This morning I was reading an English language daily newspaper before I started yet another round of hand laundry when I came across an article about an American businessman being awarded honorary Chinese citizenship. He is 46 years old, the head of China Corning. He was educated at Oxford, and has lived in China since 1996. He was instrumental in working to remove the institutionalized children of Shanghai into foster care, and it was for this work that he was being honored. They had a photo of him in the paper; he is still youthful looking, with the unlined skin of a lifetime spent indoors.
The hotel we are staying in is filled with people traveling on international business. There are Thais, Koreans, Indians, Americans and South Americans here. I am not in business; I have spent fewer than two years of my whole life working for private enterprise. Seeing these people, I wonder if I’m sorry I did not try harder to gain fluency in a second language as a young adult and break into working overseas.
Most of the business travelers I see in this hotel are men. I learned quickly as a Rotary Scholar back in the early nineties that success as a woman in the international business community would not come as easily as for a man. I spent four years as a greatly outnumbered female in Navy avionics in the middle eighties, it was enough.
This Christmas we stayed with my first cousin in London. He is a geophysicist, and he and his family have lived in Venezuela, Pakistan, Malaysia, Canada, and now London. They live the corporate expatriate life, their children attend first class international schools, they have built a life where they move every few years. My cousin tells me that a few of his peers are now women, and their husbands the trailing spouse. It is a sea change from twenty years ago.
I have a good friend who changed careers from journalism to Wall Street in her thirties. She spent about five years flying back and forth to Hong Kong from New York every month, which sounds exciting, but actually became a grind over time, and as a single parent, she loathed the extended time away from her child.
It is all but impossible to analyze the path not taken. We leave tomorrow to spend two days traveling to pick up the threads of the lives we left behind when we came to China. The things I will miss are intangibles. I have loved living in the same room with the kids, loved having them physically close to me so much. I will miss teaching, although I have a tendency to try too hard to put old heads on young shoulders. I will miss the novelty of living in a place so unlike my home in Tallahassee. I will miss China as it was in this moment, for it is changing so quickly that every visit will be different.
Before we left home I read a children’s book about a family that makes a medical mission to Nepal. The book said that there was a saying in Nepal that, “You will not change Nepal, Nepal will change you.” I don’t know that China has changed us, we certainly have not changed China. We perhaps have a little more perspective; I think that Sarah particularly has gotten something from this trip.
Originally I made arrangements for this journey so that James could have a period of language immersion to help his speak better Chinese. It turned out to be an experiment in teaching for me, an opportunity for growing independence for Sarah, and incidentally language immersion for James. It has been well worth the journey. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Aquarium
Doing business in China is sort of complicated. A foreign operation cannot appear one day and set up shop, a joint venture is required, with substantial Chinese employment and ownership. There are two world class aquariums in Shanghai, one is a Singapore joint venture, the other a New Zealand joint venture. We went today to the New Zealand one, which was very good, and well geared to families. It was situated in a large park that had pedal boats (called “foot-powered”) and little rides, and a big aquarium.
The aquarium was almost entirely underground, much of it underneath a small lake. Once I let go of the claustrophobic feeling, it was very nice. It had a shark tunnel and a shallow reef with waves, and a deeper reef with enormous sea turtles, and James got to feed turtles and we saw a shark go poop. There was a beluga whale show, too, but it was not very impressive to those of us who have visited Sea World. It was super expensive by Chinese standards; it cost $40 for the three of us to visit. Having grown accustomed to $2 each for suppers and 40 cents each for bus rides, paying theme park prices is traumatic.
I think the Aquarium is making money, it was a weekday and they seemed quite busy. The tanks and equipment looked first rate, and although the entrance fees were low by Western standards, the labor costs are much lower here. At the hotel we are staying at, there are lots of foreign businessmen checking on China investments. I talked to a guy in the elevator today who had to get more pages put in his passport; he’d traveled so much overseas.
The aquarium was almost entirely underground, much of it underneath a small lake. Once I let go of the claustrophobic feeling, it was very nice. It had a shark tunnel and a shallow reef with waves, and a deeper reef with enormous sea turtles, and James got to feed turtles and we saw a shark go poop. There was a beluga whale show, too, but it was not very impressive to those of us who have visited Sea World. It was super expensive by Chinese standards; it cost $40 for the three of us to visit. Having grown accustomed to $2 each for suppers and 40 cents each for bus rides, paying theme park prices is traumatic.
I think the Aquarium is making money, it was a weekday and they seemed quite busy. The tanks and equipment looked first rate, and although the entrance fees were low by Western standards, the labor costs are much lower here. At the hotel we are staying at, there are lots of foreign businessmen checking on China investments. I talked to a guy in the elevator today who had to get more pages put in his passport; he’d traveled so much overseas.
5 Star Hotel
We are here serendipitously, as we were supposed to leave with the group on August 15, but the travel agent made a mistake with our ticket arrangements, so we are paying only half of a discounted rate to stay at a five star hotel. I have never stayed anywhere this nice before and it especially nice to stay in an American hotel after a month of struggling to speak Chinese. Here every staff member speaks English, and every staff member has been so pleasant to us, even though we are patently not their usual customers.
I am slightly embarrassed in my Wal-mart clothes and my $10 haircut. People here are dressed expensively. Most of them are here on business, they do not have kids in tow. The prices for everything are stratospheric. Internet connections are $18 a day so we’ve been waiting to find an internet café, but the neighborhood is too upscale to have one. The breakfast buffet is $29 (we get two breakfasts a day included with our room price – the third person has to eat at McDonald’s – we take turns).
But it is splendid. We ride up and down at night in the glass elevator. We hang around in the lobby and listen to the live classical music. We swim in the fabulous indoor pool and wrap ourselves in the luxurious towels. The staff is outstanding. The room is so clean it’s seems brand new. There is a fresh carnation in our bathroom. The maids give James candy.
James and Sarah are ready to go home, but as long as we’re here, I’m not sure I’m ready to go.
I am slightly embarrassed in my Wal-mart clothes and my $10 haircut. People here are dressed expensively. Most of them are here on business, they do not have kids in tow. The prices for everything are stratospheric. Internet connections are $18 a day so we’ve been waiting to find an internet café, but the neighborhood is too upscale to have one. The breakfast buffet is $29 (we get two breakfasts a day included with our room price – the third person has to eat at McDonald’s – we take turns).
But it is splendid. We ride up and down at night in the glass elevator. We hang around in the lobby and listen to the live classical music. We swim in the fabulous indoor pool and wrap ourselves in the luxurious towels. The staff is outstanding. The room is so clean it’s seems brand new. There is a fresh carnation in our bathroom. The maids give James candy.
James and Sarah are ready to go home, but as long as we’re here, I’m not sure I’m ready to go.
Shanghai
Nanjing was a backwater of 5.4 million people. Shanghai has 13.2 million people. Real estate is world class, with world class prices. The skyline is truly phenomenal, but the infrastructure still needs some work. And the air, the air is like Victorian England, virtually black with soot.
I’ve heard of people flying to Hong Kong to shop, and you could do the same in Shanghai, if you are not a large person or if you like you suits “bespoke” (tailor made). There is more stuff to buy here, from fine silks to cheap souvenirs, than I have ever seen before.
The city is going continuously. Last night we could see someone arc welding in a building under construction at 10 pm. The traffic is snarled all the time. Fashionably dressed people walk down the streets as quickly as New Yorkers, marching past impoverished street vendors trying to sell watches to passers-by.
I was surprised to find so many beggars in a Communist country. I mean, considering the significant downside of Communism/Socialism, the upside should be that there is care and feeding of the underclass. I had to physically remove an old woman from my person the day before yesterday; she was that aggressive about separating me from some money. It is not like India, where you can be swarmed if you hand out a rupee, but it can be intimidating. Fortunately, they do not seem to target children, although today I saw a man demand that a little boy waiting in line for the aquarium finish his water, so the man could collect the bottle to sell for recycling.
Sarah loves it here, she loves the fabulous architecture of the skyscrapers, she loves the fashionable clothes, and she loves the momentum of the city. She loves New York, too. James mostly loves the hotel we are staying in, which we could never ordinarily afford, but we got a discounted rate, and the travel agent paid for half of that, because of a problem with our airline tickets. I must confess that I am quite taken with the city, for all of its glaring faults, as it is wildly dynamic.
I’ve heard of people flying to Hong Kong to shop, and you could do the same in Shanghai, if you are not a large person or if you like you suits “bespoke” (tailor made). There is more stuff to buy here, from fine silks to cheap souvenirs, than I have ever seen before.
The city is going continuously. Last night we could see someone arc welding in a building under construction at 10 pm. The traffic is snarled all the time. Fashionably dressed people walk down the streets as quickly as New Yorkers, marching past impoverished street vendors trying to sell watches to passers-by.
I was surprised to find so many beggars in a Communist country. I mean, considering the significant downside of Communism/Socialism, the upside should be that there is care and feeding of the underclass. I had to physically remove an old woman from my person the day before yesterday; she was that aggressive about separating me from some money. It is not like India, where you can be swarmed if you hand out a rupee, but it can be intimidating. Fortunately, they do not seem to target children, although today I saw a man demand that a little boy waiting in line for the aquarium finish his water, so the man could collect the bottle to sell for recycling.
Sarah loves it here, she loves the fabulous architecture of the skyscrapers, she loves the fashionable clothes, and she loves the momentum of the city. She loves New York, too. James mostly loves the hotel we are staying in, which we could never ordinarily afford, but we got a discounted rate, and the travel agent paid for half of that, because of a problem with our airline tickets. I must confess that I am quite taken with the city, for all of its glaring faults, as it is wildly dynamic.
Chinese Beds
Chinese beds are not like American beds. They are hard, impressively hard. In Nanjing, Sarah said that it was like there was no mattress and we slept directly on the boxspring. In Suzhou, we had beds with a mattress and boxspring, and on top of the mattress a board had been inserted in each bed, sewn in and covered with a mattress pad under the sheet. It was better than sleeping on the floor, barely.
One of the other teachers told me she put the comforter on the bed and slept under her dress. These are some hard beds. My husband would be delighted. Sarah says that one of the things she is looking forward to most is her pillowtop bed at home.
One of the other teachers told me she put the comforter on the bed and slept under her dress. These are some hard beds. My husband would be delighted. Sarah says that one of the things she is looking forward to most is her pillowtop bed at home.
Monday, August 13, 2007
The Gentlemen Hotel
We are currently ensconced in the very swank Gentlemen Hotel in Suzhou. We got here because last night's hotel was not very swank. It was sort of the opposite. The bathroom had so much mildew my kids refused to take showers. The cot James was supposed to sleep in smelled so bad he slept with me. A young woman down the hall was awakened by a large rat falling out of the ceiling and onto the floor next to her bed. The rat then ran into her bathroom.
The staff seemed relatively unperturbed by this turn of events. The young woman said she thought it seemed that there were people running in the halls, but once the rat fell through the ceiling, she realized it was rats running. She and several other people left the hotel for another place to spend the night. The kids and I slept through the entire event.
However, today, after discussions between the university and the travel agency and the local tour guide, tonight we have lovely accommodations. We live in fear of where we'll wind up staying in Shanghai tomorrow night, but that's a problem for another day. Tonight, we are staying in a stately converted old fashioned British men's club, complete with card room.
Shuzhou is great. It is called the Venice of China, because of its historic use of canals. It has something like 130 bridges in the city spanning these little canals. It has lovely temples and the famous "Humble Administrator's Garden," which is a World Heritage Site consisting of 6 hectares of Zen garden. I also love the sound of Humble Administrator, and have decided that I'm going to see if my office will change my title.
Shuzhou is a historic city with low rise requirements, so although there has been plenty of construction, it is not full of high rise buildings. It has been a silk producing area for a couple of thousand years, and today we visited a silk factory and James and the other children were given silkworm cocoons, complete with dead moth. They told us that there is 1500 meters of silk in a single cocoon.
The food was spectacular today, I must have eaten 8 different kinds of vegetables, 2 kinds of fish, 3 kinds of tofu, 2 kinds of duck and watermelon. Maybe group tours aren't as bad as I thought.
The staff seemed relatively unperturbed by this turn of events. The young woman said she thought it seemed that there were people running in the halls, but once the rat fell through the ceiling, she realized it was rats running. She and several other people left the hotel for another place to spend the night. The kids and I slept through the entire event.
However, today, after discussions between the university and the travel agency and the local tour guide, tonight we have lovely accommodations. We live in fear of where we'll wind up staying in Shanghai tomorrow night, but that's a problem for another day. Tonight, we are staying in a stately converted old fashioned British men's club, complete with card room.
