Teaching in China with Buckland --from Judy Cairns

10-- Text Book for teaching

Monday, November 22/04
Ni Hao everyone out there:
Time slips away so fast--where does it go? I haven't written a group email since the beginning of October! School eats up a lot of time; getting things fixed in my apartment eats up some; watching movies eats up a lot of it in the evenings and social activities round up the rest. In between all these is eating and sleeping.

First I will tell you that Mr. Zhou bought us electric sleeping pads and electric heaters for our computer rooms or wherever we happen to be sitting. It gets mighty cold in here at night. It is ok if you keep jumping up and down, but no one can do that and type at the same time! Besides, Lorlie can hear every step I take very clearly (she lives below me), even when I am wearing soft soled slippers, so I don't want to start jumping! He also arranged to have heat bulbs installed in our bathrooms, so it is much warmer in there now when I take a shower. We haven't seen much of Mr. Zhou recently. I think he is scared of us now. I told Owen about all the things wrong here and he told Mr. Zhou that if I was unhappy and left, then the others would probably leave too, so he better make sure I was happy. Thank you Owen, for stepping in once again! there were supposed to be 2 more foreign teachers coming here--one was going to live in the first floor apartment, the other in a hotel. Owen asked me to look at the other apartment--Mr. Zhou told him it was the same as mine. It is so far different from mine! It is really cute on the inside. Much smaller than mine, but anyone can see in the 3 windows that have access to the outside world. It is at ground level--no curtains on the kitchen (can't be because of the gas stoves), and the bathroom window could never be opened--people in the alley just outside the window can and do look right in. The bathroom door is off the kitchen so if someone were to use the bathroom they would have to emerge fully clothed if they didn't want to be seen by anyone in the alley. The other curtains have to be kept closed all the time--the front door is beautiful but opens up to a wall and a walkway. The place to hang clothes after they are washed is over motorcylces and bicycles. There is no fan in the bathroom, and the gas tank for the hot water is in the bathroom, so it is not safe. Owen will not send foreign teachers here until these problems are fixed--personally I don't see how some of them can be fixed because of the proximity of the building and the fact that the apartment is on the ground floor. It is a problem. Too bad--the students and teachers have been asking us where the other foreigners are and why they aren't here yet.

Teaching--we have been teaching from a totally different English book than the Chinese English teachers use. We asked at the beginning if we could all teach from the same book so we could work together instead of giving the kids two different English subjects. Mr. Zhou said no--Mr. Zhou is not a teacher, does not speak English, and does not work for the school. I really don't know what gives him the power to choose our textbooks for us and for the students. Anyway, we talked to some foreign teachers in Ganzhou (2 hours from here), who were using the same books we were. They had been talking to their Chinese English teachers who all agreed that they should all teach from the same book. So they started to teach some from the Chinese English teachers' textbook--just the oral speaking parts. When we told Miss Fan (my advisor) this, she talked to Mr. Zhou who said "impossible! They have to ask me first!" When we told this to the Ganzhou foreign teachers, they asked, "Who is Mr. Zhou? We don't know who he is and we don't care--we are working with the Chinese English teachers. So this week, today, we start teaching from the same book as the Chinese English teachers. As it happens, the first topic is Social Problems--most specifically AIDS, smoking, drinking and drugs. That will be a real challenge, trying to get any kind of discussion going, when the kids won't even talk about sports in English! The topic is not too advanced for them, but talking about it in English certainly is!

Speaking of students, I added up the total number of students I have taught in Ningdu, for regular classes and some one day promo work. It amounts to around 1800 students. No wonder so many kids say "hi, Judy" when I go out on the streets. Some come up to me and say "Hi, Judy, do you remember me? I was at the Normal School and I asked you some questions after your lecture." Of course I can't remember because that happens all the time wherever I go. It's a dilemma. Anyway, now I know what a celebrity feels like! Even little kids who don't really know us, yell hello. It is so cute--I try out the different ways (tones, emphasis) of saying hello and they imitate me. We "high 5" each other, even though they don't know what that is--they love it. They are getting braver and braver.

Some of my students have been asking me for English names. I give them choices and they choose from them--I try to still call them by their Chinese names though. It is a lot of names to remember, and learning Chinese names is like learning 2 or 3 Chinese words for each name. It is really difficult. I will never be able to remember the students in each class, because they change desks every 2 weeks! I have them for 4 classes--can see that I would be able to at least remember faces in each class, then they change and I feel like I am in a brand new class! It is kind of frustrating. They say they change the students to give each student a different view of the blackboard, but I don't buy that, because they never move the "boys at the back" up to the front. They remain the naughty boys at the back. They change from side to side, but never from back to front. They also rank the students. Class 1 is supposed to be the best class, so class 20 is supposedly the worst? What incentive is there for those kids to try harder--they are already told they are the worst students!

