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January 26, 2007
Big Brother Returns?
I had a form handed to me by our liason in the school office yesterday which is a bit out of the ordinary. At first I didn't think much of it but the longer it sits on my desk and the more I stare at it, the more uncomfortable it makes me. Last year I wrote a blog when I discovered the close-circuit cameras in the classrooms here that are seemingly recording my every move. Those cameras could not possibly be for the strict purpose of spying on the foreign teachers (since they're in every single classroom), but they certainly provide the ability for someone (who?) to be checking up on us.
The form I got is titled "Request Form for Travel" (in both English and Chinese) and goes as follows:
Request Form for Travel for the foreign teachers of The Affiliated High School of SCNU
Name-
Travel Destination-
Travel Period-
No. of Days-
Contact Telephone Number at Travel Destination-
I hereby assume full responsibility for the travel and release The Affiliated High School of SCNU from any responsibility.
Signature-
Reminder: All travel (for other cities away from Guangzhou) request should be submitted to School Affairs Office one week before the holiday.
When the secretary gave it to me I asked her for a quick explanation and she seemed mildly embarrassed. She said that they simply wanted to be able to contact us in the event of an emergency, which is a perfectly legitimate reason; however, as I walked away, I immediately realized how ridiculous that was. This year the school has been a bit forgetful, shall we say, when it comes to informing us of scheduling changes. We've shown up a handful of times when classes have been canceled and been away when we were supposed to be teaching. And that's fine. It's actually to be expected when you're teaching in China. But it brings me back to the initial question--why?
In the year and half I've been here, I have never once had to fill out a form or even tell anybody where I was going. As long as I was in the classroom when I was supposed to be, everyone was happy. And since there are no official government restrictions on where I'm allowed to go (according to my residence permit), I am speechless. I suppose I do have to allow for the possibility that the Guangzhou municipal government has changed policies for the schools out of nowhere, but I haven't heard anything about that scenario.
In all likelihood, the form means nothing and will simply get filed away amongst a mountain of paperwork, but the fact that it's worded as a request allows for the possibility that sometime in the next few days someone will approach me and tell me I'm not allowed to leave. I'm not quite sure what I would do in that situation, but having already purchased plane tickets for the upcoming spring festival holiday, I am definitely leaving one way or another.
It's also interesting to note that the form is both a request form and liability waiver wrapped into one. Maybe I'm reading into this too much but it may reflect a growing concern and need for all official groups to watch their backs in terms of avoiding litigation. The law system in China has a long way to go, but it's definitely becoming more and more legitimate all the time, with both domestic and international pressure. There was a clause added into my contract last spring that requires me to inform the office anytime I have an overnight guest. This also came as a surprise and was explained to me as a safety precaution mandated by the government, presumably to give schools the right to fire someone if they start bringing home prostitutes or something like that. Regardless, it has been conveniently forgotten by both me and the office.
So once again, why? I quietly showed the form to a few coworkers who initially laughed at it and told me that I'm allowed to do whatever I want and that I should ignore it. I was starting to entertain the possibility until one of the senior members of the English faculty saw the form in the cafeteria yesterday. He was also chuckling and remarking how ludicrous it was until he asked an important office worker (in Chinese) whether it was necessary. She gave him a serious nod and mumbled something to him that was incomprehensible to me. This response seemed to be enough for him and he proceeded to hand me the paper and instruct me to do it. Strange.
I've decided that I need to look at the glass as half full and simply assume that they're concerned about our well being and would like to be in touch with us if something comes up. I have already passed along the fact that I have no idea what my contact phone numbers may be but that I'm always on email. They seemed fine with that. With no real control over the situation, I choose to believe that the form is rather meaningless and that Big Brother is not trying to keep a short leash on me. We'll see how it turns out...
Posted by awolfe at 12:40 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 23, 2007
Exams
It's that time of the year once again--final exams. Despite its being printed on the syllabus I handed out and announced approximately five times throughout the term, I once again had dozens of students who were shocked when I gave the two week warning. I mean, I suppose that's the card I would have tried to play if I were in their shoes, but they're all pretty much SOL. Even if I were adamantly opposed to testing them, my contract mandates that I have to administer at least one exam per term. So there you have it.
Much like last year, I spent half a class before the test doing a review of everything we had covered and everything that would be on the exam. As I was covering the material, I saw the majority of the class dutifully copying everything down into their notebooks. But what about the other section of the class? As a teacher I've never been able to figure this one out since it happened back when I was teaching at Brookline as well--do the students just not care? Are they so confident in their knowledge that they feel a review is below them? Are they just spacing out and don't realize I'm giving them answers? Whatever the reason, it's somewhat disconcerting. I even paused a few times, pointed to the board and then to their notebooks, only to get a brief nod followed by inaction.
