Dear family and friends,
My apologies in my delay of communicating and/or blogging - we have had some Internet difficulties that are preventing us from accessing certain sites including Facebook, Snapfish (where I have my pictures uploaded), and my blog page (please see www.slenser.blogspot.com for my first- and only- entry so far. :) Please bear with me in including you in a mass email rather than writing a blog entry.
Ann and I began teaching in China a week ago Monday. I had three classes that day for Senior 2 (we each teach sections of Senior 1 and Senior 2; there are three total levels of high school here) beginning at 7:40 in the morning. The students have very long days. They all get up at 6 am. (We hear their music playing at that time as most of them live on campus. They students hear the Chinese national anthem every morning.) Although they get a break from 11:40am to 2:30PM for lunch and resting, classes go until 5PM every day. If they live on campus, they have a mandatory study period from 7:30 PM until at least 10:30PM. We were told that they need to have monitored study or they wouldn't know what to do with themselves. The students are assigned seats in pairs of desks. The classrooms have windows without screens and it is very hot in the classrooms, even with fans blowing. The temperature has constantly been above 90 degrees. My face seems to sweat more than anyone here, (I have that problem back in the States, too) so one sweet little girl handed me a fan and another one gave me some tissues to wipe my face with during the morning. (I had trouble trying to buy cotton balls as they have no idea what cotton balls are when some Chinese friends took me shopping. )
I was very nervous for that first class; I'm sure I talked too fast. My mom had sent along some visual aids and I am so glad that I had them. The first one was a map of the world. I was able to point out where I was from and where I went to the "university." It seems to me that the words college and university are interchangeable to them. Because I went to college in Milwaukee and the Milwaukee Bucks recently drafted a player from their province in China, my mom sent along a Milwaukee Bucks flag/banner. Some of the boys knew about this basketball player, Yi Jianlian. They helped me pronounce his name the Chinese way. They liked the fact that I was asking them how to pronounce something. There were some boys who wanted to buy the flag/banner from me. They had no idea about American football, so the Brett Favre poster did not mean too much. They didn't seem to understand baseball at first, but they liked the Minnesota Twins jersey that Ann brought along for her classes. They loved the Michelle Kwan poster that I used to have hanging in my bedroom. I was able to explain that she is American but her parents were from China. None of them have ever seen snow and when I held up my hand to show how deep it sometimes gets, they couldn't believe it. I told them that my college was a Lutheran College and I explained that it was a type of Chris**an college. I am not sure if they knew what that meant. I've been drawing a cross since then with the prayer that it connects with them. One girl came up to me to shake my hand and told me that she wants to be my friend. They have been hesitant to raise their hands in class, but sometimes they will chime in with spoken language.
There is a chalkboard in the classroom and I stand on a platform slightly higher than the students. The students stay in the same class (about 54 in a class) and the teachers are the ones that change classrooms.There are 36 or 38 Chinese teachers who teach the written language at this school!!! I was able to write some of the words down as I was describing things. I realized that they are much more comfortable with written English words and found most of them reluctant to speak, at least at this point. They keep telling me that I am "beautiful", as well as my immediate family, but I think it might only be one of the only English adjectives that they know!! I explained that I have 5 members of my family and when I showed them a photo, the girls in my class (15 and 16 year olds) were fawning all over my "handsome" 16 year old brother. One boy seemed disappointed to find out that my sister is "too old' for him. Ann said the boys showed interest in her youngest sister when she showed them a photo with her. I was able to use a toothbrush and toothpaste (they knew about those) and explained that my sister is at a university studying to be a dentist, or "doctor for your teeth."
The Chinese English teachers wanted Ann and me to learn a song with English words to sing with them. They had one all picked out and had the singing version ready to download on my computer and an instrumental version too. It was a song that referred to waking up with no thoughts in your head, and later in the song there were words about a smiling sun. (Apparently it was translated from Chinese, which is why some of it seems so odd to us.) Seven of the teachers came over to our apartment to practice this song with us. I am already tired of this song, and never really liked it to begin with, but I am doing my best to go along with them. J
The people have been wonderful. They seem to appreciate that we are here and want everything to go well for us. God is good, and we continue to experience His gifts every day. We hope to seek out more opportunities to socialize and befriend our fellow teachers, but they are much busier than we are. Please ask Him to bless our efforts.
I was very nervous for that first class; I'm sure I talked too fast. My mom had sent along some visual aids and I am so glad that I had them. The first one was a map of the world. I was able to point out where I was from and where I went to the "university." It seems to me that the words college and university are interchangeable to them. Because I went to college in Milwaukee and the Milwaukee Bucks recently drafted a player from their province in China, my mom sent along a Milwaukee Bucks flag/banner. Some of the boys knew about this basketball player, Yi Jianlian. They helped me pronounce his name the Chinese way. They liked the fact that I was asking them how to pronounce something. There were some boys who wanted to buy the flag/banner from me. They had no idea about American football, so the Brett Favre poster did not mean too much. They didn't seem to understand baseball at first, but they liked the Minnesota Twins jersey that Ann brought along for her classes. They loved the Michelle Kwan poster that I used to have hanging in my bedroom. I was able to explain that she is American but her parents were from China. None of them have ever seen snow and when I held up my hand to show how deep it sometimes gets, they couldn't believe it. I told them that my college was a Lutheran College and I explained that it was a type of Chris**an college. I am not sure if they knew what that meant. I've been drawing a cross since then with the prayer that it connects with them. One girl came up to me to shake my hand and told me that she wants to be my friend. They have been hesitant to raise their hands in class, but sometimes they will chime in with spoken language.
There is a chalkboard in the classroom and I stand on a platform slightly higher than the students. The students stay in the same class (about 54 in a class) and the teachers are the ones that change classrooms.There are 36 or 38 Chinese teachers who teach the written language at this school!!! I was able to write some of the words down as I was describing things. I realized that they are much more comfortable with written English words and found most of them reluctant to speak, at least at this point. They keep telling me that I am "beautiful", as well as my immediate family, but I think it might only be one of the only English adjectives that they know!! I explained that I have 5 members of my family and when I showed them a photo, the girls in my class (15 and 16 year olds) were fawning all over my "handsome" 16 year old brother. One boy seemed disappointed to find out that my sister is "too old' for him. Ann said the boys showed interest in her youngest sister when she showed them a photo with her. I was able to use a toothbrush and toothpaste (they knew about those) and explained that my sister is at a university studying to be a dentist, or "doctor for your teeth."
The Chinese English teachers wanted Ann and me to learn a song with English words to sing with them. They had one all picked out and had the singing version ready to download on my computer and an instrumental version too. It was a song that referred to waking up with no thoughts in your head, and later in the song there were words about a smiling sun. (Apparently it was translated from Chinese, which is why some of it seems so odd to us.) Seven of the teachers came over to our apartment to practice this song with us. I am already tired of this song, and never really liked it to begin with, but I am doing my best to go along with them. J
The people have been wonderful. They seem to appreciate that we are here and want everything to go well for us. God is good, and we continue to experience His gifts every day. We hope to seek out more opportunities to socialize and befriend our fellow teachers, but they are much busier than we are. Please ask Him to bless our efforts.
My prayers are that all is well with you! Best wishes on the rest of your week.
Sara
