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Published: June 28th 2009
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Summer has officially arrived
We finally found the makings for Gin and Tonics and are sitting outside the apartment on our new IKEA folding chairs. Not quite as nice an environment as our deck on Pender but you do what you can. Our first school year in China is finally drawing to a close. Term 4 has been very eventful. Dianne has really enjoyed her new job. Working in the same building as her replacement has allowed her to keep her finger on the pulse of a real operation while she does her head office functions. These involve the preparation of a lot of new course materials as well as many different exam papers for students planning to move on to Grade 10 as well as entering ESL from a variety of environments.
Dianne has really got on well with her replacement, Wendy. Wendy has been a Canadian ESL teacher at the school a couple of years ago prior to moving to Wuhan with her husband Craig who was principal there. He has now moved back to Jinshitan as principal of the girl’s campus. We were riding in the van to our Sunday prayer group last week and Dianne made a comment about the ESL program. The wife of one of the teachers said “Oh, you will get on well with Wendy who is coming back next year”, not realizing Wendy was already here. Yes, they do get on well together and
Olympic torches?
When we arrived in September, these three pillars were decorated as Olympic torches. We wondered what they would do after the Olympics. They were turned into towers of flowers and are a very pleasant sight each time we go to town. gang up on me.
My term four started out in a very relaxed manner. I was very popular when I would walk into the teacher room making comments like “Is it always this bright this early in the morning?” I ran into many students in the hall and had lots of great chats with students who claimed to really miss me. It was great to be able to spend the time getting caught up on many different things that had slipped during the first three terms.
One day Dianne and Wendy came over to our apartment to have a meeting in our dining room so they wouldn’t be disturbed. I was working away in my “office” but heard bits of the conversation. Apparently the teacher they hired to replace me had to go back to Shenyang where her father was dying of cancer. This was with two and a half weeks left in the term. They were talking about how they would get various teachers to cover classes but it was a hit and miss process. What about exams and report cards? Then I heard Dianne calling me sweetly. “Peter, could you come in here for a minute?”
Sidewalk construction
One of the neat construction techniques is brick sidewalks. With plenty of workers available they can throw up (down?) a sidewalk in no time. And the beauty is, if they need to run a pipe or something under it, they just pull up the bricks, do the work and relay the bricks. We have seen this done more than once. I should have been suspicious. This was a Friday. Monday morning I was back in front of the students. Luckily, it was three classes I had taught before so I knew most of the students by name. In term 3 I had taught Canadian Studies but this time I was back to Listening and Speaking. We only had 13 classes before exams but we did have fun.
Two particular lessons were very successful. One involved teaching them the card game “99” which involves counting in English. Lots of good work plus they had to listen to learn the rules. I caught a few teams adding in Chinese but most played by the rules and it was a great time.
The other grew out of a chance encounter I had before going back into the classroom. I ran into one of the students from my lower level class. He gave me a big smile and said “Long time, no see”. What a great English expression for a lower level student to use. Out of curiosity I Googled it to see its origins. I expected to see something about the Chinese and the building of the railroad in Canada but
Kids are kids!
We saw these three kids playing with what looked like bubble pipes in the middle of the walkway in the local supermarket. Tons of people milling about. Then they filled these little cups and in unison shouted "Ganbei!", the Chinese equivalent of "Bottoms up" and pretended to drink the soapy mixture. found it supposedly came from the involvement of the British in Hong Kong in the early 1900s.
I decided to get the students to be the teacher. I gave them a couple of examples of English idioms then told them I wanted them to tell me a Chinese idiom, the literal translation and what it actually means as well as when I would use it. They were the teacher for this lesson, I was the student. For example, in Mandarin, the phrase 好久不见 (pinyin: hǎo jiǔ bù jiàn) can be translated literally as "long time, no see." You can use it whenever you meet someone you haven’t seen for a while. I turned the kids loose and let them think up their own examples.
One of the most memorable came from a Japanese boy who has struggled with attention issues, sleeping in class, etc. I had told the kids they could use Chinese, Korean or Japanese depending on their origins. The young man was unbelievably animated as he explained his Japanese phrase and its meaning; “I love you”. Not quite an idiom as I had requested but he was so enthusiastic I had to give him full marks.
Here today....
This smokestack is in the middle of a block that is supposed to be leveled for a park. We hear the building behind it will go too. One day it was there. The next day there was a fellow standing at the top with a sledge hammer and a safety belt. He proceeded to demolish the tower by hand. It took him about three days, brick by brick. There is no longer any sign of the tower when we walk to the market. I said this was really useful, I could say it to David, the student sitting in front of him. “No, no, teacher, you say it to your girlfriend” was his passionate reply. The class of 24, all boys, broke up when I said “OK, but what will Mrs. Wilson think of that?”
Some of the examples were pretty lame but others were really thoughtful. A few of my favourites:
• gū zhǎng nán míng “One man, no man”: only one person’s power is nothing, but lots of people’s power is strong. Profound.
• nǐ wán chéng zuò yè lè mā? “Did you finish your homework?” Not exactly an idiom but very useful for teachers!
• bù láo wú huò “No pains, no gains”, this student really understood what I was looking for.
But my favourite was “lǎo pó, jīn tiān nǐ zhēn měi!” (Wife, today you are very beautiful”.) The next day, Dianne happened to be sitting at the back of my classroom, so at the start of the class I said this to her. The class, who know Dianne very well, went wild! The girl who had supplied me with the phrase was extremely
The long march?
We continue to be amazed by some of the vehicles we see around town. This one looks like it could have made the Long March back in 1934. Note the seat: two pieces of wood. This is not an unusual sight and is a tribute to the resourcefulness of the people. pleased. So was Dianne when I explained what it meant. This exercise was probably the best class I did all year. The students had to struggle to put sentences together and actually explain concepts; it was very rewarding for everyone. We all had a great time and I have a bunch of phrases to add to my Chinese notes. Of course, I have to be careful where I use some of them.
The last day of classes was fun too. I told the three classes I wouldn’t see them next term because I wasn’t coming back as a teacher. They all just laughed and said “Mr. Wilson you told us you weren’t coming back at the end of term 2, but you did. Then you said you weren’t coming back after term 3 but you did. Now you tell us you aren’t coming back next year. We don’t believe you!” But most of them will be in Grade 10 so even if I did come back I wouldn’t have them as students. I won’t miss the marking and report cards but I will miss the students.
I learned in the last days of the term that one of
Road cleanup
We took another weekend bus trip with the gang and while we were on the bus we passed a road cleanup crew. Everyone works in China. the teachers is going on maternity leave next year and three others are hoping to get pregnant soon. Rumour has it I am being earmarked for maternity leaves for the next little while. There are worse things….
The pictures in this blog entry don’t match the text. If they did, this would go on forever (like many conversations with me) but hopefully they are self explanatory. As we clean up as part of year end and start packing for our summer vacation in Canada we have to reflect with wonder at the many adventures we have had. How can next year top this year? Time will tell. The next blog will come from Canada and then it’s back to China for year two. Yahoo! Hope you are all having a great time too.
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GLen
non-member comment
Awesome
Congratultions for sharing your adventures. Your bloge were awesome