First Day of Class

If you have read my previous two entries, maybe you are somewhat disappointed as the title of the blog is teaching abroad, and all I have talked about so far is how I decided to come to China.  Well, for you who are looking for more of a pedagogical focus, here you go.

So, as I mentioned in my previous post, I did not have a lot of info on what kind of courses I would be teaching.  Oh, sure, I talked (and actually met with my former professor) to discuss these things before coming to China, but these courses had titles such as Oral English 1, College English, Integrated English, and so on...I had no idea what these course titles meant, only that I would be, in some way, shape, or form, teaching English. (I also had no idea where I would be living, the size of the city I would be in, etc, but that is not related to teaching, so I will leave it out of here for now). Also, keep in mind, I have never been trained for ESL or EFL or TESOL.  I was trained to be a social studies teacher...and then a Literacy specialist.

Once I arrived in China, I had several days to myself before classes began.  I was given a series of textbooks by my professor (who worked at the same University--yay! I teach college students!) and a promise that she would contact me soon to discuss in more detail what I would be teaching.  Meanwhile  I flipped through the textbooks and tried to create lesson plans based on the little information I had. That promised day came--the same day as the first day of class.  After the class was finished.  So, thankfully my college courses had at least provided with a endless amount of get-to-know-you, what-do-you-expect-from-this-course, first day of class time fillers. Which, I am ashamed to day, is what I did.

Then my former professor told me that I could do whatever I wanted, but the students should learn listening, speaking, reading, and writing in English.  (As it turns out, they were supposed to be learning these skills in a very specific way, but I was not informed of this until almost November).  The next day I was introduced to my Integrated English Class.  They would basically be learning the same 4 skill groups, although since they were math and science majors, we would be teaching them using relevant math and science materials and topics (which is great, because I know soooooo much about math and science...).  I was also informed that I would be teaching freshmen, but that they did not start classes until the 4th week of the semester...because they were busy with mandatory military training.

Side Note: Let me tell you, 5'1", 90lbs girls are not threatening, even if they are marching in camouflage uniforms.

Delana

So my first day ended in a whirl of names and faces that all blurred together.  It did not help that most of my students were girls and your average class size was about 40 students.  Some of my students had English names, and some their real names, which at that time, I was unable to even attempt to pronounce.  The English names ran the gamut from mundane such as Cherry, Jack, Jane, Sue, Mary, and Zoe to the exotic, such as Starfly (boy), Fire (boy), Cookie (also a boy), Dreamy, Twinkle, Quinta, Blue, Little Rice, Color, Rainbow (boy, who did eventually change his name to Bow), Seven, Root (boy), Snowy, Chocolate, Even, Can, Pat (girl).  I could go on for a long time.  They generally choose their English names based on one of three factors.  One: It has a similar sound as their Chinese name.  For example, Can's Chinese name is Ni Kan Kan. Two: It has a similar meaning as their Chinese name.  For example, Fire's name was direct translation of his Chinese name 'huo', which literally means fire. Third: They simply like the word's meaning, in English, and adopt it as their name, without the knowledge that we do not typically use just any noun or verb or whatever as a name.

Yes, his English name is Fancy

Cherish!

Color!

Basically, the first day was me thrown in front of groups of quietly excited Chinese students with little to no preparation. I went home tired, and not sure I had made a good life choice, and was sincerely hoping that the school was going to do more than just say, "what curriculum? What orientation?  You are American, you speak English as a native speaker?  What more do the students need?"  I was viewed as having all I needed to effectively teach them English simply because I was born and raised in an English-Speaking country.