Cili Serendipity

The are many benefits to life in this “rural” mini-city of Cili, but the two that have made my life here most comfortable are the quality of the natural environment and the welcoming nature of the locals. Compared to Changsha or the cloud of smog some call Beijing, Cili is a minor paradise – today, like the majority of days over the past couple of weeks, it is sunny with clear blue skies, birds chirping away, and ants doing their thing. Such beautiful weather is prime for wandering around either on foot or by bicycle, and this leads to the second perk of life here. Any lengthy journey outside of the school campus nearly always results in some friendly encounter with someone who is at first just curious about the total 帅哥 walking/riding by or sitting in their restaurant. Often, random people will pay for my meals after we simply exchange a few pleasantries, and sometimes, longer-term relationships are forged.

A couple days ago, I was riding my bike around some areas I inexplicably had yet to check out. This bike, which my school liaison generously lent me, is awesome, including a car-volume-level warning beeper thing, a speedometer and a pedometer, a couple sizable pouches, and a secure lock. But the bike is not the point. But it is still awesome. Anyways, I was about to ride along a stretch of pavement in between the large Lishui River and a row of apartments, when I get a phone call. It’s the older sister of the mother of the 3rd-grade girl I tutor (I met the mother and her daughter in a fruit store), and she’d like me to begin to teach her five-year-old some simple vocab, too, in order to “让她喜欢英语” (“make her like English”). I didn’t understand some of what she said, and I struggled to communicate my response, fumbling a little more than usual through some Chinese.

Nearby where I had stopped, a middle-aged woman was gathering some vegetables from a garden I assume she keeps. From a couple glances in her direction, I saw that she was rather amused by my sub-par Mandarin, or perhaps instead by a white guy speaking Chinese, or, most likely, both. After finishing my conversation with the sister of the mother of the daughter I tutor (SOT-MOT-DIT?), I continued on my way along the river. The pavement ended in about thirty seconds. So I turned around, and as I again passed the woman foraging in her garden, I stopped, either prompted by a comment from her or my own desire to explain the situation, to let her know that I was the foreign teacher at Cili Yizhong, and that the SOT-MOT-DIT was interested in me teaching her daughter.

Well, this brief pause was long enough to draw in her husband and a couple other neighbors to join in the conversation. The husband, whom I later learned is named 唐汇刚 (Tang Huigang), invited me into their home to see some photographs he happened to have of him with the foreign teachers from three years ago. Not shady, because this is China. He did not fail to deliver, and soon I was on the third floor of his apartment/home looking at pictures of him with the two foreigners I knew to be my predecessors. The wife invited me to eat lunch, but because I had just eaten and was developing a minor headache, I declined (meaning I had to say “No, thanks”, and explain my reasons about ten times). But I still hung around to talk a bit with 唐汇刚 and his little daughter, and discovered that they enjoyed fishing. I learned this in the context of them inviting me to go fishing with them that afternoon, but I once again declined because, as mentioned, I was feeling under the weather. However, we exchanged numbers and agreed to plans for fishing this weekend. I have only been fishing once very briefly at a fifth-grade camp (or boy scouts camp?), and have always wanted to go fishing for real. I can tell that this family is pretty serious about it, given some pictures 唐汇刚 showed me, and I am very much excited about this opportunity.

They say it takes a village to raise a foreigner, and that if you teach a man to fish he’ll eat a lot of fish. This week has supported these sayings, and it is because of the bike lent to me, the mother and daughter I met at a fruit store, and the friendliness of a couple strangers that this weekend I’ll most likely be heading out to catch me some trout… or bass… or whatever.

Another Month Past

I keep not updating this blog regularly, and there’s really no good reason for it. Sure, my computer broke for about a week and a half in March, but this hardly accounts for the gap. I think part of the reason is that I feel the need to always write lengthy posts, but this of course is not really a necessity. For example, this post is mostly intended to share a student’s note to me explaining his absence in class, which reads as follows:

Dear Mr. Blanchard,

Oh, I have to tell you that the basketball team is about to go to Zhangjiajie and take part in the basketball game. So, I miss your class again.

I am playing on the ground when you see the letter (Maybe it isn’t letter). We have made prepared for long time.

Finally, I’d like to tell you. I’ll be back with champion.

Yours,
Joaquin New

It’s extremely rare for a student to miss class, and, in the event of an absence, it’s even rarer for them to prepare (make prepared?) a note explaining the situation. But regardless of the special nature of the note, I hope Joaquin New, who really has outstanding English for a “sports student”, and the rest of his team do in fact come back with champion.

