苏州大学 - Suzhou University

Hi all,

好久不见! Long time no see!

Melissa and I are still alive and are now halfway through our first semester of the Mandarin Chinese program at Suzhou University. We registered at SuDa (this is the totally hip version of the university's name) the Friday before classes were to start. We woke up at the crack of 7:00am, rode our electric bike all the way across town, stood in line and paid about 8000元 each for books and tuition fees for the entire term. That's a lot of red (the Chinese RMB 100 notes are red... I'm so funny with my cross-cultural jokes that I need to explain)!

Melissa and I are absolute beginners, but we decided to take the placement test anyway because we heard that there are different levels within the 'absolute beginner' group. After all, we had been in China for about a year and a half, so we thought we might be able to get into one of the higher-ranking classes. Turns out, we didn't totally flunk the beginner's test, so they put us in a higher-level 'absolute beginner' group.

This group is divided into two classes; one is reading & writing and the other is listening & speaking. Each class is an hour and a half long with a twenty minute break in between, and they are taught by two different teachers. These classes switch time-slots about every day, which is a little strange, and classes are Monday - Friday at 8:30am - 11:50am.

I think the only real problem with this program is that the two classes use totally different text books that are not tailored to their specific topic (i.e. reading & writing and listening & speaking). So, what happens is that we must take two 'absolute beginner' level classes with different course materials and homework. Basically, they're the same class, but with different books. Maybe this is not the case for all of the levels, and maybe this policy will change in the coming years, but it is the case for us during this term.

Melissa is sticking with both classes, but I have dropped one of these classes. I don't really think of it as a failure because of the flawed course structure that I just mentioned. In fact, I think that I am better able to really learn the material in the one set of text books simply because I now have more time to devote to them. Now I don't have to split my attention between the two different 'absolute beginner' textbooks!

It's not so bad though! Just attending the classes at SuDa every day forces us to study, and with studying comes learning! Our classmates are mostly interesting folks from many different countries, and some of them have even given us opportunities to earn a little extra cash on the side (teaching English, get your mind out of the gutter)!

We already have a mid-term examination coming up this week, so we have a lot of studying to do! Wish us luck!

Don' Be Afeared Tah Cahmmint!

The other day, Melissa and I finished our last classes and met up to walk the short distance back to our apartment, high-fiving the entire way...

As we neared our staircase, the barber moseyed on out of his barbershop with the incredible timing of a hawk intercepting its prey! He said, "deh deh!" or something like that, and he swiftly patted my junk again! As he did it, he had a sly smile on his face, so the gears in my noggin started to crank out a new idea... Just to test it out, I feigned like I would swat at his nuts, and he clenched up into a defensive position! We exchanged laughs and went about our business.

Later that day, the barber came up and knocked on our door to get the third floor apartment's key from us (he uses the washing machine up there, especially when it's cold out). I gave him the key, and he thanked me with a, "day day!" and a broad smile on his face. Suddenly, he went for a swat at my nuts, but I was quick to block his attempt. I followed up with a swat of my own, which he blocked with great ease. A stalemate!

So, I suppose that it's all just a big game that he plays with his friends (at least I hope so!), and I'm in on it. What have I learned? I'll try not to take things so seriously, and I'll always be on my guard around the barber!

Cullen

Kids will be kids. Cullen's a pro!

I had the pleasure of watching Cullen teach a lesson on parts of speech yesterday! He explained what nouns, verbs, and adjectives are, and gave an example on the board.

He then handed out slips of paper that said one of those three to each student.

He had them stand up, and as they said a sentence containing the word they came up with to fit the part of speech that they had, they were allowed to sit down.
The students found Cullen very engaging. He captivated their attention like a pro. He went on to play a game with Mad Libs, a fitting transition to putting his lesson into practice. One thing that he didn't teach them but that they took upon themselves to learn were English expletives. When he asked for "silly words", the students responded with lewd words. Aside from that, they seem to be good kids overall. Cullen has shown that he's going to be a wonderful teacher once we get to Yueyang Middle School #1!

No Cokey Monster under the bed, in the closest, in the bathtub... trust us, we've looked

One of the hardest things about coming here was leaving behind our baby, CoCo. We are missing him especially for some reason tonight. We look at photos that we brought along with us of our furry baby pretty frequently, and thought we'd repost them here to give you a peek into what our homesickness is like:
We were lying down, so no rotation required. Anyway, it's been a tough day, our family isn't the same without our baby.

We are homesick for so many things, especially our family and friends. We miss you all! It's bedtime here, so we're going to say goodnight. Sleep well!

Deforestation: Yes, I went there.

Cullen and I have been completely consumed with our lesson planning as of late, as we began practicum on Monday, which means that we "team teach" with a group of other volunteers in preparation for our jobs come September. Well, as all of you know, I'm an environmental protection zealot, so it only seemed fitting that I find a way to preach to my helpless students. This was my second lesson to them not counting the activity that I co-created and executed with my teammate Allison. My first lesson was on movie-going culture in America, which went well until I ran out of things to talk about. For this lesson, I was over-prepared. Cullen snuck in (we are in different practicum groups) and took photos. Of course, I look ravishing in my sweat-drenched clothing.Here I am forcing poor Cathy to tell me the difference between deciduous forests in the summer versus the winter. It's hard to see the PowerPoint presentation in these photos, but in the classroom they are clear for the most part, and a HUGE help in bridging the language barrier. This way, instead of translating Chinese to English, they can associate photos and images directly with English words that help them to conceptualize the language more directly. After discussing deciduous forests, I went into coniferous forests, and finally rainforests. When I made them tell me one by one which was their favorite forest and why, I was shocked to find that only about 60% of the class went for the old standby, rainforest, since I knew that would be the one that was easiest for them to pronounce. Instead, I got answers like, "I like the coniferous forest the best because it is very cold there, and so the trees and animals that live there are very brave."
That tree represents the deciduous tree in the wintertime, which has enough energy to hold the snow up on its branches but not to feed it's leaves. Then I had them move their desks to the sides of the room and we played a game:
Stand, the boy on the left, was my co-logger. Here I am, taking my first tree victim, my student Sweet. The other trees are standing with their hands on their hips, and the 7 or 8 monkeys were to swing from tree to tree when the music was on ("Big Yellow Taxi", the Counting Crows version). Then I would turn off the music, like musical chairs, and the monkeys had to be on a tree or perish. Musical trees, if you will. Over all, a successful lesson plan that I could never use once we move to site, because I'll have three times the students in every class and the desks don't move. Stay tuned for a lesson plan by Cullen, I plan on taking many photos on the sly.