Shuzhou is great. It is called the Venice of China, because of its historic use of canals. It has something like 130 bridges in the city spanning these little canals. It has lovely temples and the famous "Humble Administrator's Garden," which is a World Heritage Site consisting of 6 hectares of Zen garden. I also love the sound of Humble Administrator, and have decided that I'm going to see if my office will change my title.
Shuzhou is a historic city with low rise requirements, so although there has been plenty of construction, it is not full of high rise buildings. It has been a silk producing area for a couple of thousand years, and today we visited a silk factory and James and the other children were given silkworm cocoons, complete with dead moth. They told us that there is 1500 meters of silk in a single cocoon.
The food was spectacular today, I must have eaten 8 different kinds of vegetables, 2 kinds of fish, 3 kinds of tofu, 2 kinds of duck and watermelon. Maybe group tours aren't as bad as I thought.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
The Student Dormitories
The undergraduate dormitories are 5 story concrete monoliths with no redeeming architectural value. They are strictly utilitarian. There is an attendant at the door to keep members of the opposite gender out, the building is locked at 10:30 pm each night.
There is no elevator, the first room I visited was on the fifth floor. Down the long corridor of doors, each room has an electrical meter. Each room is given a certain amount of electricity per semester, overages must be paid for.
Students sleep 6 to a room, which is about 12 feet by 15, not including the bath. You enter the room, there are two sets of bunk beds on the left wall, six lockers and a set of bunk beds on the right. There are two desks running down the middle of the room. Quarters are tight, even slight Chinese girls have to push in the chairs and walk sideways to get to their beds.
The ceiling is high, so the beds are higher than in the west. You can sit up easily in your bunk bed. The mattress is the depth of an exercise mat, and sits rolled up at the end of the bed. The beds are covered with mosquito nets. There is no air conditioning.
It is still instantly recognizable as a girls' dormitory room. Doors have posters on them, there are stuffed animals on the beds, and the pillows have feminine pillow cases. There is the detritus of female life lying about, make-up, pink notebooks, purses.
The bathroom is just beyond the beds, running the width of the room. On the left is a large, sort of trough like sink, which permits hand laundry to be done in the room. On the right is a combination toilet/shower room with a door. The toilets here are squat toilets, the shower in the dormitories is just a shower head in the small room, the whole room gets wet.
Beyond the bathroom is the balcony, where laundry is hung out to dry. In some dormitories, there are no balconies, and students erect racks outside the windows. There it is best to be on the highest floor, so you don't have higher floor laundry dripping on top of yours. For a time during exams this spring, it rained so much for days that no one could dry their laundry and everyone was running out of clean underwear.
If you have ever lived shipboard as an enlisted person in the Navy, you will understand the closeness of the quarters here. There is a new dormitory building going up right now, one that will have air conditioning. The incoming freshmen in 2008 will be housed in it. We American teachers have a feeling that upperclassmen will not be very happy about that.
Summer temperatures in Nanjing are even hotter than Tallahassee, daytime highs are often in the high 90s or low 100s. The students bake in these little rooms, and spend as little time as possible in them. Those who can possibly leave school and spend the summer at home do so to avoid the heat. Of course, most of my students didn't have air conditioning at home, either, but at least at home they didn't have to share a room with 5 other people.
There is no elevator, the first room I visited was on the fifth floor. Down the long corridor of doors, each room has an electrical meter. Each room is given a certain amount of electricity per semester, overages must be paid for.
Students sleep 6 to a room, which is about 12 feet by 15, not including the bath. You enter the room, there are two sets of bunk beds on the left wall, six lockers and a set of bunk beds on the right. There are two desks running down the middle of the room. Quarters are tight, even slight Chinese girls have to push in the chairs and walk sideways to get to their beds.
The ceiling is high, so the beds are higher than in the west. You can sit up easily in your bunk bed. The mattress is the depth of an exercise mat, and sits rolled up at the end of the bed. The beds are covered with mosquito nets. There is no air conditioning.
It is still instantly recognizable as a girls' dormitory room. Doors have posters on them, there are stuffed animals on the beds, and the pillows have feminine pillow cases. There is the detritus of female life lying about, make-up, pink notebooks, purses.
The bathroom is just beyond the beds, running the width of the room. On the left is a large, sort of trough like sink, which permits hand laundry to be done in the room. On the right is a combination toilet/shower room with a door. The toilets here are squat toilets, the shower in the dormitories is just a shower head in the small room, the whole room gets wet.
Beyond the bathroom is the balcony, where laundry is hung out to dry. In some dormitories, there are no balconies, and students erect racks outside the windows. There it is best to be on the highest floor, so you don't have higher floor laundry dripping on top of yours. For a time during exams this spring, it rained so much for days that no one could dry their laundry and everyone was running out of clean underwear.
If you have ever lived shipboard as an enlisted person in the Navy, you will understand the closeness of the quarters here. There is a new dormitory building going up right now, one that will have air conditioning. The incoming freshmen in 2008 will be housed in it. We American teachers have a feeling that upperclassmen will not be very happy about that.
Summer temperatures in Nanjing are even hotter than Tallahassee, daytime highs are often in the high 90s or low 100s. The students bake in these little rooms, and spend as little time as possible in them. Those who can possibly leave school and spend the summer at home do so to avoid the heat. Of course, most of my students didn't have air conditioning at home, either, but at least at home they didn't have to share a room with 5 other people.
Group Tour - Day 1
I have heard about group tours but never actually been on one. Sarah went with her school to New York City last year, but when I was young I didn't travel with my school and I was never on any sports teams that went anywhere together, and when I was in the Navy, they just loaded us up and went, we didn't stop and look at anything.
My friend Grace used to like group tours and went on her first group tour in 1930, and her last one in 1991. Based on my now vast experience of one day with a group tour, I don't think I'll be doing this for 60 years. It's, um, dull.
We hauled our luggage out to the bus for an 8:30 am departure, and of course someone was late so we had to go back and find her. Then we traveled for a while, and stopped and we all herded out and went to the bathroom, and then travled some more.
We arrived a Wuxi in the rain, and went to lunch at a place with a bunch of tour buses parked out front. The food was pre-ordered for us, which was fine, it all just felt a little sterile. We had a guide for the afternoon, and we went to see a park that had previously been the country estate of early 20th century Chinese industrialists, and to a pearl factory, and to a temple. But it was too much for the kids, James fell asleep on the bus and missed the temple, and our resident four year old stayed awake but melted down during the temple visit.
The evening meal was also in a place that seemed to cater to groups, with pre-ordered food coming out quickly and efficiently. The hotel is next to the train station and we've been advised to stay in our rooms and not venture out as the neighborhood is dangerous. This experience is not making me feel like I'm part of the culture. Or maybe it's just the rain.
My friend Grace used to like group tours and went on her first group tour in 1930, and her last one in 1991. Based on my now vast experience of one day with a group tour, I don't think I'll be doing this for 60 years. It's, um, dull.
We hauled our luggage out to the bus for an 8:30 am departure, and of course someone was late so we had to go back and find her. Then we traveled for a while, and stopped and we all herded out and went to the bathroom, and then travled some more.
We arrived a Wuxi in the rain, and went to lunch at a place with a bunch of tour buses parked out front. The food was pre-ordered for us, which was fine, it all just felt a little sterile. We had a guide for the afternoon, and we went to see a park that had previously been the country estate of early 20th century Chinese industrialists, and to a pearl factory, and to a temple. But it was too much for the kids, James fell asleep on the bus and missed the temple, and our resident four year old stayed awake but melted down during the temple visit.
The evening meal was also in a place that seemed to cater to groups, with pre-ordered food coming out quickly and efficiently. The hotel is next to the train station and we've been advised to stay in our rooms and not venture out as the neighborhood is dangerous. This experience is not making me feel like I'm part of the culture. Or maybe it's just the rain.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Leaving Nanjing
This morning we are packing up our things to take a group tour with the other teachers for a few days, ending in Shanghai. We don't want to leave. I came expecting that we would all be sick all the time, probably with ghastly illnesses that would give us liver damage. I thought the food would be toxic, the air poisonous, and my children snatched and sold as slaves.
Okay, I was wrong.
We are leaving a world where teachers are viewed as valuable, really valuable members of society. Where people take a couple of hours in the middle of the day to eat with their friends and families and rest before returning to work. Where people gather in squares in the evenings to socialize and dance.
One night, ballroom dancers were out in Times Square, dancing to Chinese music. James and I went out and danced with them, and I hope I always remember the strange tones of the Chinese music, the dancers box-stepping, and James and I dancing in the dark.
Two of my students burst in on us the night before last, while I was typing in my pajamas. I made them wait in the hall while I got dressed. They had come to bring us more presents and to give lengthy advice about what to see in Shanghai. I didn't expect to make friends here, or that young people would be so polite to a middle aged woman, so open with an unknown teenager, or so truly kind to a little boy.
The food is fabulous, rich and varied. As my Chinese is about as competent as my Urdu, we often think we are ordering one thing and get another. This is because of the tonal nature of Chinese. When you say the syllable "ma", depending on which of the four tones you use, it means mother, horse, numb or scold. For adults with non-tonal languages, this means you are misunderstood. A lot.
The food is always good, even when we don't recognize what it is. I must tell you that the Chinese food you get in Chinese restaurants is not what I am eating here. It seems unfair that France gets all the credit for great food, eaten happily with friends.
So I had trepidations for nothing. I am leaving with a satchel of unused drugs, the kids and I having taken nothing more than pepto-bismal since we left home. Sarah wants to come back and teach herself. James wants to live here.
I came, but I never expected to be so happy here.
Okay, I was wrong.
We are leaving a world where teachers are viewed as valuable, really valuable members of society. Where people take a couple of hours in the middle of the day to eat with their friends and families and rest before returning to work. Where people gather in squares in the evenings to socialize and dance.
One night, ballroom dancers were out in Times Square, dancing to Chinese music. James and I went out and danced with them, and I hope I always remember the strange tones of the Chinese music, the dancers box-stepping, and James and I dancing in the dark.
Two of my students burst in on us the night before last, while I was typing in my pajamas. I made them wait in the hall while I got dressed. They had come to bring us more presents and to give lengthy advice about what to see in Shanghai. I didn't expect to make friends here, or that young people would be so polite to a middle aged woman, so open with an unknown teenager, or so truly kind to a little boy.
The food is fabulous, rich and varied. As my Chinese is about as competent as my Urdu, we often think we are ordering one thing and get another. This is because of the tonal nature of Chinese. When you say the syllable "ma", depending on which of the four tones you use, it means mother, horse, numb or scold. For adults with non-tonal languages, this means you are misunderstood. A lot.
The food is always good, even when we don't recognize what it is. I must tell you that the Chinese food you get in Chinese restaurants is not what I am eating here. It seems unfair that France gets all the credit for great food, eaten happily with friends.
So I had trepidations for nothing. I am leaving with a satchel of unused drugs, the kids and I having taken nothing more than pepto-bismal since we left home. Sarah wants to come back and teach herself. James wants to live here.
I came, but I never expected to be so happy here.
Climbing Purple Mountain
Purple Mountain is only about 2 miles from the University, and many people get up very early and climb up the mountain, which is about 1500 feet high. James and I got up at 5:30 this morning and met one of my students at 6 am. My student told us it would take about half an hour to walk to the mountain, and an hour to walk up. James was complaining bitterly, so I decided the better part of valor was to take a cab to the foot of the mountain and then walk up. The cab took us to a different part of the mountain than my student was familiar with, and between the unfamiliar paths and an eight year old in tow, climbing up took a little over two and a half hours. All of the paths were very rocky and large portions were very steep. We arrived at the top to discover we could have walked the whole way on a road. My student said, somewhat sheepishly that when he walks up, he walks up on the road.
Having half killed ourselves walking up, we took a cable car down. I will say that both going up and coming down, that the view was spectacular, it looked like downtown Nanjing was springing up out of the forest, and there were wide swaths of bamboo forest. It was just lovely, but incredibly hot. James had a collar of salt around the top of his shirt, he sweated so much. The knees of my pants were wet.
We couldn't get a cab at the foot of the mountain, they were all full, so I took my first bus ride in the Nanjing on a 1Y (no air conditioning) bus. James kept singing "Jingle Bells," to the great amusement of my student. We arrived home at 10:45 am, hot and tired, but with an enormous feeling of achievement, even though many people in their sixties passed us on the trail.
Having half killed ourselves walking up, we took a cable car down. I will say that both going up and coming down, that the view was spectacular, it looked like downtown Nanjing was springing up out of the forest, and there were wide swaths of bamboo forest. It was just lovely, but incredibly hot. James had a collar of salt around the top of his shirt, he sweated so much. The knees of my pants were wet.
