China Exchange 1999 - International Programs @ TCC

I began teaching on Monday morning. My morning ritual is to get up early, usually about six or so, have coffee, and read and respond to my E-mail. I had done quite a bit of that before I bothered to look out the window. The campus was covered with a blanket of snow. What a wonderful surprise!

The view from the building in which I teach my classes to BBI's main building on Monday morning

My first class was a group of twenty third years students. My History of Photography classes meet in one of BBI's language labs where there is a screen and electrical outlets for showing the transparencies that I use for the course. I had been practicing my opening statement, "And how are you all today, students?" in Chinese for months. They seemed to understand what I said and got a kick out of me speaking Chinese. I then told them my English name and then, again in Chinese, my Chinese name, Ge De Hua. Again, they were quite amused. I began with an introductory exercise that I use in my classes at TCC. I had students pair up, talk for a few minutes, and then introduce each other to the class. This was a delightful experience. Their introductions were quite charming and eloquent. I wish I could have recorded their responses. While I am paraphrasing, a typical introduction would go something like, "This is Xu Hongyan. He is very handsome and a kind and caring person. Many students come to him when they have problems. He is good at many sports and speaks English very well." Or, "This is Li Dongdong, whose English name is Pearl Lee. She is very delicate and gentle person, very much like a small bird." I then spoke for a while about myself and my life in the U.S. Next I had students fill out note cards with their Chinese names in pinyin (a romanized system of writing Chinese), their English names, and then their Chinese name in characters. On the back I asked them to tell me something about themselves. I then handed out another set of cards. I asked them to write a question, any question, of me on the front of the card and on the back to write a question of a student at TCC.

Here are some of the questions they asked me:

• How did you like China before you came here? What is the difference between your image and reality?
• What do Americans think of China and the Chinese?
• Who is the most important person in your life? Why?
• Please tell me something about your cats.
• If tomorrow is the last day of the whole world, what would you do today?
• What did you think of China before you went to China? Then, what about after you went to China?
• Most western women don't like to tell others their ages, but you told us your wife's age. How do you think she will react? (Ed- Could be trouble.)

This is a sampling of questions that the class had for TCC students:

• What do you think of your opportunity to find a job in the U.S.?
• How much time do you spend on class and study? What do you do after you finish the school work?
• Would you like to make friends with us and keep in touch forever?
• What are Chinese girls like in your eyes?
• Do they have the same burden of learning a foreign language as we do here?
• Is American society full of violence and sex?
• What kinds of skills do you master before you step into society?
• Do you know China well, such as history and culture? Is there any program in the U.S. which gives a brief introduction of China? What is China like in your mind?

I will begin each of my classes by answering some of the questions that were asked of me. I will make arrangements to distribute some of their questions to students at TCC and share the responses here.

 

My undergraduate classes meet in one of BBI's language labs. These students are working on a writing assignment.

 

Since I was told that the Foreign Language Department did not have a slide projector, I brought one with me from TCC. When I first tested it in my room, using a 220 to 110 volt adapter, I found that the motor that turns the carousel would not work but the light would come on. This meant that I had to insert and remove each slide by hand. For the first fifteen minutes, that is. That's how long it lasted before it died all together. My first lecture was about the early beginnings of photography. The students seemed genuinely interested, even without the visual reference of the slides. Wong Wei and the technician that works in the department worked hard to find a solution. Finally, later in the week, they found an old projector that had been used years ago. Its a little rickety and temperamental but I will try it out next week and hope for the best.

During my lecture I was concerned about the student's comprehension of the words that I was using. I would stop frequently to ask if they knew a certain word or concept. The response was usually affirmative. Later I had a conversation with one of the professors in the department. He suggested that I not worry too much about comprehension. He said that part of the idea of having native speaking English teachers was to stretch the student's skill in language comprehension and that it wasn't crucial if every student comprehend every part of my lecture. I will follow his advice and lecture as I normally do. This will, of course, include the use of questioning during class, a part of my normal teaching method at TCC as well.

Meeting with a group of graduate students and English teachers to view and discuss American news broadcast.

On Tuesday afternoons I meet with a group of professors and three graduate students from the Foreign Language Department. We look at and discuss videos of American news programs that I brought with me. The first topic that we are dealing with is the impeachment of President Clinton. I gave a short summary of the issue. It seemed that most in the room were quite knowledgeable about the whole "affair". We then watched a Meet the Press program that took place at the time that the Democrats were pressing for a vote to dismiss the charges. After we watched the tape I answered questions about the program. At our next meeting we will watch the same tape again, but this time in short segments to make sure that everyone understands exactly what was meant by each of the speakers in the show. The graduate students, who also teach classes in English at BBI, will write a paper on the handling of the event by the American press. The American Embassy provides research materials that they can access in a library not far from the campus.

Dinner with two graduate students in one of the restaurants on campus. On the left is Zhang Shuo whose English name is Adele. Qin Lu is on the right. Her English name is Athena The large beer on the far right is mine.

Tuesday evening I had dinner with two of the graduate students, Adele and Athena. It was a wonderful meal with a lot interesting conversation. One of the things that we discussed was the difference in learning styles of students in the East as opposed to those in the West. Students in China tend to be more passive learners than American students. This stems from the tradition of Confucianism. This tradition invloles the student sitting at the feet of the "master" who then imparts his wisdom. This difference is sometimes frustrating to teachers who come from the West. Dining with Chinese guests has a benefit beyond the charming company. They can read the menu. We had a variety of interesting dishes and, since Athena and Adele do not have a refrigerator in their dorm room, I got to take home the leftovers.

I now have an audience for my web page in China as well as in the states. Several of the teachers and students have access to the web and asked for the address of my page. More later.

NEXT: 3/19 Dining with students

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ED GIBBS
egibbs@tcc.edu
   

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