a little about the campus

There are two campuses to CWNU. The old campus, located right in downtown Nanchong, is where the science classes and all of the department offices are. The new campus, which is on the outskirts of town about 25 minutes by bus, is where the foreign language, mathematics, post graduate students, and one American English teacher live. (This picture is of the first foreign language building. There are two nearly identical ones towards the left of this one).

The new campus is still under heavy construction. Most of the buildings are completed, but the finishing touches are still being put on. Trees are being planted, streets are being paved, and plaques that I can’t read are being put in place. The construction never really seems to stop either. Behind my apartment complex, the school is building new teacher's apartments when the new campus is opened to the rest of the faculty. During the week, there are cranes and jackhammers until about 1:00 in the morning. The crews start work at around 7:00. The workers live in little makeshift huts next to the construction site. When they're not working, the construction workers dress surprisingly formally. Most workers wear grey but stylish blazers and coats, collared shirts, and slacks.

The classrooms here are fairly basic, but clean and have good acoustics. The rooms are set up with rows of three seats on the left, five seats in the middle and another row of three seats on the right side. I have access to a computer lab for my Advanced Oral English classes, though I find having computers can sometimes be a distraction. In the computer lab, there are two rows of four connected desks each containing a computer monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Chinese students have this tendency to look down and away from you when a question is asked to the class, especially if they don't know the answer. Adding a computer screen only gives the students another reason not to look up at me. In the front of the classroom is a teacher's computer where I can control what is put up on the screens of the other computers in the class. Unless I absolutely need to show something relevant, I will use one of the regular classrooms because the desks in the computer classroom are small and it's more difficult to split students into groups.

Some of the department offices will be moved to the new campus next year, as well as some of the teachers’ residences. (In the picture: a new science building on the right not yet in use and some construction). It’s nice being the token foreigner on the new campus though. People never seem to get used to seeing me around. Even at campus restaurants that I regularly frequent, I am always greeted with smiles and a big Chinese “hallo!” There is one woman who always is ecstatic to see me. She is by far the nicest person I have met in China. She runs a small campus store that sells fruit, drinks, household items, toiletries, and various non-perishable foods like dried noodles. The store is near my house and I drop by during the week after class to get a water or some chips. When I leave she always tells me, “Zuo yixia!” (Please sit!). I rarely do because I’m tired after class and I’d like to get home. When I say that I don’t have time or I’m tired, she offers to have one of her friends drive me home on his motorcycle.

I feel that hospitality like that is a real crap shoot. There are a few reactions that a foreigner can expect here. I think the most common are shyness, bewilderment, fear, and just plain apathy. I try to make as much communication as I can without seeming overly aggressive. If I can tell someone is talking about me I acknowledge them with a smile and a “Ni hao”. No one expects a foreigner can speak Zhongwen, so I think most Chinese are reluctant to approach a foreigner especially if they can’t speak any English.

At the English corner yesterday, the topic was sports. It officially begins at 8:00, but I have class until 8:30 so I got there half an hour late. Like last time, I took one step outside and immediately a crowd of Chinese freshmen immediately circled around me. It reminded me of the ponds here with the millions of enormous goldfish that swarm together when you drop a few flakes into the water. It was unfortunately a lot of the same questions. “HEY! Excuse me, SIR!! Do you like China?” and “Excuse me! What is the difference between Chinese and American universities?” Most students associate me with the rest of foreign teachers, but being with the Peace Corps separates me in terms of my goals and role at the school. I’m a volunteer and I’m interested in development, and not money, religion, or marriage (I know people that are here for each).

Next week I am hosting a Halloween party at my enormous house. I’ve invited a few of my classes to attend. I’ll be dressing up as a Chinese security guard with some clothes I bought at a local store. The hat, tie, shirt, patches, and tie clip combo was 60 kuai and I haggled it down to 50 ($6.25). I’ll have to explain the concept of an American party to make sure that students know it won’t be a banquet and you don’t have to arrive on time or stay for the entire time. The party is costume-mandatory, and there’s a prize for the best costume, so I’ll be taking lots of pictures.

This last picture is from a fashion show at a fancy mall in downtown Nanchong. Public activity here tends to attract crowds of onlookers whether or not you're included in the intended audience.

losing face

Today was my first real experience with losing face. I feel bad for the girl because I know it was my fault, but my own cultural background told me it was ok. In retrospect I shouldn't have done it, at least not so vocally.

In my writing classes, I always begin class with a 10 minute writing warm up that I collect after time is up. After the warm up, I have a grammar touch-up exercise that includes correcting a short passage or a number of sentences. The goal is to fix some basic stylistic or grammatical mistakes that I can see most of the students make in their writing. The topic for the writing warm up today was "Whom do you admire the most, and why?" Looking at some of the papers while the students were writing, I glanced at Bella's composition entitled "A Angel". When time was up, I asked my monitor to collect all of the essays except Bella's. Coincidentally, the grammar touch-up exercise was when to use "a/an" and "the" (indefinite and definite articles).