We couldn't get a cab at the foot of the mountain, they were all full, so I took my first bus ride in the Nanjing on a 1Y (no air conditioning) bus. James kept singing "Jingle Bells," to the great amusement of my student. We arrived home at 10:45 am, hot and tired, but with an enormous feeling of achievement, even though many people in their sixties passed us on the trail.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Last Day of Class
Today was my last day of teaching. James helped me haul a gallon of water, an electric tea kettle, instant coffee, milk, cups, a spoon and cookies to school so that I could give my class an American coffee break today.
One of the other teachers loaned me some menus, and we played restaurant today, too. In China, tax is included in prices, and there is no tipping, so they find calculating how much they owe in an American restaurant very confusing. I went over and over it with them. They also found restaurant ordering counter-intuitive. In this region of China, several dishes are ordered and shared with the table. They know in the United States people order food only for themselves, but they find it peculiar. Only two people in my class have ever used a knife and fork to eat.
I told them that if all else failed, to bring their own chop sticks, since they would not be available at most restaurants in the U.S., but that many American foods have to be cut up before eating because they come in big slabs. I told them that the rice is the same as in China at Chinese restaurants, but it is not free (it is generally a free side dish in Chinese restaurants). I told them it is very cheap, though.
I felt like I did not have enough time to tell them everything they needed to know, that I didn't have enough time so that they would have an easy time if they spent time overseas. I did tell them over these three weeks that if they ever spent any amount of time overseas that they should learn to cook, since food that I have had here is not readily available in the U.S., and eating strange foreign food day after day, week after week, is hard on body and soul.
Two of the girls had embroidered a picture of a baby sleeping on the moon for me, another girl gave me two basket-woven fish in lucky colors (the lucky colors look remarkably like the garnet and gold of FSU), one of the boys brought some little Snoopy statues. One of the girls brought Sarah a trinket. They were all very kind and Sarah and I left them our e-mail addresses and told them to write.
I wish I had been a better teacher for them, brought them further, faster. I did the best I could, and they were extremely kind to me, and also very good to my children. We had a quick lunch with my class monitor before she left to catch the bus to her home town. James cried all the way through lunch and would not eat. He does not want to leave China, and he did not want my students to leave. I find that funny, because he spent the months before we came saying that he did not want to go to China.
One of the other teachers loaned me some menus, and we played restaurant today, too. In China, tax is included in prices, and there is no tipping, so they find calculating how much they owe in an American restaurant very confusing. I went over and over it with them. They also found restaurant ordering counter-intuitive. In this region of China, several dishes are ordered and shared with the table. They know in the United States people order food only for themselves, but they find it peculiar. Only two people in my class have ever used a knife and fork to eat.
I told them that if all else failed, to bring their own chop sticks, since they would not be available at most restaurants in the U.S., but that many American foods have to be cut up before eating because they come in big slabs. I told them that the rice is the same as in China at Chinese restaurants, but it is not free (it is generally a free side dish in Chinese restaurants). I told them it is very cheap, though.
I felt like I did not have enough time to tell them everything they needed to know, that I didn't have enough time so that they would have an easy time if they spent time overseas. I did tell them over these three weeks that if they ever spent any amount of time overseas that they should learn to cook, since food that I have had here is not readily available in the U.S., and eating strange foreign food day after day, week after week, is hard on body and soul.
Two of the girls had embroidered a picture of a baby sleeping on the moon for me, another girl gave me two basket-woven fish in lucky colors (the lucky colors look remarkably like the garnet and gold of FSU), one of the boys brought some little Snoopy statues. One of the girls brought Sarah a trinket. They were all very kind and Sarah and I left them our e-mail addresses and told them to write.
I wish I had been a better teacher for them, brought them further, faster. I did the best I could, and they were extremely kind to me, and also very good to my children. We had a quick lunch with my class monitor before she left to catch the bus to her home town. James cried all the way through lunch and would not eat. He does not want to leave China, and he did not want my students to leave. I find that funny, because he spent the months before we came saying that he did not want to go to China.
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Times Square
Near our campus based hotel is a large square near the University’s auditorium. In the center of it is a huge sundial that children like to climb on. We call it Times Square. In the evenings, people come out into the dusk, and children roller skate, and people stand around and visit, and the place is quite crowded until late. During the day, when the temperatures can reach 40 degrees Celsius (which is so hot I refuse to convert to Fahrenheit, for fear I’ll have heat stroke just thinking about it), the place is completely deserted.
Sarah says she has seen ballroom dancing there in the evenings. James has played soccer with some little kids there. It is a gathering place without any commercial activity, just a large open area where people gather.
It is very different from the crowded streets here. There the stalls are crammed with items, things spill out into the sidewalks. People chop vegetables, play Chinese chess, and wash their hair on the sidewalks. Often the sidewalk is full so you have to walk in the street, where you are in constant peril from bicycles, motor scooters and cars.
Surprisingly, there are trash bins on every corner. There are people who come around and go through the trash and take out everything that can be recycled, the paper, the plastic bottles, and the aluminum cans, and pile it up and haul it off to be sold. Nanjing is a wealthy city, and many people have cars, but working people still use bicycles. So you will see someone with their bicycle balancing a 4’ x 4’ x 4’ pile of cardboard on the back of their bike. I see workmen carrying 12’ of pipes on their bicycles. Sometimes I even see fruit vendors with a sort of scales around their neck, and balanced on each side at the end of a chain, a pile of fruit.
Streets here are much less sanitary than at home. People are out in the streets, hacking and spitting, dropping their gum, babies are peeing on the side walk in their split pants. It is an adjustment, but I have a high tolerance for dirt.
In the evenings, there are just as many people in Times Square as there are in the streets, but without the stores, and bicycles, and motor scooters, it seems very different, sort of cheerful and safe and slow paced. If I could stay up later, I’d spend more time in Times Square.
Sarah says she has seen ballroom dancing there in the evenings. James has played soccer with some little kids there. It is a gathering place without any commercial activity, just a large open area where people gather.
It is very different from the crowded streets here. There the stalls are crammed with items, things spill out into the sidewalks. People chop vegetables, play Chinese chess, and wash their hair on the sidewalks. Often the sidewalk is full so you have to walk in the street, where you are in constant peril from bicycles, motor scooters and cars.
Surprisingly, there are trash bins on every corner. There are people who come around and go through the trash and take out everything that can be recycled, the paper, the plastic bottles, and the aluminum cans, and pile it up and haul it off to be sold. Nanjing is a wealthy city, and many people have cars, but working people still use bicycles. So you will see someone with their bicycle balancing a 4’ x 4’ x 4’ pile of cardboard on the back of their bike. I see workmen carrying 12’ of pipes on their bicycles. Sometimes I even see fruit vendors with a sort of scales around their neck, and balanced on each side at the end of a chain, a pile of fruit.
Streets here are much less sanitary than at home. People are out in the streets, hacking and spitting, dropping their gum, babies are peeing on the side walk in their split pants. It is an adjustment, but I have a high tolerance for dirt.
In the evenings, there are just as many people in Times Square as there are in the streets, but without the stores, and bicycles, and motor scooters, it seems very different, sort of cheerful and safe and slow paced. If I could stay up later, I’d spend more time in Times Square.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
The Delicate Question of Taiwan
"Because Taiwan is historically part of China, and other countries are interfering with our discussions." "Taiwan won't cooperate, because Japan and the United States are supporting its position."
These are strong words for a society that is generally very mild and believes strongly in "indirect communication." So I told them we would engage in a "thought experiment" where we would talk about what would happen if China just let Taiwan be independent.
The immediate response was that then many groups would want independence, like Mongolia and Tibet. I said, fine, continue with the experiment, what would happen if you let everyone who wants to become independent. I told them about some of the very small nations in the Carribean.
The reply was that if every province becomes independent, then China will be full of warring factions, as it was historically. Small countries will have multiple parties, and they will war among each other, and political parties will come to power based on the strength of their militias. I reminded them that Europe spent a long time as warring factions, and has only recently emerged as the European Union. Chinese factions do not have a monopoly on past bad behavior, and China has the kind of strong cultural and economic ties that bind a country together.
I suggested that if sections wanted independence, they could leave China over time, giving them an opportunity to build a stable government before they left, and preventing the problem of violent factions. I pointed out that if China had a vote tomorrow, only a very few areas would really want to leave, and even those that left would still have strong cultural and economic ties. Most of China wants to stay together, and it may not fundamentally undermine Chinese nationality and Chinese identity if some small sections become independent.
I do not flatter myself that anyone was convinced that Taiwan should be permitted independence permanently, but I did ask that they try to keep an open mind. And the class had a useful experience in thinking about whether the worst they think can happen is in fact the worst thing that could happen.
These are strong words for a society that is generally very mild and believes strongly in "indirect communication." So I told them we would engage in a "thought experiment" where we would talk about what would happen if China just let Taiwan be independent.
The immediate response was that then many groups would want independence, like Mongolia and Tibet. I said, fine, continue with the experiment, what would happen if you let everyone who wants to become independent. I told them about some of the very small nations in the Carribean.
The reply was that if every province becomes independent, then China will be full of warring factions, as it was historically. Small countries will have multiple parties, and they will war among each other, and political parties will come to power based on the strength of their militias. I reminded them that Europe spent a long time as warring factions, and has only recently emerged as the European Union. Chinese factions do not have a monopoly on past bad behavior, and China has the kind of strong cultural and economic ties that bind a country together.
I suggested that if sections wanted independence, they could leave China over time, giving them an opportunity to build a stable government before they left, and preventing the problem of violent factions. I pointed out that if China had a vote tomorrow, only a very few areas would really want to leave, and even those that left would still have strong cultural and economic ties. Most of China wants to stay together, and it may not fundamentally undermine Chinese nationality and Chinese identity if some small sections become independent.
I do not flatter myself that anyone was convinced that Taiwan should be permitted independence permanently, but I did ask that they try to keep an open mind. And the class had a useful experience in thinking about whether the worst they think can happen is in fact the worst thing that could happen.
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
One Child Policy
My students are the product of China's One Child policy, which was begun several decades ago to control population growth. In terms of raw numbers, the policy was a success, as China's population has almost assuredly grown less than it would have. There were other countries that now have declining populations, like Japan and Italy, but they had much lower populations to begin with, and were wealthier.
All that being said, only about half of my class is an only child. Many have one sibling, one has two, and one of my students is the third of four children. It appears that there was uneven enforcement of this policy. I have been told that later born children are not even registered as births, but this cannot be so, as I have a goodly number of them in my class, and they all have identity cards. Yet it is clear from their stories about their own families and others that the One Child policy caused a lot of misery.
I see a lot of children, especially little children in the streets. They are extremely well cared for. It is well known that the One Child policy here is relaxing, and that for professionals, two children will be possible. But my students still resent the unhappiness caused by the policy. I try to focus them on the future, and point out that China, like Italy and Japan, may in the end have a falling population without a One Child Policy. Not everything has to be government enforced.
All that being said, only about half of my class is an only child. Many have one sibling, one has two, and one of my students is the third of four children. It appears that there was uneven enforcement of this policy. I have been told that later born children are not even registered as births, but this cannot be so, as I have a goodly number of them in my class, and they all have identity cards. Yet it is clear from their stories about their own families and others that the One Child policy caused a lot of misery.
I see a lot of children, especially little children in the streets. They are extremely well cared for. It is well known that the One Child policy here is relaxing, and that for professionals, two children will be possible. But my students still resent the unhappiness caused by the policy. I try to focus them on the future, and point out that China, like Italy and Japan, may in the end have a falling population without a One Child Policy. Not everything has to be government enforced.
What I teach my students
The assigned textbook concentrates mainly on the problems of intercultural communication, and uses primarily examples of Chinese-American exchanges. But my students, mostly young adults between the ages of 19-21, have seen American movies and television all their lives. Very little surprises them about Americans. What they don't understand is the huge numbers of people worldwide who speak English as their second language, and the difficulties in communicating with people where everyone in the conversation is not using their native language, and no one is very familiar with the other's culture. So we're talking about that, talking about trying to think about what other people might be experiencing.
My class is mainly engineering students, but I have one accountant, and one English major. The engineers include industrial, chemical, environmental and explosives. They are, as a group, very bright, very hardworking. Their limitations in English frustrate and embarrass them, but they often do a very good job of putting complex ideas into simple language. I wish that I was an engineer, I lack the vocabulary to give them English words for engineering technical terms, and I know if they work abroad they will need those words.
