Video of Jishou University: Mission part 1

JISHOU, HUNAN — I find it amusing that this video is available on YouTube, which is not accessible from China. Parts 2 and 3 are also available at this link.

The video opens with scenes of the campus, including the main academic building, a computer room and exterior shots of the library. Here’s a rundown of what comes next.

About 2:00: Whitewater boating on the MengDong River, Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, Qianzhou ancient city
3:45: More scenes of Qianzhou, which is immediately south of Jishou
4:00-about 6:00: artist Huang YongYu, a native of FengHuang, a city about an hour from here. The university has a museum devoted to Huang’s works.
6:00: a steam locomotive (long retired) passing through the hills
6:15: scenes of rural life in XiangXi (western Hunan) prefecture, of which Jishou is the seat
7:00: Jishou and its history, the early university circa 1958
7:36: the original university building, now the home of the medical college at the old campus
7:50: construction of the new campus
9:00: one of the language labs (the instructor is Miss Liu, now director of the Public English Education department)
9:56: a shot of FengYu Lake, with the music building designed by Huang YongYu in the background; my college building is to the left, but not visible in this view
10:28: scenes of an Oral English class, led by a foreign teacher who predates me

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November 19th, 2011 | Tags: , | Category: China, Media | Leave a comment

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The freshmen arrive at Jishou University

Cross-posted at The Daily Kos and rescued! That’s two diary rescues in a row.

JISHOU, HUNAN, CHINA — Last time I wrote a diary for Teacher’s Lounge, I introduced myself and my experiences of teaching English in China for this past year. This time, I’d like to introduce you to my freshmen and give you some sense of their lives here.

We have just come back from an eight-day break for the National Holiday and Mid-Autumn Festival. The freshmen have started their classes, which means we faculty suddenly have many more classes to teach. My own courseload just doubled, in fact.

Chinese universities reverse the order in which students arrive at school, compared to the US norm. Here, the returning students arrive first, and begin classes right away. Then, two weeks later the freshmen arrive. Their orientation is generally brief and utilitarian — there’s none of those open houses and parties that are a major part of American Freshmen Orientation Weeks. All freshmen are also required to have military training; in Jishou University’s case, they had 10 days’ training between arrival and the National Holiday.

JiDa’s 4,000 freshmen arrived on a dreary, rainy weekend, beginning with the first trains at 6 am Saturday. Volunteers from the sophomores and juniors awoke at 4 am to be ready to meet the first arrivals, as they — some with parents in tow — staggered off the university buses shuttling between campus and downtown. The volunteers helped the freshmen find their dormitories and the dining halls, pay their school fees, pick up their military training uniforms (green camos), and find the local supermarkets. The last students arrived around midnight Sunday. Military training started promptly at 6 am Monday.



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October 17th, 2009 | Tags: , , , | Category: China, Teaching English | Leave a comment

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