One Week Down

I’m really excited that I have my writing students for a full year; it’s nice to have time to go more in depth.  With the material that we were given, this semester will focus on the mechanics of writing, and next semester on writing essays and papers.  Here’s a general overview of the plan for this semester:

Week 1: Introduction to Writing, Course Syllabus, Personal Introductions

Week 2: The Writing Process

Week 3: Review of Punctuation and Capitalization Rules

Week 4: Diction (Word Choice)

Week 5: Combining Sentences (Compound, Complex, and Compound-Complex Sentences)

Week 6: Sentence Variety

Week 7: Effective Paragraphs

Week 8: Development of a Paragraph by Time

Week 9: Development of a Paragraph by Process

Week 10: Development of a Paragraph by Space

Week 11: Development of a Paragraph by Exemplification

Week 12: Development of a Paragraph by Generalization

Week 13: Development of a Paragraph by Comparison and Contrast

Week 14: Development of a Paragraph by Cause and Effect

Week 15: Development of a Paragraph by Classification

Week 16: Development of a Paragraph by Definition

Week 17: Final Exam 

So, this week, I did the first two weeks’ lessons. The first time I saw each class (Monday and Wednesday), I first introduced myself—the students generally personally know very few foreigners, and so they find it interesting to hear about the life of an American.  I made a power point with some pictures of my family, my parents’ house in Tennessee, scenery from Tennessee and Columbia specifically, and of things Tennessee is known for (music, mostly—although actually, whenever I’ve mentioned I’m from Tennessee when traveling in several countries, the first thing people always think of is…Jack Daniels.  However, I decided not to use whiskey as a claim to fame for my students).  I told a bit of my history—where I went to college, that I was an English major like them, my time in Italy, that I had lived in Jingzhou for a year—and also some of my interests: I like photography, genealogy, I’m a Christian, etc. I opened it up for questions afterward—told them it was their chance to be nosy (not that they always need one).  My first class, 1106, asked plenty of good questions, but my other two were shy and didn’t come up with anything.  

Next, I had each student stand up and introduce themselves to me—my students in Jingzhou (I know, I feel like I’m constantly comparing Jingzhou vs. Wuhan, but that’s my only frame of reference right now) barely squawked out their names, hometown, and struggled to come up with an interest: “My name is Echo…I’m from Enshi, in Hubei province…I like…badminton…and reading.”  These students, on the other hand, weren’t shy at all.  I almost had to cut a few short , even—each and every one of them spoke for at least two minutes; not only a list of their hobbies, but why they like and what they don’t like and what their friends think about it.  I do think it would be fun to teach spoken English sometimes—but I am firmly entrenched as a writing teacher.  

After our personal introductions, I gave an intro to the course, going over the syllabus and talking about written English as opposed to spoken English as a form of communication.  Finally, I had a bit of fun with the students—to help both me learn their English names as well as them learn each others’, we played the name game.  The first person says, “Hi, I am Helen.”  The second says, “I am Jane, and this is Helen.”  The third says, “I am Lily, and this is Jane and Helen.”  And so on, until the last people have to give everyone’s name.  I usually start at the back and work towards the front, because the best students usually claim the front row to vie for attention as teacher’s pet, so I figured they could use the challenge.  Finally, I rattled them all off—they always seem to be impressed that I do this without much effort—but I’ve been paying attention as we go through it over and over, and besides, it’s easier for me as the names are at least familiar name (or words) to me. 

The Normal, the Out-of-Context, and the Bizzare

On the first day of class for the semester, I have to be careful not to laugh when I make a list of the English names of my students.  We foreigners sometimes try to learn and use our Chinese friends and students’ names, but we rarely get the pronunciation just right—so many of them prefer we just use an English nickname rather than butcher their Chinese names.  English majors, especially, choose English names to use in class and with foreigners; I remember we used to do that in language classes too—my Spanish name was Catalina in high school.  

Overall, I think this is a good idea—it sure helps us teacher to learn their names and be able to keep records much more easily, and it helps the students to learn how to pronounce some English names.  The problem with it is that, apparently, students are not well-supervised when they are picking their names.  I keep wishing that I could teach some freshmen, so that I could guide them—or, rather, exercise the power of veto.  But, I teach sophomores, and most of them are already attached to the name they already have.  

