In general I'm a pretty stoic person, but recently I've had to deal with some issues that got through my skin (figuratively and literally).
When I first came here and was living in an apartment on the first floor I considered getting a mosquito net, but after I slept there several nights without any of the pests intruding on my slumber I decided it wasn't worth the investment. When I moved up to the second floor however, the little monsters began to bother me without end. They came at me one at a time when the light was turned out, and after buzzing by my ear would fly away before I could turn on the fluorescent light. And the moment one was no longer a problem (after I had crushed it) another would begin flying in and pestering me.
The difficulty was in actually crushing one because they fly much faster than the mosquitoes we get in America.
There is a striking similarity to this situation that can be seen in my day-to-day life regarding the students and various people that I have met since I came here. Students and some teachers ask if I have free time to talk with them so they can practice their English (and on the rare occasion, teach me some Chinese), and during that time they are polite but typically are uncomfortably close to me physically and go on talking and interacting without pause (sometimes for hours).
Both problems result from the lack of a protective and exclusive net - in the former it's a physical net, in the latter a spatial as well as chronological net. Likewise in both cases I feel like I'm being intruded on and being sucked dry.
Good news is I got to do some martial arts with my colleague Ben the other day. We did some qigong and then some touch sparring. I took one harsh kick to my left leg and it still stings a little, but overall it was a lot of fun.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Another vacation
My only experience teaching in an official capacity before this job was in rural/suburban Oregon at non-collegiate secondary schools (I also taught the full five days a week, but the subject at least was something I had been extensively trained in).
Though all teachers made it a goal not to become what I call "mission-control" - people who countdown - it was something we all ended up falling into.
I'm not sure if it's the lighter work-load, the level of maturity of my students, maybe it's the fact that I'm actually taller than most of them and thus feel more like a teacher, or it could be because they give me lots of compliments, but I don't have the same craving for days off like I used to.
Sure I still become physically drained from doing this job and want to get out of my class for some alone time, but usually it's just for the sake of recharging myself, either by lying down and resting, reading or going into my head to play with my imagination.
Whatever the reason for my lack of desire for days off I now find myself with an entire week off because of National Day (comparable to July 4th). We had to teach Saturday and Sunday like we would on our Mondays and Tuesdays respectively in order to accommodate this schedule, and unfortunately I haven't planned any trips for myself.
Realistically though my lack of travel plans may be for the best: everyone will be traveling somewhere at this time so hotels are likely to be booked, tickets all sold, so on and so forth. And in the meantime I can focus on getting to learn the lay of the city better, planning my curriculum, practicing some Kung Fu (falling behind with that) and improving my Chinese vocabulary. Not to mention getting some time to do some reading, which I haven't been able to do because of work and all the time spent getting my documents in order.
Now the pictures:
View from my office building (on the floor just above my office)
Dinner with the Foreign Language College Teachers and Administrators
Choosing what we'll eat
Some of what's available: Poultry (heads are always still attached), bivalves (BIG ones), frogs (still living), turtle (had that once before, not bad but not noteworthy)
Though all teachers made it a goal not to become what I call "mission-control" - people who countdown - it was something we all ended up falling into.
I'm not sure if it's the lighter work-load, the level of maturity of my students, maybe it's the fact that I'm actually taller than most of them and thus feel more like a teacher, or it could be because they give me lots of compliments, but I don't have the same craving for days off like I used to.
Sure I still become physically drained from doing this job and want to get out of my class for some alone time, but usually it's just for the sake of recharging myself, either by lying down and resting, reading or going into my head to play with my imagination.
Whatever the reason for my lack of desire for days off I now find myself with an entire week off because of National Day (comparable to July 4th). We had to teach Saturday and Sunday like we would on our Mondays and Tuesdays respectively in order to accommodate this schedule, and unfortunately I haven't planned any trips for myself.
