Ben Rebach - Journal
Saturday, March 11, 2006 :: ARCHIVES
The Rest of Last School YearIt's been a long, long time since my last post, and I think trying to tell the whole story would be a lost cause given updating history thus far. Instead I'm going to give a 'brief' overview of the past year. Let's start with Fang...
I met Zhang Fang when she came home from her university in Beijing to see her family for Chun Jie, the Chinese New Year festival. Much like Thanksgiving or Christmas in the West, Chun Jie is a time when families come together no matter the distance. I had month break for the holiday, and I spent the first week in Macheng before going to Shanghai to meet my mother and father. Dai Li, one of our local teachers, invited me to spend time with her friends Hu Lu and Zhang Fang. Fang was studying for her masters degree in English translation, and Hu Lu also had a good command of the language. Over the course of the week the four of us spent a lot of time together. We went hiking in the countryside, played cards, and explored the city. Fang was both beautiful and clever, and at the end of the week it was difficult for me to say goodbye to her. We decided to keep in touch with QQ, a messaging system similar to Instant Messenger or MSN Messenger.
After a day long train ride I arrived in Shanghai and met with my parents. We visited many of the usual tourist spots and watched the New Years fireworks from our room at the hotel. My parents both seemed to enjoy their first trip to China, and it was wonderful to be able to share a little of my experience with them. At the end of the second week my father returned home, my mother continued north to Beijing, and I met up with Luther to head south. Luther and I traveled to Yangshou, which was a tiny mecca of western food and beautiful scenery. Our stay there was much too short.
I returned to work in Macheng and stayed in almost daily contact with Fang. We were able to meet in Huanggang and Huangzhou during later holidays, and I decided to look for work around Beijing for the following year, so as to be closer to her. As the school year - and my time in Macheng - slowly came to a close, I managed to find an excellent position in a northern Beijing suburb called Huairou.
In the end it was difficult to leave Macheng. Despite the lack of some conveniences, I had become very fond of the dusty little city and its people. But after a few farewell meals and a lot of packing, I was on a train north.
Friday, March 25, 2005 :: ARCHIVES
Things Come in TwosWell, my journal entries have gone from two weeks behind to over three months behind. I'd love to blame this on the two friends I made just around the time of my last post, but this would not be true. In all honestly, my lack of writing is due to my uncontrollable addiction to web comics. For a while I avoided web comics, as some of the ones I read are a bit too risque, and I feared termination of my internet privileges. Eventually I became less timid, and visited one. Then I followed links to others, and so on. Next thing I know, I'm reading archives dating back to 1997. There are still a few comics that I'm still reading archives from, but for the most part I am now satiated and ready to write again. So, let's get back to those two friends, shall we?
I met them both the same day, a Tuesday three months ago. I had finished my day of classes and I was on my bike heading home when the first of my new friends called out to me. She is a first year Junior 1 teacher named Huang Li and she was on her bike, also heading home. She offered me a lollipop, and I asked which way she was heading. As she was heading the same direction, we decided to bike together. Along the way we made small talk. I found out that her English name is Cherry.
This caused my brain to lock up in a bad way for a moment, but then I freed myself from any native connotations of that name and reminded myself that she had probably innocently named herself after the fruit. Sure enough, I later found that many of her students have names such as Orange, Plum and Grape, as well as Meteor, Hero, and Jet. I had decided early on not to force students to use 'typical' English names. If our celebrities are naming their kids Francis Bean and Apple, then my students are more than welcome to take whatever English name makes them happy. If you don't believe me, just ask Jelly Queen, from one of my Senior 1 classes.
Names aside, as Cherry and I approach my home she asks if I would like to come over to her house. It turns out that her home is very close to mine. It is also nowhere near as nice as mine. Her home has concrete floors, as opposed to my wood and tile. She shares her apartment with three roommates. She shares a room with one, and the other two take the second bedroom. There is no furniture in the main room, and the furniture in the bedrooms is spartan at best. Further conversation reveals that I am paid twice as much as the local teachers, for doing half as much work. The apartment is provided free of charge for their first year teaching, then they pay a minimal rent thereafter. This makes me feel terrible, and I have to remind myself that my salary and accommodations are determined by the Chinese government, and have nothing to do with decisions Cherry or I have made. Nonetheless, I still wish governments in America, China, and elsewhere encouraged teachers a little more. Educating the youth is an important job, and deserves to be rewarded well.
