Flying Sable

How to teach about a holiday

2009-02-14T14:37:00.008+08:00

As an Anthropology major, I love teaching my culture (not just my language) to my students and friends in China. I never miss an opportunity (e.g. a holiday) to teach my students another aspect of my country, even though my class is mainly made up of students who can barely introduce themselves. So far I've taught them (in English) about Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Valentine's Day. They are, by no means, experts on these holidays, but they now, at least, understand the main vocabulary associated with these holidays so that their future teachers can build upon their vocabulary to solidify their understanding of these holidays. So, here is how I teach them about these holidays.

1) Flash Cards: Take 8x11 pieces of paper and draw a different vocabulary word on each piece of paper. make sure the pictures are clear and the lines are bold so that even the students in the back of the room can understand what is on the piece of paper. Hold up the flashcards and have the students repeat the words. Here are what I consider the essential vocabulary that a first grade EFL student should know for each of these American holiday:
- Halloween: Witch, Pumpkin, Jack-O-Lantern, Monster, Vampire, Trick-Or-Treat, Costume, Ghost, Candy
- Thanksgiving: Pilgrim, Indian, Boat (and then teach them that the boat's name is Mayflower), Turkey, friends, family
- Christmas: Christmas tree, Ornament, Star, Angel, Santa Claus, Reindeer, Gifts/Presents
- Valentine's Day: Heart, Angel (and then teach them that the angel's name is Cupid), Chocolate, Flowers/Roses, Arrow
- St. Patrick's Day: Clover, Leprechaun, Pot of Gold, Rainbow
- Easter: Eggs, Flowers, Easter Bunny, Basket
Each holiday I get out the vocabulary cards from previous holidays to review. I usually mix all the old holiday vocabulary together, write the different holidays on the chalkboard, have the students call out each word as I hold them up, and then ask them which holiday does it belong to. This helps them not only review the vocabulary, but also to reinforce their association to the holiday.

2) Comic Book Story: Using PowerPoint (since my classroom has a huge screen attached to a computer), I break down the stories of the holiday. This is very hard considering that my students' English is very simple. Here is what I did for Valentines Day:
- Slide 1: Title Page. I just simply put "Valentines Day".
- Slide 2: A picture of Cupid. It says, "What is this? This is an angel."
- Slide 3: Same picture of Cupid. It says, "What is his name? His name is Cupid."
- Slide 4: A picture of a boy. It says, "What is this? This is a boy."
- Slide 5: A picture of Cupid about to shoot a boy. It says, "Oh no, Cupid!"
- Slide 6: A picture of the boy shot with an arrow. (When I go through this with my kids, I make sound affects of the arrow hitting the boy.)
- Slide 7: A picture of the boy surrounded by hearts. It says, "What do I see? I see hearts!"
- Slide 8-11: Repeat Slide 5-7 but with a girl.
- Slide 12: A picture of the boy and girl together. The boy says, "I love you"
- Slide 13: A picture of the boy and girl together. The girl says, "I love you"
- Slide 14: It says, "Happy Valentine's Day"

As you can see, the story is simple and boils things down to the basics. The following year, their next English teacher can add a bit more to the story. It's a building process.

3) Coloring Book: Create a coloring book using the vocabulary associated with the holiday. Next to each pictures put the vocabulary word and then a line beneath the vocab word. The line beneath the word is for the students to practice writing out the word. You can also use the coloring book for them to practice identifying the words. Have them point to each word as you say it out loud. For Christmas, I put a blank picture of a Christmas tree and gave them instructions such as "Put an angel on the top of the tree" and so forth. It was a great way to practice following directions.

4) Sing Songs: Obviously Christmas means singing carols, but other holidays can have fun songs as well. I found for my level of students, the best place to go for songs is http://www.preschooleducation.com . They have all sorts of creative songs, crafts, and activities for each holiday. Sometimes it is a bit hard to navigate, but as long as you keep looking at the left hand side, you'll be able to find what you want. Take for instance this little song I got from their website for St. Patrick's day:
I'm a Little Leprechaun added 8-7-97 Original Author Unknown

Sung to: "I'm a little teapot"

I'm a little leprechaun
Dressed in green,
The tiniest man
That you ever seen.
If you ever catch me, it is told,
I'll give you my pot of gold!

http://www.preschooleducation.com/spatrick.shtml

Beijing Trip: Day 4

2009-01-06T23:05:00.003+08:00

January 6th, 2oo8: Our last day in Beijing

We started the day by visiting a family of Knox alumni that live in Beijing. You can read more about that visit on the "KnoxInChina" blog. Afterwards we went to a Taoist temple nearby their home, and then left went to the airport, flew to Shanghai, and took a bus back to Suzhou.

All in all our trip to Beijing was quite spectacular, but the entire time we were there, instead of quenching our thirst for seeing the grand things (e.g. the Great Wall of China), we became thirsty to see other things (e.g. the Lama Palace). Everyday we added to our list of things we want to see the next time we are in Beijing, because Beijing is truly a city that you can never see enough of.

Romeo & Juliet (A tale of two silk worms)

2009-01-06T22:51:00.004+08:00

Display of the silkworm's life cycle

Are you against leather and fur? Then you should be against silk and pearls as well. I used to believe that silk came from the left over cocoons of silk worms and that pearls were simply pulled out of the oyster and the oyster went on living, but I was wrong.

After a visit to a Beijing silk factory, I learned that silkworms are boiled alive and then their bodies are taken out of the cocoons and thrown to the side. If you visit a silkworm factory you can see it for yourself, and they will let you take the dead silkworm out of its cocoon yourself. The cocoons only have so much thread, so it takes (according to my own estimation) about a hundred silkworms to die for you to have a scarf. So the next time you decide to ditch the fur collar for the silk scarf, remember you are going from killing one to killing a hundred. Sometimes the cocoons have two silkworms inside. This makes the threads even harder to untangle, so the cocoons become bedding for silk comforters and quilts. It takes thousands of cocoons to make a comforter, and it costs twice that amount of lives.

