Doug's Posting

This is Doug’s contribution to our blog. I should have contributed earlier so this entry wouldn’t be so long but here it is.

We love living here traveling and exploring but our favorite activity is teaching. We teach classes for 8 weeks and then we get new students and teach them for 8 weeks. We had 180 students spread out in 8 classes for the last 8 weeks. We leave the apartment at 6:00 and get home about 8:00 at night on Tuesday and Wednesday and we are off the rest of the week.

We teach oral English and my favorite activity with them is an activity called Lifeboat. We hand them a paper with 15 people on it and they must choose by themselves 5 people who can’t get on the lifeboat and who will die. Then they must discuss in groups of four students who their group of 4 will not allow on the boat.

We have changed the list of persons, so it is really interesting and hard for them to make decisions. We have among others a black Christian minister who won the Nobel Peace Prize, a Chinese grandmother, a Chinese orphaned baby, Taylor Swift, a Japanese teenager, the American president, and an American English professor at a Chinese university. The activity really has them speaking English and being involved. Most of the students do not like making decisions.

Most of them choose the Chinese grandmother and the USA president to not make it on the boat. We really make them think when we ask, what if it is your grandmother? About half of them say they wouldn’t change their mind. When asked why the American president, the top two reasons are, age and they say America can easily replace him.

Some include the black minister to not get on the boat. Some say he has accomplished enough in his life but a few of them agreed with one student who said “he is an easy choice because he would not get on the boat anyway. He has shown through his accomplishments that he would sacrifice his life for others.”

Most of them would leave Taylor Swift on the boat. One male student asked, who is Taylor Swift? and the rest of the class were shocked he didn’t know her!

A few picked the American English teacher in China, but they did not realize that it was Cindy or me! I would ask, so you are kicking me off the boat? They would get so embarrassed. I asked why and they said, “not important” and then laugh and laugh. One girl that chose us ran to a store after class and ran back with chocolates for us because she felt bad!

Each class chose different people, so it was interesting to see the choices. The most interesting choice was the Japanese teenager. In our first class there were 5 groups, and all the groups chose her to be off the lifeboat. I would ask why, and they would say because “we hate her” or “we don’t like Japanese people.”

We finished each of the class Lifeboat activity with a list of reasons why they left the people off. When we discussed the Japanese girl, I told them that their answers had made me feel sad because I have lived in Japan for two years and I love the Japanese people. I got a little emotional and asked them if they thought it would be ok if I left the black American minister off the boat because he was black. They all said absolutely that that would be wrong. We then discussed America’s history with racism and bias, and I told them in my own life, I can see how I was raised and how I had racism and bias rooted in me even though it was not explicit or even recognizable by me until I got older. We had just finished a friendship project where each student had two weeks to interview a foreign student and do an oral report. All of them had a good experience. I told them if they had interviewed a Japanese student, they would like that student. I also asked them if any of them had met a Japanese student and none of them had. I said that hating them because of their race was racism and world peace cannot be obtained if we have racism. Each class clapped when I finished. One girl came up afterward and said she felt bad, and she tried to get her group not to choose the Japanese girl for that reason and she apologized for making me feel bad.

Overall it is my favorite activity because it helps them so much with their English but it really makes them think about what is important to them.

We finished our 8 weeks of classes this week and we had an activity called “Ask the Teacher.” They write down anonymously questions and we answer a few of them to end the class. Some of them write notes instead of questions. All the students love Cindy. She encourages them every activity and praises them constantly. We decided that their biggest need is confidence. Some of the comments are “I hope you are happy every day. Love you.”

“This is the most interesting class I have ever had in Xi’an Jiaotong University. Thank you!!! Wish you have a nice life in China!” “You are the best teachers. Thank you!”

It was hard to say goodbye to them. We would end with answering the question, “why did you come to China and do you miss your children and grandchildren?”

Cindy would go first and would tell them that we came because of them and she would get emotional (even though she hates when she does!) and in one of the classes she had most of the class in tears. I would then tell them that we really miss our children and grandchildren but we felt like we needed to be here teaching them. We develop such a love and admiration for them so quickly. We have them shake our hands as we leave. Many of the girls want a hug from Cindy. Many of them tell us they love us.

Teachers have a very honored place in China. When people find out we are teachers, they look at us differently. Especially when we tell them we teach at Jiaotong University. They always tell us that it is one of the top universities in China. Flying to China was hard and they messed up my seat and were not cooperating with Cindy who was trying to get me a better seat. I walked up and said that we are teachers going to Xi’an Jiaotong University to teach. His whole attitude instantly changed, and I got the better seat.