#elfellow

[fingfamily-blog-blog]

Initial Post for English Language Fellows Program

Dear Friends - This is my first post as I prepare for an academic year as a Writing instructor in Indonesia. The job starts on Sept. 1, so this is really just practice. I'm going on the US Dept. of State's English Language Fellows Program. I hope to be reporting on my further preparations, as well as my travel, my settling in at the State University of Malang, in Java, as well as my life and work there, and travels in Indonesia, and beyond. Who knows what's going to happen? Join me on the adventure!! - Y.S. Fing/Will

[teacherkmd]

Second Week in QuFu: Small Victories

Week 2

Since having my schedule rearranged, I have found myself with a lot of free time. I am having fun listening to the military training that all my freshmen students have to go through. It is also “fun” to walk around campus and have them get in trouble for staring at me when they’re supposed to be listening to their drill sergeant. (All freshmen in university go through mandatory military training lasting from 2 weeks to a month). My classes will start the last week of September.

(Good camouflage) 

The English department finally met up with us to talk about expectations and regulations. Since I am teaching all 6 sections of Speaking and Listening 1 for freshmen, I basically get to do what I want. I have textbooks, and there is a loose “use 50% of the books” rule. After looking at those textbooks, I’ll most likely be using them as homework and for support material. This course will basically be a conversation class. The textbooks seem to cover things like making appointments, answering a phone, how to end a conversation, how to begin a conversations, and ordering food at restaurants, etc. This all seems like very low level stuff compared to what the sophomores were capable of doing during the single class meeting I had with them.

I’m hearing whispers of a school sponsored trip to the Confucius temple this month, so look forward to more on that soon. We (the other foreign teachers and I) have also finally gotten the ball rolling on Chinese classes to begin next week. We picked up our textbooks this week to give approval. My book is an HSK5 (proficiency exam) prep book. It basically contains like 8 practice exams. I’m interested to see how the tutor will spend “class” time to help me prep for it.

Since last week there have been quite a few exciting developments. 

The foreign teachers all had a potluck. The new teachers (Kim and I) didn’t have much to contribute since we are still figuring out where to get ingredients and kitchen supplies. We did cut up a lot of fruit though. Sharlyn (another Fellow) made some bread, coleslaw, and some yummy veggie pasta. Karen, a short term visiting physics professor from Canada, brought some bread and baozi. Jordan, a French teacher (from France), brought some wine and an interesting perspective to our political talks about Trump, healthcare, and other things affecting Americans and Canadians. Mike (the host) had prepared another pasta dish, and some banana pudding. It was good to connect with the other foreign teachers on campus.

I met a senior physics student (who likes to point out how young I am). Since 1) I don’t teach seniors, 2) physics students don’t take English, and 3) she’s only 3 years younger than me, I felt safe agreeing to hang out with her. This hangout session comprised the first real test of my Chinese proficiency other than small talk or asking for service in stores in restaurants. She took me on a scooter ride around QuFu. Next to the Confucius temple is a shopping/eating district. Apparently, it is where all the young people go to hang out in town. We ordered some vegetarian (much to the regret of my new friend) noodles, some frozen fruit yogurt, and did some shopping. They (her friend showed up at this point) were very interested in how I would look in Chinese fashion. Unfortunately for me, this meant trying on a lot of clothes I knew wouldn’t fit simply because our bodies are shaped differently (particularly, Western shoulders will almost never comfortably fit into Chinese shirts even if your chest and rest of your torso manage to fit that size). Afterwards, we went to a street next to a shopping center I’ve visited before. This shopping center has a KFC and a Watsons (think Walgreens or CVS with no medication). The cool thing, though, was that this street, apparently, turns into a night market. I would have never guessed. They set up carnival games and have lots of street vendor foods. Afterwards, they drove us back to campus and we shared a meal in one of the school’s many cafeterias. This turned out to be very nice because I had been too overwhelmed to enter the flooded cafeterias on campus thus far. After eating dinner, they wanted to see my apartment. This might sound weird to some people, particularly those going “whoa don’t invite students to your apartment.” However, this curiosity is borne out of the fact that there is a huge difference in where the local staff and students are housed and where the foreign teachers and students are housed. I showed them my apartment to which they lamented that I live in a castle. I asked if they would let my friend (another foreign teacher on campus) see their dorm since she hasn’t any experience with Chinese college campuses. They agreed after warning me that it would be very messy. After collecting the other teacher, we went to see the student dorms.

