Aug. 22, 2002-July 5, 2004
After I had gone to China with the delegation in April of 2002, I spent the summer in La Crosse and then went back to Luoyang on August 20th. It really helped to adjust by being there in April. I should also add that Luoyang is kind of like our Midwest region. It is more conservative. It takes a while for new things to get there and things don’t change as fast as in other areas.
As time went on during that first year, I made many wonderful friends. I learned how to teach. I’m sure that some would question my teaching methods being I am not a teacher. I had been told by teachers, both American and Chinese, that what worked for teaching in the US didn’t work in China and what worked in China didn’t work in the US. I had no idea what to do but I learned as time went on.
Aug. 20, 2010-June 29, 2013
After I had gone to China with the delegation in April of 2002, I spent the summer in La Crosse and then went back to Luoyang on August 20th. It really helped to adjust by being there in April. I should also add that Luoyang is kind of like our Midwest region. It is more conservative. It takes a while for new things to get there and things don’t change as fast as in other areas.
As time went on during that first year, I made many wonderful friends. I learned how to teach. I’m sure that some would question my teaching methods being I am not a teacher. I had been told by teachers, both American and Chinese, that what worked for teaching in the US didn’t work in China and what worked in China didn’t work in the US. I had no idea what to do but I learned as time went on.
I tried many things. It was difficult for the students to understand me. It was the same for many others also. For some, I was the first foreign person they had met. Even for the Chinese teachers that had met foreigners before. We all talk differently and they had to get used to how I spoke. I had both middle school and high school students.
Justin Patch was the other foreign teacher. He was from the town of Peabody outside of Boston. He and I each had five hundred students a week. The classes were split between us. I learned to make the classes very simple. I wrote a lot on the board. They could read most things and they could write English. Sometimes they could write better than I can, but that doesn’t take much. My writing isn’t very good.
At that time, we did not have projectors or computers for our classes at the school. No flash drives or smartphones. I had brought my own laptop. Between teaching and working on lessons, I figure it was sixty hours a week or more.
Justin and I met the English teachers - they were so wonderful to us. We did lots of things together like going out to eat and shopping with them. We learned from them and they helped us adapt to living there. They were really helpful. I can't say enough as to how great they were to us.
During my time there, I would go for walks. Besides getting my exercise, this was how I learned how to get around and where things were. I am good with directions so I learned my way around quickly. I also learned from others which buses to take to go to certain places. I would write letters and walk to the post office to mail them. Not many people that I knew had computers and email addresses back home so I would send letters.
Everything was written in Chinese, of course, and I couldn’t read what was on store fronts or menus. I couldn’t understand what was being said. I would get used to hearing certain things enough so that I learned greetings like hi, bye and other things.
Justin and I met the English teachers - they were so wonderful to us. We did lots of things together like going out to eat and shopping with them. We learned from them and they helped us adapt to living there. They were really helpful. I can't say enough as to how great they were to us.
During my time there, I would go for walks. Besides getting my exercise, this was how I learned how to get around and where things were. I am good with directions so I learned my way around quickly. I also learned from others which buses to take to go to certain places. I would write letters and walk to the post office to mail them. Not many people that I knew had computers and email addresses back home so I would send letters.
Everything was written in Chinese, of course, and I couldn’t read what was on store fronts or menus. I couldn’t understand what was being said. I would get used to hearing certain things enough so that I learned greetings like hi, bye and other things.
During my five years there, I didn’t learn the language. I will say that I am somewhat lazy in learning Chinese. I did try now and then but I didn’t use it much. All of the people that I met wanted to practice English with me. This was their chance to practice with a foreigner and help them become better.
I actually had teachers, and others, tell me that they would not teach me Chinese because they didn’t want to practice Chinese with me. But they did tell me that if I needed anything like going shopping or whatever, to just let them know and they would help me. I could go to the grocery store, buy things and pay for them but I couldn’t talk to anyone. I would just look and find what I needed.
I have to admit that it would have helped if I would have learned some of the language. It is a difficult language; they say it is one of the most difficult in the world. Each word has four tones so you have to know which tone to use and how to pronounce it. The same word with a different tone means something different.
I had students and teachers tell me that English grammar is really hard for them. The English language is also very difficult as I learned when I was teaching. If you compare the two languages, they are kind of backwards from each other, the sentence structure anyway. I will give an example. We say, "What is your name?" In Chinese it is spoken, "Ni jiao shenme mingzi?" When you translate the Chinese literally, it comes out like this in English-you called what name? That gives you an idea what it is like between the two languages.
Comments
Post a Comment