Back to School (9-6)

 Students started returning last Friday. Staff returned on the weekend. I sat on a bench outside the library and read and watched students arriving. It was fun to watch them and it made me start to feel ready to get back to teaching. I chatted with Peggy, which also helped me feel excited about starting. I gave her several suggestions to help orient the new foreign teachers more smoothly than I was oriented last term. It’s her second term to be in charge of us; so she’ll do better. Not that she was bad, but it was rough sometimes because she was new and didn’t know how to deal with foreigners on a regular basis.

I ran into one of the boys in a freshman class last term. I was walking along and he called out to me. This was a surprise, as he and I didn’t have a special relationship and hadn’t interacted much. He’s a sophomore now and wanted to know if I would be teaching them again. He was also in Peggy’s office when I was there. I told him that sophomores won’t have Oral English; so I won’t be teaching his class. He said he’d miss me a lot. That was touching. It goes in the “you never know what effect you have on people” category. Another boy stopped to chat and tell me he was disappointed not to have Oral English and that he liked me a lot. A few girls responded the same way. That all felt good.

Monday the new TTC people arrived. There are four of them this term: three men and one woman. The men are young (23 to mid-30’s). Two want to stay in China or Asia to teach after this experience; one is a paramedic who has taken a leave-of-absence to do this. The woman is Chinese-British and is about 50. She speaks Cantonese and Mandarin and is here to get experience so she can get a job and stay here to improve her Mandarin. She wants to be certified as a translator. All are nice people, and we get along well. Dale and I were left to orient them for the most part.

It has been interesting to watch reactions of students and staff to all of us foreigners. When we were at Peggy’s office one day, two of the teachers there were surprised to see so many foreigners, since this is the first time the school has had so many. (We don’t get officially introduced to the other foreign language teachers; so they probably all know who we are from a distance but we don’t know who they are unless they speak to us.) When we walked to a meeting together, I felt like we were like the teams—police and lawyers—seen on TV walking in step together. Students gawked, possibly because they’ve not seen so many foreigners at one time. And because there are four men. The men are getting a lot of attention from the female students and staff. Dale said some girls watching them playing ping pong stopped and sighed.

We will have a class for teachers again. Since teachers complained about the book used last term, Dale was told that we should find a different book. Like they think we can magically produce an appropriate book. We went to the library, and there are a few textbooks, but most are geared for students. We picked out a few that we can use parts of to put something together. When we tried to check them out, we couldn’t because we didn’t have a card. A student I knew from English Corner last term was working at the desk and helped us. He kept the books for us until we can get a card. Dale had been told that they needed the book by Friday, but that couldn’t happen.

The teachers will be divided into three classes by levels based on an assessment we will create. All six of us are to teach them. When I asked how that would work—two in each class, perhaps, they didn’t know. We’ll find out later.

Friday we had the official welcoming for the new teachers with the university president, the waiban/Foreign Affairs Office dean, and the dean of the Foreign Language Department. We went to the room at 11:00 and waited almost an hour until the president and waiban dean arrived. While we waited, we chatted with Dean Qiu. We learned that the university has 12,000 students this year and 6000 teachers. There are 10 departments that have 4-year programs leading to a Bachelor’s degree. I had thought that all students were now 4-year students until I learned earlier in the week that only some are while the rest are in a 3-year associate’s program. The Foreign Language Department has about 300 students and 60 teachers.

When the president arrived, he gave a fairly long greeting talk. We were each given the school’s USB like the one I got last year. After the meeting, we were taken to the dining hall for lunch. Yang had said we would go to the canteen for lunch. So we thought we were going to the regular, cafeteria-style lunch and were pleasantly surprised when we were taken to a special banquet room. I think it’s new this year, since we were taken to a restaurant last year and Yang didn’t know about the special room. 

The banquet was, of course, quite nice. We had about twenty dishes, including several specialties of the region: tongue, cow’s stomach, eel soup, soup with frog, 

turtle, 

and a soup with mushrooms called Buddha jumps over the fence. There were also some other meat dishes, several vegetable dishes, noodle soup, and fruit.

After lunch we returned to the meeting room to get our schedules. Dale and I will teach the English majors along with a couple classes of non-English majors while the others will teach only non-English majors. This term they have grouped the latter by their majors instead of having mixed classes. Actually, the English majors are grouped by their specialty, too—such as translation and business. The non-English major classes will have 60 students. I know I shouldn’t, but I did speak out about how this is not effective for oral English. But the mentality is that everyone should have a bit of foreign teacher. It doesn’t matter that having so many students deletes the effectiveness of the experience. It’s all about the university looking good by providing foreign teachers and giving as many students as possible a little exposure.

I will teach six classes--four for English majors and two for non-English majors. All are Oral English, which is what we all teach with the exception of Dale's writing class for Business English majors. Peggy had asked if I wanted to teach that, but, since it's not my favorite, I let Dale have it. The English majors in the four-year program have one textbook and the English Education majors, which is a three-year program, have another. And there is no book for the non-English majors. Keeping the three groups separate in my mind and remembering who is doing what will be challenging. 

We were told to focus on speaking and listening because the latter is very important for the CET. However, there is no book for the non-English majors. Dean Qiu told us again, as he did last year, that foreign teachers have special ideas. (We don't.) It’s like we can magically create a program that will improve student’s English. We are to have a plan in two weeks. There is no consistency or continuity. Everyone does their own thing. I have a hard time with this mentality. Peggy did send us Megan’s plan for last term.

Outside the classroom buildings there are a number of chalkboards that have been decorated with motivational sayings.  

Weather has been rainy and cooler. Temperatures have dropped to about 65^o at night; so I have had to get out my blanket and to wear a jacket when walking in the evening. It seems early for that; so we’ll see what happens next.