In three weeks I can give them an opportunity to practice English, to gain confidence in the skills they already have, to reinforce what they already know about international business transactions, and try to get them to think a little more about what they haven't spent much time thinking about, particularly trying to communicate with a lot of different people from a lot of different countries.
My class is mainly engineering students, but I have one accountant, and one English major. The engineers include industrial, chemical, environmental and explosives. They are, as a group, very bright, very hardworking. Their limitations in English frustrate and embarrass them, but they often do a very good job of putting complex ideas into simple language. I wish that I was an engineer, I lack the vocabulary to give them English words for engineering technical terms, and I know if they work abroad they will need those words.
In three weeks I can give them an opportunity to practice English, to gain confidence in the skills they already have, to reinforce what they already know about international business transactions, and try to get them to think a little more about what they haven't spent much time thinking about, particularly trying to communicate with a lot of different people from a lot of different countries.
Monday, August 06, 2007
Chinese Chess
While I am teaching class every morning, James goes to Chinese classes. One of the things he's learned is to play Chinese chess. It's played on a board similar to a chess board, but with some patterns on it. The pieces look like checkers with writing on them (hallmarks of a literate civilization, you don't have to be able to read to play Western chess). Instead of putting the pieces on the spaces, you put them on the intersections of the lines. The pieces move in different ways, James has explained it to me, and tried to make me play, but I don't enjoy chess, Western or Chinese, so he plays at school.
On our way to the grocery store, there is often a game of Chinese chess going, and James likes to stop and watch for a few minutes. This has attracted attention, so last night he was invited to play against another little boy, who is 11. James is 8. James lasted a long time, I was very proud of him. Various passers-by provided suggestions, even bending down and moving the pieces for him, which I gather is typical no matter who is playing.
There were five little boys watching, squatting down on their haunches, making suggestions and speaking slowly and loudly to me in Chinese, as though that would make me understand. It was quite funny.
James played soccer with a couple of boys while I was taking Tai Chi class yesterday. Many children speak a few words of English, and James now has some Chinese, so they find a way to play together. I'm happy to see him reach out to play with other kids. Sarah is thick as thieves with a number of my students, and I feel like the reason I came has been fulfilled.
I wanted to do something other than tour around and see sights. I wanted my kids to experience the culture in a way you can only do in one place. To meet other kids their age and try to communicate with them, to see and talk to people who are not exactly like them.
On our way to the grocery store, there is often a game of Chinese chess going, and James likes to stop and watch for a few minutes. This has attracted attention, so last night he was invited to play against another little boy, who is 11. James is 8. James lasted a long time, I was very proud of him. Various passers-by provided suggestions, even bending down and moving the pieces for him, which I gather is typical no matter who is playing.
There were five little boys watching, squatting down on their haunches, making suggestions and speaking slowly and loudly to me in Chinese, as though that would make me understand. It was quite funny.
James played soccer with a couple of boys while I was taking Tai Chi class yesterday. Many children speak a few words of English, and James now has some Chinese, so they find a way to play together. I'm happy to see him reach out to play with other kids. Sarah is thick as thieves with a number of my students, and I feel like the reason I came has been fulfilled.
I wanted to do something other than tour around and see sights. I wanted my kids to experience the culture in a way you can only do in one place. To meet other kids their age and try to communicate with them, to see and talk to people who are not exactly like them.
Sunday, August 05, 2007
17 Tigers, 15 Bears
Today we visited a recreational area just outside of Nanjing, called the Pearl Stream. It is sort of a combination hiking, camping, amusement park with a zoo. It was not far away, only about an hour by bus. It is remarkable how the population density is very high in Nanjing, south of the Yangtze River, and becomes much lower, like the suburbs, just north of the River. The most notible thing we saw on the way was a group of beautiful Western style three story apartments, with stucco exteriors, and huge windows. There were probably 300 units spread over 10 acres and they were all completely empty. Someone on the bus said that they had heard that they'd been built, but they were so expensive that no one could afford them.
At the Pearl Stream, we walked along paved trails past the bumper cars and the roller coaster to see the source of the stream. The stream sort of seeps up from the stream bed, and people stand by the edge and clap, which makes more bubbles rise. I don't quite understand why.
We were then herded into the zoo area, and entered a large covered arena, where the stage area was set back over a twenty foot trench. We sat on plastic seats for about ten minutes, and then, from a stage made to look like cliffs, 17 tigers, 3 lions and their handlers emerged. The 17 tigers each sat on a riser, so there were two little mountains of tigers, going up and down. The three lions sat on their own risers in front of the tigers. The handlers had no whips, but they each held what looked and sounded (they sometimes rapped them on the concrete stage) like hollow aluminum sticks, about 4 feet long. they would prod the tigers with them when they weren't moving along.
The tigers walked on narrow walkways, walked around on top of huge balls, jumped through flaming hoops, and lay in a long row and rolled over simultaneously. The lions just sat there and looked lionesque. Tigers not actively engaged in tricks sat on their riser. I do not understand why none of the trainers was eaten. I do not understand why the tigers did not jump the barrier and eat the people.
We next walked past some tigers and bears on display in sort of 1970s style habitats (no bars, but sort of limited space) to a horse track, with covered stands, and a dirt track, and then a concrete track inside the dirt track. There we saw a sort of Chinese play with trick riders, who were the best I've seen since I was at the Calgary Stampede as a kid. Then they had trained bears. The bears were Chinese bears, sort of thin and their faces looked different from North American bears. They had long claws, and seemed much more stupid than the tigers.
The bears rode bicycles and balanced on balls and one balanced on a motorbike on a high wire, and a lady was suspended under neath. The bears were led around by rings through their noses. The Chinese crowd seemed to enjoy both shows very much, but I think the Americans were by and large mortified.
The hit of the day was when the kids, and parents who could not escape, rented a bamboo raft and used long bamboo poles to push up and down the stream. We had two rafts lashed together with wire, and four poles. I tried to hand a pole to Sarah, but she looked horrified, so I gave her my purse, and took a corner. It was hot, sweaty, involved several near misses of other bamboo rafts pushed by other urbanites, and was altogether a great deal of fun. The bamboo rafts were slightly leaky, nobody had a life preserver, and the water was noxious. James, because he is a boy, was jumping from one raft to the other, because he did not care that I might have to fish him out. Sarah, who has a greater sense of self-preservation, sat with the other two girls on a narrow bench at the end of the raft and looked nervous. Nobody made us sign a waiver, either. When we successfully docked after our little voyage, the other members of our group who did not go out applauded.
As we were walking out to the bus, one woman said she bet my colleagues at work would have been surprised to see me out there poling along on a bamboo raft. I told her that I spent four years in the Navy, and had done some skydiving, so I didn't think my colleagues would be particularly surprised that I could pole a bamboo raft. I was not always middle-aged.
At the Pearl Stream, we walked along paved trails past the bumper cars and the roller coaster to see the source of the stream. The stream sort of seeps up from the stream bed, and people stand by the edge and clap, which makes more bubbles rise. I don't quite understand why.
We were then herded into the zoo area, and entered a large covered arena, where the stage area was set back over a twenty foot trench. We sat on plastic seats for about ten minutes, and then, from a stage made to look like cliffs, 17 tigers, 3 lions and their handlers emerged. The 17 tigers each sat on a riser, so there were two little mountains of tigers, going up and down. The three lions sat on their own risers in front of the tigers. The handlers had no whips, but they each held what looked and sounded (they sometimes rapped them on the concrete stage) like hollow aluminum sticks, about 4 feet long. they would prod the tigers with them when they weren't moving along.
The tigers walked on narrow walkways, walked around on top of huge balls, jumped through flaming hoops, and lay in a long row and rolled over simultaneously. The lions just sat there and looked lionesque. Tigers not actively engaged in tricks sat on their riser. I do not understand why none of the trainers was eaten. I do not understand why the tigers did not jump the barrier and eat the people.
We next walked past some tigers and bears on display in sort of 1970s style habitats (no bars, but sort of limited space) to a horse track, with covered stands, and a dirt track, and then a concrete track inside the dirt track. There we saw a sort of Chinese play with trick riders, who were the best I've seen since I was at the Calgary Stampede as a kid. Then they had trained bears. The bears were Chinese bears, sort of thin and their faces looked different from North American bears. They had long claws, and seemed much more stupid than the tigers.
The bears rode bicycles and balanced on balls and one balanced on a motorbike on a high wire, and a lady was suspended under neath. The bears were led around by rings through their noses. The Chinese crowd seemed to enjoy both shows very much, but I think the Americans were by and large mortified.
The hit of the day was when the kids, and parents who could not escape, rented a bamboo raft and used long bamboo poles to push up and down the stream. We had two rafts lashed together with wire, and four poles. I tried to hand a pole to Sarah, but she looked horrified, so I gave her my purse, and took a corner. It was hot, sweaty, involved several near misses of other bamboo rafts pushed by other urbanites, and was altogether a great deal of fun. The bamboo rafts were slightly leaky, nobody had a life preserver, and the water was noxious. James, because he is a boy, was jumping from one raft to the other, because he did not care that I might have to fish him out. Sarah, who has a greater sense of self-preservation, sat with the other two girls on a narrow bench at the end of the raft and looked nervous. Nobody made us sign a waiver, either. When we successfully docked after our little voyage, the other members of our group who did not go out applauded.
As we were walking out to the bus, one woman said she bet my colleagues at work would have been surprised to see me out there poling along on a bamboo raft. I told her that I spent four years in the Navy, and had done some skydiving, so I didn't think my colleagues would be particularly surprised that I could pole a bamboo raft. I was not always middle-aged.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
A night on the town
I ran out of western style provisions like cold cereal and peanut butter on the same day I had promised the kids to take them out for American food, so after Chinese cooking class ended today, we were going to head out for downtown to the big shops, like Wal-Mart and the French Carrefour. We had a short rain delay while it poured buckets for about 35 minutes, but then caught a cab and went downtown. I'd never been to downtown Nanjing at night before, with the skyscrapers and neon lights, there are squares that remind me of New York, London and Tokyo all at the same time.
I thought I'd been very clever to take the kids to Pizza Hut on a weeknight, but there was still a line outside. You stood in line and they handed you a little time and date stamped ticket. After a while they brought us tiny paper cups of cold green tea. There is no ice in drinks here. We waited about 25 minutes until we were admitted.
Pizza Hut in China has several varieties of what we think of as Pizza, plus additional offerings for toppings such as octopus. They also offer soups, and an array of smoothies and other drinks. We had American style pizza, which was pepperoni with cheese. One of my students was with us, and received the pizza politely, but I don't think she's about to become a regular pizza consumer.
The kids raved. They've had Chinese food two or three times a day for almost two weeks now, and they thought it was the world's greatest pizza. Although the dinner at about $11 was by far the most I have spent on a meal for four since I arrived, it was worth it just because the kids were so ecstatic.
Because it is such a furnace here during the day, many people sleep for a couple of hours in the afternoons, and the streets are very lively at night. So even though we entered Wal Mart after 8 PM, it was still packed with people shopping. Wal Mart is on the second two floors on a tall downtown building. On the first floor are upscale clothing shops and jewelry stores. There is, blessedly when you are carrying bags of milk and water, a taxi stand right outside the building.
Tab, including shopping, restaurant and taxis, for this big night on the town for four people was $ 30. Because it is a weeknight, I still had everybody in bed by 10 pm.
I thought I'd been very clever to take the kids to Pizza Hut on a weeknight, but there was still a line outside. You stood in line and they handed you a little time and date stamped ticket. After a while they brought us tiny paper cups of cold green tea. There is no ice in drinks here. We waited about 25 minutes until we were admitted.
Pizza Hut in China has several varieties of what we think of as Pizza, plus additional offerings for toppings such as octopus. They also offer soups, and an array of smoothies and other drinks. We had American style pizza, which was pepperoni with cheese. One of my students was with us, and received the pizza politely, but I don't think she's about to become a regular pizza consumer.
The kids raved. They've had Chinese food two or three times a day for almost two weeks now, and they thought it was the world's greatest pizza. Although the dinner at about $11 was by far the most I have spent on a meal for four since I arrived, it was worth it just because the kids were so ecstatic.
Because it is such a furnace here during the day, many people sleep for a couple of hours in the afternoons, and the streets are very lively at night. So even though we entered Wal Mart after 8 PM, it was still packed with people shopping. Wal Mart is on the second two floors on a tall downtown building. On the first floor are upscale clothing shops and jewelry stores. There is, blessedly when you are carrying bags of milk and water, a taxi stand right outside the building.
