Thursday, September 30, 2010

A Sudden Bout of Insomnia

Well, that just about says it. It's 2:30 AM, I am tired, but can't sleep. I've been playing around on the internet for a while, reading, playing games on my phone, and watching TV, trying to fall asleep! So, I don't know if I've ever been one to say, "I lost sleep over _____ last night." But I think I can say that tomorrow. I got this email from my supervisor, Cindy telling me I needed to use the book in my class more. She said she had some complaints from some students about it. Well, I'll just let you read the email...


HI, Juliane,
There is a preblem about your teaching.
It seems that you do not often use the textbooks in your English Viewing Listening and Speaking and Introduction to English Speaking Countries. Recently some students have some complaints. They appreciate the games in class, but they hope you teach some contents in the textbooks so that they would get more information in the short persiods. Would you please modify your plan a little to cover more information from the textbooks?
Or ,we can talk about it sometime after the long holiday?
Take care and have a good holiday!
Cindy


Now, this may seem simple to you, but I feel as though I have been accused of just playing games in my classes. This is not the case, and I immediately felt the need to defend myself. I explained these activities are provided for the students so I, the teacher, can get to know the students, monitor how well they follow directions, encourage the students to speak aloud in class, and therefore have a better understanding of their level of oral English. They are not games. They have purpose. I continued to explain that I have been planning to begin teaching out of the book after the October Holiday (since I have only seen some of my classes 3 times). I think it's a good length of time to learn where the students are academically in their oral English.

So, I have been up trying not to think about this email. I did reply to her email very nicely but I am still having trouble with it. That's why I can say, "I lost sleep over it last night." I'm thinking it might have to do with a little pride issue. I don't want anyone to think I'm a stupid or bad teacher after all! But that's the thing about pride...it's hardest to admit from those who need to admit it the most. Well, I would like your opinions, please. If you are a regular reader of my blog, I would like to hear what you think. I so very, very badly do not want anyone to think I am a bad teacher. But I also think I need to work on the pride a bit, too. Anyway, thanks for reading! Please think about me in China! I love you all!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

The first Chinglish Blog of the Semester!

Well, I figured since my mother nagged me :) I should do a blog. But here's the deal: I'm sick, achy all over and I don't wanna put much effort into anything. So, I decided to do another Chinglish post!

It's that time again! I don't have as many as I would like, but I think I have some good ones. You can be the judge. You know there will be more later, and I'll post these on facebook too!


Changing Roon?



Here's a full view of what's happening. They like to focus on privacy here in China...



What's The Worlo?



Just in case you can't see it, it says "Internationgnal"








I know where to go when I need help: "The Olice Station"





Ummm...this was inside of a bathroom. That gray thing is a big button to push if you "seeks help"



When the light was on at the top it meant it was occupied. haha!



Well, that's it! Thanks for reading and laughing. I know you did! Don't forget to think about me in China. I love you all!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

The Grass is Always Greener

We've all heard the saying, "The grass is greener on the other side." Stan and I have experienced some irony within this saying during the move to Xiasha.

#1 New apartment! Yay! The new apartment has more room, we have a bigger kitchen...we have a couch!

#2 Friends! We are closer to "everyone" this year. Closer to all the foreigners we know! This is good for our relationship with other people, and each other.

The grass is always greener. Even though these things are great, grand and wonderful... the grass is always greener. With the new, bigger apartment, come more room. More space. More things to clean. Here's the thing, I knew this fact about having more space before, but it was like since we had been in that small space for so long, I had almost forgotten that significant piece of information. Haha! The other day I was sitting on the couch (WE HAVE A COUCH!) and I looked around and said to myself, "This place is a pig sty!!" So I got up and cleaned like a crazy woman! That's when I realized, "Oh yeah, I forgot what it was like to actually clean a house, and not a dorm room." I thought we had it bad with less space, but there really is just less to clean. haha!