Cherry and I discussed this and many more things. We discussed her job, her boyfriend, her future. We got hungry and went out for some food. We discussed life in China, change in China, and many other things. Although you will never get her to admit it, Cherry has a good grasp of English, and the conversation that night was the best I had had with a native speaker thus far. Eventually Cherry had to go, and so we parted ways with a promise to spend time together again sometime soon.
I wandered home, and had not been home for more than a few minutes when my Waiban Mrs. Liu called. She was out with two of the seven 'mayors' of Macheng, one of whom wanted to learn English. Would I mind if they came over to chat with me? Of course I wouldn't. Thus I met the second of the two friends I made that day, Huang Tishen.
Huang Tishen is the mayor in charge of agriculture for Macheng. I do not recall the name of the other mayor, who was in charge of heathcare and hospitals. You see, Mr. Huang was pretty drunk by the time he got to my apartment. Most of the English we practice involves discussing whether or not I like beer and dancing, and if I would like to get beer and go dancing. Eventually the ladies excuse themselves, and any reason not to go drinking and dancing leave with them.
I knew enough Chinese at that point to make it clear that I preferred beer to baijiu, the rice liquor. So, shortly after our arrival the waitress delivers a glass of tea for each of us and a full crate of beer containing twelve wine-sized bottles. We immediately begin with the traditional Chinese toast, "Ganbei!" Gan translates to 'do' and bei to 'glass,' so a typical ganbei means you finish your glass. Fortunately, most restaurants give you very small glasses, which I suspect is specifically done to make ganbei reasonable. It's rare to find a pint glass in China, and it's rare to hear ganbei where you find pint glasses.
Of course, none of this saves me from getting wasted, since every male friend of Tishen's who comes by immediately proposes a ganbei or three. In between, every female friend of Tishen's asks me to dance or is asked by Tishen to dance with me. This goes on until closing time around 11:00. Tishen, several of the people we met a the club and I then head out to a small restaurant for late night dining and more beer. Sometime around 2:00 I excuse myself, seeing as how I have to teach class six hours later. I think Tishen, say my farewells to everyone, and catch a ride home. Miraculously, I managed to make it to class on time the next day.
Between my weekends out of town and Cherry and Tishen's busy schedule, I don't really get to spend all that much free time with them. Each month I may have two or three nice long talks with Cherry and two or three nights out with Tishen. However, considering the limited number of English speakers in my town, this still places them at the top of my list of local friends, and I always have a good time when I go out with them.
Until my next post,
Be well.
Friday, December 03, 2004 :: ARCHIVES
Happy Birthday LutherAnother weekend approaches, and I am still two weeks behind in my journal entries. Perhaps I should ask for a secretary.
Cast your mind back, if you will, to the weekend beginning on Friday, the 19th of November. It is noon, and I have just wrapped up my first full week of classes. For the weekend I will be heading to Huanggang to celebrate Luther's birthday with him. One of the native English teachers, Miss Dai, had stopped by the night before to help me plan for the trip. She had written down some essential characters for me: Macheng, Huanggang, train station, bus stop, etcetera. If words failed me at any step of my journey, I would have her characters to show to people.
It turns out I need not have worried. I memorized the word for train station - houche zhan, pronounced hwoh-chuh jahn - and I successfully caught a taxi to the station. At the station I went to the ticket counter, which was clearly labeled in Chinese and English. I said "Hwang Joe" - the local name for Huanggang - to the ticket seller. She understood, and charged me 5.5 RMB for the ticket, equivalent to about $0.70 U.S. I am doing my best to think of cost in terms of percentage of my salary and not their U.S. equivalence, but sometimes it is hard not to notice.