Bella didn't take this the right way though. I had intended to show here why it was wrong and allow her to correct it, but when I asked her to hand her paper to me to show the error, she put her head down on her desk and refused to look at me. I froze for a second and then continued with the grammar correction. When I looked back at Bella again, I could see her face was flushed and her eyes were glassy as if she had been crying. After the grammar touch-up I went over a few phrases and idioms: "If wishes were horses then beggars would ride" and "Luck favors the well-prepared". I called a break early in order to leave enough time to go over the story book assignment due next week.

During the break, a student came up to ask me a question about the "beggars would ride" phrase, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Bella ripping her composition up into little pieces. I acted as if I didn't see it. After class ended I called Bella over and spoke to her privately. She had visibly calmed down and apologized numerous times for destroying her paper. I explained that I didn't single her out because her essay was bad, but because I wanted her to correct the gleaming mistake in her title: "A Angel". I also apologized and told her to bring me a new copy the following week. Phew.

After class a couple students, Tovell (from my advanced oral English class) and Jane, winner of the CCTV cup English competition, met me at my classroom and asked me to come to the English corner. I congratulated her again for winning the Xi Hua competition and asked her when the next round would be. It turned out the Sichuan Province-wide finals were last week, and, according to Jane, the winner was, "a very nice boy from a university that I can't translate into English. Electric something..." Thanks, Jane.

I was surprised to see so many people at the English corner. There must have been about 75, and the vast majority of them were freshmen. The topic of the corner was "What are your dreams?" As the only foreigner and native speaker there, I was asked to give a welcome speech and tell what my dreams were. I started off with the, "Hello!" and everyone responded "Hello!" to which I made the stereotypical D.A.R.E. teacher response, "You can do better than that! I can't hear you!" And all of the students answered in a chorus at the same level. Oh well. As a crowd pleaser, I explained that my dream was to come to China. I saw some of my own students there as well, including one junior girl who never says a word and sits and stares out the window half the time. At the corner she was eager to say hello and ask me some questions. Her English is nearly perfect, and the writing I've graded of hers is by far the best in the class. She's too arrogant to be shy, she must just think the class is too easy or unstimulating.

I wish the topic was something more substantial than "What is your dream?" because god knows I don't have a dream and I certainly don't think I could tell any of the Nanchong English freshmen students how to pursue theirs. Maybe something about the relation of English to socioeconomic status in developing countries would have been more suitable. I could have whipped out my thesis.

After giving the speech I was swarmed by almost all of the freshmen who had come to the English corner. About 90% of them were girls. One by one they asked me questions and I did my best to answer them as completely as possible. Unfortunately most of the questions were the typical ones I hear like, "What is your favorite Chinese food?" (Beijing kaoya), "What do you think about China?"(Wow! The people are so friendly and the food is delicious!), "Can you speak Chinese?" (yi dian dian), "Do you like Sichuan food?" (No Sichuan food is horribly revolting and too spicy to be enjoyable by anyone without a steel tongue.. No I mean I like it oops!). I managed to get a couple pictures which really made the whole experience worthwhile. When the English corner ended at 9:30, everyone wanted to take a picture with me on their camera phone. It's probably the closest to celebrity-dome that I'll ever get. Everyone wanted my phone number and e-mail. Many girls told me I was very handsome and that they were afraid to talk to me. That's probably because I just reek of unharnessed sexual intimidation, hah!

back to school

Today (actually last week, but I've posted this on Sunday) was the first day of classes back from the National Day vacation. I had a total of three one-and-a-half hour classes of "Advanced Oral English". I've really begun to pick up on each class' unique personality. Some classes are quiet and slow to respond to questions while others are visibly engaged and talkative. My goal now is to make the quiet classes more active. I've started writing down people's names who volunteer in class, and it's really improved the student's attention.

I did a lesson on relationships and dating in the United States. We started with dating vocabulary including, "Blind date, double date, to go steady, and to go Dutch". Then, I split the class into groups of five and read five true or false questions about dating and relationships in the United States:

1. Most Americans begin dating in Middle School or High School
2. Americans usually have many boyfriends or girlfriends
3. Americans exchange wedding bands after getting married
4. Couples in the US usually go Dutch when paying for a bill
5. The divorce rate in the United States is ____ %

My last class really had fun with the questions and I was pleased to see some really heated discussions taking place. I think the divorce rate question was the favorite because no one knew exactly what it was. Most students guessed around 60-70%. Just in case you were wondering, the US census puts it around 52-53%. We then turned the questions around and talked about what the situation was like in China. Most students agreed that in China, the divorce rate was around 10-15%. I haven't been able to verify it, but it's an interesting statistic nonetheless. In my last class of the day, I had planned on doing an activity involving describing and drawing the ideal bachelor and bachelorette, but instead we ended up having a 40 minute talk about the reasons why the rate is so much higher in the United States than it is in China. Some students volunteered really insightful arguments regarding understandings of personal freedom, traditional vs. modern ways of thinking, and even women's rights. I wished I had some taped recording of what was said. It was by far the best class I've had at CWNU.