Some of them make good choices of names—I have plenty of Alices, as well as Jessica, Charlie, Sarah, Lily, Lance, Natalie, Cassie, Daniel, and Lisa.  Chinese names are chosen for meaning,not sound, and many do the same in English, picking a name with a good meaning (happy, lucky, brave) without regard to the sound.  Some take the opportunity to do the opposite: choose a sound they like without considering the meaning, which they can't do in Chinese.  Other choose a name that sounds similar to their Chinese name: Lily for Li Li, Lucy for Lu, Joker for Jiao Kai.  Other identify themselves with a hobby or interest, taking a name from sports or TV.  Kobe was popular a couple of years back, as many of the boys are huge NBA fans;  Roger admires tennis star Roger Federer; Sheldon is popular this year (I have two) because of the TV show Big Bang Theory. 

 The next tier of names are proper names, but chosen out of context--the Chinese students  have no way of knowing which names were popular in which generation, or are currently in or out of fashion—so, I have Bertha, more than one Helen, Linda, Frances, Sharon, Ruth, Cindy, and Tina, which, while not unusual, are not that common for a nineteen-year-old.  Oddly enough, I also have two girls called Blanca.  One wouldn't be that odd; she just looked for a name that meant 'white' or something, but two? 

And then, just as I begin to think I finally have a class with good sense, we reach the bizarre.  There’s always one or two who just have to be “creative.”  How am I supposed to call on a student (male) named Dreamcatcher? Without laughing?  He’s probably the most interesting I have this term, but there’s also Apple, Echo, Ecco, Seldom, Cloris, Malak (female), Joker, and Armstrong.  So far, however, there are fewer outliers than I had in Jingzhou—but still. I’ve written before about the dilemma here—do I accept such names because, as it’s their name, it’s their free choice, or do I insist that they use proper names because most Americans are going to laugh at them? 

Referring to Classes

It might make by blog posts a bit clearer if I go ahead and explain now how we
refer to classes here in China.  Unlike American colleges where each student
has their own separate schedule, students here are sorted into classes
according to their major.  There are six classes of Sophomore English majors,
each with between twenty and twenty-five students.  They are labeled 1101,
1102, etc.  The 11 is the year they entered the university, so freshmen this
year will be 1201, 1202, etc.; juniors would be 1001, 1002, 1003.

The students stay with this class through the four years in university; all of
their core classes and major courses are together.  Some choose different
electives or second majors/minors, but for the most part they share the same
schedule and spend quite a lot of time together--when a Chinese person refers
to their "classmate", they are talking about a person who is like a brother or
sister to them--many of them are roommates, besides having most classes
together.  So, a Chinese person means something quite different by classmate
than what we Americans would mean refering to someone we had a class with in
college.

Anyhow, I teach writing to classes 1103, 1104, and 1106, and Greek and Roman
Mythology to a class that's half 1101 half 1102 (presumably, there was some
alternative class they could choose).

And So It Begins...First Day of Class!

Today may be Labor Day in the U.S., but here in China (as well as most of the rest of the world), Labor Day is in May.  So, today is the day to start classes for the fall semester!

This fall, I am teaching four classes: three are Basic Writing in English, and one is Greek and Roman Mythology.  When I mention my schedule, everyone nods in agreement with the first three, and then does a double take when I throw in that last one.  The reason for that one is that, for many years, English majors have had reading classes, where they were assigned various books, articles, etc. to read and discuss in English.  While that's fine for studying English, their professors have come up with a better idea: why not have this 'reading' class on a particular subject?  That way, the students can get in their reading practice, but it won't just be a random jumble of unrelated things--they can actually learn something besides English from the course.  Thus, Greek and Roman Mythology was born.  I'm really excited about it; as an English major myself, I'm looking forward to the opportunity to teach literature.  I'm co-teaching this course with Zoe Chen, a Chinese professor here at this school.  She's doing the first three weeks--in fact, she's teaching the class right this moment--and then it will be my turn for several weeks, and then she will teach again at the end.

