A Chinese lesson!

Last Sunday we got to spend another day with Bob and Linda. Because we teach on Tuesday and Thursday nights, it is more difficult to find a time to meet up with Bob and Linda. So, HE provided a time last week. We were talking to our friends at the Sunday meeting about the difficulty of finding a time to meet with Bob and Linda. Pretty much right after we were finished discussing this and trying to find a solution, Bob called Stan's phone. So Stan stepped out to answer it. When he came back in, he said Bob had asked us to come over to their house! Are you serious? I mean really, are you serious? We for real, just finished talking about that. HE is so cool! Haha! It made us all laugh and we were thankful!

After the meeting, we went over to Bob and Linda's for some dinner. They cooked Kimchi (which is not my favorite, but I choked it down anyway, ya know, you gotta.) So, while we were there, we learned the words for brother, sister and some other words. I was only able to jot down a couple of them. The way Linda explained the words was neat. She called Stan her brother. Stan has told her he feels like they are family and not just friends. Linda has said she agrees with Stan and feels like we are family too. So, Linda called Stan her brother and explained every other word from that standpoint. I tried to give you a phonetic spelling to go with it. Here's the Chinese lesson we got about family...


"Mom" and "Dad" is simple: "MaMa" and "PaPa".

There are different words for big brother and little brother. Big brother: "ge ge" It is said like "guh guh".
Little brother: "di di" It is said like "dee dee".

The same goes for big sister and little sister. Big sister: "jie jie" It is said like "jee-eh jee-eh".
Little sister: "mei mei" It is said like "may may".

So, now we call Linda our "jie jie". :) Hopefully one day we WILL be family. Please continue to think about this family. We know you have been already, because we have seen the fruits of it! Thanks for reading and I love you all!!

I hope I'm not awkward...

We will be arriving in Nashville pretty soon! It's not too far away! We are going to have to get used to a few things as you can imagine. This blog is a compiled list of the few things we will have to get used to doing again...

1. Carrying a driver's license
2. Driving
3. Driving in America
4. Sending a picture text message
5. Not using awkward statements we use everyday

Number 1 & 2: We just don't drive here. I know it's like riding a bike, and we'll hop back on no problem but it's still gonna be an adjustment.

Number 3: The driving here is much different. When we first got here I thought all the drivers were crazy. But after being here, there are just as many crazy drivers here as there are in America. They just drive differently as a country and if you tried to drive like that in America, you would die.

Number 4: I got the cheapest phone you could buy (well, Kris and Michael beat me, haha) and I can't take pictures with my phone. I know that seems a little silly, but it's something I haven't done in a while!

Number 5: Daily, we use phrases the Chinese people say, that are frankly quite awkward and not spoken from the lips of an American. These phrases are usually pronounced with the utmost enunciation, which makes them unusual: "Take care" when meaning 'be careful' or 'watch out'. "It is a pity" meaning 'I hate it for ya' ;) or 'It's a shame'. And Stan's favorite: When you say you are sorry, they will respond with, "Nos(th)ing, Nos(th)ing". But they don't pronounce the 'th'. In general when I come back from class I speak to Stan like I do my students. I enunciate every single letter. And we have to say to each other, "I'm not Chinese."

So, just tell me you are not Chinese if I begin to say one of these phrases to you. :) I told Stan I hoped I wasn't going to be awkward when I go home, so now he's calling me awkward every chance he gets! haha, so funny. Well, that's all for today! Thanks for reading and don't forget to think about me in China! I love you all!!

Nothing Important, but In addition...

This is an addition to my last blog. This girl sent in her homework a little late, but it was worth it, I think! haha! Enjoy!

The person I want to say thank is my mother.

I called my mother and said "Mum,my English teacher gave us a homewok which is to say thank to a person.I want to say it to you.To thank you bringing me up."She said,"ok."I asked,"don't you want to say something to me?"She answered,"I''m in the toilet."

Hahahahaha! I cracked up laughing and I was inside the school Coffee House. Oh man, that's funny!

P.S. We are going to Xi'an this weekend...leaving in the morning! We are going to see the Terracotta Warriors, so expect some pictures! Thanks for reading, I love you all!

Teaching Re-cap

This past week I did one of the same Proverbs Stan has done in a previous class. I have gotten some good responses, some of which I think are funny. The student might not think it's funny, but I certainly do! haha! The Proverb we talked about wasn't really in Proverbs, it was in the first Thess. 5th Chapter. Verse 15, 16, and 18a. It talks about being thankful toward the end. I gave my class an assignment: "Tell one person you are thankful for them." Simple. I think that they really appreciated being able to do this. Well, I'll just let you read some of them. The funny one is at the end.