Tab, including shopping, restaurant and taxis, for this big night on the town for four people was $ 30. Because it is a weeknight, I still had everybody in bed by 10 pm.
OSHA would have a field day
Let's just say that worker safety standards are a little more relaxed here than in the United States. The building next door to us was replastered, and the workers were suspended from the roof with ropes, sitting on seats that looked like 8 x 1 x 18 boards. I saw stone cutting, with sparks flying like an arc welder, and the workman not even wearing glasses, let alone a face shield. Children sit in the back seats of cars without car seats or safety belts. It's 1965 out here.
Adults riding bicycles do not wear helmets. Motor scooter riders do not wear helmets. Nobody wears helmets. When you walk, it seems that pedestrians yield to both cars and bicycles, but I don't know what the law actually is. Bicycles and cars and pedestrians, sometimes all traveling at markedly different speeds, pass within inches of each other. In vehicular traffic, lanes are not clearly marked, and sometimes cabs work their way around buses in what can only be described as a high stakes game of chicken.
Yet, I haven't seen a car crash, or even a bike crash since I've been here. Go figure.
Adults riding bicycles do not wear helmets. Motor scooter riders do not wear helmets. Nobody wears helmets. When you walk, it seems that pedestrians yield to both cars and bicycles, but I don't know what the law actually is. Bicycles and cars and pedestrians, sometimes all traveling at markedly different speeds, pass within inches of each other. In vehicular traffic, lanes are not clearly marked, and sometimes cabs work their way around buses in what can only be described as a high stakes game of chicken.
Yet, I haven't seen a car crash, or even a bike crash since I've been here. Go figure.
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Lunch with Students
This week, every day after class, we are eating lunch with a small group of students, so they can all have an English speaking lunch. We're eating at the student cafeteria, which is a high ceilinginged space with two levels of seating. You can sit eight people at a table, so with Sarah, James and me, there is room for 5 students, which means it is taking all week to eat with the whole class. The students find James's use of chopsticks very entertaining.
As all of my students are from areas outside Nanjing, and the regional cuisine varies quite widely across the country, the cafeteria makes an effort to provide selections familiar to all of its students. This diversity makes for a very wide variety of choices for a university cafeteria. The first day I was there, there were probably fifty selections
The students know some words to describe foods in English, but frankly, I did not expect the diversity and excellence of food here. It's like France. It's amazing. Today I had rice, greens, and tofu that had been flattened, rolled, sliced into pinwheels and then sauteed in spices. The food is fresh and flavorful. Outside of the Italian galley we used to eat at when I was stationed at a NATO base in Italy, it's the best institutional food I've ever had.
As all of my students are from areas outside Nanjing, and the regional cuisine varies quite widely across the country, the cafeteria makes an effort to provide selections familiar to all of its students. This diversity makes for a very wide variety of choices for a university cafeteria. The first day I was there, there were probably fifty selections
The students know some words to describe foods in English, but frankly, I did not expect the diversity and excellence of food here. It's like France. It's amazing. Today I had rice, greens, and tofu that had been flattened, rolled, sliced into pinwheels and then sauteed in spices. The food is fresh and flavorful. Outside of the Italian galley we used to eat at when I was stationed at a NATO base in Italy, it's the best institutional food I've ever had.
Sarah is very popular
With the other English teachers. They like her to come to their classes and answer questions from their students about popular culture in America. Sometimes she brings her i-pod and plays some of her favorite music for them. She and about two thirds of my class like to talk about some program called, "Prison Break" which I had never previously heard about. Apparently it is a series which can be downloaded from the internet.
Today she said the most interesting question she received was one asking if she met a Chinese boy and fell in love with him, would she stay in China. Sarah said that she was only 16 and she would have to go home, even though she was sure that she would want to stay. I was impressed with the diplomacy of her answer. My students, when they heard this, thought it was very funny that anyone would consider leaving their country to marry someone.
I told them that one of the English teachers with us was from Spain, and that she had met her American husband while at university in the U.K., and now she lived in Miami. I told them that one of the real perils of associating with foreigners is that you might fall in love with one and move far away and be very, very unpopular with your parents. They clearly found this to be a novel idea, but one worth considering. As a foreign teacher, I think it is my job to introduce novel ideas to them.
Today she said the most interesting question she received was one asking if she met a Chinese boy and fell in love with him, would she stay in China. Sarah said that she was only 16 and she would have to go home, even though she was sure that she would want to stay. I was impressed with the diplomacy of her answer. My students, when they heard this, thought it was very funny that anyone would consider leaving their country to marry someone.
I told them that one of the English teachers with us was from Spain, and that she had met her American husband while at university in the U.K., and now she lived in Miami. I told them that one of the real perils of associating with foreigners is that you might fall in love with one and move far away and be very, very unpopular with your parents. They clearly found this to be a novel idea, but one worth considering. As a foreign teacher, I think it is my job to introduce novel ideas to them.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Internet Cafe
I'm in a dark and smoky room. It is weakly air conditioned. Rows of computers fill the center of the room and line the walls. Rows of people sit intently in red armchairs staring at the glowing screens in front of them. To my right, an older guy chain smokes and plays on line mah-jong. To my left a young woman is using e-mail and instant messaging on a site featuring a pink background and kewpie dolls.
My internet access on my laptop has been blocked for more than 24 hours, and I am having a fit because I'm out of touch with my office. After all, for an attorney, a mere 7000 miles of distance should not impede my ability to have contact with work. Of course, without my secure software on my laptop, I cannot log on to the office, but I can send pathetic, longing messages from my personal e-mail from this internet cafe.
Conditions are less than ideal. Someone has left a half-eaten sandwich next to the monitor. The bottoms of my sandals are sticking to the floor. Smoke from the chain-smoker to my right is making my eyes water. But I will say that the connection is zooming fast, which is the most important thing. There are people in here watching movies and playing very advanced war games, so you know these are very fast connections.
The proprietress is 50-something, and is watching some sort of Chinese soap opera on-line when she's not waiting on customers. To get in, you give them your national identity card (or in my case, my driver's licence) and 10 yuan as a deposit. They register you in, and give you back your card, but keep your money until you check out. 10 yuan is about $1.25, I think it costs 3 yuan an hour to use the computer.
We are buying a computer for my mother's birthday next month. It will cost $499 for the laptop that she wants. It would be cheaper just to make her go to the Internet Cafe, but it would be a long commute from Canada.
My internet access on my laptop has been blocked for more than 24 hours, and I am having a fit because I'm out of touch with my office. After all, for an attorney, a mere 7000 miles of distance should not impede my ability to have contact with work. Of course, without my secure software on my laptop, I cannot log on to the office, but I can send pathetic, longing messages from my personal e-mail from this internet cafe.
Conditions are less than ideal. Someone has left a half-eaten sandwich next to the monitor. The bottoms of my sandals are sticking to the floor. Smoke from the chain-smoker to my right is making my eyes water. But I will say that the connection is zooming fast, which is the most important thing. There are people in here watching movies and playing very advanced war games, so you know these are very fast connections.
The proprietress is 50-something, and is watching some sort of Chinese soap opera on-line when she's not waiting on customers. To get in, you give them your national identity card (or in my case, my driver's licence) and 10 yuan as a deposit. They register you in, and give you back your card, but keep your money until you check out. 10 yuan is about $1.25, I think it costs 3 yuan an hour to use the computer.
We are buying a computer for my mother's birthday next month. It will cost $499 for the laptop that she wants. It would be cheaper just to make her go to the Internet Cafe, but it would be a long commute from Canada.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Seal Making
Our teacher for Seal Making was Professor Jim, the same person who taught us about Calligraphy. He told us, though an interpreter, that there are four traditional Chinese arts: poetry, calligraphy, painting and seal cutting. All Chinese artists are expected to be well versed in all four.
This made me smile because I couldn't imagine Andy Warhol engaged in poetry writing. Perhaps I underestimate his scope.
The original purpose of seals was to identify the sender of a message. Seals were to be as unique as a thumprint. In ancient China, before the invention of paper, messages were written on bamboo scrolls, then tied with string, the string sealed with mud, and the mud imprinted with the sender's seal. If the message was opened, the seal could not be made by anyone other than the sender, so the tampering would be evident.
With use, over time the edge of the seal wears down. Sometimes moderns seal makers with break down the seal edges to make them look old. Even today, some Chinese use their seals for their signature at the bank.
Inexpensive seals are made of soapstone, but there is a kind of stone the same color as chicken blood (what color is chicken blood?) that is used for expensive seals. In our class we used soapstone, which is very soft, and we were glad, because even with very soft stone, it took a long time to etch a seal.
First those of us without Chinese names were assigned a name. My son is named James, which has no Chinese equivalent, so they assigned him the same name as James Bond, 007, which he found rather thrilling. Then the simplified characters for the name are translated to ancient or more formal letters, which always require more strokes. Then we reversed the image, and copied it in ink onto the bottom of the soapstone.
James and I worked on his seal for over an hour, etching tiny strokes in a small block of soapstone requires patience. Somehow, in the same time, Sarah did two, one in English and one in Chinese. The teacher made sure our etching was deep enough to show up on imprint. Seals always use red ink, and James and I were quite pleased with the red mark on our notebooks. He has the seal to take home, I will probably take it to class with me Monday to talk about it with the class.
I hadn't expected to enjoy calligraphy or seal cutting so much, but the pleasure the instructor took in his craft crossed the language barrier as though it did not exist. It is always wonderful to meet someone who loves something, and is happy to share it with others.
This made me smile because I couldn't imagine Andy Warhol engaged in poetry writing. Perhaps I underestimate his scope.
The original purpose of seals was to identify the sender of a message. Seals were to be as unique as a thumprint. In ancient China, before the invention of paper, messages were written on bamboo scrolls, then tied with string, the string sealed with mud, and the mud imprinted with the sender's seal. If the message was opened, the seal could not be made by anyone other than the sender, so the tampering would be evident.
With use, over time the edge of the seal wears down. Sometimes moderns seal makers with break down the seal edges to make them look old. Even today, some Chinese use their seals for their signature at the bank.
Inexpensive seals are made of soapstone, but there is a kind of stone the same color as chicken blood (what color is chicken blood?) that is used for expensive seals. In our class we used soapstone, which is very soft, and we were glad, because even with very soft stone, it took a long time to etch a seal.
First those of us without Chinese names were assigned a name. My son is named James, which has no Chinese equivalent, so they assigned him the same name as James Bond, 007, which he found rather thrilling. Then the simplified characters for the name are translated to ancient or more formal letters, which always require more strokes. Then we reversed the image, and copied it in ink onto the bottom of the soapstone.
James and I worked on his seal for over an hour, etching tiny strokes in a small block of soapstone requires patience. Somehow, in the same time, Sarah did two, one in English and one in Chinese. The teacher made sure our etching was deep enough to show up on imprint. Seals always use red ink, and James and I were quite pleased with the red mark on our notebooks. He has the seal to take home, I will probably take it to class with me Monday to talk about it with the class.
I hadn't expected to enjoy calligraphy or seal cutting so much, but the pleasure the instructor took in his craft crossed the language barrier as though it did not exist. It is always wonderful to meet someone who loves something, and is happy to share it with others.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Caligraphy
The teacher's name is Lin Xu Lan. He is a professor of chemical engineering here at the Nanjing University of Science and Technology, but caligraphy has been his hobby all his adult life. He says that, "Sometimes the hobby is the teacher." Speaking through an interpreter, he told us that caligraphy consists of four things:
1. The concept for the caligraphy;
2. The writing of the caligraphy;
3. The artist's signature and dating of the caligraphy; and
4. The placing of a seal on the caligraphy.
He says that only China has a history of using writing as an art form itself. Similarly, Chinese landscapes differ from Western oil painting. Chinese landscapes have multiple points of view, instead of a single one. Chinese landscapes are always painted on paper, instead of canvas. The best caligraphy paper comes from Xuanzhou. Caligraphy brushes are made from wolf hair or sheep hair (wool?). Historically, caligraphy was done with a block of ink made from pine smoke (not sure of the translation here, possibly pine resin mixed with charcoal?) and an ink stone ground down the block of ink, then the resultant powder was mixed with water to make ink.
Our teacher uses black ink from a bottle. He says that using different thicknesses of ink creates five colors from a single ink. He shows us how it is done, then lets us try, using two simple charachters, one for "river" and one for "mountain". Ours look childlike.
Then he shows us how he draws a landscape. The paper looks like tissue papers, but feels heavier. The landscape does have a number of focal points, then he signs and dates it, and puts several red seal prints on it. All seals are red. He uses four. One has his name on it, another the name of the style of caligraphy he uses, another the name of the school where he studied caligraphy and a fourth with the name of his caligraphy teacher.