The exams have all been given and I have to say that I'm slightly disappointed in the results. The whiz kids who always get A's got A's, the kids who skipped class got F's, and everybody else fit somewhere in between. The problem is, the medium is definitely a bit lower than last year. What I can't decide is, did I fail them or did they fail me? It's possible that I'm grading a bit tougher this year because I had higher expectations. It's possible the exam is simply more difficult. It's possible that I didn't prepare them well enough. It's even possible that the average level of English is lower this year compared to last. The frustrating thing is that there's really no way to tell.
Nick and I have also been having a few interesting discussions regarding grading. Suppose there's one student in a class with amazing English but a terrible attitude (skips every once in a while, doesn't pay attention, etc.) and another who struggles daily with ability but really tries hard (volunteers to answer questions, focuses on every word spoken, etc.). Exam time rolls around and the student with an attitude aces the exam easily while the other student fails outright. Is that fair? I'm faced with this exact situation in more than a few incarnations.
I'm also trying to figure out whether grades should be relative to the class section (some classes are always better than others), relative to the grade as a whole, relative to effort, or simply based on the numerical score each achieved. The funny part is that I'm pretty sure my final grades will either a) never be seen by the students or b) not matter even a little bit in the grand scheme of things. The marks they achieve in class are completely unimportant to the college process so maybe I'm wasting time worrying about it.
Regardless, this term's exam brought about several unintentional comedic moments which I figure I should record for posterity's sake. In one section I asked the students to identify three of the five important categories when applying to American universities (we had done a 3 class unit on the subject) and most students were spot on: grades, non-academic achievement, recommendations, personal statement, etc. One kid really hit the nail right on the head though with the response, "give lots of money to the head of the university." Right you are!
In another section where students are required to complete sentences with choices from a word bank, I gave them the sentence, "Talking about your boyfriend/girlfriend in front of the headmaster is strictly________." The answer I was anticipating was "taboo," however I had more than a few students fill in "suspect," which was listed in my mind as a noun. It sort of works, though, as an adjective and it made me laugh so I gave them credit anyway.
They also had to write an informal dialogue between me and George Bush which brought me more than a few chuckles. One of my favorite students wrote the following conversation which I think is highly realistic:
Ari- Hey dude, where are you headed?
Bush- White House. I have a lot of work to do today.
Ari- About Iraq? Yo, why did you start that war anyway?
Bush- Thing is, we need lots of oil and I didn't think it would be so rough.
Ari- But it's caused so many deaths. Don't you feel sorry??
Bush- Not really. Chill out, okay?
Ari- Do you think you're cool? Because you're absolutely not.
Bush- How about you ask my daughter out? That will make it better for you. She's hot!
Ari- Will do.
Bush- Okay, I gotta bounce. Later.
Possibly my favorite response, though, came in the section in which I asked student to briefly explain the origin of Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa (I taught a lesson on this). One of my students chose Christmas and wrote, "Christmas is a festival celebrating the burn of Jewish." Now, I can only assume he was going for "birth of Jesus" but as it stands, I thought it was pretty funny.
Posted by awolfe at 10:45 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 16, 2007
The Bridge
After a bit of blogging hibernation, I've decided to get my act together and start writing more. Special thanks to my sister for blogging the family vacation and for my family in general for shlepping all the way out to China once again. It was a heckuva trip and always a treat to have visitors, especially those named "Mom," "Dad," and "Ilana."
So I was somewhat inspired to write when my roommate and I were walking around one of the central business districts in downtown Guangzhou. We were headed from a restaurant to a bar in an area that happens to have arguably the nicest five-star hotel around. As such, this stretch of road has a number of western restaurants that cater to the high class business crowd and the small number of foreign English speakers.
Nick and I had just finished a highly anticipated meal at a place creatively named, "The Mexican Restaurant," which happens to be located right above "The Italian Restaurant." It was my first time eating at this Guangzhou institution and I could not have been more disappointed. Other than the tasty Mexican food I had in Hong Kong a couple weeks ago, this was the only Mexican food I'd had in over a year and a half.
The problem, we decided, was that expectations were simply too high. When you order western food at a restaurant in China, it is almost never what you wanted or expected, simply because they have no idea how to prepare it. I assume it's much like Chinese folks getting Chinese food in America--it's just never right. But you're usually prepared for the pizza to be crappy at a place called, "Western Food King." When you get a burrito at a place that bills itself as specializing in Mexican cuisine, you don't expect to find carrot, cucumber, or ketchup inside (not to mention the lack of salsa or real guacamole). I almost cried, but I digress.