When we went to the pearl factory it was a similar story, except at the very last oysters produce more pearls so not as many of them have to die for one necklace as silkworms have to die for one scarf. The tour guide at the pearl factory took us into a room with a large fish tank full of oysters. Without hesitating (since she does this several times a day), she took out a oyster and broke it open saying, "Now this is only a baby oyster." She them stabbed it to get out the pearls, and tossed the actual oyster to the side. I don't know much about oyster physiology, but I can imagine that it was probably still alive after she scooped out all the pearls, but was probably slowly dying and in lots of pain as it was left their on the counter as we exited the room. So how many oysters had to die for you to have your pearl necklace?

I'm not sure how one can get away from these materials that are made from killing animals, considering that they are everywhere. I, for one, will still go out and buy a silk scarf once I find one I like, but I will now think twice before getting a silk comforter or a pearl necklace. Hopefully with this knowledge, you will too.

"You know what we call those two silkworms who are in a cocoon together? The Chinese version of Romeo and Juliet." ~ Our tour guide.

Machine that unravels the threads from the singular cocoons.

How they separate the threads from "Romeo & Juliet's" cocoon.

Beijing Trip: Day 3

2009-01-04T08:49:00.005+08:00

January 3rd, 2009: The last full day in Beijing

We started the day with the tour guide at The Forbidden City. Obviously because of how commercialized it has become, the Forbidden City is no longer Forbidden, though it used to be when the last Emperor was still alive. Now it is visited by so many tourists that it doesn't seem off-limits to anyone anymore. Even Starbucks had a short stay there, though after a bit of controversy they were replaced by a traditional Chinese tea service. We were very luck with the timing of our visit to the Forbidden City, and not just because Starbucks had already left. Before the Olympics, they had been renovating the city with new paint, and even put in real gold to make it look more like the original. Then during a little bit after the Olympics, it was too crowded to get good photos. So I think our timing was great.

The Temple of Heaven was actually more interesting to me than the Forbidden City. It was built by an emperor as a way to worship the God of heaven. Its roofs are painted in blue, representing the God of heaven, and had various sections. The most famous part (thanks to the Olympics commercial) looks like a wedding cake because it was a stack of circles, the biggest on the bottom and the smallest on top. The ground level was where the commoners could worship, the biggest rung for the nobleman and high ranking officials, the second biggest for the Emperor's family, the second smallest for the Emperor, and the smallest for the God of heaven. No one was allowed to step on the rung above their station, not even the Emperor. Now a days people are allowed to walk right up to the top that was once sectioned off only for God-- which I find disrespectful, even though I enjoyed knowing that I could stand where an emperor once knelled. In another part of the Temple of Heaven was a wall of echoes, similar to the ones found in Granada and Segovia (for those who have been on the Barcelona Program's tour of southern Spain). If you talk to the round wall, your voice will be carried all the way around. Nowadays, the temple of heaven has been transformed into a park populated by local people who dance and perform for fun (at least I didn't notice any hats on the ground to put tips in). It was amazing to see all these average people performing for fun and not being too serious about their craft. Another amazing seen to see was the line drawn through the Temple of Heaven for the Olympic marathon runners to follow. I now get to say I ran in the same spots as those people did.

The Summer Palace is even a wonderful place to see in the winter. I would almost recommend that if you have the chance to see it twice, go once in the winter and once in the summer. In the winter you can appreciate it more for its art and architecture, because you won't be too distracted by the flowers. Then when you come back in the summer (as we hope to do), you can appreciate the flowers. The Summer Palace has a long corridor (the longest in the world) containing thousands of paintings, making it almost more of an art gallery than a corridor. outside the corridor there is a stone pathway running parallel to it. Even the stone pathway has a bit of art in it. As we were walking on it, I started enjoying the simple designs in the pathway, thinking how great these ancient designers were. They had put all sorts of flowers into it, vegetables, vines, Olympic rings.... After I saw the Olympic rings I became rather embarrassed that I was once again taken in by a modern addition to an ancient sight. However it was still rather exciting to me, like finding the astronaut that is carved into the cathedral doors in Salamanca, Spain.

For dinner I had Peking Duck, mainly because that is what you are supposed to do if you go to Beijing and you are not a vegetarian. If you ever had Peking Duck in America, please don't even think it is anything like the Peking Duck in Beijing. There is no way anywhere in America can make it nearly as tender and succulent as they do here. Beijing Duck basically comes with little tortilla-looking rice wraps, strips of cucumber, slices of onions, 3 sauces, and a thing of sugar. The 3 sauces are sweet & sour sauce, plum sauce, and fried sauce. The sugar acts like a sauce because you can put it on your duck instead of a sauce. All the options were amazing, believe it or not, and I can't wait to go back to Beijing to have more!

Beijing Trip: Day 2

2009-01-02T16:56:00.010+08:00

January 2nd: My Sister's Birthday and our second day in Beijing. Happy Birthday Ambre!

Today Julia's family hired a tour guide to take us to the Ming Tomb, the Great Wall, and other littler places in between. Then we ended the day at the Beijing Opera.