Realistically though my lack of travel plans may be for the best: everyone will be traveling somewhere at this time so hotels are likely to be booked, tickets all sold, so on and so forth. And in the meantime I can focus on getting to learn the lay of the city better, planning my curriculum, practicing some Kung Fu (falling behind with that) and improving my Chinese vocabulary. Not to mention getting some time to do some reading, which I haven't been able to do because of work and all the time spent getting my documents in order.
Now the pictures:
View from my office building (on the floor just above my office)
Dinner with the Foreign Language College Teachers and Administrators
Choosing what we'll eat
Some of what's available: Poultry (heads are always still attached), bivalves (BIG ones), frogs (still living), turtle (had that once before, not bad but not noteworthy)
Friday, September 26, 2008
To give you more than a mental picture
I just found out I can load images on Blogger, so I'll give all of you some visuals of where I live and the kind of scenery that surrounds me.
(Truth be told this isn't much more than a sampling of what I've seen and most of my pictures are on Facebook).
Wenzhou University, North Campus Entrance
(September 6th)
View of the grove and street from my balcony
View of the mountains from my balcony
Inner court from the level of my apartment
C 区 (district) - my home
Wenzhou Medical College
(Truth be told this isn't much more than a sampling of what I've seen and most of my pictures are on Facebook).
Wenzhou University, North Campus Entrance(September 6th)
View of the grove and street from my balcony
View of the mountains from my balcony
Inner court from the level of my apartment
C 区 (district) - my home
Wenzhou Medical College
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Recent Developments...
For the first two weeks of the term I had no classes at all because the freshmen had yet to arrive, and for two weeks after that I had no classes on Monday, first because the freshman came on a Wednesday, and then because there was a holiday last week so no one had classes on Monday.
Yesterday I met my Monday students for the first time, after my Thursday and Friday classes had already received two lessons a piece. My regular morning classes in Oujiang (瓯江学院) were much like the morning classes I'd done in previous weeks - although I've found myself tasked with finding English names for several of my students - a task I wouldn't say I'm qualified for, but I'll do it nonetheless. I've given an English name to one girl I know who invited me on the hike last weekend (Janette), and I've so far named girls in two of my classes Susan.
Getting settled into the system I thought was taken care of, but yesterday I had to go to the Police station and hand over my passport and other information to get my work permit, only problem was I thought my boss still had my passport, so I was there (45 minutes from the campus) with copies of my passport and other official papers, but unable to process the documents without the passport hard-copy. I went back today with my passport in hand and turned everything in (most of the paperwork I finished yesterday anyway), but there was a time when I wasn't sure if I would be fined for my slight tardiness ($500 US).
I've been doing more work on my idea to clean up the natural areas around Wenzhou and I 've sent requests to a group called Freecycle for garbage cans, garden tools, gloves, etc. The organization has groups in several cities and allows people to give away their old 'junk' to avoid sending it to landfills. We'll see how that plan goes - in the meantime I'll get to my surveying.
As far as learning Chinese I've gotten into the mindset of doing all I can to not fall into using English, and I find I two things: 1) I know a bit more than I thought I knew, and 2) I know a lot less than what I thought I might need.
Yesterday I met my Monday students for the first time, after my Thursday and Friday classes had already received two lessons a piece. My regular morning classes in Oujiang (瓯江学院) were much like the morning classes I'd done in previous weeks - although I've found myself tasked with finding English names for several of my students - a task I wouldn't say I'm qualified for, but I'll do it nonetheless. I've given an English name to one girl I know who invited me on the hike last weekend (Janette), and I've so far named girls in two of my classes Susan.
Getting settled into the system I thought was taken care of, but yesterday I had to go to the Police station and hand over my passport and other information to get my work permit, only problem was I thought my boss still had my passport, so I was there (45 minutes from the campus) with copies of my passport and other official papers, but unable to process the documents without the passport hard-copy. I went back today with my passport in hand and turned everything in (most of the paperwork I finished yesterday anyway), but there was a time when I wasn't sure if I would be fined for my slight tardiness ($500 US).