Did I mention we have a couch? Oh- well, we have a couch. On which people might sit. They don't have to sit on our bed or just stand awkwardly next to the bed. So, I will show you a picture. This was not our first couch. Our first couch, when we got to this apartment was a coral-colored couch which was broken. So, the school got us a new one....



We like to refer to this one as "The Nickelodeon Couch" I think you know why. :) Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! I encourage you to enjoy the things and people around you and not hope for the greener grass on the other side. I love you all!

Friday, September 17, 2010

Tradition

We got to go to our old school, Shuren yesterday. It was both good and exhausting, like most things in China. We got to see a lot of our old students! We met them at a coffee shop on campus and got to catch up! Well, one of the things that is important to understand about the Chinese culture is they are huge on tradition. That statement doesn't even do it justice. haha! So when my former students saw that I had cut my hair, their reactions were:

"(Shriek!) Juliane! You cut your hair! Oh no!!!"

"Juliane! Why you cut your hair?" I told her I wanted to, and was tired of having long hair. "She pointed to her pony tail and said, "But you can do this." Oh yeah, thanks. I had never thought of that!

"Oh no! I can't believe you cut your hair! It was so beautiful long!" I said, "So, you do not think my hair is beautiful now?" She said, "Oh yes...both are...maybe beautiful." she was reluctant, as you can see. haha!

These reactions did not offend me because I understand what is behind them. They thought my hair was pretty before, so it is the wrong thing to do to cut it off. They think I should keep it the way it is because of that. They think having long hair is the better way to do it, and if I do something else, it is wrong. Outside the long hair box, I literally become a different person to them and they don't know how to handle it.

Other examples of tradition in China have to do with the idea that there is only one way to do something. These examples are:

Being left handed is wrong. (They are trained not to be left handed if they show signs of this as children.)

We are fortunate enough to have a "Coldstone Creamery" in Hangzhou! One day I was ordering the "Founder's Favorite". This ice cream mixture comes with Sweet Cream Ice Cream. I asked the girl behind the counter if she could replace the Sweet Cream Ice Cream with some Chocolate Ice Cream. She looked so confused and said to me, "No, you can't." I said, "I can't? I will pay you extra money." She said, "No, I don't think it will be very delicious." That was her reasoning for not wanting to give me what I asked her to give me. Not because it is not allowed, but because it was outside the box. She'd never tried it and therefore thought it wouldn't be very delicious. She "knew" better that I did. So I said, "Yes it is! I have had it in America. I love it. Please give it to me." She was surprised at this that someone else had given it to me. So I got what I wanted! haha!

Before going back to the States this summer, Stan and I were trying to exchange some bigger bills for smaller ones to use as souvenirs for people back home. So, we went to the nearest bank. The girl at the window spoke a little English, so we asked her to exchange the amount of money for us. We told her we wanted the paper form of that amount of money. She went to the back and came out with coins for that amount. Stan told her he wanted the paper money and not the coin. She said, "Oh, but I think the coin is much more beautiful to give as a gift." And handed it to him.

Even though he told her what he wanted, she "knew" better. Things like this happen just about every day. It's literally hard to count how many times it has happened. It's interesting how different just two cultures can be.

Well, I hate to end this abruptly, but I just don't have anymore to say, and you all aren't grading me on my writing abilities! :) Thanks for reading! I love you all!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Don't EVER go to Wu Mei at night!

In our city (well really it's a town), Xiasha, there is a supermarket called Wu Mei. Pronounced "Woo May". The translated version is said "Wu Mart" This is the only supermarket in our town. There are other grocery stores, but they are much smaller and you cannot get everything you need in one place. You can't always find everything you need at Wu Mart, but you can find a lot of things. Along with this being the only supermarket in Xiasha, it is also the most hoppin' place in town. Everything revolves around this one part of town. So, this is the place to be at night.