The Ming Tomb represents heaven and earth. Heaven is usually represented by a circle (which is the shape of the mound that covers the tomb), and earth is usually represented by a rectangle (which is the shape of the passageway up to the tomb) in Chinese architecture. That is why the Bird's Nest is round and the WaterCube is rectangular in the Olympic park. It was believed that when you visit the Ming Tomb, you leave Earth and go to heaven. So while we were "in heaven", we were able to explore the Ming Tomb. As we looked over the mound, I saw a phone tower on it. Our tour guide said, "That phone tower is for calling the emperor because that way he could rule after death." Being without my morning cup of coffee, I must admit that I actually thought that someone from our era put the phone tower there as a tribute to the emperor. Obviously I'm rather useless without my coffee for it took me a while before I realized our tour guide was joking. When you "leave heaven" you have to enter earth in an appropriate fashion so that your whole being comes back safely. In order to do this, you must step through the gate (boys with your left foot and girls with your right foot) while yelling "wo huai lai le" (I have returned) really loudly. After we returned to earth, we experienced a "four star" bathroom before we got on the bus again. I'm not sure when those four stars were given, but I'm sure it was before the spiders moved in.

I can go on forever about the splendor and beauty of the Great Wall, but I will save you from hearing what I'm sure you have already heard elsewhere. What struck me the most about the Great Wall was the ironic peace. The wall was built for war, but it felt so peaceful to be there. Also, the steps were worn down (much like the steps in Old Main) so I felt like I was stepping into history when I was climbing it. I imagined all the great and even common people whose feet have helped to wear away the stones: Olympic athletes, politicians, families, travelers from near and afar, soldiers, emperors, etc. It reminded me so much of the feeling I got going up the steps of Old Main when I imagined scholars, politicians, etc. walking the same steps as I did. The steps of the Great Wall are much harder to climb though, for as soon as you think you reached the tower that is the farthest up, you find another one. It doesn't help that the steps are not even and are pretty tall so that you are practically putting your knees to your chest as you climb them (if you are short like Abbie). Thus you have to take it one step at a time or you'll easily trip and fall. I can see why Chairman Mao said in one of his poems, "You are not a true hero unless you have reached the Great Wall". That poem was an ingenious bit of advertising (though unintentionally) because now everyone in China wants to go to the Great Wall just so that they can be a hero in the eyes of Chairman Mao.

During our time with the tour guide, he also took us to a bunch of littler places as well. He took us to a Jade factory, two pottery factories, and a tea service. Basically the idea is that we get tours of these places, and then we are supposed to spend an hour looking around their gift shops. Because we spend an hour in their gift shops, the tour company gets extra money from the factories. The stuff in these gift shops are high quality but rather expensive. However, I would not label these little trips scams. We learned a lot from our trips to the factory, even though it was a bit annoying to have to stay in the gift shop for longer than we wanted to.

After dinner in the hotel, Julia took us to the Beijing Opera. In the lobby they had a wonderful display of costumes from past shows that were absolutely amazing. Before the show we read a bit about the background of the story (translated by Julia into English), but it was not enough to understand what was going on. Unlike in other opera houses I've been to, there were no English subtitles on the big screens nor on the chairs in front of us. So Julia had to translate the entire time for us. Lucky for us, the Beijing Opera is sung really slowly so it was easy for Julia to keep us informed on what was going on. This style Opera is completely different from what I've heard before in Barcelona, Vienna, and Budapest. In Beijing the singers are praised for vibrating their voices in a way that is probably beautiful to someone more accustomed to that style. Also everything is completely symbolic down to the make up (the villain of the story always has a white face and the comedic characters have white noses). In all I though the opera was very interesting in the way it connects with Chinese history and culture, but I must admit that I am somewhat partial to the opera I saw in Vienna. I prefer the western singing style that is smoother and also the way they use the music to emphasize and exaggerate the the emotions.

Beijing Trip: Day 1

2009-01-02T16:15:00.004+08:00

December 31st, 2008: We arrived in Beijing and were picked up at the airport by Abbie's family friends. There was Julia (the mother), Mark (the father), and Steve (the son). Julia's brother (Joe) and his wife (Shyanne) live in America and is very good friends with Abbie's parents. Julia has never met either Abbie or me before, but was so excited about having visitors that she paid for our hotel room and for a tour guide to take us around for two days. Anyways, that night, after being spoiled by Julia, we went to the hotel and then counted down till the New Year from there.

January 1st, 2008: Our first day of Beijing

Abbie and I started out our first day in Beijing layering our clothes as much as possible to protect us from the cold winter air. The idea of working in Beijing was ruled out when we were making plans for the year because we hate the cold and everyone warned us about the winter chill here. We were told by a fellow Knox graduate to dress for weather in Galesburg plus an extra layer. I put on two pairs of socks, shoes with a furry lining, long underwear, pants lined with fleece, a long sleeve shirt, a wrist warmer (I knitted it on the plane, and have yet to knit the other one), gloves, a long down-jacket, ear muffs, and a scarf. Then as I existed the building and felt the outside air hitting my face, I realized that I put too much on. I would actually argue that the cold weather in Suzhou is actually more uncomfortable than the cold weather in Beijing. This is due to the fact that buildings in Suzhou don't use strong heaters. The cold outside does not matter as much because you are walking around and moving, but when you get inside and sit down or go to sleep for the night, the cold bothers you more. So, basically, I would like to take this opportunity to shake my head at those who gave me a look when I said I was going to Beijing during the winter. *Shakes head*

After we finished with breakfast, we met Julia and her family downstairs. They drove us around Beijing and we saw the National Theatre, Tiananmen Square, and ChangAn Street. The National Theatre is huge, and is full of exhibitions containing theatre history from across the world, Chinese opera history, opera costumes, audio/visual displays of past shows, etc. Mark said that Chinese people joke around and say that the building looks like a big egg. I told him that it must have fallen from The Bird's Nest (which we got to see later on that day). At Tiananmen Square, we got see the outside of the Forbidden City, which was decorated with a big poster of Chairman Mao (of course). Considering that the Chinese soldiers were all around, it made me feel like I was in a historical documentary about China during the time of Chairman Mao.

