Journeys through Asia: May 2009

The English Department at the high school

Senior 2 students (isnt their uniform so unflattering)

Teaching 200 students in the lecture hall

Students lining up for morning exercise

I will never forget our first day at Shibei Secondary School in Guangzhou China. We came to our week-long teaching attachment not sure what to expect. This teaching program was designed as a volunteer teaching program to help enlighten our breadth of teaching experiences in China as Fulbrighters. Prior to leaving, many of our colleagues and my current mainland students reported how the students would be very shy to use their English language skills, but at the same time should be respectful of their teachers. Since many of my mainland students are highly skilled in the English language and very active in our various UMAC events, I also held the notion that the English program in mainland would be of high caliber and the students would be diligent and hardworking.

Paige and I were invited to observe in one of the classrooms on our first day, so we can get a handle on the English level of the students. This just so happen to be the English class for the Physical Education majors (students in mainland are divided into various tracks, arts, science, and PE). As can be presumed, the PE class is heavily male dominated and most students are as academically engaged. Every image of the hardworking and disciplined mainland students was shattered the moment I went into that classroom. We could not believe all the activity and commotion in the classroom. The room literally erupted when we walked in. Of course, the adolescent boys were excited to see two young female teachers come to their classroom. All sorts of vulgar Cantonese language was being shoted amongst the students. Half of the boys were making cat calls to us. From my limited Cantonese, I could understand lenglui and hou leng, but I'm sure they were saying much more vulgar things that I couldn't even begin to grasp. While the other half of the boys were giggling hysterically at the comments made by their classmates. All the while, 100% of the students were not paying attention to the lesson at hand. The poor teacher, Guy, was teaching his lesson in Mandarin (note this was the English class). He literally lacked any kind of classroom management skills. He didn't quiet down the boys in any way despite their obviously disrepectful actions in class. He just let them be as rambunctious as possible, and the boys definitely took advantage of that. After about five minutes, I looked over at Paige and my eyes were filled with fear. We absolutely had no idea how we were going to handle a class this rambunctious and unruly with almost no ability in spoken English. I was truly scared. Prior to coming to Guangzhou, I was a pretty confident English teacher and I thought I could handle most classroom situations. Boy was I wrong! Kids in university are of higher maturity level and English ability, and I had no real understanding of the challenges teaching in secondary school. After that first classroom observation, I knew this week was probably going to be one of the hardest weeks in my life...

This is our PE class (notice how half the class is sleeping and the other half is talking)

Teaching at UMAC I took a lot of things for granted. Working with 16 and 17 year olds in Guangzhou, I assumed that their level in English would be pretty similar to our freshman at UMAC since they are only a couple years younger. Again my assumptions had failed me. The students at this level were definitely the lowest ability level out of all the students I've ever worked with. I think one telling sign was a dinner with the teachers prior to our start of class. Just from that dinner alone, I could tell that the teachers were struggling to understand what we were saying. They would only use Mandarin to communicate with each other and they needed us to repeat what we were saying many times. Talking with the teachers, was similar to our experiences working with our students at English Table at UMAC. This is a very telling sign of the ability level of the students if their teachers can't even understand our English. I remember talking to Tat and I was voicing my concerns about the English level of the teachers. In Tat's profound wisdom, he said don't blame the students for their low level of English because its not their fault. I truly took his advice to heart the whole week I was teaching at Guangzhou. I definitely struggled to work with my students that week because of the language barrier. Students who couldn't say 'My name is' and would stare at me blankly when I asked them a simple question, I never once blamed them for their lack of ability because it is not their fault. The system has failed them. How can they learn to speak English when their entire class is taught in Mandarin? How can they can they practice their speaking when their lessons are focused on grammar and reading comprehension? How can you make a class of 50-200 students all improve in their English ability? How can you engage and inspire the students to use English when all they know are exams and more exams? These are just some of the difficulties and challenges of teaching English in mainland, but the teachers, despite their relatively low level of English, continue work at one of the lowest performing high schools in Guangzhou and are still able to find their teaching rewarding. From this week, I know first hand how hard secondary teachers work...and they work HELLA hard.

In the lecture hall, its hard to motivate 200 students to speak english

Despite the classrom size, we still try to engage the students one on one

In our week of teaching, we did everything to go against their typical English class...no grammar, no textbooks, no exams! We tried to make English engaging and fun, and for those that could understand what we were saying. The students were able to use their English in a way they never had before...to speak to foreigners. They found use and purpose to all their language classes after all these years. We spoke to them about our lives in America. I was proud to show them my pictures of SF and UCD. They were amazed to see how big and beautiful everything was. In one of my rowdier classes, I spoke to them about how many Chinese people from Guangzhou chose to settle in SF and how in many neighborhoods Cantonese is the most prevalent language. That class quieted down almost instantaneously. To know that there are people like them in America was an amazing thought to them. We also showed them a movie about a typical American high school. They were awed by the students driving to school, kissing each other in public, and eating burgers served at their cafeteria. Of course, we don't even give these aspects of our high school a second thought, but to mainland chinese students the cultural shock is quite high. Especially when it comes to dating, students in high school are all about the PDA. Some parents even encourage dating (of course not my own), which is so opposite the chinese mentality. In high school, kids in Guangzhou high school were still segregating themselves into their gender groups during recess and lunch. Dating is rare and often teachers report to parents if they know one of their students is dating and its hurting their grades. Another fun lesson was listening to Lady Gaga and Beyonce and translating their lyrics into standard english. Students were able to learn some popular slang and hear some current American music. Taking English out of the academic context, allowed the language to become more captivating because we tried to match it to the interesting of chinese high school students.