On our way to drown our sorrows at one of the local joints that serves as a close approximation of a sports bar, we were forced to cross a well traveled pedestrian footbridge. Walking across as I've done many times, Nick and I were talking about how ridiculous it was for several reasons. Just to clarify, this is a footbridge in one of the nicest, richest, most highly traveled areas of the cities (at least where foreigners are concerned):
1) At both ends of the bridge, there are usually a handful of policemen standing or sitting around. What I can't quite figure out is, what are they doing there? The bridge is one of the few guaranteed locations where you can always find street vendors peddling black market DVD's, necklaces, CD's, and watches. It just makes me laugh that the guys with the merchandise are in direct view of the cops but neither side ever seems to acknowledge the other.
2) If you want to buy drugs in Guangzhou, this is the place to do it. It perpetuates a sad stereotype, but there are always, and I mean always, a couple of African guys that try to sell hash to every white person that walks by. They're not too subtle about it either, generally shouting things like, "I've got great stuff here!" or "Hashish? You looking to buy??" Again, in full view of the police just laughing and joking around.
3) Given the expensive restaurants, bars, and hotels in the area, it's not surprising that there are a lot of people with money walking around. For this reason, the bridge is also guaranteed to have swarms of homeless migrants begging for money. This would be okay if they just sat on the side with a bowl out like most do; unfortunately, they've found that the most effective way of getting money is to send their 3 and 4 year old children to run after people, tugging on their clothes with one hand and holding a plastic bowl in another. Not only is it sad that parents use their kids in this way, it's also extremely intrusive and rude. What I realized the other day is that I am completely desensitized to the whole thing. Instead of ignoring them, I now pretend that the bridge is a football field where I'm running the gauntlet to pass the little kids, throwing fakes this way and that, even using oncoming foot traffic as blockers. The parents seem to find this funny though, so I guess we all win.
4) Again, due to the money and foreigners around, this is also the place to go to pick up a prostitute. You can always pick them out even before they say anything because they generally stand in groups putting on makeup and always have on really trashy high heels (I guess some things are universal). No matter how many times I've been asked, I always feel really awkward. Part of it is that they never have good English skills and always end up propositioning me with something like, "You like massage?" with massage pronounced "ma-sa-jee." I usually just start laughing awkwardly, whereas Nick has adopted the strategy of just awkwardly shouting an incoherent, "aaaaaaaaaaah" before they can even spit out the three words. We make a great team.
So all in all, the bridge is always an adventure. Just picture walking up the stairs past the watch guys and the hookers, only to start running past the homeless kids using the drug dealers as blockers and hurdling over the pirated DVDs, juking at the last second to avoid running into the police. Gotta love it...
In other news, January officially represents The Mustache Challenge of '07, when starting back on January 1, Nick and I both decided to cultivate our facial hair and see what sort of 'stache we could grow. The mustache contest is actually quite common, as I'm coming to learn, and people generally find it to be pretty funny. Now, I'm not quite sure when the mustache abandoned pop culture for younger people, but it was probably back when I was starting to learn how to read. Ever since, it's been more of a joke than anything, at least up in New England. It looks fine on most older people, but the younger you are, the more questionable it is.
And this is why, of course, we decided to do it. Being in China, everyone looks at us strangely to begin with, simply due to the color of our skin. Since I will most likely never do it again, this seemed to be a golden opportunity. Having grown facial hair last year for the first time, I was anticipating an awkward, itchy stage, only to be pleasantly surprised. Sure, it looked dumb, but it didn't itch like having a beard did.
We were both curious to see what our students would say and it actually took them almost two weeks to say anything. I mean, all white people look alike, right? The first kids to say anything were actually former students of mine from last year. I passed by two of my favorite boys who said, "hey, you have the..." not knowing the word for mustache. I asked them what they thought and they both said, "it's very handsome and manly." This response was expected, as Chinese guys have a tough time growing any serious facial hair beyond the one or two frighteningly long mole hairs. Next day I saw one of my female students from last year who also noted the addition above my upper lip. When I asked her what she thought, she said "it looks very bad." Hmmm. Well, at least she's honest. My favorite response though so far comes from a current student who looked at me as I walked through the door and questioned in disgust, "What happened to your face??" Classic.