I didn’t take any pictures as it would have been rude. Just imagine a building from a post apocalyptic zombie movie. There are bars on all the windows (I assume to prevent suicides or accidents or both). The lights in the hallways don’t work. There aren’t showering facilities anywhere in the buildings and students resort to sponge bathing. All the doors look like prison doors, short, metal, and inset into thick walls. All the doors are locked with padlocks if no one is in the room, and left unlocked if a student is inside. Each roommate has a key for the padlock. When you open the door to the dorm, you will see a room smaller than most people’s bedrooms back home. On the left side of the room are bunkbeds to accommodate four students and the right wall is lined with desks. There is a small porch for them to hang laundry. There is barely any room to walk and definitely no semblance of personal space or privacy. In some dorms, there are 6 beds (four on the left wall, and two high rise beds on the right side that have the desks under them). 

After showing us their dorm, they wanted to show us where the graduate students stay on campus. The difference is night and day. They have a completely newly renovated building. It has an elevator (my building doesn’t even have an elevator). Central heating and air-conditioning. Motion detecting recessed LED lighting in the hallways that turn on and off as you move down the hall. A fancy restaurant like cafeteria in the basement. Only three students to a room, each room containing their own shower and bathroom. Lockers are next to each of the beds for them to put their personal belongings in. They had an even better porch than my apartment, with laundry drying racks that elevate and lower from the ceiling. 

Anyways, that ends the “hang out session”.

Monday the 10th was Teacher Appreciation Day. Sad for me since I no longer have students. But not really, since students still used WeChat to send me messages and found me to give me chocolate. One of my students interviewed me about my love life (I was under the impression it was only going to be sent to my students) and then published it on the school website for a “teacher highlight.”  Now faculty and staff all know about my love life so that is fun! If not extremely awkward. But the page also included student comments about what they think of me as a teacher. Since I only had one class with them, a lot of the comments are that I smile a lot, I talk loud (#AmericanProblems), and that I’m pretty.

I also finally got paid my living stipend by my university. And since nothing is really available in stores around here (like measuring spoons and cheese and butter), I am happy to announce I have figured out how to have things like this delivered through the Chinese version of Amazon (TaoBao). I may or may not have also purchased a popcorn popper for the microwave (anyone who knows me won’t be surprised by this). 

This week also included my first trip to the gym. The other foreign teacher and I joined the most “western” gym we could find. They send us the group class offerings in a weekly WeChat message. Not that that helps either of us since she can’t read Chinese, and I don’t know any workout language in Chinese. However, after doing some conversions from miles to kilometers and figuring out what speed I needed to be running at… I can now report it is extremely hard to run in polluted air. You really can’t breathe. The weight machines are also a trip, because the weights don’t list what weight they are, not in kilograms or lbs. I might take a silver sharpie and just write my best guesstimate. I maxed out one of the machines though, so I’m pretty sure they’re not calibrated the same way they are in the US. Watching the guys faces though when I put max weight on the leg machines was #priceless. 

