There is so much to write about and not enough time to write. Every day brings new Jishou adventures. Part of me wants to blog about every meal that I’ve eaten with students, every conversation that I’ve had with the locals, and each day of class that I’ve taught so far, but there’s just not enough time.

Some of my most intriguing conversations have occurred during individual sessions. For twenty minutes, I have a chance to ask my students about their day. Most of my students are remarkably candid and share personal information during these sessions. (I keep wondering if I was this open with my Princeton in Beijing teachers two summers ago.)

One of my students told me about his dream to live in Australia and swim all day. Instead of pulling out the parent card, I simply listened to him. He told me that he wants to travel the world before he is 40 years old, and then he wants to settle down in the Australian countryside. Hearing a 14 year old boy tell me about his bucket list reminded me to keep my own bucket list in mind as I enter my senior year.

Yesterday, I had a wonderful individual session with Victoria. Victoria stood me up as last week, so I asked Kelsey if I could have her for individual session again this week. Somehow, I got her talking about how she is going to college to be a flight attendant. You should have seen the way her face lit up when she started to tell me about her plans to travel to France, the USA, and Japan. Once I got her talking, she wouldn’t stop.

Not all of the individual sessions have been about rainbows and butterflies. There have been a few sessions that have left me feeling heavier than before. Last Wednesday, one of my students told me a story that brought tears to my eyes.

I cherish the time that I get to spend with my students and listen to them tell me their life stories. I have two and a half more weeks left to hear as many more stories as possible. Wish me luck! 🙂

–Alyssa

This week we introduced the concept of “prom” to all of our students. Many of our students lamented the fact that they had never had such an experience. “I wish we had prom in China.” “Was prom the best experience of your life?” The middle-aged suburban helicopter mom inside of me became deeply unsettled by these comments. “They’ve never had a prom? Gosh darnit, I’m gonna give them a prom they’ll never forget.”

As I entered the local supermarket nothing could stop me. Arianna and I blew our budget on countless potato chips, chocolate, and soda – our students would not be denied sugary confections and high calorie foods during their special day. On prom’s eve Arianna and I brainstormed an obscene amount of prom stereotypes. From Tony, who was last year’s prom king intent on a double crown, to Betty, the overprotective mother who went to prom with her daughter Sandra (who’s makeup wasn’t applied properly and was crying to everyone about her fugliness), we made sure Jishou would experience the quintessential American prom.

The special day finally came. Our students were each assigned a role for prom and they performed them flawlessly. During the pre-prom photo shoots the “mean girls” insulted other students while the social outcasts hated on everyone else for liking prom. In the photo booth station our students took sufficiently awkward prom poses and general excitement built when “Tik Tok” started playing in the background.

Arianna and I donned sunglasses and became bouncers as the students shuffled into classroom 306 – the designated space for the dance floor. Reuben turned on Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On.”

Oh. My. Lady. Gaga. High-pitched girly screams pierced the air as each of the couples rushed the floor for the designated slow song. While I separated couples that were dancing too closely (Arianna and I were also the acting overprotective parents), I had flashbacks to my own prom experience. As I witnessed the pandemonium of the classroom, I marveled at the spectacle in front of me: perhaps locked inside of every mild-mannered Chinese college student is an American prom diva waiting to be unleashed.

So perhaps prom looked like a glorified classroom party. Maybe the kids didn’t even really understand how to dance to YMCA. Regardless, I can now sleep soundly at night and cherish priceless photos.

Prom King Yaya and Prom Queen Erica…too bad they broke up during prom

-Nick

This past Saturday, the foreign teachers set off for Mr. Dai’s hometown, Wangcun (a 2 hour drive from Jishou). We were told that we would spend the day hiking, but details of the trip were unclear. It was only while we were eating lunch that Mr. Dai mentioned the hike would be “a little bit dangerous” and would involve waterfalls and “metal chains…”

At that point, everyone who was thinking of bringing a camera on the hike (myself included) visibly cringed. I wasn’t sure how I would be able to handle grappling metal chains (??) while ensuring that my beloved Canon came out unscathed. Everyone was given the opportunity to leave all valuables behind – but, once at the hotel, Tony convinced me that I would certainly regret leaving my camera, and that I should definitely bring it. A tad skeptical, I gave in, praying that my precious DSLR would not meet an untimely death.

