Shuangfu English Majors Friendship Program Plan

Shuangfu English Majors Friendship Program

Background

On the new campus of my university (Shuangfu campus) there are only going to be sophomores and freshmen. They just opened last year so there were only freshmen last year. As I said before, they were pretty disappointed and downright angered by how isolated they were and the fact that the school didn't tell them this is how it would be until they got there. Since it's an hour and a half away from the city and the old campus, teachers don't spend any time there outside from teaching and no upperclassmen go there. They can't get any guidance. Essentially they just have each other. By the end of the year, the students told me they had adjusted and become very close with each other. Most of them like it there now and they've formed pretty tight communities. However, they expressed anxiety about the freshmen coming in this year because they're afraid the campus will get crowded and they won't know these people. Furthermore, when the sophomores become juniors, the school intends to move them to the old campus. You can see how this is going to suck for them. The facilities on the new campus are far better in just about every way, most notably the dorms. They'll have to adjust all over again. The seniors they will meet will be too busy looking for jobs, doing internships, and preparing for graduation to get to know them. Also, the juniors will be strangers to them because they were on the new campus the first two years, so the seniors will have no motivation to really get to know them. Anyway you look at it, this class is kind of screwed, but they're paving the way. They will have the opportunity to help the classes coming after them by sharing their experiences. The freshmen this year will probably also be upset about being thrown out to the new campus, but they won't be alone this time. I know they wouldn't have much motivation to do it on their own, so creating this mentorship program would provide some structure for the sophomores and freshmen to get to know each other.

Purpose
I hope that as a result of this program, students will have a stronger sense of community, help each other learn and learn together, share knowledge and skills, grow up and mature together, build leadership and interpersonal skills (yeah, they really lack this coming out of Chinese high school), and just have fun. A key component to the program is networking, which is crucial in Chinese professional culture. I'm hoping that the effects of this program will carry well beyond their college years and into their careers. Who you know is extremely important when finding work and making money in China. Once the mentors graduate, they will be in unique positions to help their younger counterparts find jobs when it's their turn to graduate.

At the heart of this program is the one-on-one interaction between sophomores and freshmen. I would say that the rest can be dispensed with when it comes down to it, but this provides some structure. I want there to be a stronger sense of solidarity, community and friendship among the student body because it's sorely lacking. I especially want students to have an outlet for the stress they are faced with in college. Even if they have one friend who cares about their well being and success, I think it will make a big difference.


Method
There are entirely too many students at my school for me to reach out to all of them in this program, so I've limited it to just the English Majors on the new campus. This is convenient for me because I've taught all of them for a year and I know them all fairly well. Next year, I will personally match them up with their freshmen counterparts on the basis of common interests, personality, goals and priorities, etc. There are 5 English Major classes/groups. Each has a particular focus. For example, Class 1 is "Civil Engineering English Majors," Class 2 is "Marine and Coastal Engineering English Majors." For all intents and purposes these distinctions are meaningless. They all learn the same thing, but I can use this to match up Sophomore classes to Freshmen classes. I decided to call them "sister classes," just because most of the students are girls. Each class/group will elect a representative or "ambassador" who will keep track of who is matched with who in their class and their sister class. This helps me keep track of things and helps me communicate with all the students. A representative can organize events for their whole class and collaborate with the representative from their sister class for activities together. I am the leader of the program. I recruit, make matches, and organize events for the entire program. If students have issues with their matches, they can tell me and I'll do my best to make a better match. Also, if a mentor is concerned about the well being of a freshmen or vice versa, they can tell me about it confidentially. I will keep an eye on that student in my classroom and may intervene to communicate with that person to try to help. I consider this one of the most important roles of my position. Beyond this, there is little other structure to the program. So far at least.