I've been doing more work on my idea to clean up the natural areas around Wenzhou and I 've sent requests to a group called Freecycle for garbage cans, garden tools, gloves, etc. The organization has groups in several cities and allows people to give away their old 'junk' to avoid sending it to landfills. We'll see how that plan goes - in the meantime I'll get to my surveying.
As far as learning Chinese I've gotten into the mindset of doing all I can to not fall into using English, and I find I two things: 1) I know a bit more than I thought I knew, and 2) I know a lot less than what I thought I might need.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
So hot... so humid...
...but oh the things to see and do.
Last night I went to the P.E. college and participated in a Taekwondo class that practiced the same techniques I did when I was 10. Talk about rigid movement - it was like doing a poor version of 'the robot'. Though I was a bit impatient because I finally got the Internet working on my own machine and I wanted to get to using it and upload some pictures.
I got back to my room and showered, and within a few minutes of getting out of the shower, a couple students came knocking at my door (to add to the problem my two towels were in the washing machine at that moment so I couldn't dry myself in the conventional manner). Anyway, I got invited to go on a hike up one of the mountains near the campus with the "Crazy English" club.
The hike took place around 6:00 this morning. We biked out to the base of the mountain (where I had gone a couple days before when I had a free afternoon), and halfway up the mountain we celebrated one group member's birthday with a fruit-filled spongecake (there were close to twenty of us).
The students were very nice and wanted to include me in all that they did, but therein lay the problem; I like to go hiking to get away from excessive socialization and the press of civilization. I certainly don't mind going hiking with others, and I don't mind talking to others on a hike, but in my experience there's a sort of unwritten, unspoken "non-speaking" rule in regards to hiking up a mountain - you talk all you want when you have a break, and while hiking you strive for silence. You focus on breathing and enjoying the scenery ...in silence.
Apparently such is not the case in China, I scarcely had a quiet moment. So many group members wanted to talk to me and practice their English. And when I tried to speak in Chinese they would usually just answer the question and then jump right back into English (sometimes it's almost impossible to get Chinese practice, no one wants to use the native tongue with foreigners.)
At the top of our ascent (we only went about halfway up the mountain) I climbed some tall stones to get a better view (and get a bit of distance from everyone) and my 'daring stunts' had some of friends freaking out.
We had lunch at a restaurant outside the university and a little ways away from the town. As usual I was reluctant to leave food uneaten, knowing no one is taking it home for leftovers, and I noticed we still had a lot of steamed rice. One of the girls told me not to worry because it can be reused. That relieved me as far as knowing that there won't be so much waste of food, however learning that my lunch included potentially reused rice from someone else's meal left me just a little discomforted.
One last thing I'll mention was that all along the paths ascending the mountain there was a fair amount of garbage, from plastic bags to packaging, to cigarette packs and bottle caps. Having lived so long in Oregon where such things are almost unthinkable I found the quantity of rubbish astounding.
A couple days ago I had been brainstorming ways to help clean up the river that runs through the town, and today I found the opportunity to do some clean up on the mountain. I and the other students only collected a plastic grocery bag-full of rubbish, but the students found it very inspiring - maybe I can use it to affect some real change in the near future - garbage cleanups in exchange for special English lessons (hey it starts with a dream).
Last night I went to the P.E. college and participated in a Taekwondo class that practiced the same techniques I did when I was 10. Talk about rigid movement - it was like doing a poor version of 'the robot'. Though I was a bit impatient because I finally got the Internet working on my own machine and I wanted to get to using it and upload some pictures.
I got back to my room and showered, and within a few minutes of getting out of the shower, a couple students came knocking at my door (to add to the problem my two towels were in the washing machine at that moment so I couldn't dry myself in the conventional manner). Anyway, I got invited to go on a hike up one of the mountains near the campus with the "Crazy English" club.