I was most impressed in the personal pleasure the teacher seemed to have in caligraphy, and his willingness to share that pleasure with us. One of the American teachers is a long time amateur landscape artist, and she was extremely happy watching him and asking questions. The teacher had written a book about the subject, and I was pleased to see that it was small but had beautiful reproductions in it. Assuming he has the same pressure to produce academic work that professors do in the United States, the fact that he took time away from his professional life to write a book about his art is a remarkable thing.
1. The concept for the caligraphy;
2. The writing of the caligraphy;
3. The artist's signature and dating of the caligraphy; and
4. The placing of a seal on the caligraphy.
He says that only China has a history of using writing as an art form itself. Similarly, Chinese landscapes differ from Western oil painting. Chinese landscapes have multiple points of view, instead of a single one. Chinese landscapes are always painted on paper, instead of canvas. The best caligraphy paper comes from Xuanzhou. Caligraphy brushes are made from wolf hair or sheep hair (wool?). Historically, caligraphy was done with a block of ink made from pine smoke (not sure of the translation here, possibly pine resin mixed with charcoal?) and an ink stone ground down the block of ink, then the resultant powder was mixed with water to make ink.
Our teacher uses black ink from a bottle. He says that using different thicknesses of ink creates five colors from a single ink. He shows us how it is done, then lets us try, using two simple charachters, one for "river" and one for "mountain". Ours look childlike.
Then he shows us how he draws a landscape. The paper looks like tissue papers, but feels heavier. The landscape does have a number of focal points, then he signs and dates it, and puts several red seal prints on it. All seals are red. He uses four. One has his name on it, another the name of the style of caligraphy he uses, another the name of the school where he studied caligraphy and a fourth with the name of his caligraphy teacher.
I was most impressed in the personal pleasure the teacher seemed to have in caligraphy, and his willingness to share that pleasure with us. One of the American teachers is a long time amateur landscape artist, and she was extremely happy watching him and asking questions. The teacher had written a book about the subject, and I was pleased to see that it was small but had beautiful reproductions in it. Assuming he has the same pressure to produce academic work that professors do in the United States, the fact that he took time away from his professional life to write a book about his art is a remarkable thing.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Four furnaces of China
We are staying in Nanjing, which is one of the "four furnaces of China." It was about 95 degrees today and the humidity was about the same. What, you say? It's just like home? Well, actually it is. The people from Denver complain bitterly, but I have very little to say about the heat, since it really is this hot in July and August in Tallahassee. Since both my accomodations and my classroom have air conditioning, I can't complain.
People are sensible about the heat here. There are few people out mid-day, and the streets team in the evening. In the early morning, old people people exercise and people take their babies out for air in the square near our hotel. Even many of the street vendors close in the middle of the day. One of my colleagues borrowed a bicycle, which promptly got a flat, and she couldn't fix it until this evening.
The young women here wear summer dresses, knee length or a tiny bit higher, but they don't show stomachs or chests. The dresses often have very classic styles, and they often wear high heeled sandals. They are very pretty. Of course, most of the university students wear blue jeans. I am beginning to think that all university students around the world wear blue jeans.
The campus is well shaded because nearly every street is lined with mature trees. An urban campus, it has an extraordinary amount of green space, including little forested areas with concrete paths through them, and a lovely man made lake.
But there are also deep stormwater run off canals, that smell a trifle too much like open sewers for my taste. Everything has a downside, I suppose.
People are sensible about the heat here. There are few people out mid-day, and the streets team in the evening. In the early morning, old people people exercise and people take their babies out for air in the square near our hotel. Even many of the street vendors close in the middle of the day. One of my colleagues borrowed a bicycle, which promptly got a flat, and she couldn't fix it until this evening.
The young women here wear summer dresses, knee length or a tiny bit higher, but they don't show stomachs or chests. The dresses often have very classic styles, and they often wear high heeled sandals. They are very pretty. Of course, most of the university students wear blue jeans. I am beginning to think that all university students around the world wear blue jeans.
The campus is well shaded because nearly every street is lined with mature trees. An urban campus, it has an extraordinary amount of green space, including little forested areas with concrete paths through them, and a lovely man made lake.
But there are also deep stormwater run off canals, that smell a trifle too much like open sewers for my taste. Everything has a downside, I suppose.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Harry Potter
One of my students is an English major and owns every Harry Potter book, which she bought for list price at the Foreign Language Book Store downtown. Sarah refused to leave the United State until her mother promised to send her the latest book as soon as it was issued by Federal Express. But it turns out that it would have cost over $150 US to send the book to Nanjing, so we bought it here, even though we had to pay list price.
If Sarah could have waited, we could have bought it in the US for $18, but she says that since she’s going to school the day after we get home she simply had to read it now, because everyone else will have read it. Generally, I would have been willing to let her suffer through this trauma, but today she has a bad cold and a little bit of “traveler’s stomach” and I felt sorry for her.
So James and I took a taxi and paid the huge sum of 218 RMB for the brand new hardcover Harry Potter. We tried to make up for this insane spending by shopping at Carrefour (sort of a French version of Wal-mart). But I was very pleased with myself for managing this foray without assistance, except for someone writing down the name of the Foreign Language Book Store, an English speaking clerk explaining the price and giving us directions to the supermarket, and the extremely polite and honest taxi drivers, which are all I have encountered here.
Now the kids want me to start taking the bus. Maybe next week.
If Sarah could have waited, we could have bought it in the US for $18, but she says that since she’s going to school the day after we get home she simply had to read it now, because everyone else will have read it. Generally, I would have been willing to let her suffer through this trauma, but today she has a bad cold and a little bit of “traveler’s stomach” and I felt sorry for her.
So James and I took a taxi and paid the huge sum of 218 RMB for the brand new hardcover Harry Potter. We tried to make up for this insane spending by shopping at Carrefour (sort of a French version of Wal-mart). But I was very pleased with myself for managing this foray without assistance, except for someone writing down the name of the Foreign Language Book Store, an English speaking clerk explaining the price and giving us directions to the supermarket, and the extremely polite and honest taxi drivers, which are all I have encountered here.
Now the kids want me to start taking the bus. Maybe next week.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
20 Questions
Today I told my students that they had to ask me a question, and before I answered, tell me what my answer would be. I also told them they couldn't ask the same question twice. I had questions about religion in America, about boyfriends in high school (actually Sarah handled all high school and popular culture questions), about Condileeza Rice, about the current popularity of George Bush, and about what sort of car I drive, and how many cars there are in the United States.
Like all young people, they struggle with stereotypes. They are appalled that some Americans know little about China, but know little about Latin America themselves. I repeat to them like a mantra that most English speakers in the world are not Americans, and themselves speak English as a second language, but they still want to learn American idioms. I indulge them to a limited extent, particularly when something is raised in the textbook, but mostly I try to focus them on their real use for English: in graduate school, and in the business world.
All of my students read and write more comprehensively than they speak, and their errors are the grammatical errors of people who think in Chinese. We used to have a Haitian immigrant in my section at the Attorney General's Office, and all of her grammatical errors resulted from direct translation from French. But as I remind myself practically hourly, my failure to speak good Chinese is not reflective of my overall intelligence, and their inability to express themselves in English is not reflective of their intelligence.
Even though they are young, it is aggravating to me that I know that no matter how hard they try, these young people will always have a significant Chinese accent. It seems unfair, they are in many ways quite fluent, yet I know they will suffer prejudice because of their accents.
Like all young people, they struggle with stereotypes. They are appalled that some Americans know little about China, but know little about Latin America themselves. I repeat to them like a mantra that most English speakers in the world are not Americans, and themselves speak English as a second language, but they still want to learn American idioms. I indulge them to a limited extent, particularly when something is raised in the textbook, but mostly I try to focus them on their real use for English: in graduate school, and in the business world.
All of my students read and write more comprehensively than they speak, and their errors are the grammatical errors of people who think in Chinese. We used to have a Haitian immigrant in my section at the Attorney General's Office, and all of her grammatical errors resulted from direct translation from French. But as I remind myself practically hourly, my failure to speak good Chinese is not reflective of my overall intelligence, and their inability to express themselves in English is not reflective of their intelligence.
Even though they are young, it is aggravating to me that I know that no matter how hard they try, these young people will always have a significant Chinese accent. It seems unfair, they are in many ways quite fluent, yet I know they will suffer prejudice because of their accents.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Learning to Teach
I have made a seating chart so I can keep people straight. I have butchered the names of some of my students so badly that one took an English name today in self-defence. She's named herself, "Apple." I find the long reach of California astonishing.
This morning the students all had to get up and give a short chat about their major. The University of Nanjing is a highly competitive engineering and technology school. None of my students is from Nanjing.
When they take entrance tests, they designate 6 possible major fields, and order their preference. Then, depending on their grades, (and, I suspect, the class needs of the school) they are placed in one of the six fields. One young woman's sixth choice was environmental engineering, she is studying water quality. I told her that she has extremely important work and by the time she retires, it will be her first choice.
There is another young woman studying weapons technology, several young men studying power engineering, one industrial engineer, one human resourses management student, and one lone English major, who hopes to be a translator. I was sort of interested to hear that in power engineering, the men outnumber the women by almost the same percentage as in the United States.
Our textbook is very focused on working on the cultural translation problems people have in a new country. I'm supposed to keep them focused on the issues one must consider when approaching any new culture, but they (and Sarah) have a tendency to focus only on the differences between American and Chinese culture. This is fun, but I'm trying to get through to them that the majority of English speakers speak English as a second language, so they will have significant barriers to communication.
After seven or eight years of English study, these students are strong readers and writers, but relatively weak speakers of English. We'll see how far we can get in the next three weeks.
Classroom conversation are far ranging. Today we touched on American views of weapons ownership, standardized testing in China and America, and China's one child policy. The students are highly intelligent and have insightful ideas, but feel frustrated in their attempts to express themselves in English. I'm pleased when they try, and try to make them slow down so that they are easier to understand. Pity that teaching pays so poorly, I can see the attraction.
This morning the students all had to get up and give a short chat about their major. The University of Nanjing is a highly competitive engineering and technology school. None of my students is from Nanjing.
When they take entrance tests, they designate 6 possible major fields, and order their preference. Then, depending on their grades, (and, I suspect, the class needs of the school) they are placed in one of the six fields. One young woman's sixth choice was environmental engineering, she is studying water quality. I told her that she has extremely important work and by the time she retires, it will be her first choice.
There is another young woman studying weapons technology, several young men studying power engineering, one industrial engineer, one human resourses management student, and one lone English major, who hopes to be a translator. I was sort of interested to hear that in power engineering, the men outnumber the women by almost the same percentage as in the United States.
Our textbook is very focused on working on the cultural translation problems people have in a new country. I'm supposed to keep them focused on the issues one must consider when approaching any new culture, but they (and Sarah) have a tendency to focus only on the differences between American and Chinese culture. This is fun, but I'm trying to get through to them that the majority of English speakers speak English as a second language, so they will have significant barriers to communication.
After seven or eight years of English study, these students are strong readers and writers, but relatively weak speakers of English. We'll see how far we can get in the next three weeks.
Classroom conversation are far ranging. Today we touched on American views of weapons ownership, standardized testing in China and America, and China's one child policy. The students are highly intelligent and have insightful ideas, but feel frustrated in their attempts to express themselves in English. I'm pleased when they try, and try to make them slow down so that they are easier to understand. Pity that teaching pays so poorly, I can see the attraction.
Living with a Celebrity
When we are sitting in a restaurant, people come up to us and want to take my son's picture. They stare at him, practice saying "hello" to him, and are otherwise completely fascinated. A waitress at a local restaurant is demanding that he bring her a picture of himself. James is eight, and his hair is light brown, and he has very blue eyes. There is another little boy with fair hair and blue eyes who is a son of one of the other teachers, and he gets the same sort of attention.
My sixteen year old daughter gets some stares, but I, at 43, am essentially invisible. Of course, from the back, I could pass for a Chinese woman who's had a bad permanent wave. That's one of the things I like about being here, I'm not noticeably thin, I'm average.
Nanjing has enough foreigners living here so that we are not complete freaks, but we are sort of novelties. As I am least affected by it, I don't mind it. Sarah says she doesn't care because they don't stare at her much. James says, "it's sort of creepy and it's sort of fun and it's sort of weird."
My sixteen year old daughter gets some stares, but I, at 43, am essentially invisible. Of course, from the back, I could pass for a Chinese woman who's had a bad permanent wave. That's one of the things I like about being here, I'm not noticeably thin, I'm average.