My train number and time were clearly marked. I did not realized that the trains had assigned seats, but that was quickly cleared up when the person who was assigned to the seat I had taken arrived. At the Huanggang station every bus goes to the city center, so I grabbed the first bus I saw and told them "Wo yao Huanggao" - I want Huanggao, the local name for the university that Luther teaches at. The bus attendant let me know when I should get off, and from there I caught a taxi and repeated the phrase "Wo yao Huanggao." Next thing I knew, I was at the gates of Huanggao university, with only one minor problem.
Luther's phone had been turned off for lack of payment. I had not been able to contact him in the previous week to arrange a meeting place and time, and so I was on my own at the Huanggao gates. Well, I thought, this shouldn't be too hard. There can't be too many Americans on campus, surely someone can point me the way to where that strange pale fellow lives.
Right.
I walk to the guard at the gate and say "Wo yao Luther. Meiguoren Luther." - I want Luther. American Luther. I only get a blank stare. Okay. I will wander into campus, and look for the Chinese person who looks the most English-speaking. Oh, hey. There's Luther, heading my way. It turns out more friends were arriving at the gate at that moment, and he was heading out to meet them. Score one for dumb luck.
Unfortunately, that it probably the most exciting part of the weekend that I have to share. The rest is the usual Lutherian blur of drink-eat-drink-sleep-drink-eat-drink. A large group of about 15-20 foreign English teachers got together for dinner celebrating Luther and another teacher named Franchesco's birthday. After dinner, a smaller group brought the party to a sedate tea-house style bar. Later a smaller group continued on to a jungle-themed bar, then to a small restaurant, then home to bed at some ungodly hour. We watched a few DVDs the next day as people slowly recover, then do this whole thing again at Luther's apartment with students and friends from the school. All in all it was a pleasant blur of friendly and interesting people, leaving me tired and happy as I return to the train station and say "Wo yao Macheng."
Thursday, December 02, 2004 :: ARCHIVES
My First Full Week of ClassesUpon returning to Hua Ying that Monday I was greeted with two surprises, both involving my new schedule. First, I would be seeing my Junior 2 (J2 - equivalent to the U.S. 8th grade) classes twice weekly: one regular class and one 'activity class' where I would teach two J2 classes together in a large lecture hall. My second surprise was a whole new grade to teach, Junior 3 (J3 - 9th grade). I had been informed originally that I would be teaching J2 and Senior 1 (S1 - 10th grade), so this came as a bit of a shock. However, it has not proven to be a problem. I teach sixteen classes per week, as specified in my contract. There are the six regular J2 classes and three activity classes. I see my six J3 classes every other week, so there are three J3 classes per week, and four S1 classes.
Since none of these students have had a foreign English teacher before, many of my lessons can be recycled with only minor variations in vocabulary level. For my first full week of classes, my J3 and S1 classes received the "Hello, I'm Ben, let me tell you about America" lesson. They asked many of the same "Do you know Yao Ming?" and "Do you like China?" type questions. An occasional student would ask sensitive political questions, such as my opinion of the Taiwanese situation. These were handled as diplomaticly as possible, which was not difficult considering that I do have very little knowledge of the situation.
Meanwhile, my J2 classes got The Second Lesson: Fear! Like any good lesson on fear, we started out with a game of pictionary. I explained what nouns were, and asked each student to write down three nouns on a piece of paper, then pass their papers to the front. I did not explain things clearly enough in my first class and especially confused them by explaining that pictionary was a made up name combining 'picture + dictionary.' This resulted in many students turning in word combinations such as "Of + Ten = Often," "Sun + day = Sunday" and a surprising number of "Chinese + English = Chinglish." For the rest of the classes, I made my explanation a little more clear.
The classes were divided into teams. Most classes were arranged with four rows of paired desks, which provided for easy team separation. One by one I would select a noun from each team's collection. I would draw a picture of the object on the blackboard. Any students not on that team was to shout out the word as soon as they recognized the picture. It was sometimes difficult to get the students to shout out the words as they are not very prone to be outgoing in class, but that was perfect for the lesson. After the word was guessed, I would then ask for a sentence using that word. Again, I would sometimes have trouble getting volunteers.