After a huge lunch, we went to the Olympic Park and got to see the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube. It was truly amazing to see the Bird's Nest and to imagine all the athletes, coaches, politicians, celebrities, and all sorts of people full of hope, peace, and happiness walking in the same place I was walking. It was purely breathtaking. The whole time I was taking pictures there, I could just imagine my step dad showing off those pictures to all his work buddies. The one problem we had was locating the ticket counter for the Water Cube. They have it set up in the parking lot next to the Water Cube on the opposite side of the Bird's Nest. There were no signs showing us how to get the tickets, so we circled the whole building once looking for the ticket office before we finally found it. Hopefully if you go to Beijing and go to see the Water Cube, you will learn from our experience. The Water Cube is so much cooler in person than you can imagine. The light shines through it in such a beautiful way, that there is no way to capture its beauty in a picture. Inside is even more spectacular. When you are in the Water Cube and you are looking upwards at the ceiling, you feel like you are in Superman's fortress of solitude. The curves and the use of nature in the design reminded me partially of the Gaudi buildings in Barcelona, Spain.

We then ended the day by having dinner with Julia's family. We ate typical Beijing food. Beijing food is rather hard to describe because there isn't really a label for it like there is with Sichuan food (which is spicy) or Suzhou food (which is sweet). Beijing food is delicious but doesn't have one overwhelming characteristic, but perhaps that is because I haven't sampled enough quite yet. We had Fried Sauce Noodles, which was amazing. I really enjoyed it and can't wait to figure out how to cook it myself. After dinner (during which we both gained like 5 pounds) we went back to the hotel for some relaxation which was much needed after such an exciting day.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T00:17:00.003+08:00

Dear Friends and Family,

As you may imagine, teaching English as a foreign language to first graders can be challenging. One of the biggest challenges I faced was trying to get them to make the "th" sound. A few weeks of frustration passed before I realized the source of my problem: most of my students don't have their front teeth (which is necessary to make the "th" sound). Thus in the spirit of laughing at one's self and in the spirit of the holiday season, I taught my students how to sing "All I want for Christmas".

I would like to share the little bit of the song I was able to teach them with you. Hopefully these videos will help put you in the holiday mood this Christmas. I know teaching my kids this song helped put me in the Christmas mood despite being so far away from my friends and family this year.

Merry Christmas,

-Sable

Class 3

Class 2

Thanksgiving in Suzhou, China

2008-11-28T16:17:00.003+08:00

Thanksgiving

There are many places around the world that cater to Americans on Thanksgiving, providing as close to the traditional foods as possible. Many American living abroad will elect this option for the pure simplicity of it. How else would they be able to get turkey on this special day? The truth is that a home cooked turkey dinner in China is hard to come by. There simply isn't a way to buy a whole turkey that is fresh or to even fit it in the toaster oven even if you do find one. Big ovens just don't exist in the average Chinese household. That is why foreigners have to make reservations a week in advanced at their favorite western restaurant. But what happens if you just don't like the idea of celebrating a day that has come to represent family at a commercial restaurant? Then you muster up all your patience and creativity and embark on a memorable Thanksgiving adventure-- just make sure you are able to roll with the punches that come with living in China.

Step 1: Make a guest list & send out invitations. If you are a foreign teacher working at a Chinese school, I suggest inviting all the foreign teachers if there are too many. That way you can start creating a community abroad which will help you out a lot throughout the year. Also call it a potluck and make sure they know to talk to you about what to bring before hand. That way you don't get too many people bringing the same thing.

Step 2: Plan your meal. If everyone is bringing something, then you don't have to worry too much about making enough food. Just prepare the main course and anything you think Thanksgiving couldn't do without. Also make sure to only make things that are possible to make using your equipment and using the ingredients available to you in China. Turkey is out of the question. Just deal with it and move on. What else can you make? My sister had lobster this Thanksgiving, because she claims that the Pilgrims had them at the first Thanksgiving dinner. I, on the other hand, roasted duck. Duck is easy to find in China and fits nicely into a toaster oven. The only problem is that you have to cut off the heads yourself. I used the instructions here: http://www.helpwithcooking.com/cooking-poultry/roast-duck.html but then I also stuffed them with garlic, onions, and scallions. The thing about duck in China is that there isn't much meat on them, so you should assume 2-3 people per duck. I roasted 4 for my 15 guests, and I probably should have roasted more.

Step 3: Go on the first shopping run. Most people who live abroad don't have their own car so it isn't easy to just do one big trip because then you have to carry everything at once. I went on Sunday to the store to get things like paper plates, seasoning, and a duck to test out. Basically anything I was either going to use right away or could keep till Thursday. I used paper plates due to a lack of regular plates, but if you insist on being eco-friendly despite this set back, then you need to tell all guests to bring their own table setting. Make sure to buy lots of aluminum foil. I didn't have platters to cook or serve the ducks in, so I ended up making them out of aluminum foil. It worked out rather well.

Step 4: Borrow cooking utensils from friends. Figure out what you need and who has it. Only ask people who are invited if you can borrow something. We had to borrow a toaster oven (it is easier to prepare everything and keep it warm if there are two), a can opener, dining room chairs, and more because my apartment was not designed for mass cooking and playing hostess.

Step 5: Test out any new recipes with a small batch. I made a tester duck on Tuesday to make sure I would be ale to do it correctly.

Step 6: Clean and decorate the place where it is going to be. We got our hands on construction paper, so we were able to make a paper fireplace, Christmas tree, and a “Happy Thanksgiving” sign that really brightened up the place. Make sure there is some sort of decoration on your door so your guests know which place is yours. Depending on the conditions of your apartment (e.g. if its windy or gets dusty fast), you could probably set the table the day before.

Step 7: Do your last shopping run. Keep in mind that you aren't going to find everything that you need. I couldn't find sage for my vegetarian gravy, so I used basil instead (it tasted very nice that way actually). I couldn't find evaporated milk for my pumpkin pie, so I evaporated my own milk. I couldn't find a salt shaker, so I made my own from a plastic cup, plastic wrap, and masking take. Just be creative and don't expect to find everything on your list.

