Miss Abbie - the music teacher

I came to China to teach English, so teaching English in my classes is, of course, no surprise. I even throw in a few songs in the beginning of the class, the end of the class, or both, to make learning more fun for the children. When the Chinese teachers ask me, however, to teach music to the children - to spend whole class periods on teaching the children just one song - the words, the melody, and pronunciation, that is a bit of a surprise.

This has happened at least three times so far this semester and every time that I spend the class period specifically teaching a song, I am taken back to music class in elementary school, only this time I am the music teacher. I had never thought that my teaching English would lead to me teaching children how to sing. After all, I was never a great singer. Luckily for the children, I am improving due to the fact that I sing songs between seven and fourteen times a day on school days (once or twice every class period with seven classes a day). I believe that now I can actually carry a tune with no background music.

So far, I have had a "music class" to teach baa baa black sheep, and jingle bells. All three times (Baa Baa black sheep in two classes) the Chinese teachers asked me to teach the songs the whole class period because the class would be presenting them, so they had to be sure that the children knew the words, the tune, and the pronunciation very well.

Although I never thought I would be a music teacher, I am enjoying that aspect of teaching as well. It is very rewarding to hear the children singing the songs I teach them.

I'm fine too

In my middle classes (the children who are between four and five years old), I always laugh every time I ask them how they are. Now you might ask, "Why, Abbie? Why does this question or their answer make you laugh?" I will tell you.

Here is the dialogue when I start my classes:

Me: Hello! Good morning class!

Class: Hello miss Abbie! Good morning miss Abbie!

Me: How are you today?

Class: I'm fine, thank you! And you? I'm fine too!
(If you can imagine 30 four and five year old's saying this phrase all together in just one breath (with a Chinese accent, of course) then you have a good idea of how it sounds)

At this point, me and the other teachers in the classroom start to laugh. The children simply do not understand that when they ask, "And you?" they are not supposed to answer their own questions. They are supposed to wait for the other person (who, in this case would be me) to answer it. It would be very easy for the Chinese teachers to correct this and I don't know why they don't - they would just have to explain to the children not to say the last part unless someone is asking them the questions. I suppose, then, if the Chinese teachers aren't explaining it to the children, that the duty falls to me. It will be a difficult challenge, but I accept (I suppose I accepted that challenge when I signed the contract, correct?)

Next week if you are interested, you can ask for the results (or the update).

The many "hao"s of Chinese

Learning Chinese is very interesting and I love learning all of the similarities between certain words, how some words are different, what makes them different and similar, etc. My Chinese learning is coming along nicely (for those of you who are interested in an update)and I can now converse with people for up to 40 minutes (I haven't tried for longer) depending on how patient they are and how slow they speak with me. If they speak too fast, then it is difficult to understand them. If they speak too slow, though, then I get bored. One of the security guards at the school speaks at a very good pace (I think he gets bored standing by the gate for hours on end) so we often talk and it was with him that I had the 40 minute conversation.
But, as usual, I am a bit off topic. My topic for this blog is the many words that one can put before "hao" (which means good). I am only dealing with the words that keep "hao" meaning good and not words that change it to bad, such as adding "bu" to make it "bu hao". In my Chinese class we learned a few words to put before "hao", but being here I have heard and learned many more, each with their own slightly different meanings, intricacies, (some of which I am still trying to figure out), and of course, their own tones and pronunciations.

Here is my list so far:

hen hao
fei chang hao
ting hao
hai hao
man hao
mei hao

I'm sure there are more, and the next time I hear another one I will add it to the list. Enjoy (and maybe learn). If you already know all these and you can explain all the intricacies to the many "hao"s, then feel free to leave a comment and explain!

The Foreign Teacher

As an English teacher in China, I am called many things by my students and by my fellow teachers. For example, they call me Miss Abbie. They also call me Abbie laoshi (which is Abbie teacher in Chinese). The last name I am called, and the one I like the least, is waiguo laoshi,which means "foreign teacher". To me, calling someone a "foreign teacher" seems to highlight the differences between the students, the Chinese teachers, and that teacher (who would be me). It highlights the language barrier, the cultural differences, as well as any other differences there might be. In America we have a similar phrase to describe someone who teaches a foreign language, but we add one word which (to me) changes the tone. We call the person who teaches the foreign language a "foreign language teacher" instead of a "foreign teacher". Do you see the difference? That way, whether that person is from a different country or not, they seem to be treated the same (at least in my experiences).

Maybe I am wrong, but when the teachers all announce that the waiguo laoshi (or foreign teacher) has arrived, it just sets me apart from everybody, so that the students can treat me differently (which they do). And, of course, it is not just the students who treat me differently. I think most of the foreign teachers will find that everybody treats them differently because they are foreigners. But, if we were not set apart as much, would the students' attitudes and actions towards us change? Do the words that they use, such as waiguo laoshi really affect the way they see us and act towards us? I think that it is possible, since we do know that language and words have an effect on our actions and beliefs. It makes me wonder what would happen if the children didn't think of me (and the other foreign teachers) as waiguo laoshi and instead if they thought of us as foreign language teachers.

Thanksgiving in China

For the first time in my life, I did not have Thanksgiving at home, in the United States, with my family. However, I did have Thanksgiving, and I had it in my Chinese home with my family here (made up of my friends here at the school plus some). Usually when my family celebrates Thanksgiving we invite not only our family, but also some of our close friends. In the past, these close friends have included many people from other countries. For example, for many years our family friends from the Jiangsu region of China came to celebrate with us and last year my roommate from Japan came.

For my Thanksgiving in China, this tradition of having people from different countries celebrate with us was carried out to the max. Of course there were Americans - four to be exact. But there were also four Canadians, an Australian, two Chinese, a Mexican, a Philippine, and a Kenyan. 14 people from 7 different countries. Since it was a potluck dinner, we had a variety of dishes from the different countries. It was a fantastic way to get to try food from the various places, listen to everyone's stories, and get to know each person better.

Even though many people did not know each other before the dinner, many people became friends and exchanged numbers. It was indeed a wonderful way to celebrate and give thanks for everything that we have here.