The nerves really started to kick in when we arrived at the hike’s starting point; Mr. Dai had not been kidding about the metal chains, although perhaps “metal ropes” is a more apt description. We saw a promotional poster of people holding onto the ropes, which had been fixed into the rocks, as they scaled the mountainside on what appeared to be steel platforms. To my horror, these steel platforms appeared to be suspended several meters above a river/body of water. Key word here: suspended. I happen to be terrified of heights. I think Cameron must have seen my face when I saw the promotional poster, for he murmured something about there being no pressure to go through with the hike. I will admit that for a split second I was rather tempted to find a way out; but, as with several things that I have encountered on this trip, deep down I knew that I had to pull a Nike and “just do it.”

Despite my initial qualms, the hike turned out to be one of the most amazing I’ve ever experienced. It was 2 hours long, and felt just like an adventure theme park ride. Grasping onto the ropes was a lot of fun, especially because – my fear of heights aside – I enjoy climbing. The scenery was breathtaking; we slid along mossy rock walls, over and under waterfalls, all the while looking down at green-blue water. The real challenge came when we had to first climb up a ladder, then scale the wall of an open cave. I happened to be the first of the SoS-ers to tackle this portion of the hike. My heart pounding, my palms sweaty, “oh-my-God”-ing with Jessica saying “You can do it!” right behind me, I somehow made my way up the ladder and slowly clambered along the cave wall without disrupting the peace of the rock-pool far below. After that stretch was over, I felt the biggest adrenaline rush I’ve felt in a long time – my hands were shaking, and I was overwhelmed with an immense feeling of accomplishment.

I realize that I feel the same adrenaline rush each time I step into the classroom and say, “Good morning everyone!” We are now in the third week of class, and I have seen so many improvements in the students’ homework assignments, participation, and overall attitude towards learning English. The more quiet students seem to have blossomed, and the other Unicorn teachers and I have noticed that they are definitely opening up. It’s hard to believe that we have a mere 10 days of teaching left – I feel as if we’ve only just begun to scratch the surface of what these students are capable of.

I have pushed myself to do things I’d never dreamed of doing before coming to China, and have found myself loving things that may have frightened or disgusted me a month or so ago. I know that, just as I overcame my fear of heights, our students are constantly pushing themselves to improve their English, overcoming difficulties that I am learning about day by day. I hope that my students will soon feel the same rush, the same feeling of accomplishment that I experienced on my Wangcun hike.

Most importantly, I hope that they enjoy the view from the top.

As part of last Friday’s test, the Phoenixes had to write stories starting with the phrase “Once upon a time.” One of my students wrote about a girl who had to grow up without parents and support herself. The moral of her story was “where there’s a way, there’s a will.”

Although Britney didn’t get the wording quite right, I think “where there’s a will, there’s a way” is the perfect phrase for the Phoenixes. We have our fair share of struggles during class, usually stemming from a lack of English vocabulary. However, I think the students have definitely improved at describing words for me over the past two weeks, and they are becoming less shy about asking questions as time goes on. Sometimes, I can see that they lack the confidence to try and explain what they’re talking about, but when they try their best, things always work out. They don’t need to use Chinese in the classroom, because they really are capable of explaining themselves in English. My students are so smart and know a lot of things; I think the biggest problem most of the time is that they are too scared to push themselves that extra step and simply don’t realize how much they truly know.

The students that I am the most proud of are the ones that persevere and display a huge desire to improve their English. It is so encouraging to see them working hard, and to see that hard work pay off in the long run. Even though I’ve only spent two and a half weeks with my students, I can already see a huge difference in how they act. Students that used to never answer questions are now shouting out example sentences for me in class, one of my youngest, and quietest, students nearly sprinted across the classroom to win a point for her team in a vocabulary game, and several students show up to class early in the mornings to study. I can see the change outside the classroom, too. Today after dinner, Dada asked me to help her with her pronunciation, and we practiced saying the word “turtle” for close to 10 minutes. (Turtle is a harder word to say than you would think, by the way.)

