Almost mid-way through our teaching days in China and we are finally figuring out how to do our jobs. Today Montana and LuRue were able to switch some things around easily to match the ability of the students. When the students weren't responding in the same way as the students from yesterday, we knew what we had to do to get their engines revving. The teachers also make a big difference...some are very involved, and so make sure that the students are understanding us; other teachers are more shy and have to be asked to intervene when we keep getting blank looks.
What we have managed to do is to get the pronunciation part of the lesson taken care of quickly during the first few minutes, then move on to the contests and games. As Bao Li told us at the beginning, the students are very competitive and become very involved. The lollipops are also a great incentive. After the ice has been broken, we have a lot more fun with the games, such as Simon Says. Once the students get to laughing, they are willing to do a lot more, which makes it fun for us. We even seem to be getting more successful when we ask the students to show us dance steps or sing us songs after the Hokey Pokey. Today we got two beautiful solos: one was a song called Dust by Jiu Jiu, in Chinese of course.
More rain today...very glad that the rainy spells have been coming during the week, not the weekend. We got lucky last Saturday and Sunday when we did a lot of outdoor things. The hotel room has definitely cooled off. Now even Montana thinks it's a bit too cool. We are wondering now if the city really has turned off all the heat & that the sunny days were what was keeping everything warm. We do have hot water, though, so hot showers are always available, thank goodness! The room at school today was much cooler than usual, too. There was an open window next to where we stand. Montana finally closed it. Hardy people, these Chinese!
After lunch, we did some "housekeeping" chores, such as some hand laundry. The hotel does have laundry service, but it costs $20 to $30 for a small grocery-sack-size of clothes. We'd rather spend our money at a restaurant (or a Baskin-Robbins, if we're being honest!)
At 2:30, LuRue went down to the lobby where she and Don had agreed to meet with some of the hotel staff to practice English. We met in a conference room where Don worked with the reception people and LuRue had about 8 people from the restaurant. Bao Li had helped the evening before with some pages written in Chinese, but even she didn't understand everything, so LuRue just went with the flow. The people had to come and go as they got called away from time to time, but the most successful was the role-playing...greeting "diners", asking if they wanted to order from the specialty dumpling menu or the regular menu, asking if they wanted to pay with cash or credit card, etc. Even though they're adults, they are as shy as the students we work with every day and they are just as thrilled as the students to be participating, so it is a lot of fun.
The dumpling menu is fun, too. The names of some of the dishes are: Peacock Greeting Guest, Three Gods Gathering the Treasures, Searching for Treasure in the Dragon Palace, Come Back Full of Treasure, Monkey King Entering the Palace, and more.
Before dinner, Montana and LuRue watched the rest of the 2008 Olympics Opening Ceremony (except the parade of nations). It was a spectacular and thrilling experience for both, even though LuRue had already watched it in 2008. She had forgotten that 15,000 people had performed...never repeating. Just goes to show how many people live in China. We were reminded again of the fantastic show we watched on the Li River a few weeks ago, also magnificent--same director.
Our calendar from now until we leave is almost full already, with the teachers always asking us if there is anything else we'd like to do. We won't be wondering how to spend our time!
What we have managed to do is to get the pronunciation part of the lesson taken care of quickly during the first few minutes, then move on to the contests and games. As Bao Li told us at the beginning, the students are very competitive and become very involved. The lollipops are also a great incentive. After the ice has been broken, we have a lot more fun with the games, such as Simon Says. Once the students get to laughing, they are willing to do a lot more, which makes it fun for us. We even seem to be getting more successful when we ask the students to show us dance steps or sing us songs after the Hokey Pokey. Today we got two beautiful solos: one was a song called Dust by Jiu Jiu, in Chinese of course.
More rain today...very glad that the rainy spells have been coming during the week, not the weekend. We got lucky last Saturday and Sunday when we did a lot of outdoor things. The hotel room has definitely cooled off. Now even Montana thinks it's a bit too cool. We are wondering now if the city really has turned off all the heat & that the sunny days were what was keeping everything warm. We do have hot water, though, so hot showers are always available, thank goodness! The room at school today was much cooler than usual, too. There was an open window next to where we stand. Montana finally closed it. Hardy people, these Chinese!
After lunch, we did some "housekeeping" chores, such as some hand laundry. The hotel does have laundry service, but it costs $20 to $30 for a small grocery-sack-size of clothes. We'd rather spend our money at a restaurant (or a Baskin-Robbins, if we're being honest!)
At 2:30, LuRue went down to the lobby where she and Don had agreed to meet with some of the hotel staff to practice English. We met in a conference room where Don worked with the reception people and LuRue had about 8 people from the restaurant. Bao Li had helped the evening before with some pages written in Chinese, but even she didn't understand everything, so LuRue just went with the flow. The people had to come and go as they got called away from time to time, but the most successful was the role-playing...greeting "diners", asking if they wanted to order from the specialty dumpling menu or the regular menu, asking if they wanted to pay with cash or credit card, etc. Even though they're adults, they are as shy as the students we work with every day and they are just as thrilled as the students to be participating, so it is a lot of fun.
The dumpling menu is fun, too. The names of some of the dishes are: Peacock Greeting Guest, Three Gods Gathering the Treasures, Searching for Treasure in the Dragon Palace, Come Back Full of Treasure, Monkey King Entering the Palace, and more.
Before dinner, Montana and LuRue watched the rest of the 2008 Olympics Opening Ceremony (except the parade of nations). It was a spectacular and thrilling experience for both, even though LuRue had already watched it in 2008. She had forgotten that 15,000 people had performed...never repeating. Just goes to show how many people live in China. We were reminded again of the fantastic show we watched on the Li River a few weeks ago, also magnificent--same director.
Our calendar from now until we leave is almost full already, with the teachers always asking us if there is anything else we'd like to do. We won't be wondering how to spend our time!
what wonderful rapport with your students!
ReplyDeletemy mouth is watering for those delicious dumplings—just know I'd love "Peacock Greeting Guest"