I'm also still getting the hang of hospitality here in China. I've had a lot of students ask me to get lunch or dinner or go downtown. It is customary when a boy and a girl get a meal for the boy to pay the entire bill - no questions asked. When discussing relationships in my oral English classes, students all agreed that going Dutch is completely unheard of in China while in the United States it is culturally acceptable. When I go out with students, I consistenly make an effort to pay especially when I know the bill is expensive. Sometimes I am successful, but other times I'm not. I know students have considerable less money than I do; very few of them have jobs, they tend to receive little money from their parents, and (especially at CWNU) the majority are from less developed rural villages. I feel guilty letting the students pay, but if I'm invited I know I should just shut up and let them. Despite paying for the bill, I always enjoy eating dinner with students because it's a good chance to talk about things beyond 'Where are you from?' and 'What do you think about China?' The following is a picture from a dinner I had a few days ago with some juniors of mine (left to right: Kristen, Joy, and Louise).

On Friday, I had my first lesson with my new Chinese teacher. Her English name is Sure, though I've forgotten her Chinese name already. Most Chinese names go in one ear and out the other because the words are just so foreign still. Sure is 24-years-old and teaches English and Chinese at CWNU. She's been trained in teaching Chinese to foreigners and taught the Peace Corps couple who just finished their service. I have two lessons a week for one hour at a time. The Peace Corps reimburses me for tutoring fees up to 400 kuai a month, and I've arranged to give her all 400 kuai. When she left, she went through my DVD collection and took 'School of Rock' and 'Bowling for Columbine'. It'll be interesting to see what she thought of 'Bowling'.

On a side note - yesterday, wikipedia (in English) was removed from the list of banned sites within China. Wikipedia in Chinese still remains censored and inaccessible in mainland China. This is great not only because now I can much more easily find some facts and tidbits I can use in class, but it is also a symbol of relaxing government internet and information censorship standards.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/16/technology/16wikipedia.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin

the intro

I made this blog on October 3rd, the last official day of the national day celebrations here in China; the three day celebration marking the foundation of the People's Republic of China by Chairman Mao Zedong on October 1st, 1949.

The first day I went downtown and met up with Sarah, another PCV, and we went into the city center to see what was happening. The central park was full of people, and of course we got the usual gawking, pointing, and ever-so-popular high-pitched Chinese girl giggle. Part of the park is more like a carnival than a park and includes several games and amusement rides including bumper cars and a few tame roller coasters. I love bumper cars and immediately went over to check them out. I was surprised to see many mothers with their infants, who could not have been more than a year old, in the bumper cars getting smacked around by all the other cars. Would this ever happen in the United States? I'm not sure. In any event, I took a picture and it gave me the motivation to create this blog: bumper cars with infants.

I'm a teacher at China West Normal University and a Peace Corps volunteer. I teach two classes of writing to sophomores and five classes of advanced oral English to juniors for a total of 14 teaching hours. During the week I hold office hours, help out with a university English radio show, meet up with students, watch movies, study Chinese, and grade papers. The school has about 30,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students with more majors than I could list here. Most of the students will go on to become teachers (hence the "normal" designation) after graduation.

Last Friday was the CCTV cup English speaking contest at China West. There were a total of 8 contestants, all English majors at the university. The winner goes on to Chengdu to compete against other winners from around Sichuan province for a scholarship and an internship with CCTV. Two were students from one of my sophomore writing classes. The topic was "gain and loss". All of the speeches were about some dull and superficial explanation like a loss was actually a gain in disguise or that we shouldn't feel sad when we lose or fail. After a four to five minute memorized speech, the students then had to answer one question from one of the judges which included myself, another foreign teacher, two English department administrators, and a female Chinese English teacher. The student then selected a number from one-to-nine which corresponded to a picture. Of the pictures I can remember, one was of a news story about China entering the WTO, another of an anorexic model, a Chinese space shuttle being launched, a popular Chinese soap opera, and an image from a Chinese internet chat service. The students had 30 seconds to prepare, then were able to talk for two to three minutes.

After the picture response, the rest of the judges and I wrote down a score and handed it to one of the contest hosts. I was advised that (even now I am still unsure of why) the lowest score I should give is an 8.0. Most of the scores I gave were around 8.8 to 9.0. Of the eight contestants, the top two students tied for 9.1 and went onto a playoff round. One of the two finalists (the girl in the picture) whose name is Joy, is in my writing class. I was asked by one of the hosts to propose a question to each of the contestants, and I said something to the effect of, "Is there such a thing as a loss with no gain, for example losing a family member?" In retrospect it was as superficial as most of the speeches, but how many questions can you really ask about gain and loss? The Chinese English teacher also asked a question before the judges panel wrote down their choice as the winner. I thought Joy had done a much better job, despite the fact that I had something vested in the result (I was the winner's teacher! haha), but the other student won 3-2. Afterwards I presented some awards to the runner-ups and took pictures. It was a fun initiation to these contests which apparently happen several times a year.