After one round of pictionary, I began with the lesson. I told them that I would need to converse with them if we were to have a class in conversational English. Sometimes I would need them to shout. Sometimes I would need them to speak sentences for me. I told them that I understood that it is sometimes hard to speak in class, and that was what I wanted to discuss for the day's lesson. I asked if any students could tell me why it was hard to speak. Typically I got no responses, and so the lecture began.
My first topic was situations where the students did not understand. Sometimes I speak too quickly, or use words they have not learned yet. This is my fault, I told them, and something I would try to be careful to avoid. There may also be times when they understand me, know the answer in Chinese, but do not yet have the English vocabulary to express themselves with. I assured them that the vocabulary would come with time. I then informed them that these were not the situations I wanted to discuss. I wanted to talk about times when they understood me, knew the answer, but still could not bring themselves to speak.
I covered the fear of making mistakes first. I defined mistakes, and told them that mistakes are good, because the only time they will not make mistakes is when they are not trying. I want them to make mistakes, so that we may learn from them. Then I brought up fear of embarrassment. I defined embarrassment, and then told them a sanitized version of my high school car accident. I explained that the only thing they will take with them from school is the knowledge they have gained. Embarrassments stay in school, and we forget them or are able to laugh at them in the future. Lastly I brought up stage fright, and told them about my friend Bob's stage fright before his first play. Now Bob plays guitar in a rock band, because he did not let his fear stop him.
This, I told the students, is the connecting element: fear. Fear of making mistakes, fear of being embarrassed, stage fright. I gave them the quote "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." and informed them that most of life is about overcoming fear. I was afraid to leave everything I knew and move to China, but I knew I would regret it if I did not overcome my fear. If I had not, I never would have met any of them. I let this sink in for a moment, then asked each student to stand up and loudly proclaim " I like ____!" They could fill in the blank any way they pleased, as long as they did so loudly and boldly. Most of my lessons are filled with random outbursts, funny faces, and other random tomfoolery to keep the lessons entertaining, and this exercise was no exception. If a student was not very assertive in their declaration I did my best to encourage them with bouncing, flailing, and general goofiness: "What was that? Basketball? Come on, louder! I LOVE BASKETBALL! WOO HOO!" Who knew the class clown and the teacher shared a skill set?
To wrap things up, I first told them that I had declined requests to sing in the question and answer sessions of my first lesson because I was embarrassed by my singing. This was wrong of me, and so for my next lesson I would sing - and teach - the song "I Like Coconuts." We then filled the remaining time with more pictionary, and the students were generally much more responsive for the final rounds. All in all, it was a very encouraging lesson.
For the activity classes, I decided that I would act the part of an old man: hard of hearing, short of sight, and in need of the student's assistance. In groups of five I had them come up and perform various tasks. One group helped me cook, another helped me catch a train, and so forth. It was a decent idea, but the pace of acting like an old man slowed things down too much. For the other two activity classes tried a different game, in which I had them mime different verbs. The students would go down a line with one person telling the next person what to act out. As I type this I have just now realized why the first class seemed so confused when I referred back to the game where were used verbs. Bleh. Ah well, live and learn.
I my next post, I journey to Huanggang to celebrate Luther's Birthday. Come on, louder! I JOURNEY TO HUANGGANG! WOO HOO!
Sunday, November 28, 2004 :: ARCHIVES
Return to WuhanOn the morning of Friday, November 12th, Luther and I woke up bright and early. We met Mrs. Liu, who would be accompanying us to Wuhan for an OWDC teacher's conference. This was particularly well timed, as I was going to need to start turning out more extensive lesson plans the next week.
Before the conference, we visited the area hospital so I could have a second physical. We decided to stop for lunch afterwards, and tried several restaurants in search of one which served dog, which both Luther and I were interested in trying. We had no luck, as apparently dog is a winter delicacy and had just came into season. (To be technical, the first restaurant at Wuhan University had dog, but they did not issue receipts which Mrs. Liu would need to have the cost of lunch reimbursed.) After lunch we picked up the results of my new physical and brought them to a government representative for the Hubei province, who issued me my Foreign Expert certificate. For those of you who were unaware that I am an expert, I now have proof.