I thought I was quite prepared for writing classes--I taught the exact same thing in Jingzhou in 2010, writing for English majors at the Sophomore level.  However, we had some meetings with our Chinese colleagues on Friday.  At this university, the curriculum for basic writing is much more standardized.  When I was in Jingzhou, we were given a class and told to teach them without any sort
of plan being given to us; we were free to do whatever we wanted.  Here, we have a book, and a topic assigned for each week.  We are free to use whatever activities or teaching methods we would like, but we have set material to cover.  We will have faculty meetings every other week or so to share ideas and plan together.

My first gut feeling was annoyance that I wouldn't be free to teach whatever I felt like teaching, but then almost immediately I realized how much better this is for the students.  Part of why we were given little supervision or guidance before was because our class was a fluff class.  It didn't really count for much.  Here, we are teaching alongside the Chinese professors; we are teaching actual core classes of the major.  Student's experiences in my last school varied depending on the competence and experience of the teacher; here, we are sharing resources so that hopefully all students will get a similar quality of instruction.

One other interesting aspect of my writing courses: our Chinese co-teacher, Vera Song, is expecting a baby in December.  She'd really like to end the semester early--so, we're all ending the semester early.  These first four weeks, we're meeting twice a week with each class instead of the usual once a week, but then we will finish the course in week 13 (out of a normal 17-18 week semester).  In December, I'll only be teaching one class, the mythology course.
I'm also really excited that the writing course is a full-year course.  I will continue with the same students in the spring semester.  It will be nice to get to know them better, and to be able to teach a more in-depth course than if it were to be crammed into one semester.

 One final reason for excitement: this school has embraced technology,and there is power point available in every classroom!  Chalk boards scare me, so I am ecstatic to be able to type things for my students instead of getting covered in dust at the board.  Oh, and I have between 21-24 students in each class, which is great for a college course.  I have ninety students in total. 

Here's my schedule right now:

Monday:
8:00  Greek and Roman Mythology (weeks 4-16)
2:00  English Writing, class 1106 (weeks 1-13)
4:00 English Writing, class 1104 (weeks 1-4) *After the four weeks are over, we will have our faculty m
eetings at this time slot*

Wednesday:
10:00 English Writing, class 1106 (weeks 1-4)
2:30 English Writing, class 1103 (week 1-4)

Thursday:
8:00 English Writing, class 1104 (weeks 1-13)
10:00 English Writing, class 1103 (weeks 1-13)

So, after the first four weeks, I will only have classes on Monday and Thursday. Not bad, huh? 

Wuhan: One of the Three Furnaces of China

Is it bedtime yet?  I nearly fell asleep at eight, which is unheard of for me.  I think it’s mostly the heat—they weren’t kidding when they called Wuhan one of the three furnaces of China, along with Chongqing and Nanjing.  Combine the haze of smog holding the air down, the summer sun, and the dozens of large lakes in the city, and you have a hot, sticky mess.  My campus is on a peninsula that juts out into Nan Hu (South Lake), so there's no escape from humidity here.  Seriously, it’s so humid here that I am drenched in sweat within seconds of walking out my door. Walk out the door, and it hits you like a wall; I know it's going to be hot, but I'm gasping for air in surprise every time anyhow.
I know it’s often this hot and sticky in Tennessee, too, but I worked in a bank there, and actually had to wear a jacket some days because it was so air-conditioned indoors.  But even there, I don’t remember having sweat dripping off of my and making my purse handles slippery just walking to my car.   

The first thing I do when I walk in the door to my apartment is run for the AC remote and crank it up; I live on the fifth floor, and by the time I hike up all those flights of stairs I just want to flop in front of the air and not move. But, tomorrow is the first of September...surely this heat can't hold out too much longer. 

My (Short) Life as a Morning Person

The first week of adjusting to the thirteen-hour time difference between U.S. Central time and China time is always an education experience for me—I get to see what it’s like to be a morning person, something I haven’t been since sometime around middle school.  My natural rhythm is going to sleep at two and getting up at ten; my normal real-world adjustment is going to sleep around midnight and getting up around seven; but this week I’ve been going to bed around ten and getting up about five-thirty.  And not just getting up—getting up with energy and being productive.  Normally it does me no good at all to wake up early—I accomplish nothing I’m not getting paid for (powerful motivator to wake up, that) until at least noon.  

