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.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Sunday, December 11, 2011
semester ending, dropping tourism english, chinese progress, martial arts, gym, tasty food, poop, iPod, weekends
The semester is in its last death throes. This week I'll be giving the exam to the Tourism English students, next week Oral English for English as a second major, and 2 weeks later for Oral English for the freshmen.
I feel burnt out. Commuting is a pain, trying to think of stuff to teach the Tourism English students who meet twice a week for 2 semesters is ridiculous. I asked the Humanities department to drop Tourism from my schedule next semester. It's still not clear if they're going to do it, but apparently someone approached the chinese woman who teaches the other section of Tourism English students. She told her class one day that she might be taking over my class. A few of my more motivated students were observing her class at the time. Crystal, my best student in both Oral English and Tourism, texted me "I heard you're abandoning us??" She had me meet her to talk about it. She was pretty upset, but I explained my schedule and that I just don't think I can keep it up for another semester.
That conversation with her had an effect on me. My mind was set on dropping the class, but the students apparently like me a lot, even though I can't get them engaged like i can with the Oral English students. They stare at me with glazed eyes. I know that if I drop the class, the 25 students in Ms. Leeta's class will become 50, and those students won't have much chance to speak out. On the other hand, I think they'll learn more. Leeta knows their English levels and she knows tourism. She'll be able to teach them vocabulary they can use... I mostly just treat the class as an oral English class. In the end, I will drop it if they let me. I feel a little bad about it, but I don't think it's worth being stressed out at the end of my week and missing out on things I've been wanting to get involved in here.
There are two other Americans who teach here besides my sitemate and me. They are both pretty strange. Honestly, i try to stay away from them. I want to spend more time with Chinese people. I hardly speak much Chinese as it is: everyone here knows enough English that they would rather talk with me in English than listen to me fumble around trying to get my ideas across in their language.
I had hoped that i would be better with my Chinese than I am by now.
I started taking intermediate Chinese classes with the international students who are Chinese majors (they're all from Kazakhstan), but I can't keep up with the class. I don't have time to do the homework, the class meets 4 days a week for 2 hours and i have to miss one of them to go to the new campus to teach, the textbook recently switched to being exclusively in hanzi. It takes some time for me to translate it. Next semester, I will probably join the second semester of the beginners.
I still haven't found a kung fu school. No one seems to be able to help me. Whenever I ask someone, they laugh. When they realize I'm being serious, they say "oh, there has to be a lot of schools around here." And when I ask where specifically, no one knows and no one finds out. The internet isn't any help on the issue either.
On the other hand, I did find a Taekwondo school (it seems to be far more popular in China than kung fu now ironically). I want to learn a Chinese martial art, and I'm already a black belt in TKD. But if this is all there is, I'll do it. I might start that next semester.
I've been going to this gym across the street for students. It's pretty dingy and unremarkable, but the most important things are there: some adjustable free weights, barbells, and benches. A couple students in my Oral English class found out I go there and they meet me there twice a week. Some of the other guys like to practice their English with me when I'm there. Someone always puts on Michael Jackson, Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls, and Lady Gaga on the speakers. I find it hilarious.
I've been eating a lot more lately since i started going to the gym. I think I'm gaining wait. I feel fatter. It's probably because of all the noodles and oil. I usually eat at the cafeteria because it's super cheap, but the hours are all weird. When it's closed, I go across the street to the Xinjiang restaurants. They're little holes in the wall run by Uyghurs. I really love Xinjiang food. I have to go there one of these days. The food is much less oily than the local food. It's very simple: noodles/rice, sauce, meat, vegetables, spices. Potatoes, mutton, beef, bell peppers, onions, carrots. All the noodles are made by hand right there in front of you before they're put in your dish. The best part is, they have picture menues because the fare is so different from local food that the locals aren't sure what the dishes are called.
EDIT: I was wrong. They're actually Lanzhou restaurants, not Xinjiang. Lanzhou is the capital of Gansu province, which shares a border with Xinjiang and also contains a large Muslim population.
Not that I don't love the local food. I love wai po cai (pickled chopped vegetables), hot pot, xiao bai (super tender slices of fatty pork belly over a bed of wai po cai), the noodles (xiao mian, za jiang mian), jiaozi, chao shou (wanton), anything with pumpkin, anything with sweet potatoes... The only problem is that a lot of these foods have so much oil that they wreak havoc on my intestines... I have to plan accordingly if I'm going to eat hot pot and make sure I can get to a toilet within a few hours after eating it. In Chongqing and Sichuan, "la duzi" (loose bowels, just short of diarrhea), isn't a term that people find inappropriate or embarrassing. It's a fairly regular affliction like catching a cold. "where's so and so?" "oh, he has la duzi" "oh yeah, i had that yesterday." "me too, i get it all the time." and i'm like "then why does everyone use so much damn oil??"
I finally got an iPod touch. It revolutionized everything. I can go down the street, go to the supermarket, go to the bus station and actually understand what's written using Pleco. I'm learning a lot of new characters every day. It's still not as good at translating phrases and sentences as Google translate, but if I can get wifi, i can use Google as well.
Every weekend or so I meet with Brianne and/or Imogen, the British girl who also teaches at Brianne's school. I feel very fortunate that those two are closest to me. They're great peoples.
I had hoped that I would do more with my weekends. I thought I would travel and see more things. I'm not sure why I don't. I'm terrible at making plans. Part of it is that I'm lazy and/or I'm just ready to sit and vege out after my week. It's not that I don't do stuff. I always end up doing something with people, but I just don't feel like I'm experiencing as much as I can.
