A trip to the ocean

I aplogize for the lateness of this post. I wrote this almost a week ago but for some reason have not been able to access the blogger site. This applies to last weekend/week.

I finished my second weekend here in China and am starting the third full week of classes. This past weekend I made a trip to one of Guangxi province’s most popular tourist spots (Beihai) with one of the teachers from the school. I was very grateful that one of the teachers took the time and money to accompany me! Located next to the ocean, Beihai is well known for its beaches. We took a three hour bus ride out to Beihai on Saturday, stayed one night in a hotel and then returned on Sunday evening. I had the opportunity to go swimming in the ocean twice (in very warm water)! The water nearly matched that of water in the Caribbean (temperature wise), but the water was not as luxuriously crystal clear and clean. In fact, it was somewhat murky and there was quite a bit of trash.  Nevertheless, it was a nice place to go swimming and enjoy the beach. That night we visited a street in Beihai that was lined with food vendors selling all kinds of things to eat and drink: fresh fruit, BBQ meats and vegetables, seafood, various kinds of noodles, tea, juice and more. Streets like this with all kinds of vendors is quite common in China...much more so than in the US. On Sunday, we visited another place in Beihai that is known for its old architecture. I am not exactly sure what date the buildings were built but they seemed pretty old by Chinese standards (which means something in a country with one of the oldest histories).

Meanwhile, in the classroom, I have been organizing each lesson around a particular theme. For example, so far we have done: introductions, buying something from a convenient store, ordering at a restaurant and going to see a movie. It’s very tricky to make a lesson plan because there is a wide range of English abilities, and what’s easy for one person is nearly impossible for another. So I try to find middle ground as best as possible. The main struggle is to draw students out and make them feel comfortable: 1) generating their own sentences in English without just regurgitating ones I repeat to them and 2) being able to speak from memory instead of reading something they have written. These are the challenges for any foreign language class, but it’s particularly prevalent here because despite having taken English class for several years they have not ever practiced speaking. In English class, there is no time to practice speaking. They can read a passage and conjugate a very pretty well, but speaking simple declarative sentences can be tough. This is mostly the fault of the Gaokao, a college entrance examination for which a student’s entire academic career is geared towards. The Gaokao does not contain a speaking portion; therefore students do not practice speaking. It’s understandable that students would only practice those skills which would allow them to score well on the Gaokao (and get into a good college), but it’s sad that the Gaokao does not include speaking in their English portion of this exam; this is in my opinion the most important part of learning a language. Oh well, hopefully I can do a little bit to remedy the situation. I am trying to develop some new teaching strategies to spice up the classes…so I will be occupied with that for the days to come.