I will thank for you ,Juliane.
Because with your help, my English speaking is improving week by week.
I know you haved paied so much on us. You have to prepare the meterial for our class, think about many things in order to let us feel more interesting...
I thank for your all payments.Thank you!


I am thankful for my grandmother. Because she took care of me all the time in my childhood. When I was a child, my mother was busy working, so I always stay at my grandmother's home. She often gave me the best. Now, I grow up, and I will never forget what she did for me. when I can make money, I want to repay my grandmother.

I thanks for my brother .In my childhood ,My parents are busy with their work.so,Most of time,I have got together with my brother.He played with me. And he taught me how to ride bicycle and how to swimming.I think he plays an important in my life.

I thanks my mother.Because she gives me my life.And something she dose for me.
Then my mother heard that ,she was moving.She thanks me ,too.Because I can let her be happy.
Juliane,Thank you ,too.

This one cracks me up. Just the first two lines...

Mum you are a woman sticking to traditions.you are too conservative to keep up with the times.But you are the person I loved best in this
world,for you are kind hearted and warm hearted.you are strict with me and often said to me:You cannot study to hard .
You rise me up,and give me everything I want to have.I love you ,Mum

This one was the response a girl in my class got from her boyfriend when she told him she was thankful for him. What's funny to me is in the second line...

TO dear
I’m so happy to hear that I’m the very person you give thanks to.
In spite of you having a terrible temper, that’s nothing serious to me .I can
Stand. The most important is that I hope you will have endless happiness and
Achieve the goals you have set to yourself.
Yours
boyfriend

I loved reading these and replying to their emails. It was great! Some of them didn't care much about the assignment, but the ones who did were very thoughtful. I feel like this is a good way to see which students truly care about others. That's a good attribute to have, as we all know!

Side note: I got a visitor counter on my blog and it's just cool to see how many people visit! Don't forget to think about me in China! Thanks for reading and I love you all!

Insecurities

When we first got to China and began teaching there were a couple of things that got on my nerves about the students. When you ask them a question, ABSOLUTELY NO ONE volunteers information. I mean, NO ONE! I have never used the phrase "It's like pulling teeth" more appropriately than while teaching in a Chinese classroom. When you ask a student a question individually in front of the class, he/she will stand up. Pause. Look at his/her friends, and stammer.

I then say, "Do you understand the question? Should I speak slowly?"
"No." Ok...so I wait while he/she continues to look around at his/her friends for the answer. I don't want your friend's answers, I want yours!! So, this was something that was very frustrating. While there are some students who have gotten use to my Western teaching style (that it is different than their Chinese teachers), there are still some who can not break through.

At the beginning, I was looking through my Western glasses, and I saw this as an insecurity. While some of the students may have some feelings of insecurity, most of it is just cultural. I understood that at the beginning, but understanding it and accepting it are two different things. I don't have any pictures for you to look at, just my thoughts and words.

Through being here for almost a school year now, I have just come to accept that they are not use to the Western teaching style, and it is something that they will be okay with after some time. It's pretty exhausting to teach most days, because you are literally having to pull teeth.

For example: There are two boys, Wood and Magic in my Tuesday night class. I normally give the students 5 or 10 minutes to think about a question I have asked them, and then go around the room and they all talk about their answer to the question that has been asked. Well, these two boys especially, have no interest in English or doing what I say. They have cop-out answers and seem extremely insecure about their English. At the beginning of the semester, I went easy on them because of this. But I've recently decided they are just lazy. I give them plenty of time to do what I ask. (They are even allowed to use their cell phones for an English dictionary.) So, now I have decided to have no sympathy on them because they just don't try. What I was mistaking as insecurity, was simply laziness.

I'm writing this blog post as a reminder to me of something I learned while I was here about the culture and teaching. Who knows, next year may be completely different...but He is the one who helps me through! Don't forget to think about me in China! Thanks for reading and I love you all!!

The Kings

We met with the King family on Saturday to talk about important things and read important material they were interested in. We met them at 8:30 AM and they said they had planned out the day. First, we were going to hike up a mountain and then go to a tea house. Well, hiking a mountain, we didn't think was going to be that big of a deal... we've done it many times since we have been in China. Bob King was showing me a map he had of the mountain we were going to climb. He was telling me "We will be going up and down this mountain and around to this one over here and then we will go up and down two more mountains..." Really? I started laughing because I thought he was kidding. He said it should take 3 days. I think he meant 3 hours, because that's about how much time it took! We were hurtin' by the end of it and ready to sit down! Bob thought it was easy, "no problem" he said. So, we got to the Tea house down at the bottom of the mountain and we began to play cards. This is Angel, getting the cards ready.