Moments like this are why I came to China.

A girl named Cherry wrote her “Once upon a time” story about….a girl called Cherry who entered an English program. Sound familiar? Anyway, the last two (slightly edited) lines in her story were: “With the help of the teacher, she began to slowly have the courage to speak English. Finally, her English improved and she found confidence.” Reading stories like this one and seeing students like Cherry improve over the weeks and recognize their own achievements makes me really happy to be a teacher!

– Kelsey

Today’s textbook topic was Valentine’s Day, so when else was I going to simulate a dating show for my students?

I started things off with a (benign?) task: write the profile for the ideal man (my precept had all female students). Students were required to give certain attributes, such as occupation, age, zodiac sign, etc, but they were given more free rein when it came to devising the man’s life story. As they worked, I walked around the room, looking at the personalities being pulled out of thin air, occasionally catching a glimpse of something like “Job: Engineer/Architect/Lawyer”. A very busy man, to be sure.

I then revealed that the profiles would act an aid while we watched some episodes of a new dating show: Fatal Flaw. For each episode, three of the girls would pretend to be men—their ideal men, to be exact—while one of the girls would portray herself, trying to find an eligible bachelor to date. The girl would interview the “men”, asking them simple questions. However, there was a twist: before the episode, I took the three “men” out into the hallway and assigned them each a “fatal flaw”. Some examples:

– cries whenever he eats tofu

– calls his mother every hour

– collects Xi Yangyang dolls

– has hooks for hands

After interviewing the men, the girl was informed of the three flaws, but she was never told who had which flaw. This left her with a bit of a gamble (and in one of the episodes, Mr. Hooks For Hands was the lucky man). However, she had plenty of other qualities to judge the men on.

Some memorable moments:

Girl: What are you good at?

“Guy”: I remember both my mother’s and my father’s birthday.

Girl: What is your job?

“Guy”: I am a boss. I am a big boss.

Girl: What is your hobby?

“Guy”: Taking care of you, of course!

– Cameron

Last Monday was our first true day of class, because although we had taught the Friday prior, all three of the Lions teachers and all of our students were together in one classroom. We certainly had a lot of fun playing our introduction trivia game with the students, but I knew that the coming days would be quite different.

I was nervous, to say the least, to start teaching on my own. But by the end of the next day, my nerves had been calmed considerably after leading a lecture, two precepts, and a few individual sessions. Earlier that day, Sofia had mentioned a comment about how nerves can act in weird ways, sometimes. The time leading up to the event is when they’re feistiest, but in the moment itself they are much quieter. The moment is like the eye of the storm, she said. And she was right. That Tuesday morning when I woke up, sleep deprived and grumpy, I questioned why I had wanted to do this to myself. Why did I think it would be a good idea to ‘challenge’ myself like this? At the time, the ‘challenge’ felt like puffy eyes, a scant breakfast, and utter confusion about what I was supposed to be doing with myself here. But after a day of teaching and getting to know a group of wonderful students, I knew again why I had decided to come to Jishou, and had a much better idea of what I was doing here (even if I’m not yet at expert at doing it).

The days are becoming busier and busier, and I have a pretty strong feeling that the summer might fly by. Will there be enough time? I can already feel myself getting attached to this place. To the place, to the summer, to the people…

I am a dragon. Here in Princeton-in-Jishou we have divided the students into four different levels denoted by different mythological creatures. The dragons are the most advanced, but I couldn’t have expected how much they would know, and how curious they would be to learn. For the most part the students were incredibly outgoing and friendly, but some expressed their excitement differently…..

One girl invited me, Arianna, and Reuben to eat lunch with her and her friends after the first day of class. Let’s call her Deborah. While waiting for the food to come she began to drill me with questions. She was inquisitive and sharp, but I was very hungry. She asked me about other colleges in America and then everything changed. Beneath her smiling, pretty faced lurked a sassy attitude that I could never have anticipated. “You don’t like Harvard because you’re jealous.” She smiled devilishly and turned to her friends. “In fact, I think you should be in Jishou and I should be in Princeton.”

