Week 23 - Classes and Science Class

Jan. 25, 2015

    My last day of teaching regular classes was a bit of a struggle. All the kids knew it was the last day, so they didn’t really care if they did well or not. But together we made it through. Now I have until Wednesday off and then 10 straight days of class, which will be swiftly followed break. I can not wait for break, it’ll be nice to have some weekends and afternoons free. I worked just fine last semester but during the break I took on so many classes, I fear I burnt myself out a little bit. Returning home was easy enough, then it was nose to grindstone for several hours. Homework this semester has picked up a little bit, so that means more time devoted to it. My one reprieve from all this work is cooking. I can listen to an audiobooks and just decompress from the day. I am somehow extremely tired, I think the last couple of weeks are finally catching up to me. Early night tonight.

Jan. 26-27, 2015

    Chinese class is really rough this week. Last week I was doing awesome, I was even able to improv some of the answers. But this week I feel like I am in the wrong track. I don’t know what it is about the travel chapters of the book but I have never done well on them. I will struggle through together. I think Laoshi thinks I am doing well despite my struggles in her class. I try to answer as many questions as I can, and speak. The biggest bummer about having such a large class is the weird Chinese competition. People can become highly competitive of their Chinese, and often compare themselves to others in their class. When the students then split off to practice speaking, they can become extremely petty. Correcting tones is not really something anyone but a native speaker can do, but people will do it in the middle of the sentence just to through you off. I had this problem last semester and with some of the new students of has made a second appearance (With the Old Guard though it’s chill). For me learning Chinese isn’t about what job I will get, it’s about a life skill one that I must have if I am to live in China. I will be the first to admit that my ability to speak is likely behind that of my peers. I studied for three months inTaiwan, left off for a year and now my study in Chengdu is at four months. I simply have not had time to practice, something I am trying to remedy to the best of my ability. I wish people could see their education as a path rather than a race. It would create a better learning environment for all of us.
    Monday was Australia day, so Jesse and I went with Raphi for dinner. Brent, one of our co-workers, was in the USAC office talking with Wentao so he was also invited along. It was an interesting meal to say the least. Brent is experiencing China differently than anyone I know. Listen to him talk and voice his opinions is interesting, I enjoy the different perspective, though at times I find it hard to relate. The thing about living or studying in China is to recognize that your views and experiences are not truly shareable. Things that you find profound others might brush off as a common occurrence. People often talk about how their experience of China is the real experience and that not doing exactly what they did means that you didn’t actually see China. I call this the “My China” syndrome. China is China and people come to do different things, for different reasons; no matter the experience it will be life-changing. This blog in many ways is My China. I often voice my options and tell of my experiences, but show this to another person studying abroad and I suspect they would have much to criticize. I have fallen many time into the trap, so one of my strongest resolutions is to listen without judgment to others experiences in this fascinating country, I’ve found that I often pick up something that helps shape My China.

Jan. 28, 2015
   
    Normally I would have conversation this morning, but I feel like I will drop the class. Though it is a practice in Chinese it is not the one I wanted. Being able to read Chinese has never been a issue, but speaking it spontaneously is still an uphill struggle. Conversation, due to the new teacher has become a exercise in reading and memorization, the two subjects I need the least amount of work on. However, Wentao needs to find out if I will get a W on my transcript. If I do I will take the class and just deal with it. If not then I will have Wednesdays and Fridays off. I may go to the Track 4 supplemental class if that is the case, which is on Friday mornings. It’s with the same teacher but the subject is grammar and vocabulary of my class, so a nice review. I’ll keep you updated when all that is decided.
    Today was  the first day of ten for my winter science class. It was controlled chaos (controlled, I use this term lightly). Apparently Chinese ideas of American science class is essentially activities class (with mildly science sounding themes). They think that Americans never sit down and listen to a lecture, though that was not expressed to me. I kinda had to figure things out as the class went on. Lily, my Ta, was a trooper she was able to think quickly and put together some activities for the kids to do. The theme of the first day was “What is Science?”. But none of the kids could sit still long enough to do the lesson, so we ended up doing a class of basic and acidic reactions. Purple cabbage juice changes colors when exposed to an acid or a base so we were able to get the kids impressed long enough (coloring is the most amazing thing ever). It was really frustrating today because there had been cultural misunderstanding. Also now that I know what I need to do it will be much easier to create lesson plans. Honestly I regret agreeing to do this class. At the best it’s magic show and the worst it’s an exercise in futility. Either way we will hopefully muddle though all of this. It is only ten days so if it totally flops it doesn’t really matter. Either way I will make it through but I need to learn to ask my American coworkers instead of listening to my Chinese bosses. There always seems to be weird miscommunication (cultural difference for the win).