Speaking of the foreigners in Ganzhou--they are Annie, Kerry and Amanda. The same 3 that we went to Lushan with. There are others we met there. The 3 of us went to Ganzhou for a day of shopping, visiting. The words got around and there were 11 of us for lunch. 11 foreigners is the most I have spent time with foreigners since I was in Canada. Even in Yangshuo there were never more than a handful for a meal, mixed with a lot of Chinese people. It was a little over-wheming for me. When I am with Chinese people, they slip into Chinese most of the time--if I am talking, it is mostly one-to-one, or one-to-two. I can't understand the rest so I don't have to pay attention to the words, but I can just listen and watch. When all the foreigners are together, it is such a shock to realize I can understand all the conversations, and listening to them all is a bit of an overload. Responding to them, or taking part, was a bit much. I talked to Annie and tuned out the rest. I am afraid they might have thought I was a bit unfriendly, but really it was just too much to take, having been in China for more than 2 years and not having had that much foreign contact at one time for a long time. Even when I was home there were never more than a few at once.

The kids had mid-terms a couple of weeks ago and we had 2 extra days off! It was great. The foreigners from Ganzhou; Annie, Amanda and Kerry, came to visit us. Nicole had gone to Shanghai to hook up with her aunt who was visiting from the US. Annie stayed with me, and the other 2 stayed in Nicole's apartment. We had an awesome time. We took them to the tower and the temple. There was a lot of activity at the temple this time--the monks and nuns were chanting and praying and beating on their musical instruments. We had tea and snacks in the tea room at the temple. When we climbed the tower it was great to be able to show them the birds-eye view of Ningdu, the river and the temple. This was Saturday. On Sunday, we all went to Cui Wei Mountain--one of the most famous mountains in the area. There were a lot of Chinese from the school who were there too, so we formed one big group. Climbing the mountain was ok--as usual, a lot, lot of steps. Then we get to the bottom of the real Cui Wei mountain. This mountain is the same shape as those in Yangshuo area, but made of different stone. The climb to the top is up a very steep crevice, on a combination of stone steps, handholds in the stone, iron rungs put in between 2 parts of the mountain, on each side of the crevices. It takes maybe 15 minutes to climb this part--it makes all the steps worthwhile. This is the best part of the mountain climb! The view from the top is spectacular as usual! Climbing up, in some places there is not even room for a small back-pack on your back. We had to leave them at the bottom in the care of someone who is afraid of heights and didn't want to go to the top. The guards at the bottom were always saying to us, 'be careful, be careful, be careful". I know they were concerned for us (there are huge penalties here if anything happens to a foreigner), but we felt like little children. When they couldn't see us anymore I think they worried. There is a lot of walking around to do at the top, and when we didn't come down in the time they thought we should, they wondered what had happened to us! We will definitely do that mountain again. Nicole was sorry to have missed it, so we have to do it before she leaves in January.

I have started my walks again, since it is not so hot out anymore. Recently I was down by the river in the morning and saw a small crowd. There were lots of pigs in bamboo baskets that some people were selling. Of course I couldn't understand the words, but I think there was a lot of bargaining going on. A lot of money flashing around. A woman with a huge hypodermic needle was giving the pigs some sort of something at some stage in the bargaining. A man with a kind of staple gun was stapling a plastic thing to an ear at another stage in the bargaining. When it came to weighing them, a bamboo pole was put in the hoop on top of the scale contraption, a hook attached to the scale was put through a place in the basket. Two people lifted up the ends of the pole and the basket was suspended from the hook on the scale. It is a balance scale. Quite sophisticated for the primitive weighing methods. They are just at the side of the street--when the pigs are sold they take their baskets and scales and leave again. I don't know if this description is very clear, but it sure was interesting to watch. The pigs were neither big, nor baby--sort of small medium size.

The puppy/dog situation in the building next to ours has changed. There are now only 4 or 5 adult dogs, but there are at least 7 few day old puppies from 2 different mothers. The mothers are awesome--they won't let anyone or any of the other dogs near their puppies. I can see that it will get very, very noisy in a few weeks!

A former teacher/student gave me a large jar of absolutely fresh honey. Her parents keep bees and when she went home to visit last time she got some for me. She instructed me to boil it over water for at least half an hour before using it. That's how fresh it is. Somehow it isn't as sweet as the usual honey I get--I don't know what the bees get the honey from. I asked her, but she said "form her parents". She didn't understand the question and I really didn't feel like taking about 20 minutes to find out the answer. I am happy to have the honey, and I spent a couple evenings with her just walking around and chatting--rather I listened to her chat. She is one that in the Teacher Training, I nicknamed Chatty Cathy.