The hike took place around 6:00 this morning. We biked out to the base of the mountain (where I had gone a couple days before when I had a free afternoon), and halfway up the mountain we celebrated one group member's birthday with a fruit-filled spongecake (there were close to twenty of us).
The students were very nice and wanted to include me in all that they did, but therein lay the problem; I like to go hiking to get away from excessive socialization and the press of civilization. I certainly don't mind going hiking with others, and I don't mind talking to others on a hike, but in my experience there's a sort of unwritten, unspoken "non-speaking" rule in regards to hiking up a mountain - you talk all you want when you have a break, and while hiking you strive for silence. You focus on breathing and enjoying the scenery ...in silence.
Apparently such is not the case in China, I scarcely had a quiet moment. So many group members wanted to talk to me and practice their English. And when I tried to speak in Chinese they would usually just answer the question and then jump right back into English (sometimes it's almost impossible to get Chinese practice, no one wants to use the native tongue with foreigners.)
At the top of our ascent (we only went about halfway up the mountain) I climbed some tall stones to get a better view (and get a bit of distance from everyone) and my 'daring stunts' had some of friends freaking out.
We had lunch at a restaurant outside the university and a little ways away from the town. As usual I was reluctant to leave food uneaten, knowing no one is taking it home for leftovers, and I noticed we still had a lot of steamed rice. One of the girls told me not to worry because it can be reused. That relieved me as far as knowing that there won't be so much waste of food, however learning that my lunch included potentially reused rice from someone else's meal left me just a little discomforted.
One last thing I'll mention was that all along the paths ascending the mountain there was a fair amount of garbage, from plastic bags to packaging, to cigarette packs and bottle caps. Having lived so long in Oregon where such things are almost unthinkable I found the quantity of rubbish astounding.
A couple days ago I had been brainstorming ways to help clean up the river that runs through the town, and today I found the opportunity to do some clean up on the mountain. I and the other students only collected a plastic grocery bag-full of rubbish, but the students found it very inspiring - maybe I can use it to affect some real change in the near future - garbage cleanups in exchange for special English lessons (hey it starts with a dream).
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
So much to do... and yet still there's time
Before I came here I read two books about Americans who had gone to teach in China - Iron & Silk (1986, Mark Salzman), and River Town (2001, Peter Hessler). (I read them in this order).
Like Salzman I came here right out of college, and like Hessler I arrived here with minimal fluency in the language. Unlike either of them I'm not with any program in America (Yale-China or Peace Corps), and my contract is only for one year instead of two years.
Both of these books gave me some useful insights into China and I found both of them a lot of fun to read, although when I read Iron & Silk I had a hard time taking Salzman completely at his word. His book was certainly entertaining and fun, but the sheer volume of his activities: kung fu with one master (a veritable martial arts superstar), yixing with another master, travel, outings with the English teachers, it seemed impossible that he could do all these things and still have time to teach - at a MEDICAL college in the city where Mao Zedong came from no less.
Now however I think I begin to see where he would have found the time. So little of my time here is spent teaching I sometimes forget I actually have a job. If it weren't for the years of teacher training that make me keep planning my lessons I'd probably just be practicing Chinese, reading books and doing some martial arts all day and never even give a thought to preparing for my classes.
Despite my commitment to working on lesson planning I actually have done a lot of non-teacher related stuff, including a few martial arts classes. I have a few martial arts teachers, though none of them speak any English, and tomorrow I start some classes with them.
Since my intended class for last night got moved to another day of the week, I took the time last night to go out biking through the bazaar to see what's being sold beyond the college grounds. The food looked good so I think I'll go back soon.
For tomorrow I'm going to give my students a taste of some of U.S. culture through music. I'm thinking "Star-Spangled Banner", "I'm Free", some songs from "Grease", "Forrest Gump" and probably "Star Wars". (and of course some Disney music).
Like Salzman I came here right out of college, and like Hessler I arrived here with minimal fluency in the language. Unlike either of them I'm not with any program in America (Yale-China or Peace Corps), and my contract is only for one year instead of two years.