Step 8: Cook all the food that keeps (e.g. pies) the night before. If anyone offers to help, have them cut or peel anything that you need them to away from the kitchen area so you can have space. My mom used to drop a bowl of apples in front of my step dad whenever she was going to make apple pie. He could then peel them while watching TV, and then mom could make the pie. When people help you peel and cut, things go so much faster.

Step 9: Plan your schedule for the actual day of Thanksgiving carefully. Only Americans and Canadians get Thanksgiving day off to plan and prepare, so you have to do all your last minute stuff while working. Luckily I live in the school where I teach, so even though it was my busiest schedule of the week, I was able to figure out the best times to start roasting the duck (it takes three hours per duck) so that either I or Abbie could be in the room with them at all times. At around 4pm we had nothing to do for a good 45 minutes but adding the final touches.

Step 10: Finish up cooking all the foods while working your work day.

Step 11: Clean everything up and add all the finishing touches.

Step 12: Put things on serving plates & start heating them. The beauty and flaw (depending on what context) of toaster ovens is that they don't just insulate their heat, the sides and tops of them get hot too. So to keep things warm as people start arriving, all you have to do is put the toaster ovens on a medium-low heat, and put items on top of them and inside them. You can even leave their doors open and rest things on there.

Step 13: Go play hostess. Most people who are not Canadian or American will only have a vague idea of what Thanksgiving is, so you may end up having to repeat the story of the Pilgrims and Indians quite a bit. Have appetizers out on the table for them to munch on, and then when the last guests arrive, you can go ahead with Thanksgiving however you want: starting with grace and/or a toast, passing around food, going up to the buffet, etc. Just enjoy your Thanksgiving!

"Congratulations on the Election"

2008-11-08T16:17:00.000+08:00

“Congratulations on the election,” say the Chinese teachers when they see me. The Canadian teachers join in on the praise, claiming that the American election is a lot more exciting than their own because ours affects the world not just our own country. Even people I have just met congratulate me on the election when they find out I am American. They do not even bother to ask who I voted for or if I even voted at all-- they just assume that this historical moment is considered a positive thing for all Americans. Considering the reception I'm receiving once people realize I am an American, I guess it is a positive thing.

Despite what the Americans who voted for McCain believe, Obama's position in office has already improved the reputation of our country. Not only are the American democrats celebrating, but the world is as well. Kenya, home of the beer brand called “Senator Obama”, declared that the day after the election was a national holiday for them-- the entire country got the day off of work to join in the celebration. My Kenyan friend even had a sign on her arm on election day that said, “Obama is my home boy!”

Since Bush has been in office, it has been hard for Americans abroad. I have gotten blamed quite a few times for Bush's actions, so this new disposition people have towards me as an American abroad is rather welcomed. It has been a long time since I could feel proud about being an American. I hope this feeling can last.

Basic Teaching Tips

2008-10-15T14:19:00.002+08:00

I may not be an education major or the best teacher in the world, but I have already learned a few lessons the hard way as to how to run a first-grade English as a Foreign Language classroom in China. Here are some of them:

1)Never pause or stop to introduce a song. It took me three weeks to learn this, even though it is rather simple. If you take a moment to say “Now let's sing”, or to check if their books are open to the right page, they will start misbehaving. The best thing to do is to keep going without pauses. So now when I review I just start singing or having them repeat a word, and don't wait between things. Also when you have them open their books, go ahead and start teaching even if they don't have them open to the right page. You'll still have to go around and make sure they are on the right page, but you can do that and teach at the same time. Depending on how your class responds to it, have one of the really good students go around and make sure everyone is on the correct page.

2)Keep the ringleader busy. Sometimes there is one student that seems to incite all the noise or bad behavior. Before I would punish this student but that would invoke more problems with the rest of the class. Now, I constantly call on that student and have them be my helper. Personally I hate rewarding bad behavior, but if the ringleader is engaged in the class, then it motivates others to do the same.

3)Put the noisy ones in “time-in” not “time-out”. I found that putting students in time-out was a bit hard for me. I kept forgetting to keep an eye on them, and then they would sneak back to their seats, or start fooling around in their corner/ at their wall. Then I tried punishing them further like the foreign teachers do to their older classes: make the student stand on one leg or keep their hands raised for the rest of class. This simply caused more problems, and I felt like I was betraying the founding fathers of the USA by partaking in cruel and unusual punishment. Then I discovered time-in. It's cruel and unusual by Chinese standards, but at least it works. I put the student in the middle of the circle and leave them there as I teach, not giving them any attention. This works because then what is actually laughter towards me acting mad (I do admit I look funny when I'm mad) is interpreted as laughter towards the student. Also it makes the student “stand out”, which is horrible for Chinese students. Sometimes you need to be cruel for the greater good of the class.

4)Fake physical punishment. This advice isn't completely thought out yet, but I have seen its effectiveness. Chinese teachers will hit a student if they are bad, and since the students know that foreign teachers don't do that, they don't take us as seriously. One day the whole class was acting badly, and there was one kid who had bent down below his desk. I then took my book, went behind him, and hit his desk really loudly. He then perked up because he was startled. From other angles it apparently looked like I hit the kid, and the kid's reaction helped with the affect. All of a sudden all the kids who saw the event shut their mouths and sat up straight. Unfortunately their attentiveness was short lived. I didn't realize till later what had happened, so I continued to tap people with the book, and thus they began to realize that I was in fact like other foreign teachers, and could not possibly truly hit a student.