Events
I will try to organize some whole group events and activities, but I realize that the logistics of this will be very difficult considering there will be about 400 students in the program. I haven't quite figured out what I'm going to do about that, but I would like to at least have a meet-and-greet event at the beginning of the year. This could be an opportunity to apply for a RELO grant for funding. As I said before, events can be organized by class representatives for their classes and sister class. These can be anything including lunches, dinners, sports, movie nights, game nights, hiking, outings into the city, etc.


Recruiting
On the last day of classes last semester, I gave a presentation to my students telling them about this program. I emphasized that membership in the program would be a very small, informal commitment. Instead of advertising it as a mentorship program, I advertised it as a friendship program. Each mentor really doesn't have to do much except reach out to the freshmen, make some friends, and be good role models. I even went so far as to say that the freshmen may not want to communicate with their mentors and that's okay. All they have to do is be there for them and make an attempt. When the program starts, I'll send out an email or have the representatives hand out some suggestions I have for things mentors can do with their freshmen. I appealed to their experiences adjusting to their new life on the new campus and the difficulties that they faced and that the next class of freshmen will face. I think this was particularly effective and they all really wanted to help. I really only expected about 10 students per class to be interested, but all of them signed up. I created an application asking the following information: name (English, Chinese, Pinyin), phone, email, QQ, hobbies and interests, accomplishments, career goals, habits, priorities in college and life, and room for comments. When the next semester starts, I will hand out pretty much the same application to the freshmen and I'll make matches. I thought there'd be fewer mentors than freshmen so that each mentor would have 3 or 4 freshmen, but since all my students signed up it will be 1:1.

Sustainability
I hope to phase this in so that it starts with this group, class of 2015, as the first mentors who will mentor the class of 2016. They in turn will mentor the class of 2017, and so on. Seniors will mentor juniors, juniors will mentor sophomores, sophomores will mentor freshmen. Each year they can keep or elect new representatives for each class. I would also like presidents to be elected for each grade who will take on my role. The Freshen will have a president to represent them and keep track of the members and who their mentors are. The sophomores, juniors, and seniors will have the same thing. After I leave the school, I intend for the presidents of future sophomores to be in charge of recruiting and matching or they can delegate that task to the class representatives… I still haven't figured out exactly what the presidents will do.

Hopefully this structure will keep the program going year after year. I'd love to see this replicated across the school, maybe for each major.

Mentorship Program

For my major secondary project, I'm going to start a mentorship program among my students on the new campus. I already pitched the idea to my students on their last day of class and I got an overwhelming response. The idea for this project emerged as a response to the particular needs of my school, but I'm sure it can be adapted to fit any kind of situation at any school.

I'm writing up a more detailed rationale, but this is how I pitched it to the students in class.

At the beginning of last semester, how did you feel being at Shuangfu campus?
[Shuangfu is the new extension campus of my university. It's an hour and a half away from the old campus and Chongqing city. They sent all the Freshmen and only the Freshmen there this year]
What were the most difficult things to adjust to?
Who could you ask for advice?
Do you have many friends who are not Freshmen?

Next semester, there will be a whole new group of freshmen and they will feel just like you.

Shuangfu English Majors Friendship Program 

- Sophomores make friends with and mentor the Freshmen next year.

- Each sophomore will have 2-4 freshmen [Since almost all my students signed up for it, it will be 1-2 Freshmen per Sophomore]

- Just English majors on Shuangfu campus [Because there's no way I can manage more. There are 200 Freshmen English majors I teach now. Next year I will have another 200]

- Have events every month or every 2 months.

- Each class will have a “sister class” [Each class has its own specific major like "Mechanical Engineering English," and they take all their classes together as a class. Next year, there will be the same classes]

- Each class will have a representative.

- I will be in charge of collecting applications and putting students together.

Your job as a mentor

- Make friends with the Freshmen

- Be a good role model

- Give advice

- Communicate with them

- Come to meetings and events

- Hang out with the freshmen, get together with other mentors and their freshmen.

- It’s not difficult. It won’t take much of your time. The freshmen might choose not to talk to you much at all and that’s okay. Just give them an opportunity to make friends with you.