Teaching, Take 2

After a long, month-long break for Chunjie, aka the Spring Festival, aka the Chinese New Year, aka the Lunar New Year, I am back in Cili, half way through the second week of my second semester. As I mentioned earlier, the blank slate I now have is bittersweet. I actually ran an algorithm using complex, theoretical mathematics to determine that, if I divided time evenly for each student in the 55-person classes, every student would only receive 13 minutes of individual attention for speaking or other activities. That is to say, that if I didn’t say a word and just allowed students to practice speaking every minute of the entire semester, each would still only be able to speak for 13 minutes over 18 weeks, or about 45 seconds per week. This really drove home the downside of no longer teaching last semester’s students – time is rather depressingly limited.

Among the changes I’m implementing in order to lesson the damage of this time limitation is an increase in the number and consistency of open library times. These sessions, which I’m now increasing to four, one-hour periods (Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday), consist simply of me sitting (or standing) in the library talking to students who come and go as they please. Four hours may not seem like much, but consider this: Students only have seven hours and twenty minutes of free time from Monday-Saturday, and six of these are hours set aside for dinner. Again, seven hours and twenty minutes. Of the 144 hours over those six days, basically only seven hours and twenty minutes are non-sleeping, non-classroom times. They also have 30 minutes for lunch and 40 minutes for breakfast, but these are so short that they just have time to eat, and the breakfast time is combined with cleaning the campus, so I don’t consider these free times. On Sundays, they get the afternoon off, from 12:20pm-6pm, or from the start of lunch till the end of dinner. As I am required to teach two extra semi-formal English classes during two hours of the 7hr 20min Monday-Saturday free time, by adding these 4 hours of library time, I’m pretty much giving students an opportunity to come to the library during their only remaining free time. And yet, based on last semester, some students will come, often carrying their dinner along with them.

Also, with a new awareness of the precious nature of every minute, I will be structuring my lessons better to maximize the time each student has to speak. This will probably include more “speak with your partner” activities and brief group presentations, as such setups best utilize the time. But using these techniques bring along with them a whole host of other challenges, including ensuring students are actually speaking English, preventing higher-level students from dominating discussions, and assessing that students actually understand the material. It’s hard to assess students’ speaking in the midst of 25 separate, concurrent conversations.

Anyways, more on this and other teaching topics will follow, ideally in a more consistent manner than last semester. But to close this post out, below are some of the better English names that students chose this go around (although many of the best names from last semester developed over time):

Apple
Accelerator
Artox
Atlantis
Bill Lowe
Belieber
Big Bang
Brits!
Choc (because she likes chocolate)
Chott (this?)
Christian Dm
Cinderella
Crescent
Devil
Exo
Explorer Vn
Ezreal
Faker
Fish
Funny
Franklin Roosevelt
Glimmer
Holy
King
Jeremiah New
Jerry Broker
Krito
Lavender
Leaf
Lee Sin
Lincoln
Lovegood
Master Jax
Master E
Mr. God
Mr. Joy
Mr. Teemo
Mr. Xavier
Obama
Orange
Ritz
Saber
Serena Williams
Sherlock
Shylock
Simple
Spark
Superman
Tree
Trunks
Tony Stark
Twinkle
W
White
Zed

Common Mistakes

After a semester of teaching here in Cili, I’ve picked up a few mistakes that students make on a consistent basis. This post will address a few of them.

Perhaps the most common is the failure to distinguish between “so” and “too” – for example, “so cool!” versus “too cool!”. When a student wants to express that something is very interesting, she might say “too interesting”, not realizing that “too” typically connotes a wish that something was less [adjective]. This misunderstanding almost certainly derives from the fact that in Chinese, “太” can mean either “so” or “too”, and the difference just has to be determined in context. I could say “太热了！”, meaning “Too hot!” or “So hot!”, which are slightly different, but in an ultimately unimportant way. However, if I say “太库了”, this could mean “Too cool!” or “So cool!”, the “cool” in this case meaning neat or fashionable. The meanings are importantly distinct, and students will sometimes inadvertently insult me by saying “Mr. Blanchard, you are too cool.”

Another common mistake is dropping one of the to’s from “to go to”. It is sometimes amusing because every once in a while a student won’t understand even if I clearly say “to. go. to.” I think they just think that there should only be one “to”, and having two just doesn’t compute, so if I correct them, they flip where the “to” is, and if I correct them again, they flip it back. So I guess there are two mistakes with “to” or “too”. Too confusing!