Hopefully next semester will be better. Without tourism english, I've gained a good full day or two of free time in my week. In fact, without tourism, I'll only have to prepare one lesson per week (and then teach it 6 times). That's a good deal.
I feel burnt out. Commuting is a pain, trying to think of stuff to teach the Tourism English students who meet twice a week for 2 semesters is ridiculous. I asked the Humanities department to drop Tourism from my schedule next semester. It's still not clear if they're going to do it, but apparently someone approached the chinese woman who teaches the other section of Tourism English students. She told her class one day that she might be taking over my class. A few of my more motivated students were observing her class at the time. Crystal, my best student in both Oral English and Tourism, texted me "I heard you're abandoning us??" She had me meet her to talk about it. She was pretty upset, but I explained my schedule and that I just don't think I can keep it up for another semester.
That conversation with her had an effect on me. My mind was set on dropping the class, but the students apparently like me a lot, even though I can't get them engaged like i can with the Oral English students. They stare at me with glazed eyes. I know that if I drop the class, the 25 students in Ms. Leeta's class will become 50, and those students won't have much chance to speak out. On the other hand, I think they'll learn more. Leeta knows their English levels and she knows tourism. She'll be able to teach them vocabulary they can use... I mostly just treat the class as an oral English class. In the end, I will drop it if they let me. I feel a little bad about it, but I don't think it's worth being stressed out at the end of my week and missing out on things I've been wanting to get involved in here.
There are two other Americans who teach here besides my sitemate and me. They are both pretty strange. Honestly, i try to stay away from them. I want to spend more time with Chinese people. I hardly speak much Chinese as it is: everyone here knows enough English that they would rather talk with me in English than listen to me fumble around trying to get my ideas across in their language.
I had hoped that i would be better with my Chinese than I am by now.
I started taking intermediate Chinese classes with the international students who are Chinese majors (they're all from Kazakhstan), but I can't keep up with the class. I don't have time to do the homework, the class meets 4 days a week for 2 hours and i have to miss one of them to go to the new campus to teach, the textbook recently switched to being exclusively in hanzi. It takes some time for me to translate it. Next semester, I will probably join the second semester of the beginners.
I still haven't found a kung fu school. No one seems to be able to help me. Whenever I ask someone, they laugh. When they realize I'm being serious, they say "oh, there has to be a lot of schools around here." And when I ask where specifically, no one knows and no one finds out. The internet isn't any help on the issue either.
On the other hand, I did find a Taekwondo school (it seems to be far more popular in China than kung fu now ironically). I want to learn a Chinese martial art, and I'm already a black belt in TKD. But if this is all there is, I'll do it. I might start that next semester.
I've been going to this gym across the street for students. It's pretty dingy and unremarkable, but the most important things are there: some adjustable free weights, barbells, and benches. A couple students in my Oral English class found out I go there and they meet me there twice a week. Some of the other guys like to practice their English with me when I'm there. Someone always puts on Michael Jackson, Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls, and Lady Gaga on the speakers. I find it hilarious.
I've been eating a lot more lately since i started going to the gym. I think I'm gaining wait. I feel fatter. It's probably because of all the noodles and oil. I usually eat at the cafeteria because it's super cheap, but the hours are all weird. When it's closed, I go across the street to the Xinjiang restaurants. They're little holes in the wall run by Uyghurs. I really love Xinjiang food. I have to go there one of these days. The food is much less oily than the local food. It's very simple: noodles/rice, sauce, meat, vegetables, spices. Potatoes, mutton, beef, bell peppers, onions, carrots. All the noodles are made by hand right there in front of you before they're put in your dish. The best part is, they have picture menues because the fare is so different from local food that the locals aren't sure what the dishes are called.
EDIT: I was wrong. They're actually Lanzhou restaurants, not Xinjiang. Lanzhou is the capital of Gansu province, which shares a border with Xinjiang and also contains a large Muslim population.
Not that I don't love the local food. I love wai po cai (pickled chopped vegetables), hot pot, xiao bai (super tender slices of fatty pork belly over a bed of wai po cai), the noodles (xiao mian, za jiang mian), jiaozi, chao shou (wanton), anything with pumpkin, anything with sweet potatoes... The only problem is that a lot of these foods have so much oil that they wreak havoc on my intestines... I have to plan accordingly if I'm going to eat hot pot and make sure I can get to a toilet within a few hours after eating it. In Chongqing and Sichuan, "la duzi" (loose bowels, just short of diarrhea), isn't a term that people find inappropriate or embarrassing. It's a fairly regular affliction like catching a cold. "where's so and so?" "oh, he has la duzi" "oh yeah, i had that yesterday." "me too, i get it all the time." and i'm like "then why does everyone use so much damn oil??"
I finally got an iPod touch. It revolutionized everything. I can go down the street, go to the supermarket, go to the bus station and actually understand what's written using Pleco. I'm learning a lot of new characters every day. It's still not as good at translating phrases and sentences as Google translate, but if I can get wifi, i can use Google as well.
Every weekend or so I meet with Brianne and/or Imogen, the British girl who also teaches at Brianne's school. I feel very fortunate that those two are closest to me. They're great peoples.
I had hoped that I would do more with my weekends. I thought I would travel and see more things. I'm not sure why I don't. I'm terrible at making plans. Part of it is that I'm lazy and/or I'm just ready to sit and vege out after my week. It's not that I don't do stuff. I always end up doing something with people, but I just don't feel like I'm experiencing as much as I can.
Hopefully next semester will be better. Without tourism english, I've gained a good full day or two of free time in my week. In fact, without tourism, I'll only have to prepare one lesson per week (and then teach it 6 times). That's a good deal.
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