Giving students a taste of high school in america by showing pics of SHCP

This student gave me a song dedication on the last day ;
singing is great way to learn english

Although I met challenges in this week, I do feel like a stronger person and a better teacher from all that I learned from the students. The students taught me the meaning of being a patient teacher. I hoped that I was able to broaden their perspective outside of China and teach them some English along the way as well. On the last day, the students wrote some touching thank you letters for me. I was glad to read their letters and see how they enjoyed learning about america and they are now inspired to learn more English, so they can travel to america and speak with foreigners. If I was able to do motivate them than I definitely accomplished something momentous in that one week...all I ever wanted to do as a teacher was to inspire.

How we got to school everyday

On the last day, Jims, not only gave me a song dedication but also a laminated photo himself

the students were super excited to take pictures with real live foreigners

super awesome buffet that was all you can eat AND all you can drink

at another super cool restaurant where we picked out our own fish

I feel incredibly privileged to go to my first (and probably last) Mainland wedding. Bingo’s elder brother recently got married and we were able to garner an invitation. A wedding is probably one of the most specifically culturalized events. There are so many traditions of weddings that are so specific to one’s ethnic background. For Filipinos, a Catholic ceremony is a must and the wedding reception is a very lively gathering filled with lots of music and dancing. On the other hand, I would say most of the Chinese America weddings I have attended have not been the typical Chinese banquet style, but more like the western style, Christian wedding. I’ve been to weddings in America, the Philippines and Hong Kong, but I’ve never experienced anything quite like Bingo’s brother’s wedding.

The wedding was incredibly intimate because it was held at the wife’s home. This was actually the second banquet they had because the prior weekend they had a hotel wedding hosted by Bingo’s family. I’m actually very glad that we were able attend the village wedding and be so warmly welcomed into the home of the bride. The location of the home was about 1 hour from Hangzhou, a major tourist city in China. The city was called Haiyan, which has a very suburbia vibe to it with large expansive streets , big green lawns and cookie cutter homes. Their home was not in the suburb portion but more on the outskirts in the rural parts. You drive through the farmlands for about 20 minutes before you turn into a dirt road which leads to their village. Most of the homes seemed to be of lower to middle class standards, with concrete exteriors and barred windows.

The house of the bride was two stories. The first story was where the reception was held. They had rented tables and chairs for the event. The kitchen was not in the main building but was in a covered portion of the yard. When we first came to the house we were in awe of how many people were working in the yard to prepare the meals. They had hired a staff of 15 cooks. These were not your normal caterers in crisp white aprons common to any American catering company, but they looked like a haphazard group of villagers who came together this one weekend to cook. Nonetheless it did not take away from the quality nor the quantity of the food. All the meals were freshly prepared at their home. They had chickens that were just killed and the staff was defeathering them that very morning. There were also all sorts of animals on the menu that I’ve never seen prepared before nor ever eaten – turtles, garter snakes, frogs, etc. All of this food was being prepared outside under the bright blue sky on makeshift stoves (very picnic/bbq style), which definitely added to the very rural nature of the wedding.

the cooks for the wedding; who needs a kitchen in china?

Huge woks of food made in the outdoor kitchen

View from the balcony of the home

In addition the wedding was very intimate. With only 6 tables of 10 that fit onto the first floor, there definitely was not that lost in the crowd feel that you often get at most weddings. I’ve been to weddings of more than 400 people and sometimes you see the couple for only a few minutes. Often times, you don’t even have the opportunity to talk with the couple at all. I feel that many American weddings are filled with half guests of the bride and groom and the other half are random guests of the parents that the couple has never even met. With such a small wedding in the village, I truly felt special and honored to be a guest, instead of just a random person in the masses of guests. During the wedding, we felt the hospitality of the couple and their family as they poured drinks for all the guests. They made sure our cups were always overflowing. This is a common tradition in mainland China, but would only be possible in such an intimate wedding.

My cutest girl at the wedding seems intrigued/confused

now she gets it...we are taking pictures.

These chairs are not made for American butts

How can you have a wedding with out the couple stuffed animals

As for the actual ceremony, there wasn’t actually much to it. There wasn’t the normal tea ceremony or kowtowing to parents that I’ve seen at other traditional Chinese wedding. What struck me the most from the wedding was the influence of the People’s Liberation Army. One common Mainland tradition was hiring a band to play during the ceremony. This is your typical wedding band that plays covers of classic billboard hits. This was a marching band, complete with horns and drums, that played patriotic songs. The band was dressed in PLA costumes. With their music playing throughout the reception, it made the event seem incredibly tied to the community party and Mao. Another interesting tradition is that the band leads the car caravan from the bride’s new house back to her old house. Throughout the 30 minute ride to the house, the band continued to play their music from the back of an open van. If you didn’t know you were at a wedding, this type of music would be very appropriate for a political rally.

The wedding band

Smoke it up and play it up at the same time!

He's not a fan of the music

Bingo with his brother, who totally looks Korean

In typical Chinese style, I would say the bulk of the wedding was focused on food and eating. There were two separate meals served – lunch AND dinner. At both meals, there were 28 dishes served per table, which was an amazing amount of food for only 10 people. Tat and I were guessing that the food for the entire wedding probably cost less than one table at a typical Chinese banquet in America. I’ve been to a number of Chinese weddings, but there were some very distinct traditions that were unique to mainland. The intimacy of a home wedding with the PLA marching band gave us an inside look into the culture of Mainland China.