Brandon's (New) China Update

I've loved getting Brandon's updates from China.  It's so strange to see China through his eyes after experiencing it.  Here is the email update he sent out today:

Dear Friends and Family,

It has been several weeks since I last sent an update, so I thought I would plug you into what I have been up to. I have already finished two of my classes, as they last only eight weeks. As the classes I teach are oral English classes, the final was entirely oral. I have two hours for the final to test 50 students on their oral English. Due to the obvious time constraints, their final exam (and by extension 70 percent of their course grade) consists of them answering one question in English. They are all very nervous to say the least.

I am still enjoying my Tuesday night “English Corners” and have created some good relationships with students I have met there. Recently I have been more proactive in socializing with students outside of this time. I have started inviting groups to dinner or individuals to coffee if they seem to enjoy more in-depth conversations. Last week we began a weekly get-together in my apartment building open to English speaking students where we practice English through conversations, games and English movies. The turnout was pretty good for a night where most students went home for a holiday. This get-together will hopefully provide many contacts so as to find those who like to have the most… interesting conversations in more intimate settings. Our apartments are very poorly situated for productive socializing so please “hope” that we can find an alternative place to converse.

We have had several interesting experiences these last few weeks. One Wednesday night three of us (two teachers from Harding and one from Pepperdine) were invited to evaluate the English of candidates for a school club called UN Assembly where they apparently discuss foreign politics and relations. They explained that they wanted us to evaluate their ability to converse in foreign relation matters. After the first few students answered our questions, they decided our questions were too difficult, and we needed to make them easier to understand. As our questions were already rather elementary, this eliminated any foreign relations questions. The next student decided to showcase her English abilities by a full a capella version of a Mariah Carey song. I was rather taken aback by the bravery of the student to sing unaccompanied to strangers for an entire three minutes. The students waiting outside of the room seemed to get the same idea, so the remainder of the session consisted of judging students’ English abilities based on their singing various pop songs to us. Chinese students are not shy.

Another experience dealt with a recent Sports Week at school. Sports Week is common at Chinese universities and seems to be a few days similar to a primary school’s field day. The different colleges on campus compete at all kinds of athletic competition and team sports. The first day of Sports Week includes an opening ceremony, where the different colleges march into the stadium and perform some sort of cheer for the crowds in the bleachers. The foreign language department thought it would be good to make all the foreign teachers dress in traditional Chinese outfits and perform some Tai Chi moves in front of hundreds of spectators. As such, we had to have a couple of practices to learn the moves including (perhaps not the proper names) the “make the watermelon,” “split the watermelon,” and “sitting on the toilet” maneuvers. The actual rendition was less than spectacular, but at least the administration was able to show off all the things they can make the foreigners do.

A few more oddities:

I noticed a student wearing glasses without lenses. He explained that it was purely for appearances. Upon closer inspection I have found that a large number of my other students are not optically impaired either.

Chinese people like to nap. At one o’clock in the afternoon you can find people napping in public places, taxis parked on the side of the road, and some shops even closed down until two.

Chinese like fireworks. A lot. Like even late at night...

“Hoping” that your work is going well.

Best wishes,

Brandon