Josh again

My last post must have been adequate because I've been asked back for a second installment. I'll try my best to do this day justice, but it was a big one. I might not be equal to the task. We taught real honest to goodness people today. These were full-grown, talking, thinking, university students---graduate students no less. They were nothing like the little nose-pickers I'm used to working with in the states, except for the fact that some of them picked their noses...in class. A number of them were several years my senior and I would go as far as to guess that one or two have children my age. Some were no doubt already accomplished in their fields and could teach classes of their own at the University. For the five minutes leading up to class I was all nerves and feeling pretty unprepared and unqualified. Regardless, once I was in front of the group I just treated them like sixth graders and it was great.
For my lesson plan I borrowed extensively from my big brother, Jacob. In keeping with proper little brother etiquette, I didn't ask first and I won't give it back. After the standard introduction and class overview we played a get-to-know-you-game where each student had a list of values such as "Has traveled overseas" or "Can roll their tongue" and they had to walk about the classroom asking their classmates if they fit any of the values. The students' job was to fill their list with names without repeating any. It was delightful to see 40-year-old Chinese men showing that they could indeed fit the "Can wiggle their ears" category. The students seemed to enjoy it a great deal as well.
We next divided into pairs and did some personal interviews to assess speaking and listening ability. Then I finished class by giving an essay with their choice out of two prompts. I borrowed one prompt from Jake: "If water is clear, why is the ocean blue?" and added one of my own "If you could be a superhero, what would your name be and what would be your super powers?" I've read both sets of answers and they're wonderful, if pretty poorly written. For a number of students, the superhero question seemed to hit a nerve from childhood. First sentences included "I have dreamed (sic) of this question many times as a boy." and "I remember thinking of this often." Some chosen names were "Bubble Baby", "Heart-er", and "Bud".
After class we went to our first Western restaurant in China. It was Pizza Hut (near Chinese Walmart a couple blocks north of Silver Plaza and Spring City Square) and though the pizza still came in those deep dishes with the cork mat on the bottom that's where the similarity ended. There were marble slab floors, ultra- moderne interior design, and door attendants. Over the music system there was mambo playing the whole time and at the salad bar we were introduced to the Chinese art of stacking. Apparently with salad bar you're only allowed one trip and the Chinese like to get the most bang for their buck so they stack. Artfully, they will create a wall of 7 or 8 rows of cucumbers around the outside of the plate, followed by 2 or three rows of melon. The interior will be filled with lettuce, grated cheese, etc.etc.etc. until the arrangement is pushing about a foot in height. Lord knows if they eat it all. Like the art teachers say "The end is in the process."
-Josh Burt