Yesterday, Tuesday the 11th, I observed a local teacher’s English class. It was a group of junior students doing intensive reading. Their text was about hurricanes and the destruction they cause in the US. So naturally, this North Carolinian had to keep her sh*t together and try not to let her anxiety about Hurricane Florence’s approach mess with the observation. The teacher called on me multiple times during class to explain things like the Salvation Army, portable classrooms, and if “returnees” meant the same thing as refugees in the text. The actual teaching of the class was not as bad as I thought it might be (based on what I hear about Chinese teaching pedagogy towards intensive reading word by word). The teacher still did 98% of the talking, but she focused on language choice (“what words show the power of the storm?”) and article structure (“why would the author choose to break up the narration with this paragraph here?”, “Why are so many of the sentences short and elliptical? What effect does this create?”). The major concerns for me were the lack of student interaction in English (when they did work together it was in Chinese) and the fact that all the students had a reference text which included the article written in Chinese with answers to all the questions and exercises. I talked to the teacher after class and she seemed really open to working together to come up with solutions for these problems which she agrees are problems. She also seemed open to the idea that part of my job and hopes for my role on campus is to hold workshops. 

All the teachers in my office (the linguistics office) are really open and friendly. I think the fact that I have relatively proficient Chinese abilities is helping me here. I hope to keep observing classes till my freshmen classes start so that I can keep building connections and relationships with the other teachers in my office and the literature and translation offices. That way, when it comes time for me to actually suggest things like workshops or MOOCs or other professional development opportunities, maybe some one will actually make time in their already overbooked schedules to hear what I and other teachers have to say. 

That’s all for now!

(I know I promised to be better about pictures…. but next week really I promise… I really will be better. Below are some photos I took while on a walk out of the North gate of my campus.)

[edwardloo]

Team #AmericanEnglish #ELPrograms @ #TESOL17 #MyTESOL17 #ELFellows #Fulbright #FulbrightETA #PeaceCorps #EnglishForAll (at Washington State Convention Center)

[teacherkmd]

QuFu Week 3: Starting to get the hang of things

Time for the weekly update from QuFu!

Last week ended with a bit of slump mentally/emotionally. I was stressed out waiting for news about my family and friends in North Carolina with the hurricane’s landfall (they’re all fine). In order to combat the blues and distract me from my endless anxiety, Kim and I decided to go for an “American” dinner at Pizza Hut and to see a movie. 

We walked to Pizza Hut (about 2km) and were the first customers there. However, it quickly filled up with families and crazy children. The family that sat down next to us had 5 (read: five despite the new two child policy). The two older girls were very eager to try and ask us where we were from multiple times (they didn’t understand our response) and then preceded to ask if we knew Chinese. 

I ordered a margarita pizza and was very happy with the amount of cheese on it. Kim ordered the pepperoni. For dessert, she, despite my warnings, ordered durian ice-cream cake. Her assessment of the flavor: fart and cream. I stuck with chocolate ice-cream for dessert.

(My glorious pizza)

(Kim’s dessert mistake).

Afterwards, we attempted to use Didi (China’s Uber) for the first time. This was only half successful. For some reason, it wouldn’t let me order a didi, but let me use the app to call a taxi? Whatever. We successfully got ourselves to the movie theater in time for the movie to start 2 minutes early with no previews. Craziness. We watched a move about the Brazilian soccer player Pelé. It was very dramatic but exactly what we needed. 

We decided to start walking home and see if we saw a taxi on the side of the road or driving by. Fortunately, we got to cross off another QuFu must do: ride in a little electric enclosed rickshaw/bangbang/ tuk tuk!  It was a lot of fun. 

(In the Tuktuk)

The next day, Sharlyn (another Fellow), Kim, and I decided to go on a walk. We walked all the way to where I had hung out with the two Chinese girls the previous week. We had just enough time to get a snack before it started to rain. It was just drizzling but seemed like it was picking up. We walked towards the exit of the shopping street, and agreed to let this tuk-tuk driver take us back to the university. As soon as we stepped in and shut the door, it started torrentially down pouring. There had to be up to 5 inches of standing water on the road; in some places there was more. We walked from north gate of campus and very quickly saw that there was enough rain that the freshmen had been released early from military training. They were equally soaked. I should have just taken my shoes off to walk back from where the tuk tuk dropped us off. I really don’t know why it didn’t occur to me. I tried to dry my shoes by hanging them from the AC unit so they’d get some air flow… but that didn’t really work. 

