Halloween in China

Happy belated Halloween!

Although Halloween is not a holiday celebrated in China, I certainly got my Halloween fix here. The week leading up to Halloween I gave a special Halloween lesson in all of my classes to explain the traditions of the holiday in America. For the classes that have projectors I was able to show a powerpoint with pictures to explain what witches, ghosts, candy corn, corn mazes, etc are. For the other classes I had to be more creative in my explanations. Fortunately American movies and TV shows are very popular in China. So between Twilight, Harry Potter, and the Vampire Diaries, explaining traditional Halloween costumes was actually pretty easy. I was surprised to find that most of my students watch the AMC series The Walking Dead--a post-apocalyptic zombie series that takes place in Atlanta. When I told my first class that zombies are dead people that walk, one student said, 'you mean like the walking dead'. At least one student in each of my classes had seen the TV series, but because it never uses the term zombie, none of them had ever heard the word before.

On Saturday I went into the City for an expat Halloween party/buffet. The event was hosted by Xianease, an expat magazine for Xi'an. It took place at a very nice Italian restaurant, the first I've seen in China, and cost 75RMB for the buffet. Unfortunately the event was underwhelming. Only about 30 people attended the event, and that includes Chinese nationals. The 'buffet' was only hors d'oeuvres and a few pizzas that we discovered hidden in the corner of the room. The highlight of the night was pumpkin carving, which was worth the 75RMB in itself.

I forgot how messy pumpkin carving is...

...or how dangerous carving pumpkins is with dull knives in a dark room

My Jack-o-lantern

Here's a shot for the Xianease magazine

On Monday the foreign teachers and I threw a Halloween party for our students. We each contributed 100RMB ($16) a piece for decorations and food. We were able to convince the manager of a local bar to let us use his space to host the event. The alternative was a classroom which lacks the sound system, dance floor, colored lights, and fog machine necessary to throw a real Halloween party. We told our students that we would provide candy and refreshments for free, but they had to wear a Halloween costume. Turn out was great. We had more than 100 students attending and about 90% wore costumes.

The one holding the bamboo is a panda

Waitresses at the bar

Chinese Princess, Burglar, Vampire

Vampire

I recognize that panda from somewhere

One of my students told me this was her first time dancing in public

It wouldn't be Halloween in Asia without at least one Anime character

My students are hard workers

If a picture is worth a thousand words, than a video has got to be a dictionary's worth. This is my first attempt at uploading a video to my blog. I am filming from my second floor classroom in building K3. In the video I pan  across buildings K1 then K2 and the court yard of the international school, then into the classroom. You then see my students hard at work. Let me know what you think of the video by writing a comment below. I will try to post more videos in the future.

Wildlife of the hills of Xi'an

Siyuan University's campus is pretty far from the city center of Xi'an. It takes me an hour on an express bus line to get from Siyuan to the center of town. The hills of Siyuan's campus have maintained a pastoral character in contrast to the rapidly urbanizing valley below. Yet it has taken me three weeks to identify wildlife living on campus. Only after I changed my definition of wildlife was I able to spot any.

The typical wildlife present in the American countryside just aren't here. No rabbits, deer, squirrels, rodents etc. If these animals do live in China, they have been chased away by a different kind of wildlife--stray dogs and cats. There are packs of dogs that roam the streets of Siyuan. At first I thought they were pets of the students, but I have since learned that pets are forbidden to the students. Cats walk the aisles of the cafeterias in search of scraps. The only 'typical' kind of wildlife I've since are giant toads. And I assume they are around because the dogs and cats know they are poisonous.

Stray cat outside of my favorite cafeteria

Giant toad on the footstep of my building...most definitely poisonous

 Earlier this week while I was teaching a class, a stray dog came in and curled up under a student's desk. The dog was in the room for 15 minutes before I discovered it. I think the students were trying to hide it from me because Chinese teachers would not tolerate a dog in their classroom. They were quite surprised when all I did was take a few pictures and leave the animal be.

Is that a louis vitton knock-off?

Oh wait, its just a puppy.

I like to think he left my lecture with a better understanding of the English language.

The girls in my class seemed to really enjoy the dog. I asked them who owned the dog. They told me 'he's homeless'. I showed my pictures to students in my other classes. They were all pretty jealous that they had no dog show up in their classroom. One guy who I showed the pictures to was not as pleased. 'Dogs are forbidden. They are filthy and carry disease,' he told me. I asked him what he had against dogs. He grabbed his ankle and said, 'I was bit when I was a child'. I have to admit he's not wrong about them being filthy. Because all the dogs are homeless, most of their diet is made up of garbage. However dogs are not the only things eating garbage at Siyuan.

What's that pecking on garbage?

I really hope these guys are 'homeless' too...just to be safe, I'm not eating at this restaurant anymore.

The highs and lows of teaching english

I have now taught all but two of my classes. I have a good idea of what the students need to learn and how I'm going to teach them. Because my classes are diverse in both the content I'm required to teach and the level of English comprehension of the students, my teaching experience has been similarly diverse.