A third mistake reveals the textbook focus of English instruction here. If I ask students “How are you?”, they will, without fail, respond either “I’m fine, thanks!” or, more rarely, “Just so-so.” But if I ask “How are you doing?”, they almost always will say “studying”, “eating dinner”, or some other activity that they are engaged in at the time. So they have memorized “how are you?”, but as soon as they hear “doing”, most assume that I must be asking “What are you doing?” I think, perhaps, they don’t really understand the meaning of the sentence/phrase “how are you”, and just have an automatic trigger response when it’s used, with no additions, in a question. As soon as one word is added, confusion abounds. I don’t really blame them – both “How are you doing?” and “How are you?”  are kind of oddly formed questions.

I think these three absolutely fascinating common mistakes are enough for one post. More may follow.

As a side note, I will be heading to Java in a couple days for a week and a half of vacation during the school’s month-long break for Chunjie (Spring Festival). I’m sure this will be just as fascinating as students’ errors.

A Semester Flown By

Perhaps it was the drop in temperature. Or the grad school applications. Or lethargy brought on by a holiday season largely unnoticed here in China. Whatever the cause, or causes, I have let yet another month slip by without posting any updates! To the masses that are my avid reader base, I apologize deeply for your broken hearts.

The time has passed by so rapidly, that I have already arrived at my first good-byes. As I’ve known since I arrived, the school decided to have me teach different classes each semester. This means that, with final exams next week followed by an approximately 20-day break for 春节 (aka Spring Festival, aka Chinese New Year, aka Lunar New Year), I have taught my last class for Classes 453-460, with the final two, Class 461 and Class 462, happening tomorrow.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the students who are most sad about not having Oral English next semester are often the same students that I am most sad about not teaching next semester. Some of these students even gave me cards, in true Chinese fashion. The most encouraging note among them included this: “I am thankful for you, because you made me be interested in English and America. That’s good for my study.” This is extra touching, because I had earlier emphasized the necessity of “for” when expressing thanks – many students just say, for example, “I thankful my mother” – and I think that this was a nod to that lesson. Along similar lines, one student also gave me a meaty magazine about DotA (a video game mod for the online game Warcraft) along with the CD for the game. Responding to my protestations, she assured me that it was “only” 30 yuan. This amount, despite being only about $5, is enough to buy a couple dinners out, at least. And she pretty much just picked it out of her desk and handed it to me – I am quite certain it was a gift chosen spontaneously.

Anyways, with the semester’s end upon us, I figured that now is as good a time as any to reflect upon some of the more interesting names chosen by my students at the beginning of the semester. My first lesson with them included name selection, and I gave each of them a name list with the top 100 most common girl and boy baby names from 2012 (200 total). But many students chose to deviate from the list. Some of the more colorful choices:

Android
Balance
Black
Black Shaw
Black Wing
Blandy
Cheer
Corn
Daoraemon
Distance
Elephant
Enigma
F-18
Fanny
Gabrielman
GG Boo
Jace
Jarvan IV
Jax
Jun-Kumaori
Legolas
Libra
Obama
Pele
Pluto
Punk
Prudence
Rihanna
Sivir
Skull
Sunshine
Superman
The Lich King
Tiger
Tony Parker

Interestingly, Jace (“Jayce”), Jarvan IV, and Jax, each in a different class, are all from League of Legends and all start with J – but they are joined by Sivir. Also, if I ever write a novel about a ragtag group of superheroes, their team will consist of Balance, Black Wing, Enigma, F-18, and Superman. Or Black, Black Wing, Black Shaw, and Cheer.

It will be sad to not teach this cast of characters, and their more classically-named peers, next semester. But one great benefit to this setup is that I get a wonderful opportunity to start with a clean slate, and fix many of the things that I did the first go around that were less than optimal. I’ve developed a list of specific reforms that will hit classrooms beginning next semester, ranging from the simple (e.g. ask who the class monitor is for each class on the first day) to the more significant (e.g. diversify teaching techniques to include audio tapes, music, participation at the blackboard, etc.).

I look forward to a new semester with new opportunities to maximize my efficacy. I also can’t wait to meet the new Enigmas that Cili Number 1 High School has to offer.

Common Questions

One benefit of knowing a little Chinese here in Cili is being able to regularly have conversations beyond “Hello!” and “How much does this cost?” I think this has been one major reason that I’ve felt little homesickness since arriving. However, there are some conversations that, due to their frequency,  I think I would have memorized by now even if I have come to China with no Mandarin knowledge whatsoever. They are prompted by the following top five most common questions that strangers and new acquaintances ask me, regardless of whether I’m in the school cafeteria, on a local bus, or on a train to Beijing:

1. “What country are you from?”