Why should you do it?

- Meet new people

- Make new friends

- Have fun

- Build leadership skills

- Build confidence

- Share your knowledge

- Help someone 

- It will look good on your resume

Representatives/Ambassadors

- One for each class – 5 Sophomores, 5 Freshmen.

- Elected by the class.

- They keep track of who is with whom.

- They can organize whole class events with Freshmen and classmates – dinners, sports, games, field trips, movies.

- They work with classmates to decide on events.

My job as leader

- I will be in charge of who is assigned with whom.

- If you want to switch your Freshmen.

- If you are having trouble with a Freshman.

- If you are concerned about the well-being of a Freshman.

- The Freshmen will also come to me about issues about their mentors.

- I will make the rules

- I will organize whole group events

- Next semester or whenever I leave, I will give my position to a student. You will elect him/her.

Why?

- Shuangfu is a very different place from Nan’an campus [the old campus where I live].

- You are all out here by yourselves without much contact with teachers, upperclassmen, the city.

- You have to stick together and make a community

- The Freshmen next year will be just like you and they will have a difficult time adjusting. They will need help and guidance.

- But all the teachers and upperclassmen are too far away. They need your help.

Why?

- Build community, friendship, family.

- Help each other

- Learn together

- Share knowledge and skills

- Grow up together

- Build leadership skills – learning to be a leader is very important

- Have FUN

Moving to Nan'an Campus

- When you move to Nan’an campus when you are juniors, you will be strangers to the seniors. They might be too busy finding jobs and studying.

- Nan’an will be new and strange to you just like Shuangfu. You won’t have many people to help you adjust, but you’ll have each other.

- Then, when you are seniors, the students you mentored will move to Nan’an, but they won’t have as much trouble adjusting as you because they will have friends to show them the way: you.

- You will be busy, but just being there and being a familiar face will help them very much.

- You will make a big difference in their lives and in their college experience.

Beyond College

- Even after you graduate, the students that you mentor will know you and keep in touch with you.

- You can give them advice about finding jobs and building skills.

[Networking and Guanxi are essential to Chinese professional culture. Who you know is more important than most other things. And, in a few years, the job market in China is likely to be strained judging by the slowdown in economic growth] 

Sustainability

- Next year, I will ask the Freshmen to do the same thing with the next group of Freshmen.

- Hopefully every year, the program will continue so that the seniors mentor the juniors, the juniors mentor the sophomores, and the sophomores mentor the freshmen.

- Each year, a president will be elected for each grade – seniors, juniors, sophomores.

Join the Program

- The best thing about this program is that it’s easy. You don’t have to do much at all. 

- It won’t take up much of your time next semester.

- All you have to do is make some friends.

- Fill out an application, answer some questions. I’ll do my best to find Freshmen with common interests for you.

[I felt that focusing on the "easiness" and casualness of the program would encourage more participation]

Help me answer questions my students have about Americans.

I'm working on a little project that tangentiated (this isn't a real word, but it should be) from a lesson I gave about stereotypes in Oral English. We talked about stereotypes that Americans have about Chinese people compiled from my own experiences and conversations with people in America and from a list that was in their Oral English textbooks. I had them write letters to Americans who believe these stereotypes about Chinese people, and I got some great responses. While reading through a few of them before class was over I got an idea and shared it with them. I told them I would type up some of their letters and post them online on my blog. I want to give them a chance to tell Americans how they feel about stereotypes and to teach Americans about China and Chinese people. I'll post these up in a later post.

Then I had them write any questions they have about Americans on the back of their letters. I told them I would answer them throughout the semester. After reading through them, I decided that perhaps I shouldn't be the only American to answer these questions. After all, mine represents only one perspective, and since I've spent a large part of my life living abroad, it doesn't represent the majority.

