Teaching has been, well, entertaining to say the least. At this point, I have five sections of the same class, which means I make one lesson plan and do the same thing five times during the week; although that is bound to change at some point in the semester and probably with very little notice. The first week I did a short introduction about myself and showed them pictures of my life in the states. Some students had actually heard of Minnesota and the “Wolftimbers.” There are a lot of basketball fans in this country, believe it or not. The English names that some students have come up with are absolutely priceless. Some of my favorites: Killer, Upward, Rocfella, Scofield, Plutown, Rainbow and Sunshine (both boys). After introductions, we moved onto the topic of Global Warming (or Unit 8: Our Globe is in Danger!). The textbook they’ve given us is basically worthless, but I did enjoy watching the video of two Americans speaking “Special English” and talking about how carbon monoxide from aerosol sprays is contributing to global warming. Is it just me, or isn’t that completely scientifically inaccurate? It all went over pretty well, though, and in general, the students are very articulate and thoughtful in their responses. They think I am just some crazy foreign person, which is just fine with me.
The most entertaining moment of the week was definitely the two hour conversation we had with a student about how hard it is to get a girlfriend. (This is the Chinese version of Rueben, for those who know him!). Apparently, the male-female ratio is 8 to 1 at this school. Not very encouraging odds. I think I’ll try my hand at some matchmaking this year.
In other news, we finally got to meet some of the other foreign teachers (who are actually our age). One of them even lives in the same hotel as us, right below Shelby, and we never even knew. There is a young couple who just graduated from Cambridge. Jens is from Denmark but speaks English incredibly well and has the most posh accent. He actually said "jolly good" at one point. I consider him to be my own version of Prince William. Sarah, his girlfriend, is from Surry. Jan is a German teacher here but has basically mastered English and also speaks Chinese with surprising fluency. This is his second year at NPU (or 西工大 Xi Gong Da in Chinese). Ali, the guy who lives in our hotel, is from Scotland, although he spent last year teaching in Korea. We attended a banquet for all the foreign teachers (where we were given forks), and afterwards, we all went out to a cozy place called Jennifer’s Cafe. I successfully ordered beer and asked where the bathroom was in Chinese, which is all I really need to accomplish.
No comments:
Post a Comment