Nanjing has enough foreigners living here so that we are not complete freaks, but we are sort of novelties. As I am least affected by it, I don't mind it. Sarah says she doesn't care because they don't stare at her much. James says, "it's sort of creepy and it's sort of fun and it's sort of weird."
Monday, July 23, 2007
First Day of School
After much trepidation and preparation, today was the first day of school. Class started at 8:00 am, but the doors of the school don't open until 7:50 am. I blew in at about 7:55 am (Sarah and I took a slightly wrong turn en route) and wrote on the board, "Good morning, welcome to English class." I also wrote my name and Sarah's name.
I have 21 students, all undergraduates. With a couple of exceptions, all are engineering students, including explosives, civil, industrial, and electronic. There is one accounting major and one English major. Each class has a monitor, which is sort of vaguely like a head boy in the English private school system. Sometimes they are elected by the students and sometimes appointed by the teacher.
We had an election for the monitor. Seven people applied, we had a vote, and then the top two vote recipients had a run off. The English major won, 41-7. Sarah was the Supervisor of Elections. Unfortunately, we did the election last in the day, and I ran over about 7 minutes, which I think is unforgivable, particularly considering that the class is 3.5 hours long. I'll let them go early tomorrow, I swear.
We had lunch with a number of other teachers, who had received a number of questions from their students, including invitations to lunch, and offers to teach them to cook. So I now feel inferior, because my students have not offered to adopt me. As a group, they have good reading and writing skills, and more limited oral skills, which are, after all, about practice, practice, practice.
I feel fortunate to have this opportunity, but I am working very hard. I'm trying to hear what the students have to say, trying to keep focused on the lesson plan, trying to execute on the lesson plan. It was like a 3.5 hour legal hearing. Well, maybe not that bad. But it was tough.
I have 21 students, all undergraduates. With a couple of exceptions, all are engineering students, including explosives, civil, industrial, and electronic. There is one accounting major and one English major. Each class has a monitor, which is sort of vaguely like a head boy in the English private school system. Sometimes they are elected by the students and sometimes appointed by the teacher.
We had an election for the monitor. Seven people applied, we had a vote, and then the top two vote recipients had a run off. The English major won, 41-7. Sarah was the Supervisor of Elections. Unfortunately, we did the election last in the day, and I ran over about 7 minutes, which I think is unforgivable, particularly considering that the class is 3.5 hours long. I'll let them go early tomorrow, I swear.
We had lunch with a number of other teachers, who had received a number of questions from their students, including invitations to lunch, and offers to teach them to cook. So I now feel inferior, because my students have not offered to adopt me. As a group, they have good reading and writing skills, and more limited oral skills, which are, after all, about practice, practice, practice.
I feel fortunate to have this opportunity, but I am working very hard. I'm trying to hear what the students have to say, trying to keep focused on the lesson plan, trying to execute on the lesson plan. It was like a 3.5 hour legal hearing. Well, maybe not that bad. But it was tough.
Hand Laundry
The advertised washing machines have not materialized, and we cannot find a place for wash, dry & fold, so we are doing our laundry by hand. In so doing, it appears that we are simply acting local. Everybody does laundry by hand here, including the American teachers.
Sarah did not understand my emphasis on lightweight clothes, but now that she has washed and wrung out her jeans, she has seen the light, and wants to buy more pants. Light weight pants.
Directions: Put water in bath tub. Add detergent and bleach, if necessary. Sometimes the water has a slightly muddy appearance, but that can't be helped. Put color sorted clothes in water. Wash by rubbing the cloth together, working hard on stained areas. In the case of my son's socks, removing stains is a hopeless case, so I just rub until I get sick of it. They are at least somewhat improved through the process. Drain water from tub, squeeze water from clothes and then refill tub for rinse. Wringing the clothes well is key to having them dry in a reasonable period of time, particularly when there is high humidity, as here.
This morning I only had time to finish the white clothes, and I've laid aside the dark clothes for tomorrow. I'm trying to consider it this way: Instead of spending time in standing traffic, I'm spending time doing hand laundry, which is both good exercise and good thinking time.
Sarah did not understand my emphasis on lightweight clothes, but now that she has washed and wrung out her jeans, she has seen the light, and wants to buy more pants. Light weight pants.
Directions: Put water in bath tub. Add detergent and bleach, if necessary. Sometimes the water has a slightly muddy appearance, but that can't be helped. Put color sorted clothes in water. Wash by rubbing the cloth together, working hard on stained areas. In the case of my son's socks, removing stains is a hopeless case, so I just rub until I get sick of it. They are at least somewhat improved through the process. Drain water from tub, squeeze water from clothes and then refill tub for rinse. Wringing the clothes well is key to having them dry in a reasonable period of time, particularly when there is high humidity, as here.
This morning I only had time to finish the white clothes, and I've laid aside the dark clothes for tomorrow. I'm trying to consider it this way: Instead of spending time in standing traffic, I'm spending time doing hand laundry, which is both good exercise and good thinking time.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Wal-Mart
Sarah asked me today why I bothered to come all the way to China if I was just going to shop at Wal-Mart. I didn't actually have a good explanation for that. I guess because two other teachers were going with their kids, and because I needed some things and Wal-Mart is one stop shopping. It was marvelously chaotic, like Christmas, only people are more accustomed to such crowding and move smoothly through, almost never touching. The carts are smaller, the density of product presentation much higher, and the general appearance more spartan. But it's still Wal-Mart, with the yellow happy face, the picture of Sam Walton at the front of the store, and a big pyramid of photos of "servant leaders." Gotta love the Communist influence on Wal-Mart, of all corporations.
Sarah selected all her own clothes for this trip. I gave her a long lecture about modest clothes, which she dutifully obeyed, but I didn't give her an appropriate lecture about, shall we say, street conditions. People hack and spit in the streets, there are smells of open sewers, and there is mud everywhere. Sarah brought a pair of those trendy jeans that drag on the ground. Let's just say they're pretty gross, but she doesn't want to use bleach when she washes them.
Yes, we're doing our laundry by hand here, like everybody else. Sarah is taking it as well as could be expected. James doesn't care, because I'm doing his, for the most part.
Tomorrow school starts, and I've spent hours preparing. This is my first time teaching, and I'm very nervous. One of the experienced teachers today told me that my students would also be very nervous because they have probably never had a foreign teacher before. Sarah has been a great help to me, both technically, because she is much closer to the classroom than I am, and morally, because she keeps saying I can do it.
Sarah selected all her own clothes for this trip. I gave her a long lecture about modest clothes, which she dutifully obeyed, but I didn't give her an appropriate lecture about, shall we say, street conditions. People hack and spit in the streets, there are smells of open sewers, and there is mud everywhere. Sarah brought a pair of those trendy jeans that drag on the ground. Let's just say they're pretty gross, but she doesn't want to use bleach when she washes them.
Yes, we're doing our laundry by hand here, like everybody else. Sarah is taking it as well as could be expected. James doesn't care, because I'm doing his, for the most part.
Tomorrow school starts, and I've spent hours preparing. This is my first time teaching, and I'm very nervous. One of the experienced teachers today told me that my students would also be very nervous because they have probably never had a foreign teacher before. Sarah has been a great help to me, both technically, because she is much closer to the classroom than I am, and morally, because she keeps saying I can do it.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
University of Nanjing
This is a major scientific and technical university in this country. This morning James and I went for a walk and saw the physics building and the building for industrial explosives.
I knew that most of the high rises in China had been built post- 1980. For example, the Wall Street Journal carried this week an article about China saying that in 1979 Shanhai had 15 high rise buildings, and now has over 3600, more than Chicago and New York combined. I believe it. Visibility was poor as we crawled through Friday evening traffic last night, but there were whole villages of high rise apartments, many of which gave every impression of being empty. Some of them had styling similar to the 24 story monoliths that are sprouting on Panama City Beach, sort of pastel colored concrete, narrow, and every apartment with balconies.
As most of the buildings on this campus were built after 1980, you'd expect to see the sort of bland sameness of Russian polit-bureau buildings from the sixties, but it's interesting how there has been some attempt at architectural style for each building. I would describe the architecture more clearly, but I don't know enough about architecture to describe it.
The street scenes here are very vital. There are cars, vans, buses, bicycles, motor scooters and pedestrians vying for room to move. The streets are lined with vendors, tiny shops stuffed with goods, street vendors baking, chopping, braising, steaming, frying. Noodle vendors often have two or three tiny tables in front, and hungry university students, cheerfully chatting, lean over their bowls, slurping up noodles and broth.
We high end teachers dine indoors at large round tables that seat ten or twelve people. Young women bring tea, juice, milk and beer. Dish after dish is brought and placed on a large lazy susan, and spun around to reach each diner.
I knew that most of the high rises in China had been built post- 1980. For example, the Wall Street Journal carried this week an article about China saying that in 1979 Shanhai had 15 high rise buildings, and now has over 3600, more than Chicago and New York combined. I believe it. Visibility was poor as we crawled through Friday evening traffic last night, but there were whole villages of high rise apartments, many of which gave every impression of being empty. Some of them had styling similar to the 24 story monoliths that are sprouting on Panama City Beach, sort of pastel colored concrete, narrow, and every apartment with balconies.
As most of the buildings on this campus were built after 1980, you'd expect to see the sort of bland sameness of Russian polit-bureau buildings from the sixties, but it's interesting how there has been some attempt at architectural style for each building. I would describe the architecture more clearly, but I don't know enough about architecture to describe it.
The street scenes here are very vital. There are cars, vans, buses, bicycles, motor scooters and pedestrians vying for room to move. The streets are lined with vendors, tiny shops stuffed with goods, street vendors baking, chopping, braising, steaming, frying. Noodle vendors often have two or three tiny tables in front, and hungry university students, cheerfully chatting, lean over their bowls, slurping up noodles and broth.
We high end teachers dine indoors at large round tables that seat ten or twelve people. Young women bring tea, juice, milk and beer. Dish after dish is brought and placed on a large lazy susan, and spun around to reach each diner.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Further Adventures in Travel
We're fine and in Nanjing, so unless you enjoy vicarious misery, you can just skip to the next post. Things went fine with our altered schedule to Chicago until, no surprise, we arrived in Atlanta and were put in a holding pattern. After holding, we enjoyed sitting on the ramp waiting for a gate, and missed our flight to Chicago. We tried to get on the next flight, but we were stand by way down the list, so we weren't called, and we finally dragged into a Comfort Inn well after 11 pm, and had to be back at the airport before six, because we were still on the super special security, because we still hadn't completed our original trip.
We considered even spending the night at the airport, since we'd only have five hours to sleep at the hotel, but I decided the security problem with having to leave Sarah or me awake to watch the luggage, and the "Super Max Federal Prison" experience of having the lights on all night made it worth the hassle. It was worth it, we all got five good hours of sleep, which was important the next day.
We caught a seven a.m. Delta flight to Chicago O'Hare, went to baggage and were very happy to find our checked bag. Then we walked all the way to the United counter, to discover that we were part of a minority of the group on the Amercian flight, so we walked all the way to American.
My kids hauled all their own luggage on five hours of sleep. We were so happy we'd packed light.
The flight was long, fourteen and a half hours of flight time, plus all the time to board and unload a 777. We had no trouble at the SARS checkpoint, or at immigation or customs, and found the Foreign Affairs Officer for the University of Nanjing without incident.
About 18 teachers arrived that afternoon for this summer program, and there are a number of children, including a boy only a couple of years younger than James, which is good. We had to wait for another flight before loading onto a bus for Nanjing, but we left about 4:00 pm, and arrived at about 8:30 pm.
The Guodong airport in Shanhai is relatively new, and bigger than O'Hare. The bus sat about 18, and although we were packed in with our luggage like sardines, it was airconditioned. The weather is exactly like home, hot and muggy. We arrived in Nanjing at about 8:30 pm, and were immediately ushered up to a welcome buffet.
Thoughout this first 50 hour travel period, my kids were so good it was unbelievable. They slept sitting up when they could, they did not complain, and even when I knew they were exhausted, they were very pleasant through the banquet.
I'd left my camera on the bus, but I wished I'd brought it in to the banquet. The food was truly amazing to see. Dish after dish, each one more exotic than the last, but the oraganizer also knew there'd be children there, so there were things kids liked, like sweet and sour pork and corn.
I ate a pigeon egg in front of James. I ate spicy noodles. I ate strange and wonderful things, I ate things that were not so memorable.
We have a room, it has two single beds, so James and I slept in the same little bed. But it was air conditioned, and, a tremendous blessing, it has internet access, which was hooked up today. This afternoon we have orientation for teaching that starts Monday.
