Work?
Getting back into this whole work thing is not easy.
Josh studies his characters.
And two minutes later....
Halfway through the week and we have already met 100 new students each. I learned so much last term and was eager to get right into it on the first day with pronunciation drills and correcting their oral English at first chance.
We did pair interviews and introductions to warm up:
“This is Liu Bo. He—“
“She.”
“Oh, yes, sorry. She is from a beautiful city called Wentai. His major—“
“Her major.”
“Her major is Civil Engineering.”
That scenario comes up a lot. In Chinese there is no distinguishing between the two. ‘He’ and ‘she’ are both said “ta”. Of course the characters are written differently.
Other than the, his/her/he/she agreement, I let everything else slide because some of the students are like hermit crabs. And my job is to coax them out of their shell, not to scare them all the back in to the darkest corner never to trust again. Just as I remember doing in Spanish class, many of my students try to become in invisible by avoiding eye contact with me when it seems I am about to call on someone for an answer. As a student I always thought it was subtle and effective, but it can be a disheartening—or just funny---from where the teacher stands. Suddenly everyone in the room is checking to make sure his or her shoes are tied.
I might be standing next to a student, smiling right at them and saying, “Would you introduce your partner?” and they will still be trying very hard to look preoccupied and unaware of my presence, desperately hoping I will give up and move on to someone else. Finally they will look up at me surprised, glance quickly side to side, blink a few times, point at themselves and ask: “Wo?” meaning "Me?" I feel the urge to laugh at the obviousness rising in my throat but let it translate only into a warm, encouraging smile. "Yes, you."
Josh studies his characters.
And two minutes later....
Halfway through the week and we have already met 100 new students each. I learned so much last term and was eager to get right into it on the first day with pronunciation drills and correcting their oral English at first chance.
We did pair interviews and introductions to warm up:
“This is Liu Bo. He—“
“She.”
“Oh, yes, sorry. She is from a beautiful city called Wentai. His major—“
“Her major.”
“Her major is Civil Engineering.”
That scenario comes up a lot. In Chinese there is no distinguishing between the two. ‘He’ and ‘she’ are both said “ta”. Of course the characters are written differently.
Other than the, his/her/he/she agreement, I let everything else slide because some of the students are like hermit crabs. And my job is to coax them out of their shell, not to scare them all the back in to the darkest corner never to trust again. Just as I remember doing in Spanish class, many of my students try to become in invisible by avoiding eye contact with me when it seems I am about to call on someone for an answer. As a student I always thought it was subtle and effective, but it can be a disheartening—or just funny---from where the teacher stands. Suddenly everyone in the room is checking to make sure his or her shoes are tied.
I might be standing next to a student, smiling right at them and saying, “Would you introduce your partner?” and they will still be trying very hard to look preoccupied and unaware of my presence, desperately hoping I will give up and move on to someone else. Finally they will look up at me surprised, glance quickly side to side, blink a few times, point at themselves and ask: “Wo?” meaning "Me?" I feel the urge to laugh at the obviousness rising in my throat but let it translate only into a warm, encouraging smile. "Yes, you."
posted by B | 12:12 AM
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