Some of the former teacher/students were in a performance recently. There was singing and dancing, complete with very elaborate costumes. Some representatives from quite a few schools were taking part--it was some sort of competition. There were students from our school and some from Nicole's school. Also a lot of the teachers. It was amazing. It was 2 nights. The second night was in the local theatre--first we were told we had to have tickets and that we should get them from teachers at our school. When I asked the teachers they said a ticket wasn't necessary. So we just showed up. A teacher/student who was not taking part arranged to meet us and to show us in. Well, there were no seats! We happened to see a big wig woman--one who was responsible for allowing us to eat lunch at China Telecom. I said hello to her--she immediately told us to follow her--in the back door, across the stage and down into the seats. It turns out she was the organizer of the event! We sat in our 2nd row seats for awhile until some people came with tickets and claimed their seats. They then moved us to where the teacher/students were sitting in their costumes, waiting for their turn to go on stage. They moved for us. It was so sweet of them to do that. Finally we all just ended up sharing seats--about 20 people sitting in about 12 seats. It worked, and was so awesome. These people are really talented!!

During the performance, another non-performing teacher/student found me and handed me a note. It had the times and channel of a figure-skating competition on it!! When we were all at a wedding lunch of another teacher/student a few weeks ago there was an ad for figure skating on the TV that was in the room. I asked when the skating was, but no one could tell me. Well, Linda, the Chinese teacher/student, found out and let me know. It was one of the major competitions, and it was held in Halifax recently. The Chinese pair won!!! Yippee!!! A few days later I saw another competition--the China Cup, held in Beijing. The Chinese pair won again. The Canadians did quite well, too. Some of the skaters that I was watching whenever I could a couple years ago are now coaching, so it was nice to see them as well as the current skaters. I miss two things very much in China (besides my family and friends)--the things I miss are figure skating and sandwiches.

A student from Senior Grade 1 at Middle School (he is 13 years old, but looks and talks as if he is about 16), his parents, uncle, sister (3 years old) and a few assorted others have taken us on a couple of field trips the last 2 weekends. The first weekend we went to Xiao Bu--where they grow the famous tea and have a tea factory. I sent photos of the tea planatation and the waterfall at the top of the mountain. We went there again. It is so different in the fall. The waterfall was only a few drops, compared to the rush of last spring. It was misting rain and the rocks were a bit slippery, the leaves were a bit slippery, but it was still a great day! A former teacher/student, Lin Jun, teaches in Xiao Bu, as it is his hometown. He met us there and spent the time with us. It was so great to see him. He was about the handsomest man in the class and he was the one who fell in love with another student/teacher, but they had to keep it secret until they told her parents. They took us for lunch in Xiao Bu. The tea plantation and factory is only operational in the spring and summer, so we could not pick or buy any tea, or even see how it is dried and prepared. I was fortunate to see that last spring.

This past weekend they took us to an orange orchard. The student in grade one, whose name is Lixiang (Bill) has an uncle who owns an orchard. His father does too, but we went to the uncles's near a village called Tian Tou. The father is mayor of this village, and the mother is a traffic policewoman in Ningdu. This young man has a very connected family. Anyway, they took us to the orchard, we sampled some absolutely fresh oranges, took a walk around the orchard, got to pick some oranges (not new for those of you who have been south, but I never have, so this was awesome!). They gave us each a huge bag of oranges to take home, then took us to see the country market in Tian Tou and for a great lunch! Lunch with the mayor of the little village. Of course we had to "bottoms up--ganbei" with him and a few others. Good thing the beer is mostly only about 2.5% alcohol. Great flavour and easy to drink. As usual in a small village or town no other foreigners had ever been there, so we stopped a lot of bargaining in mid-sentence. One foreigner is one thing, but to be faced with 3 of them was a first for these people. The drive there and back was in a police van equipped for 6 people, but in typical Chinese fashion we squeezed 12 of us in. Of course no seat belts--but we had a mayor and a traffic police with us so I guess it was all legal.

I am learning more and more Chinese. I still can't have an in-depth conversation, and there is so, so much I don't know. I also cannot understand most of what they are saying, but I know more and more words. One thing I noticed is that my excellent spelling when I was growing up is coming in handy. Usually if they say a word slowly and clearly I can spell it in Pinyin--if I can spell it, I find it easier to say. Now if only I could get the tones right--but many say not to worry about that yet--even though I might say totally the wrong thing.

I was talking to a student yesterday--she is in Grade 3--about 16 or 17 years old. I have known her since I first came to Ningdu, because her father Mr. Zhang, is a director at the Board of Ed. and we did a lot of social things together. She is an excellent student, good English. Anyway, she told me yesterday that her father is going to allow her to try to get into a Canadian or an Australian University. She asked me what I know about this sort of thing. What I know I could put in my sock. Any advice out there????? She is interested in broadcasting/journalism, accounting and law. She is coming to my place on Saturday night and I will tell her some things about living in Canada and as much as I can about universities there. HELP, PLEASE!!!!

Take care, all of you--I miss you. Please keep the emails coming.
Love, Judy/Mom

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