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September 4th, 2006
So my gastrointe
stinal system woke me up this morning at about 5:45am. Super. Bad food or just nerves? We'll never know. At 6am the speakers outside started blasting orchestral military songs. Then some guy came on over the music and started drilling out marching steps. It was still going when I left for class at 7:10. 6am. Everyday? I'm so excited to find out.I arrived at my Oral English class around 7:25. I took a picture to give you all a visual image of what facing the class for the first time was like. (Picture to the right.) They were all very sweet. I introduced myself, said where I was from and where I went to school. They asked me some questions, is this my first time to China, how do I like it, where else have I traveled, etc. I talked a bit about what I hoped to cover in the 
class, and asked them what they hoped to get out of the class themselves. Silence. Any particular focus? Grammer? Role-play? Slang? Yeah, slang! I asked one girl individually what she wanted to get out of the class. She stood up and this was her reply: "My name is May. M-A-Y. I would like to learn oral English." Sigh.Next I gave a short lecture on Vermont and how it compares to the Shandong province. (650,000 people vs. over 90 million. huh.) I then gave them each 15 minutes to prepare a short presentation on their hometown and province and how it compares to mine. Each student came to the front of the class and spoke for about 2-5 minutes. This was great, because I got to see each individual's level of English speaking, to a certain extent. They all introduced t
hemselves (spelling and all) before they began. One guy said that last year he had chosen the English name Sunny, but then he found out it's a girl's name, so he wants to find another one. I told him that if he spelled it Sonny it was a boy's name, and that there was a character named Sonny in the Godfather. He immedietely decided to go with Sonny.Anyway, overall it went great. The students were very cooperative as individuals. As a group, they took a bit of prodding to get started. They also talked a lot during class, which was annoying. But overall they were fine. I'm looking forward to my next class with them. The class monitor is named Jordon, he's very helpful. Every class has a monitor who is a party member and reports back to the party about the class.My next class isn't until wednesday because some classes start next week, some the week after that, and some the week after that, I'm not really sure why. I think something to do with military training for the freshmen. Greg and I spoke to a guy named Lenny yesterday who was very enthusiastic about his past military training. "You learn to shoot guns with real bullets! Really cool!" Kind of a foreign concept to Americans, military training that everyone has to go through. But they do it in Europe too. Not all countries but some. I think in Switzerland every citizen is required to do at least three months of military service. Or something like that.So, that was my first day. It's done!
stinal system woke me up this morning at about 5:45am. Super. Bad food or just nerves? We'll never know. At 6am the speakers outside started blasting orchestral military songs. Then some guy came on over the music and started drilling out marching steps. It was still going when I left for class at 7:10. 6am. Everyday? I'm so excited to find out.I arrived at my Oral English class around 7:25. I took a picture to give you all a visual image of what facing the class for the first time was like. (Picture to the right.) They were all very sweet. I introduced myself, said where I was from and where I went to school. They asked me some questions, is this my first time to China, how do I like it, where else have I traveled, etc. I talked a bit about what I hoped to cover in the 
class, and asked them what they hoped to get out of the class themselves. Silence. Any particular focus? Grammer? Role-play? Slang? Yeah, slang! I asked one girl individually what she wanted to get out of the class. She stood up and this was her reply: "My name is May. M-A-Y. I would like to learn oral English." Sigh.Next I gave a short lecture on Vermont and how it compares to the Shandong province. (650,000 people vs. over 90 million. huh.) I then gave them each 15 minutes to prepare a short presentation on their hometown and province and how it compares to mine. Each student came to the front of the class and spoke for about 2-5 minutes. This was great, because I got to see each individual's level of English speaking, to a certain extent. They all introduced t
hemselves (spelling and all) before they began. One guy said that last year he had chosen the English name Sunny, but then he found out it's a girl's name, so he wants to find another one. I told him that if he spelled it Sonny it was a boy's name, and that there was a character named Sonny in the Godfather. He immedietely decided to go with Sonny.Anyway, overall it went great. The students were very cooperative as individuals. As a group, they took a bit of prodding to get started. They also talked a lot during class, which was annoying. But overall they were fine. I'm looking forward to my next class with them. The class monitor is named Jordon, he's very helpful. Every class has a monitor who is a party member and reports back to the party about the class.My next class isn't until wednesday because some classes start next week, some the week after that, and some the week after that, I'm not really sure why. I think something to do with military training for the freshmen. Greg and I spoke to a guy named Lenny yesterday who was very enthusiastic about his past military training. "You learn to shoot guns with real bullets! Really cool!" Kind of a foreign concept to Americans, military training that everyone has to go through. But they do it in Europe too. Not all countries but some. I think in Switzerland every citizen is required to do at least three months of military service. Or something like that.So, that was my first day. It's done! 
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