If you have ever been in Wal-Mart in America at the busiest time of the year, Christmas time, (before or after) you know how irritating it is to get some shopping done. Well, I want you to take that feeling and multiply it by about 20 and shrink the amount of space you have to walk through the isles by about 10. Now put yourself in a town where that Wal-Mart is the only thing in town worth doing for entertainment. Now, put about 15 Universities in that general area with students who have nothing to do. Now you know how it feels to shop at Wu Mart in Xiasha, China at night. I will never do it again.

Now I am going to add one more dynamic to this. Last year I could walk into our supermarket and go to the exact isle I needed to go, get exactly what I needed to get and miss any type of a rush. With moving out to a new area comes a great deal of learning. The supermarket is no exception. I don't know where anything is in Wu Mart, the learning curve takes a lot longer because everything is in Chinese, and apparently I didn't know what time to NOT go. So, as you can tell tonight was a bit stressful for me. So I decided I would blog about it an eat a Twix bar. :) So that's what I'm doing right now. And I feel all better! I love that blogging, or journal-ing has such positive effects!

This blog was not meant for me to complain, but simply to give you a glimpse of what something is like in China. I certainly made a vow to myself tonight that I would never again step foot in a Wu Mei at night, and that will make that part of my life run more smoothly. When that happens, I'm not concentrating on the bad and I can get more things accomplished for Him. Well, that's all I have for tonight. Thanks for reading! I love you all!

Monday, September 6, 2010

A Blessing in "De-skies"

We got our schedules and are halfway through the first week! Our friends and families have been asking for our schedules. My mom asked about it the other day and I said, "I'm gonna do a blog about it." haha! That sounds rude, but it's just crazy getting settled in here. I truly believe the "settling in" process takes longer here than in the U.S. I digress...

I am teaching primarily Audio-visual classes, with the exception of one Culture class. And I love it! So, I would like to show you what my schedule is:

Monday:
8:00-11:35 (2 different Advanced AV classes)
~ Lunch Break ~
3:10-4:45 Culture class

Tuesday:
8:00-11:35 (2 different Regular AV classes)

Wednesday (only the first week and 16th week)
1:30-4:45 (2 different Regular AV classes)

Now, don't let the Wednesday classes confuse you. At this new school, they have cut some of our classes a week or two short and ask us to teach double on some weeks. It's not that bad, because I'm not with classes for the week!

Stan's schedule is pretty much the opposite of mine, but he'll do his own blog on that. When we first got our schedules, I was a little bummed out because they were polar opposites. But the day before we started classes, Stan and I sat down and talked about what we would do in our classes. We came to the conclusion that it would be a good idea to help each other in our classes since our schedules are exactly opposite. After doing it for 3 days in a row, it has worked out beautifully! We're really excited about the semester because we feel that teaching together will help our students know us as a unit better than if we were to teach separately. It's looking like this situation will be beneficial for His work! So what started out as a bummer was a "blessing in de-skies". Ok, I know that's really corny, but we feel blessed! haha! Thank you all for reading! Don't forget to think about me in China! I love you all!

Friday, September 3, 2010

This too shall pass

Hello! So here's the deal, we got to Toronto around 9PM their time on the 30th. We went to eat at a near by steak house and it was a good way to wrap up the Summer. We got back to the room and did pretty much nothing, again, a good way to wrap up the Summer. We went to bed and the next morning got up and were prepared to get on the shuttle that took us to the airport. As we were waiting, I had this yucky feeling in my stomach. The whole Summer, I was excited to come back to China because of the good things! But now, as I was standing there waiting for the shuttle to pick us up, I had the opposite feelings. I had just about forgotten all the bad things about China and I had almost unprepared myself for being in that culture again. Being in a culture where the person who walks out of the elevator is finishing their cigarette, and where there is human waste in the corner of the restaurant you are eating. Being in a culture where you feel trapped.

"This to shall pass." I keep reminding myself of that. All of these feelings passed last year and they will this year too...it's just that when you're down in the dumps it's hard to get out of them by yourself. I'm glad I'm NOT by myself (figuratively and literally)! I'm excited for what the year holds and Thinking often about it! Thanks for all of your words of encouragement! Thanks for reading, I love you all!