2. “Are you from Xinjiang?” (Variation on a theme: “Are you Russian?”)

3. Are you used to Chinese food?

4. What is your income?

5. Do you have a girlfriend? (Follow up: Would you like to find a girl in China?)

(1) is obviously a pretty typical question, but (2) very much surprised me the first time I heard it, and still amuses me. I initially became aware of the  Chinese belief that I resemble a Uyghur during Orientation. If I remember correctly, I said during Chinese class that I was interested in visiting Xinjiang, to which the friendly Teacher Huang replied that if I travel there, the locals may think I am a Xinjiang local. I’ve a couple times overheard people discussing whether or not I’m a Uyghur, each time butting in to set the record straight.

I think (3) is an expected question in certain situations, like in a cafeteria, but it is commonly among the first questions asked by many people I meet in a not-food-related situation. I actually think this question contributes to the general foreigner-friendly atmosphere here, as it exhibits a concern for my well-being.

Although some may be initially offended by (4), I was prepared for this question, because I’ve known since my first Chinese class in high school that this is a common question here. However, I’m still a bit surprised by how often I get asked it and the inevitable follow-up comments on the meagerness of the number I provide. I then have to explain that I work for an NGO (which I’ve learned is “非政府组织”, specifically for use in such situations), and that I didn’t come to China to make the big bucks.

(5) is a particular favorite among my students, but is also asked by pretty much everyone I talk to for more than two seconds. There’s apparently a belief among many here that white men, finding themselves unsuccessful at home, come to China to get the Chinese women, and I think the frequency of this question may stem from this stereotype. I therefore like to use the opportunity to emphasize why I came here (Hint: It’s not to get the Chinese women). The question can be uncomfortable when asked excitedly by my female students, who then want to know if I like Chinese girls, and if I’d like to find a girlfriend in China. I usually just stick with “I came to teach English”.

So, if you come to China (or at least Hunan) for any length of time, prepare to be asked these five questions at some point. Well, maybe not (2) or (5), depending on your appearance, but I’m sure these would be replaced by new, equally interesting questions.

Song for a New Year

My liaison has just informed me that the music director at the school, or some similar person, wants me to sing a song – solo – for the school-wide event celebrating the upcoming new year (Gregorian calendar). What song did she pick? Of course, the New Year’s classic “Jumbalaya (On the Bayou)”:

At least my students, to whom I taught a music lesson two weeks ago that included the choruses of “Call Me Maybe” and “What Makes Your Beautiful”, are at this point fully aware that my singing voice is MIA. As for the others, I am afraid the horror ahead will come as a complete surprise. Me oh my oh!

Potty Problems

No, a bomb did not go off in my bathroom. But a mechanic did go to town today ripping up both the Chinese squat toilet and the flooring, and may go at the walls this week.

It all began this morning around 9:30am, when three men knocked on my door and asked to come in. I am glad that I know enough Chinese to get the gist of what they were saying, because otherwise I would have been suspicious that they wanted to rob me. It turns out that the water from my bathroom (or what was earlier today a bathroom) has been leaking into the unoccupied apartment below me. In fact, as I was later shown, a nice city of happy mold is growing on a couple of the walls down there. However, at this point, I thought they just wanted to do some non-invasive inspections of my apartment. I asked them when they planned to begin working, and they said tomorrow – or, strictly speaking, “明天”.

Then, while teaching class 461 during fifth period, a man suddenly appeared at the door and wanted to speak to me, much to the amusement of my students. Turned out it was Mechanic #4, and he wanted one of my keys to enter the apartment and begin work. So much for that whole “tomorrow” bit.  As I still had some lingering concerns about the safety of my belongings, I called my liaison and asked her to let him in, which she kindly did.

After my sixth period class, I jauntily headed back to my apartment, taking in the beautiful, sunny day and the accompanying scenic mountains. Then, walking up to the second floor of my building, I heard a drill. Then I saw the destruction.

The only real difficulties this will cause at this point is having to shower in the lower apartment, being unable to wash clothes, and having to let in mechanic(s) every day around 7am. Hopefully their assurances that their work will only take a week will turn out to be more accurate than their information about the start date.

A Typical Gift From a Student

I mean, who hasn’t been gifted one of these before?