So, I'd like your help in responding to some of these questions. I've typed them up exactly how they wrote them, and I numbered them in no particular order. If you'd like to respond to one, please type the number of the question you're answering or repeat the question. Multiple responses to one question are welcome, as it would also demonstrate the diversity in American thought. Remember that none of these students have met more than a few (if any) Americans in their entire lives. What they know comes from American movies, TV shows, pop music, and their fallacious textbooks and Chinese news media. Throughout the rest of the semester, I'll take some time in class each week to share your answers with my students.

To respond, leave a comment on the blog post or to this Facebook post or email me at mkeel09@gmail.com. Sui bian, dou keyi.

Thanks!

Questions about America and Americans:

1. Do American youth study hard in high school to pass the examination to college?

2. Will you be my guide if one day I come to America?

3. Do you like Chinese people?

4. Do you like to marry Chinese?

5. Do all of you accept homosexual?

6. In my opinion, you are outgoing. Are you all good at building social relationship?

7. Do you have a good time and have fun a lot in your childhood, or even when you enter the high school?

8. Do you feel you are under too much pressure even you have entered college and still find many things to do in college?

9. You think American government have right to influence policy of other country?

10. Do you like being in touch with foreign culture?

11. Would you blindly believe the newspaper?

12. Do you still live with your family when you are 18?

13. Do you have to pay your college expense instead of your parents?

14. Do you think China is a good country?

15. What's your habits in daily life?

16. Why do you like rugby?

17. When you parents become old, do you look after your parents like Chinese do?

18. When you fall in love with others as a teenager, are your parents and teachers against it?

19. Do they have guns?

20. Does most of the American like dance such as streets?

21. Is it hard to get along with black American?

22. Do Americans like the lifestyle of Chinese?

23. How old do Americans usually marry?

24. Do Americans like vampires and werewolves?

25. What do you think about China?

26. Do all the American are so open?

27. Do all the American aggressive?

28. Do all the students are relaxed in high school?

29. Do all the Americans like Chinese?

30. Do all the Americans don't like the Britain people?

31. Do all the American have a bad impression about Chinese?

32. How can Americans make cartoon movies so attractive?

33. What do you think of China and Chinese?

34. What's your government attitudes towards the wars and the peace? Do you really think that national interests is more important than peace or other things?

35. Does everybody own a gun?

36. Do all Americans fond of fast food?

37. What's your opinion about Chinese policy? After some years, do you think China will over America and become the first in the world?

38. How do you think Chinese lifestyle?

39. Does America have a high crime rate?

teaching in Chonging: stuff that's not so great but you should know in case you're thinking about doing it

I love being in China. There's so much going on here that makes me happy I'm here. But there's plenty to gripe about as a foreigner. To me, the problems seem minor and they don't get to me much, but I imagine that other people coming to China would feel differently. Several volunteers have left already for various reasons. Almost all of them were placed in my area. I'm helping a friend of mine in the US get a job at my school teaching English. I decided to give her plenty of warning about the crappy conditions here so she could make a more informed decision. I figured I'd copy and paste it here to help anyone coming to China or thinking of coming to China. This mostly applies to my experience in Chongqing. Other areas can be quite different. I've tried to be as objective. But in fact I've probably erred on the side of exaggeration rather than understatement. If you think you can overcome all the obstacles I've mentioned here, then you're going to do just fine in China.

I didn't feel like editing this, so you're going to get it in IM format.

It's really so easy to get a teaching job in China. So many schools are hiring. My school is so desperate for foreign teachers, they'll hire anyone who can speak English. The last guy they hired was an Australian with a lisp. I can't even understand what he's saying. I wonder how his students are doing.