5)Elect a student helper. Sometimes a different one each day is better so that the one helper doesn't get singled out by their peers. The helper can help check if everyone is on the right page, hold up words while you are freed up to go around and make sure everyone is participating, and collect homework if there is any. The more you free yourself up, the more time you have to monitor the progress and behavior of the students.

6)No empty threats. If you say you will send a kid to the principle if they do something wrong, then you have to go through with the punishment. If they don't believe you will carry out the punishments, they won't take you seriously.

Is the milk safe yet?

2008-10-07T16:47:00.000+08:00

I watched as a young pregnant woman and her husband approached the dairy section of the grocery store. Their pace softened and their sighs hung in the air as they stared at the shelves of milk. The pregnant woman rubber her belly and looked at the father. Is the milk safe yet? Should we buy milk at all? Which milk should we buy? Can we really gamble with the life of our unborn child?

Before going to the grocery yesterday, I tried researching online to see if the milk was safe yet. There was an article that said all the milk they have tested recently has been melamine free, but they haven't tested all of the milk yet and they have only tested in certain cities. They did not list the cities. Abbie and I thought that the Chinese would know better, that the Chinese news would have given a clearer answer as to how safe the milk is now. So Abbie and I watched to see what milk the Chinese bought.

We watched as many people-- young couples, business mens, families, etc.-- approached the dairy section and blankly stared at the various selections. Little had changed about the dairy section since the milk scandal, except for the plastic gifts now attached to a few of the containers. Yes, that is the way to gain back the trust of the nation, “Sorry for putting a banned substance that killed several pets last year into our products (including baby formula), killing four small children, and sending tens of thousands of children to the hospital. Here's a plastic mirror and a cloth grocery bag to help you carry our products home. See, you can trust us now.”

What surprised me is that there were no signs nor anything on the containers that said, “Melamine free.” Granted, I wouldn't know for most of them because they were in Chinese, but the ones that had English translations on them didn't say anything about now being free of melamine. They looked the exact same as they did before the scandal was made public. I doubt the ones without English translations said “melamine free”, because the Chinese citizens examining the milk looked as confused as we did. I could tell from their faces they were thinking the same things as we were. Do we gamble with the health of our kidneys in order to have strong bones and to be protected from osteoporosis? Can we ever trust these companies again? What other chemicals could be lingering in other products? Is there really anyway to guarantee we are safe?

Rumors say the milk in Suzhou has been tested and is negative for melamine. These are merely rumors. Yet I trust them and buy the milk. I miss having cereal in the morning. I ignore the fact that I would miss my kidneys more. At least now I have a plastic mirror.

How to make repetition fun

2008-10-07T09:17:00.003+08:00

Chinese students are used to learning through repetition. In the English classes taught by Chinese teachers, the students continually repeat little poems as they follow along in their books. For example, my classes have been repeating the following poem continuously for the past three weeks:

A ruler, a rubber
I can see
A ruler, a rubber
for you and me!
A paper, a pencil
I can see
A paper, a pencil
for you and me!

Because this is the way they are used to learning, there are very few ways to avoid repetition in your lesson plans. Before you can play a game or sing a song, they need to repeat certain vocabulary words needed for the games and songs. However, repetition doesn't have to be as dry as it sounds. There are a few ways to spice it up, so to speak.

1) Magic fingers. Hold up a certain amount of fingers. Then have the students repeat the vocabulary word every time you put down a finger. Once you have no fingers, they have to stop. If they don't stop, you get a point, and if they do stop in time, they get a point.

2) Singular loud & quiet. When your hands are close together, they have to say the vocabulary word softly, and when your hands are far apart, they have to yell the vocabulary word. It gets really interesting if you fake like you are about to move your hands apart, but then put your hands close instead. That way they are engaged in not only learning the vocabulary word, but also watching you more. Thus, it helps with class dynamics as well.

3) Listing loud & quiet. In Spain, I got my kids to memorize the past participle of the 10 irregular verbs in their book. Everyday until they learned them, we started the day with me either whispering, saying, or yelling the infinitive form and then them matching my volume while saying the past participle. For the first few weeks they could follow along in the book so they just read the answers. Then I noticed that fewer and fewer of them needed to look at the book at all!

4) Shark attack! Dan, another American foreign language teacher here at SIFLS, had this great idea that really works for teaching colors or any sort of objects that could be on one's person. The example he gave was with the word “red”. First you start by having them repeat the word regularly as you walk around the room holding out a paper that says “red” on it. Then if you spot someone wearing red, you quicken the pace in which you say “red” as you approach the person. Then you start repeating the word to the tune & rhythm of the Jaw's theme, as you shake the paper in front of them. When I tried this I didn't put as much expression into it as Dan suggested, and it produced quite a smile from my “victim” and a few others.

5) Catch. To quicken their pronunciation and to single out kids that may not be participating as much as you would like, throw a foam ball and say the word at the same time. They have to repeat the word right as they catch it or only while it is in the air. Only the person you throw it to can say the word.

6) Add expressions/tunes. Phrases become more fun to repeat when you add various expressions to it or sing it a bit. So for instance, when I had them repeat “who are you?” I sang it a bit to the first line in the tune “Are you sleeping, brother John?” Then after they got it, I then said it without a tone, but with a bit of emotion. First shrugging my shoulders and seeming confused, then placing my hands on my waist and looking a bit mad. They really enjoy seeing you be fake mad.

7) Add hand gestures. People, especially adults, learn better if they associate actions with words. Shrugging their shoulders while saying “who are you?” really helped my children. Sometimes I catch my students making the gesture when they ask another foreign teacher “who are you?” Oh and sometimes they'll throw their elbows back as they say “yes!”

8) Use your entire body. It is important to use your entire body while teaching ESL or EFL. It makes the classes more interesting, and it gets points across easily. For example, when I was teaching tall, I jumped up. Then I fell to my knees to teach them short. It worked really well because the kids not only laughed but it became a sort of game to them. I once caught them playing this “game” during their free time. One jumped up and then fell on their knees while the other one yelled “short” or “tall” at the appropriate times.