The last few days, six to nine in the morning has been the part of the day when I was most productive.  Usually, it’s about two to four in the afternoon and eleven until two at night; I can get more done after midnight than the whole rest of the day put together.  Anyhow, it’s nice seeing how the other half of you people live…by next week, I’ll be adjusted and hitting the snooze button four times again.  

My New Apartment in Wuhan

I'm having some trouble posting pictures to this blog; hopefully I'll figure something out soon.  In the meantime, here are the pictures of my new apartment:  Foreverfreebird Fotografia

I really like my new apartment; it feels like to 70s walking in.  I really have quite a bit of space--I have a dining room and an second bedroom (no bed, just empty).  I've never had a dining room, or even a table and chairs, for that matter, in any of the apartments I've lived in.  It will make it really nice when I want to entertain! 

Of course, these pictures are "before" shots; I haven't had time yet to clean, organize, and decorate to my tastes.  I'll post after pictures in a couple of weeks. 

Beijing Airport...Still.

And here I am at my new home! Oh…wait…this is the Beijing airport…still. 

So, we had a tight layover in Beijing.  And our plane from L.A. was late getting in.  And we had to collect all our luggage and walk with it through customs.  And it’s a major capital city of a huge country airport, meaning correspondingly huge.  If any little thing goes, wrong we could miss this flight…

Well, of course it did.  Oddly enough, it was the first group of us who got our luggage who missed the flight.  Somehow, we missed the place where we were supposed to return out luggage for the flight to Wuhan, and ended up out in the main part of the terminal.  We went to the check-in desk, but were sent to another, then to the ticket counter.  Oh, and in the middle of this, we had a Chinese man trying to be helpful and leading us in circles.  The long and short of it is, nine of us missed the flight.  Those who had taken longer to get their luggage and were behind us did not go the wrong way and made it, go figure.  

There was another flight an hour later, but it only had one free seat. Kevin happened to be first in line, so he decided to try and run for it.  Apparently he made it, because he never came back; we waited in the same area for a good while just in case.  Unfortunately, there were no more flights after that until the next day.  We managed to change our tickets to one person at 12:30, three at 1:30, and the last four at 5:40.  By the time we finished all that, it was 7:00 pm.  So…eighteen and a half hours to go for me (1:30) and even longer for the last group.  Definitely qualified as longest layover I’ve ever had… To make it even more fun, we were stuck for the night, with all of our luggage. 

We piled all the luggage together around a group of three seats near the ticket counter; a few people stayed to guard it all while a few of us did some recon work.  Laura found that we could get passwords for the free airport wifi from the information booth.  Kelly and I went exploring downstairs for a better home base; we found a quieter bank of chairs with plenty for everyone, and also the hourly lounge, which had beds and showers.  In the end, we all cheaped out and stayed out of the lounge.  We set up home base on the last row of seats.  It turned out to be nice that there were so many of us; we could take turns guarding the luggage, sleeping, and wandering off to find food, shop, etc.  Samuel found a row of outlets around the corner, where we could recharge our laptops.  

Although no one was particularly excited at another night in an airport, we made the best of it.  I got to know teachers who would be at different schools, who I probably would never have made much connection with otherwise.  We played balderdash.  We ate some particularly unappetizing Burger King food (my last meal in the U.S. and my first meal in China were both Burger King…sigh; I’d hoped for at least a Taco Bell in L.A.), we sponge-bathed, we took exploratory walks, and skyped relatives.  We watched a group of window-washer rappel from the roof, cleaning the glass wall of the terminal as they swung back and forth. Finally, I got through to Ed, so he could inform those who were supposed to be picking us up our new arrival times; however, most of the schools were ahead of us and had already called the airport and got the information themselves.  Sigh, the things you can do if you speak Chinese… 

And finally, we did make it to Wuhan.  And all of our luggage made it with us.  And you know the funny part?  The group who made the original flight didn’t get their luggage until the next day—it waited to fly with us!  So, an adventure either way around.