my school is super frustrating, so you know. you can't get anything done
and you're going to be commuting to the new campus almost every day, which is an hour and a half away
and you'll probably stay in the hotel on campus there
and it's really not that bad, but it's just inconvenient
you aren't going to be teaching english majors, because me and my sitemate do that
so the students you get are not going to be that great, but that depends on if you can get their attention and make class interesting for them
there's a bus that goes out to the new campus
teachers ride free
and yeah, you'll have me for a resource. i can help you with lesson planning
hell, you can use my lesson plans
the department you'll be working for is notoriously bad at communicating with you. sometimes you won't know who you're going to teach until you get to the classroom. you won't know your schedule until you start teaching either
Chinese people in general do not plan ahead. at all
and that's frustrating because you can't make plans
you're going to be making more money than you'll know what to do with though, but when you convert it to dollars, it's not enough to save
Where we live, we have super easy access to anywhere in the city because of the metro that just opened just outside my apartment, but you'll be spending several weekdays on the new campus
the new campus is in the middle of nowhere and there's nothing to do around there. on the other hand, it gives you a chance to really get to know the students there.
i'll be spending at least 2 days a week there and spending the night
and i'll probably be doing stuff with students
it would be great if we could work together on some projects
Chongqing city people are rude, pushy, and kinda gross
it won't get to you at first
but after a while it might
you'll be stared at a lot and people will disrespectfully "hello" you. you'll be walking down the street and people will yell "hello!"
if you can't speak any chinese, it will be kind of difficult to get around and do stuff. i'll help you with that, but you should try to learn some basic stuff. you'll probably want to get a tutor
food here is extremely oily. you might gain some weight
but there's not a lot of meat
the air in chongqing is so polluted that you won't see the sun for weeks
in the summer when you get here, it'll be around 100 F almost every day
it rains a lot
except there's not that much showering, just this miserable drizzle for days on end
the winter is worse. air quality is even worse in the winter and the drizzle goes from being uncomfortable to being cold and uncomfortable
also, even when you learn some chinese, it might not help you that much because in chongqing they speak a chongqing dialect that makes no sense to people who speak mandarin
everybody will watch you and know what you're doing all the time because you're white and your hair isn't black or dark brown
that's about all i can think of...
really though, these problems are pretty minor. i think if anything really bothers you it will be the work related stuff
the school is difficult to deal with, but honestly, they really don't care what you do in the classroom
as long as you show up to class and teach English, however you want to do that, you're practically untouchable. job security.
they are so desperate for english teachers
and not even good ones. They have to fulfill a quota given to them by the government
anyway, i really wanted you to know the bad stuff so you can make a good decision. several people in peace corps have left. all of them have been volunteers placed in my area.
but being here is a great opportunity. i've learned a ton about china. chongqing especially is at the forefront of development in china. more growth is happening here than anywhere else in the country and it's really interesting to see the effects of it