Early in the evening we arrived at the conference registration on the campus of Huazhong University. After we checked into our rooms there was a large dinner were we met Su Ellis, one of the founders of OWDC. Her husband and partner, Chris Sands, would be arriving the next day. Sue was a very pleasant and motherly woman, especially considering the incredible stresses of running a conference and managing her four children, often at the same time. To be fair, her older children, Jesse and Becky, were both very mature and more of a helping hand than a management issue.
The other foreign teachers ranged in age from university students to early senior citizens. Most seemed to be from the U.K., with a few sprinkled representatives from the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand. There was one young woman from France who was teaching French. If there were other countries represented at the conference, I must have forgotten them. All in all it was a lively and interesting bunch, and conversation at the table never slowed down, even as the food arrived.
Chinese group dining is particularly well suited for nonstop conversation. The lazy susan is a fixture at any table holding more than four people. Food is brought out dish by dish, and your time at the table is spent in even shares of talking, listening, and watching which dishes are currently rotating by you at the table. Small foods which are difficult to pick up with chopsticks may be scooped up with a spoon and dropped into a bowl in front of you for more casual consumption. This may sound complicated, but it actually works rather smoothly, and it provides for an enjoyable meal with a lot of variety.
After dinner, we got together with some of the teachers for drinks, small talk, and card games, which would prove to be the staple late night activity. One or two of the teachers made the mistake of thinking they could match drinking pace with Luther, and they paid the price the next morning. Fortunately, I have experienced Luther before, and I did not make the same mistake. The next morning I was fresh and ready to learn.
For our classes, most of our basic lesson material is provided by the student's textbooks. Therefore it is our job to present something more: a native english tongue and new ways to get the students vocal and involved. This typically means classroom games and activities, which are what we spent most of our first day discussing. In the morning we had general discussion, and in the afternoon we split into groups depending on the age group we taught. Unfortunately, a whole day spent discussing lesson plans means there are too many to cover here. Instead, I will discuss the lessons and activities I chose to use as I use them. If you are deeply interested in the subject and cannot wait to find out more, you can check out Boggle's World or do a google search for "ESL lesson plans."
Another night of socializing followed, and the final morning of our conference was spent discussing some of the nuts and bolts of teaching. Dealing with unruly students, grading work, and administering student oral exams. There was a brief but interesting debate on the grading policy of some schools. One teacher was informed that none of his students were to receive marks lower than 80%, and he was greatly offended by this. Personally, I am of the opinion that I am here to teach and encourage learning. If my school asks me to give all of my students A++ grades, I'm happy to do so and their future employers can have fun sorting them out. My integrity as a teacher comes from doing the best job I can, and I have no interest in battling the Chinese school system.
There was another teacher who is working at the university level. He was informed that he must fail 10% of his students on their final exam. This is a much more troubling situation. I have little problem telling incompetent students they are brilliant if I am told I must do so, but failing a student who has managed to pass the class is a different matter. While the teacher has said he has not had trouble finding at least 10% of his students who were not worthy of passing his class, his situation still worries me and I hope I am not placed in a similar situation. Judging from my experience with my fellow teachers thus far, I do not believe this will be an issue.
After lunch we had free time to visit the shops of Wuhan before we returned to Macheng. I bid goodbye to Luther and headed to the CarreFour, a giant Wal-martesque store which was reportedly the spot to find Western items which could not be found elsewhere. As I had not been paid yet my budget was tight, and I restricted myself to one item I had been searching high and low for, deodorant. My fellow teachers loaded up on other hard to find items such as bread, cheese, butter, and vodka. When everyone was finished shopping we met our driver and left for Macheng. After the hour and a half drive we stopped for dinner before parting ways. Our driver and I put down a few beers together and I finally got to try dog. For those who are curious, it is very tender and tastes like beef.