9) Exaggerated eye contact. If a student looks a bit too bored, it sometimes help to jerk your head towards them and stare them down in a slightly creepy manner. And once you feel like you have their attention, you can sort of sweep over the class with a skeptical look as if you are challenging them with the word.

10) Repetition based upon response. This only works for certain words. Basically you teach them to say a phrase after a prompt. So when I had to teach “come in please”, I got them to say it after I knocked on the door. This not only makes it fun (especially because I would go out, then knock on the door), but then it also puts the phrase in context.

11) Rap it. You don't actually need to rap, just fill in the blanks for what you want to teach, and then use the tune from “hey-ho!”. “I say [thanks], you say [your welcome]. [thanks],[your welcome],[thanks], [your welcome]!”

12) Hide and seek. Send one or a few students out into the hallway. Hide a cue card with the word either written or drawn on it somewhere in the room. Then have the students in the hallway find it while the other students chant, “find the [vocabulary word].” over and over again.

Example Lesson Plan

2008-09-14T11:17:00.002+08:00

Grade 1 E.T. Classes (2 & 3) Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

Topic: School Life (Unit 2 Lesson 4)

Objective: Have a grasp of phonics relevant to vocabulary words in the lesson and understand “Where” vs. “What” questions

Important Points:

Recognizing a long word by the first few letters
Recognizing a short word (e.g. “it”, “are”, etc.) by how it looks
Using & responding to “where”, “what”, “who”, & “how”
Recognizing the written difference between “where” & “what”
Associating location words (“on”, “beside”, & “under”) with physical space
Following directions (“Go” vs. “Come”)

Schedule:
1)Warm up
1.teacher: Good morning/afternoon class class: Good morning/afternoon Sable
2.Show them various easy words grouped by the first letter. First write the letter on the board and ask the students to call it out. Then have them repeat the letter's sound. Afterwards, show them the word and sound it out with them. After they have the word, have them repeat a sentence they recognize with the word in it.
A: “a”, “am”, “are”
B: “boy”
G: “go”, “girl”
H: “here”, “how”
I: “I”, “in”, “is”, “it”
N: “no”
O: “on”, “old”, “out”
S: “sit”
T: “tall”
Th: “this”, “the”, “there”
Y: “you”, “yes”
2)Review old material
1.“Swing Low” Playground song

Put the vocabulary words up on the board and write out the rest of the song
Write “S” on the board and ask the students what is it
Write “Swi”, “Se”, “Sa”, & “Sli” on the board and have the students repeat the sounds
Point to these sounds on the words, and have them repeat “Swing”, “Seesaw”, & “Slide”
Sing the song until the students have it
Replace the vocabulary words with the correlating pictures and then ask the students to sing again

2.Review questions learned so far.

Put the question words learned so far on the board (“Who”, “How”, & “What”)
Have them repeat the different question words
Write out the question & appropriate answer next to the words
“Who are you?” & “I am ______.”
“How old are you?” & “I am______.”
“What is this?” & “It is a _______.”
“Where are you?” & “I am _______________.”

3)New material
1.Teach them “Where are you?” Song

Put “Where are you?” on the board and have them repeat it while doing gestures to illustrate the meaning
Repeat the song a few times over
Put the bunny “on”, “under”, & “beside” a chair so at the end of the song the children yell out “On/under/beside the chair!”

2. Work on listening skills

Pass out the various words and have them stand up when the word is called out. Say mainly sentences that they are used to so that they can get used to using the words correctly. Start with saying “Where are you?” & “I am on/under/beside the swing”

4)Review new material taught
1.Test the kids by holding up the words learned in class today & having them call them out

Lesson Plan Template

2008-09-14T11:12:00.002+08:00

If you like this set up for a lesson plan, you can copy and paste this into a word program to create your own.

Grade/Level_____ Class_____ Date

Topic:

Objective:

Important Points:

Schedule:

Warm up
1. teacher: Good morning/afternoon class
  class: Good morning/afternoon Teacher
2. Show them various easy cue cards and have them guess & repeat them
Review old material
1. Review songs they have been learning
2. Pick out the lessons from the songs to ask the kids
3. Positively reward the kids who answer correctly
New material
1. Teach a song or game that correlates with the new material
2. Pick out words from the song or game to have the kids repeat
3. Demonstrate the meaning behind the words with pictures or actions
Review new material taught
1. Test the kids on the material learned in class today
2. Mix the new material with the old and then test the class.

Tricks of the Trade-- Lesson Plans

2008-09-14T10:16:00.011+08:00

Here is the general format of how I run my classes. Hopefully it will be helpful to others and/or others will be helpful to me and give me advice. My school requires me to give them 8 of my lesson plans per monthly pay period to make sure that I am preparing for class. To save time, I save a document onto my computer that is a lesson plan template. So when I create a new lesson plan, I open the document, save it under a new name, and then fill it out. If my lesson is going to be only slightly different than another day's lesson, I'll open the other day's lesson, save it under a new name, and then change that one.

Topic: (E.g. School Objects: Unit 2 Lesson 3)

Objective: The basics of what you want to accomplish today (e.g. School Objects Vocabulary and asking/ answering the question, “What is this?”)

Important Points: The difficult aspects of what you want to teach (e.g. Pronunciation of the “R” & “L” of “ruler”, recognizing the difference between “what”, “who”, & other question words, etc.)

Teaching Aids: These are the materials needed to teach your lesson. I usually either draw or cut out a picture of the various vocabulary words I'm teaching that day. I also have “cue cards” (cards with various vocabulary words, letters, and numbers written on them) so they can get used to the spelling of the words and recognize the letters. I also always have some candy or stickers to reward students for good behavior or correct answers.