After we played for a little bit, Stan said, "Do you remember what we talked about last time we saw you? Do you want to study that?" To which Bob answered, "Yes!" Stan said, "Is now ok?" Bob said, "Yes! We would like to!" So...Stan got out his ITouch. It has a Good Book application on it that you can read. He also has it in Chinese, so we tried to use that. Bob said he liked using the English better, because it was easier to understand. So we read a verse and Bob and Linda would translate it in their own words to Chinese. It was so cool, because this helped them to dissect it and understand it better. This was a slow process, but much learning was involved!



We since have met with them this past Monday. We decided to have Monday nights be our "Night's with the Kings." I think something was lost in the translation, because Bob asked us if we were free any other night to study. We said we were free on Friday's too! So for right now we are meeting with them on Monday and Friday nights! It may change, or stay the same...never know! We are so excited about this opportunity, but there is always a concern at the beginning, in this culture. We have to access the situation and make sure they are not just looking for someone to study English with. We want to be their friends, and that is the way it looks right now with them! We still need to be careful and thoughtful about the Kings hearts. Think about this please. Think for their hearts, because if it's not in the right place, it just won't work.

Well, this semester is about coming to an end! We will only be here for a little less than 2 months and it will fly by!! Please think about us being productive in the little time we have left this year. Thanks for reading! I love you all!!

Teaching re-cap and Good NEWS!!!

Hello all! I haven't done a class blog in a couple weeks...busy busy busy! This is a portion of the classes I did when my parents were here. I usually do a Proverb, but my mom gave me the idea to show them this story and talk about making a difference. Here is the story I read to them:

The Starfish Story

A young girl was walking along a beach upon which thousands of starfish had been washed up during a terrible storm. When she came to each starfish, she would pick it up, and throw it back into the ocean. People watched her with amusement.

She had been doing this for some time when a man approached her and said, “Little girl, why are you doing this? Look at this beach! You can’t save all these starfish. You can’t begin to make a difference!”

The girl seemed crushed, suddenly deflated. But after a few moments, she bent down, picked up another starfish, and hurled it as far as she could into the ocean. Then she looked up at the man and replied,

“Well, I made a difference to that one!”

The old man looked at the girl inquisitively and thought about what she had done and said. Inspired, he joined the little girl in throwing starfish back into the sea. Soon others joined, and all the starfish were saved.


I asked them if they understood what it meant to make a difference. If they didn't, I explained that lighting a match in darkness gives the room light, and the light makes a difference to the darkness. I then asked them to get into groups and tell me what they thought they could do in their community to make a difference. Here were some of their responses:

"Don't belittle other people. Donate some clothes. Adopt children."

"I will be friendly to all the people around me. I will visit and take care of the elder when the weekends come."

A lot of my students placed a lot of importance on keeping the earth clean and said that could make a difference. I thought these two were the most thoughtful in the ways of a follower and it is important for me to think about these students and keep them in mind.

Stan and I are excited about this coming Saturday. While my parents were here, we were able to spend some time with Bob and Linda King. Through this interaction, we were able to tell them a little bit more about who we are. We went to Kyle and Rebecca's house after dinner with them and Rebecca showed them a Children's Good Book. Linda was excited to read it and that lead to more discussion! We are going to meet with them on Saturday to read more and have some more discussion! Please please please think about this! We are pumped! Thanks for reading, I love you all!

Sick Sick Sick

Well, we took my parents to the airport in Shanghai, and Stan was feeling sick the whole time. Traveling anywhere when you feel sick to your stomach is not fun. But traveling in China when you are feeling sick is the exact picture of the least amount of fun anyone could possibly have. Did I get my point across? haha, I think so. So anyway, Stan wasn't feelin too hot, and we had to say a quick good-bye to my parents at the airport to catch our train back to Hangzhou.

On the way back, I started to feel a little funny, and my stomach started feeling bad. Well, Wednesday night and all day Thursday, Stan and I were sick in the bed. Stomach problems, yuck yuck yuck! No fun! And if you remember, in my last blog I talked about how we were going out of town on Friday. Well, the day of rest did us some good on Thursday, because we could at least get up on Friday. We still felt a little yucky, but able to move around. The traveling did us no good, and we are still suffering from the effects of it (some of us worse than others.) Keep us in your thoughts please. It's not fun to feel bad wherever you are, but when you are in a foreign country it makes things worse.

We are looking forward to coming home! It's not too far away, and we can't wait! Keep us in your thoughts, thanks for reading! I love you all!