JISHOU, HUNAN — Yesterday was unusually busy for me, so I want this chance to take to chronicle it.

Every Sunday, I teach spoken English (and some reading) to five 9-year-olds for two hours. These kids are the children of police officers — friends of my friend Smile, whose husband is an officer, too. One of my student friends helps me in this project, since I need someone to translate English to Chinese. Though the kids are rambunctious, they are also very bright, so the job is not as awful as it sounds (unless the reader happens to be a primary school teacher, who would know what I mean).

At 11, Nora and I left the police residential compound (警公安局 jing gong an ju) and headed for lunch at the university dining hall. There we were joined by four of my students (roommates), our friend from the PE college and a senior in the chemistry college who wanted just to talk with me. Afterward, three of us went for a walk and a sit in the sunshine, which has been in short supply these last four weeks, and the rest went off to their own things.

December 21st, 2009 | Tags: China, chronicle, examinations, students, Teaching | Category: China, Teaching English | Leave a comment

JISHOU, HUNAN — As expected (by rational people), President Barack Obama will talk at noon today to students about overcoming hardships, staying on track, going to school, doing their work, and making a difference for their communities and their nation.

He even says, “God bless you and God bless America.”

I’ve read the text released ahead of time by the White House. I can’t find any socialist, Marxist, or any other kind of pernicious indoctrination. It’s not bombastic. It’s not demagoguery. In fact, he says exactly what he said he would say.

So why were people upset again?

September 7th, 2009 | Tags: Barack Obama, education, president, school, speech, students | Category: Commentary, Schools | Comments (2)

JISHOU, HUNAN — I spent all afternoon yesterday talking.

As I have mentioned before, a standard feature of any Chinese university (or high school, too, I reckon) is the English Corner, an extracurricular, student-led activity to practice spoken English. My responsibilities here include participation in the English Corner, for obvious reasons.

I live and work at the new campus. Our English Corner is held (weather permitting) every Sunday at 5 pm on a green across from the athletic facilities. I have already chronicled my first visit to English Corner lo! these many months ago. After that initial mob of visitors, attendance settled down in the following weeks to a more manageable number of regulars and the occasional newcomer.

Jishou University (JiDa in local parlance) has, at my last count, four distinct campuses: new campus, old campus, the medical campus in Shijiachong, and the affiliated teacher’s college across the river, where Princeton-in-Jishou fellows Juliann and Stephanie teach. A few students from the old campus have come to the new campus corner, but only those dedicated enough to travel the 3 km to do it.

Last weekend, my fellow foreign expert, David, and I were invited to an English Corner at the old campus. Many students attended, but the crowd was not a mob as it was during my first experience last fall. Once the initial novelty of seeing Westerners in the flesh faded, we all settled down to relatively calm chatting on the green.

March 22nd, 2009 | Tags: China, english, english corner, students, Teaching | Category: China, Commentary, Teaching English | Comments (2)

JISHOU, HUNAN — Hard to believe that the semester is nearly over, but it’s true. Time passes too quickly.

It also means that I have been in Jishou for three entire months. While it may be hard to believe, it’s become home for me. I still struggle with being absolutely illiterate in Chinese and being incapable of having even a simple conversation in Chinese, but I learn new bits of Chinese each day. So, I figure I’m making progress.

Chief on everyone’s mind now are finals, and for the seniors, postgraduate exams. Anxiety levels are high, and we all are busier than usual. Of course, the students are more anxious than the faculty.

This weekend, I need to write six exams to turn into the office. Each writing or reading class has to sit for a two-hour exam. Oral class students need to be tested individually, and I have 35 sophomores, so I’ll be occupied with them for the next several days.

Fortunately, I have had some experience writing exams, and I have been giving the students in-class assignments for a few weeks now to gauge how long they will need to complete the tasks. They naturally want the tests to be easy. We’ll see. We’ll see …

The seniors are the ones most stressed. China has national exams in several subjects for students to qualify for a bachelor’s degree, and thus postgraduate (graduate school, in US-talk) studies. They all have to pass the national English test. Those planning postgrad work overseas also have to score acceptably well on the IELTS or TOEFL English tests.

December 4th, 2008 | Tags: China, english, ESL, semester, students, Teaching | Category: China, Teaching English | Comments (2)

JISHOU, HUNAN — It has been raining pretty steadily since last evening, and the temperature has dropped to the mid-50s (F scale), making a tour of historic FengHuang this weekend less than appealing.

This past week has been pretty busy on the teaching front, none the least because of my diary-keeping assignments to my writing classes. Now that I have 60+ freshmen writers, the task of reading their journals has escalated nearly to a full-time job. But I tell them to practice writing English every day, so it’s my own damn fault that I have to read their efforts.

As a physics teacher, the only student writing I saw with any regularity were lab reports, which don’t lend themselves to creative expression and introspection much. (Though, I have had some gifted writers over the years who played with the form.) I was a little unprepared, therefore, for the remarkable honesty and emotional revelations some of my students put down on paper.

My two smaller senior classes have the same assignment as the freshmen. Their thoughts revolve around the crucial events of their young careers: passing English competency tests, passing subject-specific graduation exams, finding jobs after graduation, writing their 9,000-word exit essays. Layered on to these pretty overwhelming obsessions is the realization that in a few short months they will leave the cocoon of university and the camaraderie of their friends and classmates.

October 25th, 2008 | Tags: diaries, students, Teaching | Category: China, Commentary, Teaching English | Leave a comment

JISHOU, HUNAN — I’ve commented before on the hospitality and kindness individuals have shown me here. One of my freshmen handed me this note at the end of class yesterday. I’ll let it speak for itself. I have removed her name and phone for obvious reasons.

Dear Mr Wheaton,

I want to tell you something in my heart. I thought you were a person in a film when I first saw you. Although you are my teacher, even sometimes you are beside me, I feel you are so far away, like a person not in real life. I can’t get your age from your appearance, maybe you are old. In my childhood, I read some poems written by some Chinese living abroad. I can understand their feelings. So I can understand you. I hope you have a good life here, being happy and having many friends. If you have some difficulties, like language, shoping and so on, I’m glad to help you at any time.

Your student,
xxxxx

My phone number is xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Need help, call me!

Along the same lines, while returning from the supermarket last night, I bumped into a young couple from Germany on campus. Both medical students, they had gone sightseeing and gotten lost downtown. One of our students ran into them, brought them to campus by taxi, and was proceeding to arrange for their train tickets when I walked up. She was then going to accompany them to the train station to ensure they got their tickets and boarded the right train.

September 28th, 2008 | Tags: China, hospitality, kindness, students | Category: China, Teaching English | Leave a comment