Jan. 29, 2015

    Class is going well, I am really pleased with how much I am able to understand. Even outside the classroom it’s like a hearing Chinese switch has turned on. I can understand everything pretty much going on around me, the next phase of my learning ability needs to be focused on is conversation. Though with the way everything turned out with conversation, I am a little bit worried how that is going to work. I wish I could do some kind of Chinese tutoring without worrying about getting poor teacher. Cassidy and Brennan tried a few things but al of them seemed to fall through. I will see what I can do but I think most of it will just be a matter of time. Which isn’t very helpful when you have to communicate complex ideas with simple words.
    The second day of Science class went a little bit smoother than the first. The theme was plants, and though the weather was getting a tiny bit warmer it has gone back to winter. We, however, planted the seeds in a baggie. We’ll see if they grow or not. I doubt it, to honest, but it was something to do every day. Other wise the rest of the class was filled with coloring and games involving plants. The games were mostly guessing games with simple English. I wish I could test each kids English ability and explain that their language skills need to be certain level before entering my class. They simply can’t understand, even with the assistance of visual aid. These words are too specialized. My compromise for this is that I have the kids keep a little “science journal”. Something to show the parents at the end of the class, so they think their kids learned something. They probably won’t other than I am a a strange American in a white lab coat. Hopefully some of the more problematic children will leave the class on trips and things and then I won’t have to worry about it.

Jan. 30, 2015

    No class today which allowed for a nice lie in. Though my version of a lie-in is until 8:30 am. My roommates are much better at the whole sleeping in thing, but oh well. Then it was a quiet morning of reading and generally getting things together for the next couple of days.  Right now my life is class and work, which honestly isn’t the worst. I like that my classes aren’t super late at night like my regular schedule. I can come home from classes and still have plenty of time to study and get homework finished for the next day. The class today was on gravity and friction, the first part of class was explaining how gravity is the same for everything and explaining that friction means resistance. The kids are beginning to get the rhythm of the class so the first half was pretty smooth. The journals are also turning out quite nicely. The second part of the class was building a car that was balloon powered car. It was very difficult to get everyone doing the same thing. Chinese children have no sense of waiting. They want it and they want it now. I don’t think they understand the joy that is delayed gratification. It has become my goal to teach them this lesson. A few have caught on about it and are getting better. But most of them just get terribly confused as to why they must wait. The cars didn’t work as well as I wanted them to, but I think that had to do more with the quality of the balloons and wheels. But they got to take something home today to show the parents, which should be a plus.

Jan. 31, 2015

    Winter class went well for the most part. The kids really like making crafts and things. So it is becoming easier to entertain them during the two hour class. We talked about clouds and tornados today. First I had them make cotton ball clouds and label them, not that they understood what was happening. Then we watched a movie on tornados and made a bottle tornado. That actually went over very well. The kids probably could have watched it for a half an hour and been happy. I did, however, have a crying kid. He got super focused on leaving class but he didn’t want to answer my question. Thus I made him wait before he could leave. This made him cry for some reason, so then the next half an hour was spent doing damage control. No one was really sure why he started crying, I think young kids just cry sometimes and there is nothing we can do about it. We made tornados together and then all was forgiven. I finally made it home, which I then had to leave again to go to Trust Mart. Tomorrow is sunday which means that shopping in real shopping centers is generally a bad idea. Then there was a small adventure to try a spicy mocha from Starbucks. Expensive and not all that tasty is all I have to say that drink, but it was fun to try something new. I managed to finish all the lesson plans so tomorrow all I need to do is Chinese homework.