I'm a teacher?! in China?!

I thought my first few days in China before Kim came were exciting but these past few days have been even more eventful! Kim showed up Saturday afternoon and the rest of the day felt a hurricane of meeting people and seeing things. I met two students from Russia, a few students from Korea, a teacher from Japan, and a teacher from France. Crazy! We had a going away dinner for Yusi (her friend that helped us out the first few days) then went to Charlie's Bar after. Actually, Charlie and his wife came to dinner too and Charlie gave Emily and I our Chinese names! He gave us his family name Gao (which also happens to be Kim's and Yusi's family names). Emily is Gao Li which means Beautiful, and I am Gao Shan which means Tall Mountain. I felt special to be given a Chinese name so quickly! That night we also went to a karaoke bar with Yusi's friends - we had our own room and sang and danced to English and Chinese music until I literally fell asleep.

We were also given our class schedules. I have 6 classes - 4 are Spoken English for Sophomores and 2 are Written English for Juniors. To be honest I can't remember right now what I did on Sunday because my classes were so eventful! Classes here are 45 minutes/10 minute break/45 minutes and only once a week. Monday I have Spoken 8:00-9:40 and 10:10-11:50. Tuesday I have Spoken 8:00-9:40. Wednesday I have Written 8:00-9:40. Thursday I have Spoken 4:20-6:00. Friday I have Written 8:00-9:40.

Emily's classes start next week because the freshmen are in military training until then. So, I will be teaching from weeks 1 until 17 and she has classes weeks 2 until 18. Kim and Emily teach at the Foreign College, and I teach at the Industrial and Commercial College. They are both on the New Campus near each other. The differences are Foreign College has classes with about 20 students and are in Buildings B; I&C College has classes with about 40 students and are in Buildings A. Kim does not have classes Monday but both Kim and Emily came on the bus with me to the new campus to check out their college and check up on me during my breaks.

My first class at 8:00 started off on a good note when I walked in and said GOOD MORNING! and everyone in the class shouted GOOD MORNING! back to me. My first class has 38 students and only 3 are boys. Apparently, here in China, most English are girls and my classes sure reflect that so far! My lesson plan for the first week is the same for each class. I introduce myself then give them a notecard. I have them put what section class they are in, their Chinese & English names, what city they are from, their birthday, and e-mail addresses. (btw, I am very proud of my new teacher e-mail address: YoTeachWahl@yahoo.com...like YO! Teach from Funny People hahaha) Then I split the class into pairs where they interview each other and use that information to present each other to the rest of the class. This is where my first class got interesting. I asked everyone to stand up and everyone looked around or confused. I asked again and one girl started to stand up but sat back down when no one else stood up. I asked again and again and finally everyone stood up. Also...asking them to find a partner with the same color shirt was a bad idea so I just gave them a number and they found the person with the same number and sat down with them. I had to ask pairs to present each other but about half way through, they would start getting up on their own. They were all hilarious too! One girl showed off her new hair cut and said she thought it suited her well. One girl presented a boy as "one of the few boys and very handsome!" The students new to the major even said they hoped everyone could be friendly and help them!

By the way, Katie Dubendorf (from MCLA Admissions) told me students would pick normal English names or very funky ones like Cloud. I am proud to say I will be teaching Susan, Anita, Hector, Shimmer, Season, Ice, Winter, Spring, Autumn, Summer, Zelda, Rainbow, Shaka, and Apple.

After interviews, they wrote on a piece of paper what they have learned in their English classes and what they want to learn this year. The first class has that for homework but so far the other two did that in class. Every class for homework has to bring in an American slang word or phrase! I can't wait to see what they find.

My second class was similar to the first but this morning (Tuesday morning for me right now!) was very interesting. My sheet says the class is in 308 and I went in and didn't see many people but said GOOD MORNING! They all looked confused and one girl said, "sorry sir, this is not a class." (when classrooms aren't being used, people study in them). I then had to call Tim, the teacher from Virginia, to guide me to where our bosses office is. I found my boss, Nick, and he realized the room is actually 408 so we ran over and I arrived 25 minutes late! However, they clapped when I entered!!! I love them! Haha. I went on with the lesson plan and we got through everything except for the second half of the presentations. This class has 34 people and FIVE boys. That's a lot! Haha. Their English names are: Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Season. One of them even asked to take a picture with me after class! Aren't my students the best?!

I haven't really relaxed since I ran around then taught so maybe I should do that now...