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January 3, 2007
Back to the Kong
Sadly, day 8 meant our departure from the Mainland back to Hong Kong. It was a quick run in Guangzhou, but we definitely made the most of our time there. I think that we will all remember the crazy traffic of GZ, the chime of the school bells at Ari's school, but most of all the food. It was a gastronomical extravaganza with highlights including Hunan-style frog, hot pot, Korean barbeque, and dim sum. What delicious memories!
After our easy train ride back to Hong Kong, we checked into the Langham Hotel, probably the nicest hotel that I have ever been in. Well, after the Peninsula Hotel with its excellent bar and view. But anyway, after going from room to room, Ari and I settled in and then the whole family ran to the deli in the hotel. It was like we had never seen food before, or maybe it was more that Ari was acting like a little kid who had just been let loose in a candy store. [Ed. note- ...or deli store, as the case may be.] Matzah ball soup? Yes, please. Knish stuffed with pastrami? Yes, please. Dr. Brown's black cherry soda? Uh huh. Plate of pickles? Definitely! I'll take 5. We again stuffed ourselves silly and then headed out to explore Mong Kok on Kowloon Island.
We hit the bird market, flower market, goldfish market, jade market, and ladies market all within a few hours. Despite the sight of gigantic crickets, beautiful orchids, and enormous fish, the best part of the day might have been the most excellent purchase of the Bruce Lee cellphone charm that I never bought last year. Now Ari is fully protected from pickpockets, burglars, and even ninjas (although I'm not sure there are too many of them in China) with the constant presence of The Bruce. [Ed. note- it's true. Bruce is currently dangling from my cell phone and all shall fear him. He looks fierce.]
Before dinner the Wolfe family made sure to check out the fireworks show along the Hong Kong Harbor. We made our way along the Avenue of the Stars and had time to do some singing and dancing with some energetic old folks before the light show. After the fireworks, we trekked over to Hong Kong Island for dinner in the SoHo district. While our Mexican meal was excellent, the highlight might have been riding on the world's longest escalator to get to the restaurant. Escalator, you might be asking? Yes, an escalator. It's tons of fun and a brilliant idea for the hills of Hong Kong. [Ed. note- we also chatted with a very interesting young married couple who had just finished a year of living and working in Bangalore, one of India's up and coming metropolises. Comparing India and China is always food for a very interesting conversation. It made me really want to get over there before I leave Asia.]
Unfortunately, our fun was coming to an end, and day 9 meant our last full day in Hong Kong, the last day with Ari for a while, and New Years Eve. To go out with a bang, we decided to go out to Cheung Chao Island and do a little exploring. There weren't any more monkeys in sight, but we saw amazing views of the harbor, a magical tree, rock carvings, and even crawled through a Pirate Cave. [Ed. note- seriously. Supposedly Cheung Po Tsai, a notorious 18th c. pirate, camped out here before preying on passing ships. Cool!] Our hiking did not slow us down a bit, and after a quick catnap we went out for a farewell/New Years dinner at a Thai restaurant. The views were good, food was great, and company even better. Next year in Hong Kong? If only . . .
Last New Years Eve was fun, but this year topped it. A balcony on the 28th floor of a building in the mid-levels overlooking the harbor, "some" beer, and PIA/Yale-China Kids. Excellent. After ringing in the New Year in style, we made our way to the "Flying Pan" for some late night dinner food to wash down the evening's beverages. By the time Ari and I made it back to the Langham, I had about 3 short hours of sleep before I boarded a plane back to New York.
Looking Back and Forward:
It was a quick vacation this year, but well worth the +40 hours roundtrip that we spent in the air to travel east. This year's vacation was very different from last year's. Last year I saw the China of my school textbooks; a China of pagodas, dragons, and an extensive history. This year's vacation was less of a cultural tour. This year we saw China as Ari sees it; full of after-school/work hangouts, excitement over the new subway line, and old friends. We again saw that Ari is living it up in GZ and has made an excellent life for himself, and this year he helped us feel less like tourists and more like "regulars." This year, for instance, I could concentrate on learning to count to 10 instead of being shocked and surprised by everything that I saw (except for the Shenzhen dog incident).
We also felt less sadness because Ari's excellent adventure in coming to a close. He will surely have a difficult time leaving the fascinating country that he has called home for almost 2 years, but we will all be happy to have him back. Luckily, the Wolfe family was able to get (two) quick glances at the city that Ari now calls home and the experience of exploring Hong Kong. Thanks to Ari for being an excellent tour guide and host. If only I knew how to say that in Mandarin . . . .
[Ed. note- for pics of the Wolfe extravaganza, check my flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/awolfe03/sets/72157594464266836/
Special shout-out to the World's Greatest Hoody...]
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