One week down

I have officially been a teacher for one week. Although there are some things about working that I'm not in love with (like the income tax off of my first pay cheque), I still really enjoy teaching here in China. The English writing found in Suzhou is enough of a reminder of why I am here....to stop young students from growing up to design notebooks (like the one below) that have abysmal English in full display to taint the minds of the youth that other foreign teachers are working so hard to clean.

Despite lines like "communicate through our heart information" or "Coffee Language" (the sign of a coffee shop near my house---what is coffee language?) the futures of both China's youth and English are bright.

At the end of my day on Friday a really tiny girl (sweet as cherry pie) named Kathy came up to me after class. "Can you speak Chinese?" she asked in a faint voice I stooped to hear. I replied that I cannot speak much Chinese yet, but I can say 'Ni hao.' (hello). She asked me to write it on the board, but when I wrote it in pinyin (the romanization of the Chinese characters) she seemed confused. "In Chinese," she demanded. Unable to complete her request, she picked up a piece of chaulk and drew two complex characters, making the sounds for each upon its completion.

As I completed my own set of 'ni hao' characters (the larger and less organized characters on the left), she placed her chaulk in its holder, apparently content with the education of her new 'yan-wern lao-she' (English teacher). "I think you write good Chinese," she said with a smile and walked away, saying a quick 'goodbye.' That girl totally made my day, but the student who made my week is another.

After one of my classes on Thursday a young boy came to me handing over a neatly coloured piece of paper. Since the students had just been assigned a personal poster, I assumed that this was his and assured him that though it was great that he was done his homework, he would have to bring it to his next EFL class. "No. Not poster," he said in planned, but broken English. "For you." I looked down at the paper only to see a wonderful creation depicting the friendly relations between China and Canada.

My eyes lit up, noting the careful way in which he had crafted my nation's flag, the steps he had taken in writing (in perfectly neat English) the lables for the pictures he had drawn of the maple leaf and of the CN Tower. In my first lesson I had shown some pictures of Canada to the class as a way to help them understand me and my country. They were all very interested, but I did not realize that they had actually been listening (I'm used to that yet). I was so flattered and completely impressed, while being unbelievably thankful for this act of kindness. As I thanked him in English and Chinese, my own personal act to display Chinese-Canadian friendship, he protested, "Not me. Tom. Tom." To be completely honest, with teaching over 400 students I'm not really sure who Tom is--the seating plan will tell me when I next see him---but this does not take away from this act. Though I am not sure why Tom could not give the picture to me on his own (I guess he's just really shy), I will have to thank him after his next class.

China's education system, while ridged (the students are in school from 7:30am-5pm Monday to Friday and 8-11 on Saturday) has created intelligent, disciplined and caring children. I am so glad I am lucky enough to experience this.