A Chinese Cinco de Mayo!

It’s strange to think that it’s been so long since I last wrote. There hasn’t been too much happening daily to warrant constant reporting, so I’ll give a brief overview of this past week’s activities. To celebrate May Day, or Communist Day, we took our friends out for dinner and I gave them the baby blanket. We had fun conversing with them and learned some fascinating local news. In the past three to four weeks, five people have died of unnatural causes here in Anqing. One student from No. 1 Middle School probably committed suicide because he didn’t score well on a national science test, a man killed his girlfriend of eight years and himself in a near-by restaurant because she broke up with him and he couldn’t take the rejection, and two students drowned in the river when they went swimming.

The topic for this week’s lesson has been animals and biomes. The students seem to really enjoy the content and have a fun time learning about various animals, biomes, and seeing clips of Plant Earth and hilarious animal outtakes. (The British have a bizarre, but hilarious sense of humor. There is a show where people take clips of wild animals and add funny voice-overs; the students get a kick out of it, even though they don't fully understand what's being said.) One girl told me yesterday, “Your class is very popular. Your class and art are only places where we can relax.”

I think Jean-Jacques and I have finally figured out the best strategies for teaching here: be willing to accept a lot of classroom noise (students here talk, but it’s usually about the exciting content we’re covering in class), use humor to discipline (remember that, in some ways, the students are as mature as third graders), and keep the lesson moving quickly (attention spans can be short, so you have to be an energetic-circus-clown type of teacher). In class “quizzes” that encourage participation are great for getting students engaged and they love having the opportunity to shout out their answers to you. Also, don’t take things too seriously or you’ll just get frustrated.

It’s amazing to watch the kids’ reactions to the clips we see from Planet Earth. Nature and beauty is an important part of the Chinese soul; I think an appreciation for the natural is deeply entrenched in the culture as well. When the cherry blossoms were out, I saw countless people flipping out their cell phones to take pictures with and of the flowers. The same thing is happening with the roses in the courtyard here at No. 1. One day, I saw students take time to observe how the sunlight lit up leaves. So when we watch some highlights from the series Planet Earth, there are many sharp intakes of breath and choruses of, “Wow!” It’s heartening to see them enjoy nature so much.

It's a little strange for me that I've been out of the country for two major events in American history. Ten years ago, when 9/11 happened, I was in the middle of a study abroad in Chile. Almost a decade later, I was absent from home again when the news about Osama bin Laden's death started circulating the internet, radio, and TV. I've been asked by a couple of students what I think about the death and this has been my response, "I think it's good that he's gone. I wish he would have been willing to be taken alive for a trial, but he wasn't going to do that. I find it sad that so many people are celebrating his death, but I do think it's good he's gone. I think it's always sad when someone dies." The students contemplate this for a bit and sometimes nod.

On a slightly happier note, my explanation of the word “howl” by giving a howl myself causes many of the classes to erupt into clapping. I mean a full fifteen-seconds of awe-inspired gratification from the audience. It always makes me laugh.

Hope all is well for everyone! Until next time...

P.S. Here are some photos of the completed baby blanket.