Both of these books gave me some useful insights into China and I found both of them a lot of fun to read, although when I read Iron & Silk I had a hard time taking Salzman completely at his word. His book was certainly entertaining and fun, but the sheer volume of his activities: kung fu with one master (a veritable martial arts superstar), yixing with another master, travel, outings with the English teachers, it seemed impossible that he could do all these things and still have time to teach - at a MEDICAL college in the city where Mao Zedong came from no less.
Now however I think I begin to see where he would have found the time. So little of my time here is spent teaching I sometimes forget I actually have a job. If it weren't for the years of teacher training that make me keep planning my lessons I'd probably just be practicing Chinese, reading books and doing some martial arts all day and never even give a thought to preparing for my classes.
Despite my commitment to working on lesson planning I actually have done a lot of non-teacher related stuff, including a few martial arts classes. I have a few martial arts teachers, though none of them speak any English, and tomorrow I start some classes with them.
Since my intended class for last night got moved to another day of the week, I took the time last night to go out biking through the bazaar to see what's being sold beyond the college grounds. The food looked good so I think I'll go back soon.
For tomorrow I'm going to give my students a taste of some of U.S. culture through music. I'm thinking "Star-Spangled Banner", "I'm Free", some songs from "Grease", "Forrest Gump" and probably "Star Wars". (and of course some Disney music).
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
And then there were three...
...three days a' teachin' that is.
Around noon today I received a call from my boss, Shelly Ke (pronounced 'kuh'), saying that my Tuesday evening class has been made into a Monday evening class. So next Monday I teach three classes for the first time (two in the morning at Oujiang College, one in the evening at the Foreign Language College), and from here on out I have Saturday-Sunday and Tuesday-Wednesday to explore Wenzhou and learn Chinese. (...and plan my lessons I know, let me enjoy the moment).
Today I did work on reformatting my first lesson and got a few possibilities lined up for what I might teach on Thursday and Friday, but I don't want the students to get too far ahead of the others, so I think I'll revisit some of the things they asked to learn about last week and in the meantime I'll treat them to some classic Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck cartoons - I knew it was a good idea to bring those.
I spent the afternoon in the office next door to mine talking with a colleague, "Faye" who got a master's degree in translation from Leeds College in Cambridge, UK (this is her first year as a teacher too). She helped me find this professional translator's site where they also have jobs for voice-overs, so I'm looking into it now to see what opportunities there are in that regard - who knows someday I might have a career, or at least a part-time job, in voice-acting or narrating (...awesome).
Regrettably I didn't go to the Wushu gym at 4:00 like I intended, so I'll do it on Thursday and until then just do a bit of practice on my own.
Around noon today I received a call from my boss, Shelly Ke (pronounced 'kuh'), saying that my Tuesday evening class has been made into a Monday evening class. So next Monday I teach three classes for the first time (two in the morning at Oujiang College, one in the evening at the Foreign Language College), and from here on out I have Saturday-Sunday and Tuesday-Wednesday to explore Wenzhou and learn Chinese. (...and plan my lessons I know, let me enjoy the moment).
Today I did work on reformatting my first lesson and got a few possibilities lined up for what I might teach on Thursday and Friday, but I don't want the students to get too far ahead of the others, so I think I'll revisit some of the things they asked to learn about last week and in the meantime I'll treat them to some classic Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck cartoons - I knew it was a good idea to bring those.
I spent the afternoon in the office next door to mine talking with a colleague, "Faye" who got a master's degree in translation from Leeds College in Cambridge, UK (this is her first year as a teacher too). She helped me find this professional translator's site where they also have jobs for voice-overs, so I'm looking into it now to see what opportunities there are in that regard - who knows someday I might have a career, or at least a part-time job, in voice-acting or narrating (...awesome).
Regrettably I didn't go to the Wushu gym at 4:00 like I intended, so I'll do it on Thursday and until then just do a bit of practice on my own.
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