a wealthy one at that)
JJ mid-speech
JJ, fellow foreign teacher and friend, gave a speech that night about the Iraq War and the events that led up to the invasion. A complicated, multi-faceted and contentious topic indeed. I commended him on attempting to illustrate objectively, as best he could of course, such a formidable topic for a speech. As you can see by the packed house (literally not a seat could be found!) of over 150 students, the Chinese are very interested in hearing about this war from an American perspective. I think JJ did a good job clearing up some of the issues and also inculcating the idea that not all Americans believe in an interventionist, nation building foreign policy that leads to war in perpetuity like Mr. Bush. with business executives, distinguished professors and other experts/VIPs from all over the globe. Technology, globalization and the world "going flat" is of course a multifaceted topic to say the least, but Friedman reiterates one specific concept so often that it becomes one of the book's most fundamental themes. To sum it up in a single sentence: in his view, those countries who aggressively invest in education, especially math and science, will emerge as the biggest net "winners" in a world where everyone has more or less the same platform (the internet and everything that comes with connectivity) because they will have an underlying competitive advantage in knowledge and skills. The book paints somewhat of an overly rosy picture of globalization, neglecting to adequately explain some of the distinctly detrimental aspects, yet I would definitely recommend it to anyone who's interested in this kind of stuff.
Here are a few quotations from the book that I thought were particularly interesting and/or pertinent to what I'm doing here:
Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes This may or may not give you the worst case of diarrhea this side of the Mississippi
So we found this pretty solid restaurant that has normal dining on the first floor and Chinese BBQ/hotpot upstairs. Also upstairs during your meal, they have performances of dancing, martial arts and singing for entertainment. Everytime that I've gone it has been quite good. This time it was just so-so. In this picture: 2 live crabs on sticks (did not eat the little guy because I felt bad after my friend boiled one in front of me and the crab looked me squarely in the eyes saying: "I'll be seein' you again sometime") a plate of of raw chicken, squid, pork and fish meant to be cooked in the hotpot, and of course a big bowl of peanut sauce with some hot pepper in it for a dippin' sauce. Sounds tasty right??? up.
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle.
When the sun comes up, you better start running.
"In China today, Bill Gates is Britney Spears. In America today, Britney Spears is Britney Spears--and that is our problem."
"You cannot maintain rising standards of living in a flattening world when you are up against competitors who are getting not only their fundamentals right but also their intagibles. China does not just want to get rich. It wants to get powerful. China doesn't just want to learn how to make GM cars. It wants to be GM and put GM out of business. Anyone who doubts that should spend time with young Chinese."
The last thing about the book I wanted to mention quickly was something that Friedman refers to as "world is flat" moments. These are instances where you catch yourself realizing that something you see, hear or do would not be conceivable just 20, 10 or sometimes even 5 years ago. This can be something tangible like a high tech product or something intangible like "Googling" something to
武术
武术 or wu shu is one of the most common/popular forms of martial arts in China. As you can see it is generally practiced in rows of people following an instructor. Commonly it is learned by memorizing combinations of individual movements that in sum constitute sets. Wu shu is also special because it is often practiced with a sword, although not exclusively. I wish I had more time outside of teaching and studying so that I could pick some of it up. get information. I'll give a personal "world is flat" moment to illustrate his point. It hit me the other day when I was thinking back to when I was telling people I was planning on teaching English for a year after college. When I told my aunts, uncles, grandparents etc. I would be teaching English, their response was: "What state/city/town are you teaching in?" When I told some of my classmates and other people closer to my age, their response was: "What country are you teaching in?" I think the idea of traveling to another country to teach English in order to learn more about a culture, language and gain perspective was a novel (and maybe even outrageous) concept just a generation ago. Today I have many friends that are currently teaching abroad or who spent a semester or more in another country to study. Of course this is just a single "world is flat" example of millions and I'm sure that you (like me) are wowed by technology and the various aspects of globalization on a pretty regular basis. So what's your "world is flat" moment?
Tomorrow morning at 8AM I will depart and begin more
China at its worst
One of my Chinese friends that I meet regularly with invited me to his home to see what a typical Chinese house looks like. Although I already know what a Chinese home looks like, I humored him because it wasn't too far away and I always like to do stuff that I think I might learn something from. As we walked up the open-air stairwell up to the top floor of the apartment building, I had to stop a minute to take this picture. He looked confused and said, "why would you take a picture? It's so dirty." I responded with, "exactly." People need to be more aware of how bad environmental issues actually are in China. It's much worse than you think. than a month of traveling. I have been waiting for this day for a long time now and am pretty excited to get out of here for a while and see a change of scenery. I have meticulously planned this vacation in order to maximize my time and money. I will be heading south in search of sun, beaches and adventure.
I will first head to Jinan to get on an airplane to a southern port city called Shenzhen. I will stay there for about a week, then hop on another flight to the island of Hainan. This is considered the Hawaii of China. I will be there for week and change, then head north to a city called Guilin. This is supposed to be an amazing city with beautiful landscapes. If all goes to plan I will get a train back to Dongying, have a few days of rest then head to Beijing for Chinese New Year. After being in Dongying for a semester, I am giddy to start this little jaunt. I should have tons of pictures and will be keeping a travel log so I will be sure to post some great entries in the near future!
Got skills?
The above characters: 英语技能大赛 translate to English skills competition. I was asked to be a judge and participate in the "guess that word" portion of the competition. I am continually surprised with these students and their ability to use language. This is one of my students who wailed out a western tune before the competition. Wish me luck!
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