I was flabbergasted. She was fluent in sarcasm – a rarity in China – and she was relentless. Who was this girl? Why was she talking so much about the Vampire Diaries? Wait. Had American TV turned her into this precocious, insubordinate she-devil? The food soon arrived and my irritation and surprise subsided. After lunch ended I swallowed the truth: we were forever destined to be enemies, foreign teacher vs. troublemaking problem child.

Later that week she haunted me in English Corner, an hour session where the students  talk with the foreign teachers informally to further improve their English. I must admit that I was afraid of her at first, but soon she became enraptured by Arianna’s love stories. Seeing the unblinking focus of Deborah’s face as she absorbed all of Arianna’s words was a transformative experience for me. Although she had an attitude, she had a passion for English, and I respected her for that. Ok, maybe I hate-respected her.

Another revealing experience occurred when I became suddenly aware that one of my students was way cooler than me. Let’s call her Kim. She came to class with a distinct swagger, and her clothes were fashionable, looking slightly Middles Eastern. Her mannerisms were equally chill. She nodded and smiled in class, and had an air of confidence (but not cockiness) at all times, even when she was nervous. In other words, Kim is cool without realizing how cool she is. Naturally, I wanted to become more like her.

Me: Hey Kim!

Kim: Hi

Me: So……How did you like class?

Kim: I enjoyed it.

Me: Ummmm…. Are you free for lunch? What I mean is, erm….. Well, if you want to practice your English, I would be happy to spend time with you.

Kim: I’m sorry, I have to eat with my family today.

Me. OK! Cool, cool. That’s totally cool. Are you free for dinner?

Kim: Sorry, I have dance class.

Me: Yeah. Great. That makes sense……..Ok then. *cough cough* I’ll see you tomorrow?

Kim: Yes. See you tomorrow.

Me: …………

Kim can’t evade me forever. One day I will achieve her swag, even if she is really busy. The students are amazing, and I can’t wait to spend more weeks with them.

Nick

Can’t believe two weeks of teaching are already finished. For me, the initial euphoria of arrival has died down and I’ve settled into a fairly regular routine. That isn’t to say that something doesn’t surprise me every day.

One interesting discovery from the past week:

One of our lessons this week dealt with teen cellphone use. In our precept discussion, we talked about ending a relationship via text message (anything regarding relationships is an interesting topic for the students). It turns out that breaking up via text message is actually the preferred method in China, because it avoids awkwardness/embarrassment for both sides.

This week I also become quite fond of “cold jokes.” This is a popular kind of joke in China that is funny because it’s not funny. Here’s one I heard from a student: “why did the rabbit hop twice on its left foot and once on its right foot?” Answer: “that’s just the way it is.”

Eliot and I have taken it upon ourselves to continuously make up new ones.

Just this afternoon a handful of students took me and two other teachers to 新吉大, the newer college campus in Jishou. We ate lunch on campus and had a great time exploring with the students. They never run out of energy and are always inviting us to go to new places. It’s awesome.

Week 2 of teaching has already gone by. The most meaningful thing for me has been the relationships I’m building with some students. They tell me that I am approachable and that they feel they can trust me and talk to me about anything. This is what I came here for. I came to teach English, but I also came to be a teacher, if that makes any sense. Teachers should also  be mentors. Every moment that I get to chat with a student is extremely rewarding. A lot of them tell me about their dreams and goals, and the things they have given up on. This week, I stopped my precept to remind them all how talented they are and how thankful they should be for every chance they get to learn something new. I told them that many wished to be in their shoes. I also remind them that I’m learning as much from them as they are from me. Perhaps even more.

But the learning doesn’t stop there. When I walk down the street, I just observe. I analyze my surroundings and look into people’s eyes. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to explore more of this city. Language barrier. Hopefully someone can accompany me to see more. If not, I’m willing to take that step on my own.

I like meeting new people. I like learning from others. So far, I guess I can say that I’ve learned the most from Cameron and Tony, even if they didn’t know it. Also, from the lady who makes the fried rice right outside the school gates while always keeping an eye on her baby.

Hopefully, I can learn more from the rest of the students and teachers.

-Christian