China Is Not For Everyone

In my ten years in China, I taught students of every school level at least once. All of my classes were oral English of some variety. Being in the classroom that many years meant many things happened that left an impression. I should also let you know up front that I take after method actors in that if what I wore was going to help communicate something in the lesson, then I’d dress the part. One of my lessons was about the Oscars, so I told my students I wanted them to dress up like a movie star. I knew they wouldn’t, but I taught in an evening gown and typically had my hair in a simple but nice looking updo. Trust me that was enough! As I walked through the school, it was abuzz about what their foreign teacher was wearing. I used to wear prom dresses to church, so I was comfortable wearing full-length formal clothes. One of the times I taught my Oscars class, I had Bible study that evening. I had changed out of the dress but left the hair up. My study students asked why my hair was so formal. I said it was for a class and showed them the dress. Later on, I was asked to put my dress on so they could see it on me. So, I did a quick swap out of my T-shirt into the dress. One of the boys commented that it didn’t take long for me to get ready. It wasn’t hard to swap tops. Girls make it seem like it takes forever to get ready. But since my hair was already styled, it was a quick change.

Along a similar line, in my lesson on different cultures, I would bring five articles of clothing from other cultures and had students volunteer to wear them. They’d change in the bathroom and then come back. Their classmates would guess the culture or country from the clothes. I had an unusual method of timing how long it took them to put on the clothes: I would unwrap and show the class how to rewrap the sari I was wearing. It should take me a lot longer to do this than it should for them to throw on a top from another culture. But no, I was the winner every time!

The other lesson that I taught, which was a guarantee that I would dress differently, was in my pop stars class. It was the lesson where we talked about music and other celebrities. But mostly it was a music lesson. Sometimes I would spray temporary pink hair color into my style. But often it was just a more “hip” way of styling my hair and clothes that might be worn on stage with layers to make them modest. Many of my students had a favorite foreign singer or actor, so this gave them a chance to share about them. One day I got a text from a student saying “Good morning!!! Today is Aaron Carter’s 24th birthday! I’m so excited, even if these days I’m living under big pressure, so many exams, but it’s okay because his birthday is today!” Yes, there were still people who knew and loved Aaron Carter in 2010. I knew that she did, but I didn’t realize she had celebrated his birthday the past eight years. When it came to their favorite western singer, they often held onto that person long after they weren’t popular in the states. I could play music from different genres, and it didn’t matter how new or old it was. I figured if I could make a class a little more memorable, through clothes or other things, then it was worth whatever extra effort that went into it.

I would dare say that every teacher has a favorite lesson or subject. My favorite lesson was in the spring semester. My students had to prepare a speech. It was rare for me to assign homework, but I told them this would prepare them for the final (I wasn’t kidding. It honestly would.) My students loved the class for all but their speech. Most spoke on leadership and if they’d make a good leader or not. I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I heard the same opening lines to their speeches, but that was beside the point. Whenever they made a verbal pause, put an extra “a” at the end of a word, or paused for more than four seconds, I shot them with my water gun. If they used Chinese, I shot them with more water than the other problems. One of my students thought they could sing their way through it — thus, removing the verbal pauses. But the song had nothing to do with the assigned topic. So yeah, they were soaked! They might not have enjoyed it when they were speaking, but the rest of the class had a blast. The objective was for them to know how many mistakes they were making, which they would lose points for on their final exam. The hope was that after the experience, they would study harder for their final because they knew exactly how I was grading them. I taught this lesson to my English majors and public speaking students, but my elective classes missed out on the fun. At English corner in April, often the junior English majors would ask if I’d had the water gun class yet and say how they loved that class. It wasn’t a traditional class, but it was memorable. Plus if we had a few extra minutes at the end, then I would let them pick a random topic. I had to talk about it for a minute or two, and one of them could use the water gun. Sadly, I was pretty good at it and knew to slow down if I was trying to think of things to say next, so I rarely got shot.

It was rare that I assigned homework in my class for two reasons. The main one was I didn’t want to deal with plagiarism—a common thing in China. The other was I taught speaking class, so giving written homework didn’t line up with the class objectives. However, there were times I asked students to bring things to class. One assigned homework was for them to bring in something they’d made. Typically more than half of the students brought origami. A few times, I saw that look of panic when I said everyone had to stand up and talk about their craft. I’d told them that the week before, but somehow, they missed it and hadn’t checked their syllabus. To be fair, since the school never asked for an outline, I was probably the only teacher who gave them a syllabus. For them, I understood making origami. I always had a student that made or brought in a paper airplane. But some brought in things that took longer and more planning to make. The easiest craft was a cigarette box with the top cut off, creating a pencil holder. Yes, I could see that if I used my imagination. Others brought in soda or soap bottles that they transformed into something else. A few had something they’d sewn and a couple had drawn something. I brought in crafts as well. Some things I’d made, and some from my mom, grandmother, and great grandmother. They were shocked that my great grandmother made a cross-stitch picture; they didn’t know that Americans knew how to cross-stitch. And bringing in something that was that old surprised them.

For a couple of years, I taught a public speaking and speech competition class. At the end of each class, I gave a quick example of the speech style I was expecting the next week. My informative speech was always my favorite and had a little extra preparation. Students were allowed to use a prop if it genuinely helped their speech. My example speech was how to end a friendship. No shame in admitting I chose that topic so I’d get to use my prop. I gave a couple of examples of practical things to do, and then I opened a bag, popped one kibble in my mouth, and said to offer it to your friend. I then offered it to them, and half the boys took one and ate it right away. It happened every time I gave the speech. But it was rare for a girl to take one. I guess they were listening to what I was saying and didn’t trust whatever it was I’d give them.