The Lows

My first class was on Tuesday afternoon (my morning class had been canceled for my health examination). This class was more of a two hour private tutoring session than a typical college class. I had two students, a boy and a girl, who required remedial English instruction in order to keep pace with their major program. Because I know no chinese and they know almost no english, teaching them was nearly impossible. This was also one of the class which the university did not provide me with teaching materials or a lesson plan. Fortunately I will not be teaching this class again until the university works out some scheduling issues. I plan to request a chinese speaking instructor for these students when the scheduling issues are resolved.

My Thursday afternoon class was my first class in the Sino-Canadian program, which I was very excited to teach. When I arrived at the International campus I realized that my teaching schedule did not list the room number for this class. Luckily I was able to find one of my students from an earlier class and borrow her phone to call my supervisor (I still dont have a cell phone). When I got to the right room, I began with my usual introductions, and because the students were freshmen I began assigning them English names. About 30 minutes into class a chinese man came into my classroom and asked me why I was teaching his class. We both stepped outside and we sorted out that he was supposed to teach from 2:30 to 4:30 and I was to teach from 4:30 to 6:30. The teaching schedule had been changed, and he had a new calendar that reflected that. The calendar I had been given (after he had received his, mind you) had me teaching during the 2:30 slot. Together we called my supervisor again. She apologized for the mistake. When I returned at 4:30 to teach my class I jumped in where I left off. When everyone had an English name I moved into teaching a lesson from the textbook (this was a class where I was provided teaching materials). About halfway through my lesson, a student stopped me and said the lesson was not in his textbook. Indeed it wasn't; I had been provided with the wrong textbook to teach the class. I made up a few activities on the spot, but without the correct materials I had little choice but to dismiss class early.

The Highs

Despite the two dismal class experiences listed above, my overall experience thus far has been smooth and successful. Both of my classes on Wednesday were for Sophomore 4-year English majors. Although the level of English comprehension varied in the classes, they were strong enough to understand my instructions and deliver on the tasks I provided. Both classes were roughly 35 students in size and almost entirely female. The classrooms had a blackboard, podium, computer and projector for my use.

Class 2, Grade 2. 8:00-9:50 AM

Class 1, Grade 2. 10:10-11:00 AM

The lesson plan I developed for these classes followed this structure:
-Introductions
I introduce myself (as Mr. J) and tell the students where I am from, and my hobbies.
I ask my students to make plackards with their english names so I can easily call on them.
I have the student introduce themselves one by one with their english names, hometown, years learning english, and hobbies.
-Activities
I choose two or three activities from the textbook for the students to do--usually involving group-work, speaking or listening.

For my Thursday and Friday classes I was not provided with a textbook or class materials with which to teach. I used the introductions to gauge the level of my students and adapted activities from my other textbooks to fit their needs. This has worked quite nicely. I have also ended each class with a questionnaire asking students what they find difficult about English and what they want to take away from my class.

My Thursday classes were for third year students in the 3-year English major. Most intend to find jobs teaching English when they graduate in the spring. These classes had about 25 students. My Friday class was for third year students in the 5-year English major. This program is similar to an accelerated degree in america; students enter as high school students and complete high school and their English degree in 5 years. I have discovered Siyuan is something like a community college or junior college because it mainly offers the equivalent of associate degrees. Students in the 4 year program spend their fourth year studying for an exam that places them into another university. Students in the Sino-Canadian program are the only ones I'm aware of that receive a bachelor's degree (and it is from Mohawk College in Canada).

Class 1, Grade 3 (Five year English major)

Siyuan is structured very differently from universities in america. Students have a very rigid schedule: they begin class at 8 AM, have a lunch/siesta break from 12-2:30, and resume class until 6:30, and then have mandatory study hall until 8 PM. Also, students remain in the same classroom all day every day, with the same students. I dont know how this affects degree specialization, but with 30,000 students I guess they can make it work.

My teaching schedule

Yesterday I was finally briefed on my teaching responsibilities. I met with the Dean of the International School who emphasized the importance of encouraging students to speak in class. My supervisor gave me my weekly teaching schedule and my class materials.

Class Schedule. I teach Tuesday through Saturday for a total of 22 hours/week.

All of my classes except for the one on Friday are in the Sino-Canadian program. These students take classes here at Siyuan University, but graduate with a degree from Mohawk College in Canada. It is one of the more rigorous programs offered at this university. The Sino-Canadian program has its classes on a different campus that is about a ten minute walk from my dorm. The other class is on the main campus.

The main building on the International campus, home of the Sino-Canadian program. The other campuses have distinctly chinese architecture.

 I will have a text book to work with for my Tuesday and Wednesday morning classes and my Thursday afternoon classes. These students are Sophomores and Freshmen with basic english skills. My Thursday, Friday, and Saturday morning classes have not textbook and are with upperclassmen who are more advanced. My Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon classes are one-on-one tutoring sessions with two freshmen students who I met with yesterday.