Meant to be Posted on Saturday

Last night, I had a wonderful time walking with 5 of my students to anoutdoor concert to raise enthusiasm for the 2008 OIympics. We walked aboutone hour to get there. Although we could have taken the bus, one of theChinese teachers said that she would get sick, so a few of us walked withher. We have one guy in our class who really enjoys walking and knows how tonavigate so he so kindly walked with us. It was good quality time with theChinese teachers. We decided to walk on the way home also. It was a lot offun. We walked through a park and saw an outdoor dancing courtyard. Therewere two couples dancing. It was like something from a fairy tale or amovie. Towards the end of the walk, we started to share riddles and jokeswith each other. They taught me some funny jokes, and I gave them a riddle."A man went to town on Thursday. . . " I realized at the end of the evening how hard the Chinese teachers had worked in speaking English the wholeevening with me. No easy feat.

I feel very close to many of my students already. They have strong values and morals and they know how to appreciate the simple things of life--walking through a new city for example.This week-end, we had a wonderful tour of the Hutong district in HistoricalBeijing. We rode in a rick-a-shaw (spelling). It is a bicycle with a seat inthe back for 2 people. My room-mate and I felt a little bit sorry for therick-a-shaw bicyclists. We had a wonderful morning with the other NorthAmerican teachers as we got to see the ancient doors and also got toexperience what life may have been like inside one of those doors. Thehighlight of the morning, however, was a Chinese tea ceremony. We were taken to a tea house inside one of the famous gardens and shown the tea ceremony. We also got to taste several different kinds of tea. The most unique teaflavor was made from lychee and dates. It supposedly helps women with theirstomachs.

For lunch, my room-mate and I had cold noodles in a soup with one of theladies in charge of the program. We swapped some English and Chinese wordsover lunch. It was a neat experience. I am starting to become more aware ofhow necessary it is to speak the language when you travel to anothercountry. We can only communicate in a very limited manner with all the otherChinese people we meet who do not speak English. I wish that I knew morewords and could have conversations with people.As I was reflecting on my teaching last night, I realized that I needed toslow in down when I give instructions in class. I also need to keep mixingup the types of activities we do in class. I have a student in my class whohas his masters in Methodology. He challenged me on something I said inclass. I was a little flustered, but I did my best to explain my reasoning.Thankfully, toward the end of the class, he said that I had just provided agood example of task-based learning as opposed to my earlier example whichhe had found irrelevant.

Tomorrow, we are going to the Chinese government church. I am not sure howtransportation, timing, seating, etc will work out. I think it will be agood experience for all who are going. I have found that Sunday mornings arethe most stressful part of the whole week. Funny how that works