Exposé in Provincial Newspaper

I have utterly failed to keep this blog updated over the past few months. However, I have begun to keep a daily personal written blog (I think our ancestors used to called this… a journal?), and this should make it easier for me to put some of my thoughts here.

In recent news,  I have made it into the news. A provincial newspaper, 科教新报 (my best translation is “Science and Education Daily News”), recently contacted Mr. Huang, the foreign teacher officer with the school, about running a piece on the foreign teacher at Cili Number One High School (i.e. me). With the help of my wonderful liaison, Tan Lingzhao, they produced an interesting article, an online copy of which is available here. I did my best to create an English translation, using Google Translate and my own Mandarin knowledge. Thus, I present the article below for your pleasure. I should note that I believe some creative licence was used, although perhaps some of this is a result of the poor translation. If anyone actually fluent in Chinese can read the original article, feel free to correct any mistakes I’ve made! Anyways, without further ado:

Helping Mountain Children Learn Oral English

Laughter coming from the Cili Number One High School library, an American guy with a sunny, handsome face laughs as he leads more than thirty students in a “Guess the Country” game. Everyone actively uses English to try and describe a country, and the students’ answers make him very satisfied and excited. In the end, he gives the students a prize that he meant to use over several weeks, but because they responded so well, he gave away all of them – American coins, presented as a surprise . This can be called Mr. Blanchard’s “trick” to attract students’ interests.

Much has changed since we first saw him. We first saw Mr. Blanchard in Changsha, arriving nearly an hour late due to a traffic jam. In an empty auditorium, he alone was left waiting to be picked up by the school that hired him. Carrying a folder in the late summer heat, we entered the auditorium, and did not expect to see such a happy, young, sunny, handsome American guy come forward, bouncing like a kindergarten child ready to return to his mother’s home at the end of the school day. Happiness flowed from his face.

Students told reporters that they really like Mr. Blanchard’s lively personality, but his first lesson about the “three rules” made them feel that he is a strict teacher. “Respect the teacher and classmates, come to class on time and prepared, and no electronics.” Students said, “With this attitude, we knew he definitely will be an excellent Oral English teacher.”

In the classroom, Mr. Blanchard always reminds himself to speak with a slower rate of speech so that students can understand and imitate what he says. The students all say that his pure and authentic pronunciation is much better than in the tapes, but few students know that the teacher usually speaks fast, and that sometimes even Americans don’t understand him. In order to overcome the shyness of some students, each class Mr. Blanchard designs some small game to generate enthusiasm among the students in a relaxed atmosphere so that they are more willing to express themselves. He also is very involved, and in the September heat, he ended almost every lesson with a sweaty shirt. The other teachers would joke: “To be a teacher is manual labor, right?” To which he would cheerfully reply, “I’m not at all tired – I’m not tired!”

The English teachers at Cili Yizhong High School all love their exchanges with Mr. Blanchard. He is not only witty, but also points out errors in the teaching materials, for example that “We failed in the exam” should be “We failed the exam” and “ whether men or women” should be “men and women”. With his colleagues he discusses the different uses of the vocabulary. Even more interestingly, during the days when he is there talking, he becomes an object of “surveillance” for the English teachers, and the laughter coming from the English teachers’ office always attracts students’ attention, stopping them in their tracks.

Mr. Blanchard graduated from America’s Michigan State University [sic], majoring in ecology, in addition to his big hobby of learning Chinese. He has been studying Chinese for three years in the United States, and his fluency in Mandarin provokes strangers’ amazement every time. But still he is not satisfied with this, and will always seize an opportunity to chat and practice his Chinese. In his apartment, a book for practicing calligraphy is already halfway completed. He particularly likes learning special vocabulary words like “left-handed”, “act cute”, and “person with a poor sense of direction”, not only because these words “label” him, but also because he likes to see people’s surprised expression when they hear him use the words.

Cili is a small mountain town, and Mr. Blanchard loves mountains. During weekend breaks, Mr. Blanchard will hop on a borrowed bike and ride up the mountains, greedily enjoying pleasant moments alone with nature. His life here is so natural, like fish living in the water. At this point, he has explored all around the small town, as well as traveled throughout the rivers and mountains of Zhangjiajie.

We asked him about his future plans and why he came to such a small town to teach English. Mr. Blanchard solemnly replied: “I like my profession. Ecology is very important, and later I want to be an ecology professor, but education is more important. Before graduating college, I applied to WorldTeach for the opportunity to support education in China. Chinese students learn very well, but there are many places that lack channels of communication with the outside world. I hope that through my help the kids will ascend higher and see farther.”