Hainan and Chinese New Year

January 14, I landed in Haikou, the capital of Hainan in the north, and my host mom met me at the airport. She rented a car for the trip and had her friend come with us everywhere. Her friend, Li Song, is a tour guide who lives in Haikou. We stayed at his apartment for the first night. He has a wife and a son, but i didn't see them. Their apartment has this huge portrait of his wife in the living room. Haikou was kind of chilly and cloudy and dreary, but the south of the island was completely different: really warm and sunny. We drove a lot and saw a few tourist sights along the way, but I was mostly content just riding in the car looking at the scenery. Mountains and palm trees everywhere. There are so many coconuts in Hainan it's preposterous. Everything is coconut flavored. We had some seafood, but it actually wasn't that good. I got sick from something and I didn't feel much like eating most of the time we were in Hainan. It's really a lot like Thailand: the climate, the people, some of the food (except not as good), the culture, so it felt very familiar.
     We stayed at another of my host mom's friends' place and I took pictures of her adorable twins. She sort of commissioned me to take them for her. I think they turned out alright. We continued on to the south the next day. Met up with Li Song's wife, who works at this ridiculously lavish golf resort for super rich people. Li Song's wife is gorgeous. We spent the night at a hotel nearby and I didn't sleep much because I was pretty sick. I couldn't keep water in me and I was getting pretty dehydrated. The next couple days I felt dizzy on and off, really tired, really sensitive to temperature changes, and I had no appetite. We finally got to Sanya, the city in the very south of the island, and stayed in a hotel there for the last 3 days. This is where we saw the most things. Since Li Song is a tour guide and my host mom borrowed her friend's tour guide ID badge, we got into a lot of tourist sites for free. The sights were pretty cool, but I've never been much of a tourist honestly. It always feels so gimmicky, and Sanya was practically built to create a source of revenue from tourism. And it shows. Everything felt so gaudy. I really like to get immersed in the culture of the everyday people of places I visit. To see how ordinary people live, what they do, what they eat. I got to see a little of that, but not a whole lot. It was still pretty awesome to be there though. It reminded me of how diverse China is.
     It was nice to see my host mom again and to practice my Chinese. She paid for everything too, which I protested against. It was a lot of money and I felt pretty guilty about it. She insisted though and wouldn't take my money. I lucked out with my host family. They're in their 30s. They're pretty modern and laid back. They like to take me places. My host "dad" also loves photography, so he takes me on photo trips and we share our photos and tips and tricks. A lot of other volunteers weren't so lucky with their host families. The only thing that sucks is that I don't get much time to myself when I'm with them. It's just a constant barrage of attention. While I was in Hainan, I started to feel that again. My host mom pays way too much attention to me and by the end of the trip I was craving some time alone.
    We flew to Chengdu on the 20th and celebrated Chinese New Year. All four of my host family's parents came to the apartment and spent the whole day there. We ate two big meals and they played majiang literally all day. I played for a while, but I soon had to do something else. It kind of blows my mind how old chinese people can just sit and play majiang for 6 hours at a time and not get tired of it. That night, as the hour approached midnight, there were more and more fireworks exploding all over the city. People buy fireworks from street vendors and set them off wherever they can. I went out on the balcony and was surrounded by explosions. Fireworks were hitting the sides of buildings only a few yards away in every direction. And they didn't stop after new years. Every night there were fireworks all over the place.
     Over the next few days, we went to visit other relatives and spent entire days sitting and playing, or watching old people play, majiang. Other than that, I mostly sat in my room reading, editing and uploading photos, and writing. My host dad's mother taught me how to make jiaozi. She is super sweet and sometimes reminds me of my own Chinese grandmother. We made tons of jiaozi and ate a lot of it. By the time I left for IST, I was sick of jiaozi.

January

oy... Sometimes I want to make an update, but thinking about how much has happened since my last posts overwhelms me enough to dissuade me from doing so.

Summary:

- Went to Hainan with my host family
- Spent Chinese New Year with my host family in Chengdu
- In Service Training for 2 weeks in Chengdu

Chonx

as awesome as it is being in Chongqing, I'm not quite penetrating into the language and culture as much as I'd like to be. Chongqing is one of the biggest cities in the world. It's modernized and westernized. As such, it's almost indistinguishable from any other big city in the west or east, jettisoning traditional culture to adopt a universal metropolitan one.

Part of it is urban culture, and part of it is my own debilitating shyness, but it's difficult striking up conversations with the local fauna. They're about what you'd expect from city folk: busy, pushy, disinterested, and completely disenchanted by the novelty of the presence of foreigners. Of course, it's not that I expect some special treatment because I'm American, but it makes things a bit more difficult to get to know people.

My students are also at such a high English proficiency level that I sometimes wonder what I really have to offer them. I provide them with an environment in which they can practice conversation. But in order for them to really learn something new, I feel they would need a real professional TEFL instrutor.

As a result, i feel caught in this kind of no man's land. I'm neither contributing a great service nor being immersed in the culture. I'm somewhat of a curiosity, but largely left alone.

I may have mentioned before that I'm considering extending already (and I'm not even a quarter through my 2 years) and spending a year in a more rural site like in Gansu. The way things are going, it just doesn't seem like I'll experience as much as I want to experience during the 2 years I'm in Chongqing. I don't know if I'll really get another chance to do something like that unless I do it with Peace Corps.