Wednesday, November 24, 2004 :: ARCHIVES
Chrysanthemums and the TortoiseBy midday Tuesday, I had met all six of my Junior 2 level classes and given them the intro lesson. The students had their midterms for the rest of the week, and so I was free until the following Monday. Not bad for my first week of classes.
Luther was in the same situation, so he took the train to my town for a visit. That evening we searching to find the bars and nightlife in my sleepy little town. We had no luck on the first night, although we did find the red light district.
The next day we were taken on a tour of the Chinese countryside, which turned out to be a fun hike over fields of chrysanthemums for tea and vegetables. Most all of the Chinese countryside that I have seen in my area is terraced and subdivided into small plots. For a minimal fee, the local farmer can lease these plots for fifty years. The number of plots they can lease depends on the size of their family. Most of these farmers live in tiny villages near the land they work. Their homes seem to lack indoor plumbing, but not satellite dishes. We were shown one house, which was overrun by chickens, cats, and baby chicks and kittens of all sizes. Most of the rooms were packed full of stored food and farming supplies, with a tiny kitchen and bedroom. While it is greatly different from the life we know, it did not seem to be such a bad life. The farmer and his wife were certainly cheerful enough. Perhaps satellite TV is the key to happiness.
Our tour was guided by representatives of a local school. After the tour we returned to the school, where the smokers were all given packs of pretty high-end cigarettes (10 yuan, compared to the 2.5 yuan packs I buy), and we played cards with the schoolmaster. Then we were treated to a huge meal, including numerous toasts of beer and the local rice liquor. After all of us (including our driver) were full and pretty damn drunk, they took us to speak to the classes for about 10-15 minutes. Then our happy driver drove us home. I tell you, it's a different world over here.
After getting home, Luther and I hit the streets again, and this time had more luck. The grand total for Macheng so far: 2 decent bars (one classy, one trendy) and a nice little nightclub with a decent dance floor.
The next day, we were taken to Tortoise Mountain, where we hiked a massive distance uphill only to be confronted with a flight of 567 tall, narrow stairs to reach the peak. All of this after a long hike the previous day and a night of dancing. It was worth it, however, as we ended up above the cloud line, and were treated to a surreal view of cloud tops with a few mountain peaks poking through. It was pretty wild.
That night Luther and I skipped out on the night life.
Tuesday, November 23, 2004 :: ARCHIVES
The First LessonMy first weekend here was a blur of exploring Macheng. Meals were provided for me by the school during this weekend, and at several of the meals I was introduced to one of the Chinese English teachers. Most of them had a good grasp of the language, and they were all friendly and helpful. Other chores were dealt with during the weekend. I had photos taken for various documents, and was taken to the local police station to register as a visiting foreigner. On Sunday, I was taken to visit the school I would be teaching at, Hua Ying Middle School, which was a ten minute walk up the road from my home on the campus of Macheng Middle School number 1.
Hua Ying school is a brand new campus, just opened this year. There has a beautiful fountain out front, with a sculpture in the center and relief murals encircling around. The buildings are an attractive combination of red brick and tan concrete. The main class buildings are five stories, with walkways attaching each level. There are two dorms, a dining hall, and an athletics area with ping pong tables, basketball courts, and a sport field. All in all, it is a very attractive campus.
The next morning, my arrival was greeted with students from all classes shouting "Hello!" and "Good morning!" from the walkways and classrooms. All the students really go berserk over having a foreign teacher, and the constantly shouted greetings have not slowed down yet. One by one I was introduced to my Junior Grade 2 classes, six in all, each composed of about forty 12-14 year olds. The classes went well. My basic lesson for the week involved a quick description of my life growing up and some details about the American landscape. Afterwards, I had each student stand, introduce themselves, and ask a question about me or life in America. I got lots of "What is your favorite sport" "favorite animal" "favorite food" and "What do you think of China" "our school" etc. One boy asked "Chinese women are very beautiful. Will you take a Chinese bride?"
I'm not telling what my answer was, you can just wait and see.
Shade and sweet water,
Ben
Ben Rebach
100 Mainsail Drive Cary, NC 27511 919.469.1915 ben@benrebach.com