I have asked the Foreign Affairs Officer to help me find church services for tomorrow.
We're here, we're all okay, and I'm happy that we are here.
We considered even spending the night at the airport, since we'd only have five hours to sleep at the hotel, but I decided the security problem with having to leave Sarah or me awake to watch the luggage, and the "Super Max Federal Prison" experience of having the lights on all night made it worth the hassle. It was worth it, we all got five good hours of sleep, which was important the next day.
We caught a seven a.m. Delta flight to Chicago O'Hare, went to baggage and were very happy to find our checked bag. Then we walked all the way to the United counter, to discover that we were part of a minority of the group on the Amercian flight, so we walked all the way to American.
My kids hauled all their own luggage on five hours of sleep. We were so happy we'd packed light.
The flight was long, fourteen and a half hours of flight time, plus all the time to board and unload a 777. We had no trouble at the SARS checkpoint, or at immigation or customs, and found the Foreign Affairs Officer for the University of Nanjing without incident.
About 18 teachers arrived that afternoon for this summer program, and there are a number of children, including a boy only a couple of years younger than James, which is good. We had to wait for another flight before loading onto a bus for Nanjing, but we left about 4:00 pm, and arrived at about 8:30 pm.
The Guodong airport in Shanhai is relatively new, and bigger than O'Hare. The bus sat about 18, and although we were packed in with our luggage like sardines, it was airconditioned. The weather is exactly like home, hot and muggy. We arrived in Nanjing at about 8:30 pm, and were immediately ushered up to a welcome buffet.
Thoughout this first 50 hour travel period, my kids were so good it was unbelievable. They slept sitting up when they could, they did not complain, and even when I knew they were exhausted, they were very pleasant through the banquet.
I'd left my camera on the bus, but I wished I'd brought it in to the banquet. The food was truly amazing to see. Dish after dish, each one more exotic than the last, but the oraganizer also knew there'd be children there, so there were things kids liked, like sweet and sour pork and corn.
I ate a pigeon egg in front of James. I ate spicy noodles. I ate strange and wonderful things, I ate things that were not so memorable.
We have a room, it has two single beds, so James and I slept in the same little bed. But it was air conditioned, and, a tremendous blessing, it has internet access, which was hooked up today. This afternoon we have orientation for teaching that starts Monday.
I have asked the Foreign Affairs Officer to help me find church services for tomorrow.
We're here, we're all okay, and I'm happy that we are here.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Lisa in transit
Lisa wants to let everybody know that she is in transit and unable to update her blog today.
If I hear any news before she arrives at her destination, I'll post it here.
If I hear any news before she arrives at her destination, I'll post it here.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Adventures in Travel
Everything went swimmingly this morning, we didn't seem to have forgotten anything critical, we arrived at the airport promptly, we presented ourselves to check in automatically and our tickets could not be found in the reservation system. They said they couldn't get us out today, which is a problem, since our flight to Shanghai leaves at 10:35 tomorrow morning from Chicago.
We were rescued by Delta employee Nikia Baker. who rapidly tried a half dozen different itineraries, including taking us out of Valdosta, Panama City and Jacksonville, and in the end she was able to fly us to Tampa, then to Atlanta, and then to Chicago. We'll get in late, but we'll get in tonight and make our flight tomorrow.
The kids were completely cool during this minor crisis, waiting quietly until it was done. Then we piled our stuff together, and went through security, where we enjoyed the super special excellent full body pat down screening, and thereafter I had to listen to Sarah express her distress over a smudge on her new purse. Shortly thereafter, we realized the reason we felt like we had so little luggage was because James left his bag at the Delta counter. The police helped us, and I left the kids with the police while I went to fetch the bag, enjoying another full body pat down on the way back.
So, we're hanging around the airport, waiting for our flight to Tampa.
See, our first small set back, but we are doing fine.
We were rescued by Delta employee Nikia Baker. who rapidly tried a half dozen different itineraries, including taking us out of Valdosta, Panama City and Jacksonville, and in the end she was able to fly us to Tampa, then to Atlanta, and then to Chicago. We'll get in late, but we'll get in tonight and make our flight tomorrow.
The kids were completely cool during this minor crisis, waiting quietly until it was done. Then we piled our stuff together, and went through security, where we enjoyed the super special excellent full body pat down screening, and thereafter I had to listen to Sarah express her distress over a smudge on her new purse. Shortly thereafter, we realized the reason we felt like we had so little luggage was because James left his bag at the Delta counter. The police helped us, and I left the kids with the police while I went to fetch the bag, enjoying another full body pat down on the way back.
So, we're hanging around the airport, waiting for our flight to Tampa.
See, our first small set back, but we are doing fine.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Trepidation
We leave for China tomorrow. I have a long list, with nearly every item checked off, except that I haven't actually started to pack yet. I have enough drugs to start a pharmacy, flyers and maps to entertain my students, a camera, a computer, but nothing actually packed. There was a slight trauma today about UPS delivering a Chinese phrase book, escalating stress about a case which is either going to settle or go to court in the next couple of weeks, and I'm wondering what possessed me to sign up to go to China in the first place.
Sarah, who is 16, has been packed since the weekend, and has been cheerfully visiting with friends non-stop this week. James is having a James and daddy day today. I am dealing with the idea of a month without my spouse by refusing to think about it. Denial is under-utilized as a coping mechanism.
Sarah, who is 16, has been packed since the weekend, and has been cheerfully visiting with friends non-stop this week. James is having a James and daddy day today. I am dealing with the idea of a month without my spouse by refusing to think about it. Denial is under-utilized as a coping mechanism.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Preparing to Go to China
For someone who was such a dedicated blogger for a year, the fact that I haven't posted since February seems sad. I have several friends that kept up with the whole election via blog. Now, I seem to mention the odd thing in passing and then drift away.
But going to China is different. I'm leaving next week to go to China, where I'll teach a summer course in English at the University of Nanjing. My son and stepdaughter are joining me, but Jim is staying home. It turns out it's just as well since a tree fell on our house last week, and we're currently residing in a long term stay hotel, and he'll still be there when we leave.
I took a Chinese language course this spring to try to get ready for this experience. My son has been studying Chinese for two years. My stepdaughter is going to rely on her good looks and charm. We are all in various stages of nervous anticipation.
But going to China is different. I'm leaving next week to go to China, where I'll teach a summer course in English at the University of Nanjing. My son and stepdaughter are joining me, but Jim is staying home. It turns out it's just as well since a tree fell on our house last week, and we're currently residing in a long term stay hotel, and he'll still be there when we leave.
I took a Chinese language course this spring to try to get ready for this experience. My son has been studying Chinese for two years. My stepdaughter is going to rely on her good looks and charm. We are all in various stages of nervous anticipation.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Mentor
Nearly ten years ago, I started supervising the law clerks in my unit. I'm still in touch with many of the clerks, I think of them as "my" clerks, although they worked for the entire unit. Today I was talking with one who worked for me the first year I was supervising. He has various claims about my supervising. First, he claims that I said my standards were as follows: Show up on time, don't be drunk. I view this as a slight exaggeration. Second, he says that the first day he arrived, I told him I was glad he was there and to draft a motion in limine. Which was fine with him, except he didn't know what a motion in limine was.
He survived working with us during the first jury trial the unit had done in many years. Now he is a very important person in state government, and I have enjoyed watching him rise over the past ten years. He says I am his mentor. I think that is, once again, an exaggeration, for he was going to do well no matter what. I truly believe that. There are people you can drop to the bottom of the well, and they will be just fine. He is one of those people, but I enjoy the flattery nonetheless, and enjoy keeping up with him, and putting in my two cents whenever he is contemplating a change.
The first in his family to go to college, I'd like to see him consider the bench, but he has spent more and more of his time in administration. All of which is a rambling way of saying that I miss supervising law clerks, miss their youth and enthusiasm for the law, and wish that I could have some around on a regular basis again.
He survived working with us during the first jury trial the unit had done in many years. Now he is a very important person in state government, and I have enjoyed watching him rise over the past ten years. He says I am his mentor. I think that is, once again, an exaggeration, for he was going to do well no matter what. I truly believe that. There are people you can drop to the bottom of the well, and they will be just fine. He is one of those people, but I enjoy the flattery nonetheless, and enjoy keeping up with him, and putting in my two cents whenever he is contemplating a change.
The first in his family to go to college, I'd like to see him consider the bench, but he has spent more and more of his time in administration. All of which is a rambling way of saying that I miss supervising law clerks, miss their youth and enthusiasm for the law, and wish that I could have some around on a regular basis again.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Guardianship Cases
Over time, lawyers develop specialties in their practice, and sometimes go for long periods doing only one sort of case. For some reason, for the last couple of years, my pro bono cases have all been guardianship cases. I like them fine, I guess. I try to focus very hard on getting everybody possible on board before I file an action to commence a guardianship, so that the needs of the ward are met, and the family is in agreement. When I can't get agreement from everybody, and sometimes you just can't, I try to be sure I'm on the right side of the argument. This process is particularly difficult when dealing with end of life issues for the parent of a disabled person.
I think it's often frustrating for siblings to come to terms with the fact that one of their number has special needs, and is going to get a special estate deal, and that deal might be better than their deal. Sort of the "Mom always liked you best" problem.
For the parents, it's not that they always liked "you" best, but that "you" needed them more, and will have greater needs after they die. But it doesn't mean the siblings have to like it, or be particularly happy about having to provide the moral and possibly economic and guardianship support to their sibling that their parents have provided. But they generally do it, often with extraordinary care and grace, sometimes grudgingly, but only occasionally not at all.
I think it's often frustrating for siblings to come to terms with the fact that one of their number has special needs, and is going to get a special estate deal, and that deal might be better than their deal. Sort of the "Mom always liked you best" problem.
For the parents, it's not that they always liked "you" best, but that "you" needed them more, and will have greater needs after they die. But it doesn't mean the siblings have to like it, or be particularly happy about having to provide the moral and possibly economic and guardianship support to their sibling that their parents have provided. But they generally do it, often with extraordinary care and grace, sometimes grudgingly, but only occasionally not at all.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Chinese is Easy, Just like English
So says my Chinese instructor, anyway. He is teaching 8 adult students, there are two in their twenties, and two in their fifties and the rest of us are somewhere in between. The class is two hours long on Sunday afternoons. Mid-way through the class we take a ten minute break and do tai-chi. Because Chinese is a tonal language, and tai-chi has the same discipline of movement as ballet, I call it my singing and dancing class.
To say it is hard is an understatement. I feel ridiculous, knowing my Chinese is virtually incomprehensible to a native speaker. My writing is like a pre-schooler's. But the teacher, Mr. Li, is endlessly encouraging to all of us, and tells us that people in China will be pleased that we can say anything at all. Which is probably true, but I wish . . . well, some things are best done by the next generation. I went to school with plenty of kids whose parents had accents.
I have been so impressed with Mr. Li as a teacher that I have resolved to try to be as good a teacher of English as he is of Chinese. He comes to class carefully prepared, he has spoken with a friend who teaches Chinese at Georgia Tech and uses some materials from him, some materials he's gathered himself and a children's text book. He encourages us, corrects us sincerely, and is enthusiastic about our efforts.
This week we have homework of copying out a dialogue and studying the coming lesson. We also have to prepare to take dictation for body parts. In English, they pretend that you have phonetic rules for spelling, which are mostly notable for exceptions. In Chinese, they don't even waste time with that, and just tell you to memorize the pictogram for each word. So all I have to do is memorize 2000-3000 words and I can read a newspaper.
To say it is hard is an understatement. I feel ridiculous, knowing my Chinese is virtually incomprehensible to a native speaker. My writing is like a pre-schooler's. But the teacher, Mr. Li, is endlessly encouraging to all of us, and tells us that people in China will be pleased that we can say anything at all. Which is probably true, but I wish . . . well, some things are best done by the next generation. I went to school with plenty of kids whose parents had accents.
I have been so impressed with Mr. Li as a teacher that I have resolved to try to be as good a teacher of English as he is of Chinese. He comes to class carefully prepared, he has spoken with a friend who teaches Chinese at Georgia Tech and uses some materials from him, some materials he's gathered himself and a children's text book. He encourages us, corrects us sincerely, and is enthusiastic about our efforts.
This week we have homework of copying out a dialogue and studying the coming lesson. We also have to prepare to take dictation for body parts. In English, they pretend that you have phonetic rules for spelling, which are mostly notable for exceptions. In Chinese, they don't even waste time with that, and just tell you to memorize the pictogram for each word. So all I have to do is memorize 2000-3000 words and I can read a newspaper.
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