The roads are no longer flooded, but it hasn’t really stopped raining since the weekend. Come Tuesday night, I had agreed to meet with the teacher whose class I observed last week. She had asked me to help prepare a student for a teaching competition. I didn’t really know what to expect, but it turned into me sharing some communicative ideas for teaching middle schoolers (games, etc.) and then giving a demo-lesson for which I was completely unprepared. Probably the worst demo-lesson I’ve ever given. Nevertheless they loved it and seemed really inspired. I also got to talk to the two teachers there about more activities I could hold like this on campus (workshops etc). Slowly building the connections and rapport I need on campus to set up secondary projects!

This week we also had to go to the “police station”-> more like giant administrative building to start our residency permits… did I think I would have this process started sooner, yes… anyhow, in theory I’ll have my passport back on or before October 9th. We all know how trapped I feel without my passport. In the mean time, we have this little nifty piece of paper that apparently vouches for my legality in the country and can be used to purchase bus, train, and plane tickets. 

I also had my first Chinese class this week. We did the listening section of a mock HSK (Chinese proficiency exam). Apparently, even after missing 10 out of 45, that is good enough to pass. We ran out of time before moving on to the reading section. So, now that is homework. I was also assigned the task of looking up all the words I didn’t know on the listening section’s answer sheet and asking native speakers to use them in sentences for me. I also have to do the reading section as homework so we can go over it in class next week. The teacher is really nice and works with all the international students here on campus. 

Wednesday night also consisted of the welcome banquet for the foreign faculty on campus. This included all the English teachers (me, Sharlyn (fellow Fellow), and Kim), the visiting Canadian physics professor Karen, the French teacher Jordan (from France), and mystery Russian lady who no one caught her name. We were organized around the table with a Chinese representative from our departments so we would all have someone with a mutual language to talk with. The food… I should have taken pictures of. I am sorry. The vice president of the university joined us for dinner and many speeches were given. And we were gifted mooncakes! But I am saving those for Mid-autumn moon festival. 

In other news: I had a giant delivery of popcorn kernels today and that was super exciting. I’m planning my first conference trip in October to Changchun! I’m very excited about it. I’ll also be going to Beijing in November to do a Roundtable (small Group) at the Beijing American Center at the embassy and a larger presentation the next day. Lots of presentations to plan! Oh, and I successfully baked bread. 

Upcoming: this weekend QuFu opening ceremony for Freshmen, Confucius Temple, Mid-autumn moon festival, and first classes of the semester next week!

[teacherkmd]

QuFu Week Four

(Photos 1-3) The opening ceremony last Friday was really cool. The QuFu and Rizhao campuses live streamed the ceremonies to each other, so the speakers and performances are alternating between campuses. There was a lot of reciting of Confucian Analects, some ancient poetry, the national anthem, the school song, and some sort of flag ceremony where all incoming students were passed under the school flag.

(Photos 4-8) We finally made our way to the Confucian Temple, Family Mansion, and Cemetery this week. Only about 2km away from campus, these historical landmarks are 2000 years old. Some sections had to be renovated after the Cultural Revolution due to the belief that Confucian ideals were anti-communist which led to the destruction and vandalizaition of many artifacts. Our tour guide told us that when he grew up he had never heard any of the Confucian sayings. The only idea he had about what Confucius might have said is if he was quoted by the government when they were criticizing him. Now, students from all over China come to pay homage to the “perfect sage”.

(Photos 9-10) This was my first week teaching! My freshmen students are super adorable. Unfortunately, our classes are held in computer labs that are left over from the time of Audiolingualism. I have no whiteboards or blackboards in the classrooms. Their computers are controlled by mine so they can see my screen, but I can’t have them do any research or exploration on their own. There is no internet in these classrooms. Fortunately, I’ve found ways to use the computers to my advantage despite the lack of writing space. I’ve also managed to get a portable whiteboard that I’ll start taking to classes with me.