Schedule:

Warm up
1. teacher: Good morning/afternoon class class: Good morning/afternoon Teacher
2. Show them various cue cards of letters/numbers/easy words to get them thinking in English
3. For more advance classes a few tongue twisters may help
Review old material
1. Review songs that they have been learning
2. Pick out the lessons from the song to ask the kids
3. Positively reward the kids who answer correctly (sometimes just a high-5 works)
New material
1. Teach a song or game that correlates with the new material
2. Pick out words from the song or game to have the kids repeat
3. Demonstrate the meaning behind the words with pictures or actions
Review new material taught today
1. Sometimes I have a really good student pretend to be the teacher and lead the class in a song or game we have been learning or hold up the cue cards. That way I can go around behind the students and listen to their pronunciation.
2. Test the kids on the material learned in class today by holding up new cue cards
3. Mix the new material with the old and then test the class

My first week teaching

2008-09-08T10:51:00.004+08:00

My first week of teaching started on Monday when I found out that instead of teaching high school like I was promised, I would be teaching first grade. Thus I had one night to discard all of my ideas for Latin and Greek routes of words and conditional phrases and create lesson plans for “Who are you?”. Obviously at first I was really annoyed by this development.

My first day of actual classes was Tuesday. I showed up for class knowing nothing of my students' English level, the class size, nor what was expected of me. All I knew was that the first lesson of the book is on how to introduce yourself and ask who other people are. The other foreign teachers told me that the first class was just for getting to know the names of your students. So I went to class expecting to spend the 40 minutes asking their names and playing name games to learn them.

When I showed up for class they didn't seem to understand what I was asking them. First I tried the way the book phrased it, “Who are you?”, but they said, “no”. So then I tried, “What's your name?”, but they said, “no”. Some students understood and responded. So I tried to ask those students for the names of the other students. The response was “no”. Confused, I desperately tried other ways to fill the time. I asked them to sing songs they knew in English. Some sang to me in Chinese, but the majority of them were able to sing “Ba Ba Black Sheep”, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, and a version of the “ABC's” that somehow had 15 or so extra letters in it. All of them sang the “ABC's” with the 15 extra letters, so it wasn't just one student messing it up but the person who taught them the song. One girl knew the words to “Auld Lang Syne”. I don't even know the lyrics to “Auld Lang Syne”!

It took me two classes before I realized that when the students responded “no” to “who are you” it was because they didn't have an English name yet! No wonder they responded “no” to my question. It took me three days before I realized that my students didn't even know how to read. (Yeah I should have known from day one, but I didn't think about it.) I just thought they didn't understand me when I asked them to read from the book. I wonder what I will realize in a few weeks about what I'm doing wrong now.

My link teacher pulled me aside after class and asked me how to spell various names in English that she had assigned to the kids. Some of the names were quite normal like “Dean” or “Emily”. However, some of them were “Stormy”, “Layer”, and “Mayo”. I let Stormy pass, but I changed Layer to Leo and Mayo to Mario. I figured if an X-Man can be named “Storm”, one of my students can get away with “Stormy”. What is in a name anyways? It's not like that have my name correct. Some of them think my name is “teacher”.

A few days in to classes I got a call from an employee of the school telling me that all the foreign teachers need to meet her in her office at 4pm. Once we were all there, we were asked to follow someone, and they took us out to the parking lot where all the students were sitting facing us. Apparently it was an assembly and we were the main focus. We sat behind the administrators like the co-stars of a play. The school tends to play up the existence of their 10 foreign teachers so they can earn the “international” part of “Suzhou International Foreign Language School”. The assembly was almost completely in Chinese, thus increasing the uncomfortable atmosphere for me. At one point we were told to introduce ourself to the entire school (both high school and elementary school). I was completely not prepared to do so and I must have been shaking when I stood up and approached the microphone. I muttered “I am Sable from the United States” and quickly returned to my seat. At the end of the assembly, we were asked to sign a banner along with some of the prize students and administrators. I am still not sure what the banner said. It could have been the Communist Manifesto or it could have said, “Down with the U.S.” for all I know. So if there is another McCarthy Era, I may be in trouble.

Even though it is Monday, I have not yet had a break from teaching. In China you don't just get a day off. You have to work through a weekend to earn a longer weekend later. So because we didn't work on Monday and we will not work next Monday, we had to work this past weekend. I guess it is better for the students because it will be easier to get used to boarding school if they are here for 12 days before they go home again instead of just 5. Still, I am already completely tired, and in need of a weekend and it is only Monday. I can not wait till this upcoming three day weekend! I may just go out one night, stock up on really cheep DVD's, and stay in the rest of the weekend escaping from the confusion that is working in a Chinese boarding school.

My classes

2008-09-04T16:24:00.003+08:00

Now that I have finally spoken to my link teacher (the Chinese English teacher that is supposed to answer all my questions about classes) and I have been to all my classes, I can finally explain what my classes are like. I am teaching first grade even though I asked for and I was promised high school. Even though I was disappointed when I first found out, now I see it as a blessing in disguise. The first graders are a bit noisy, but they are really cute and get really excited when you teach them songs or games. I'm sure the experience will help me when I finally get to set up the ESL summer camp that I've always wanted to create.

I have three first grade classes with around 30 or so kids in each class. Class 1 is the experimental class with students that have high test scores and a computer for every student. When I say experimental, it means that the way the other teachers instruct those kids is through experimental teaching methods. Basically they are trying out a new teaching method on these students to see how well it works. I basically teach these students once or twice a week. Class 2 & 3 are the E.T. classes (No, I don't know what E.T. stands for). I teach them 4 or 5 times a week, thus making up the bulk of my schedule. Each class period is around 40 minutes. I'm only supposed to be teaching oral English, and the Chinese English teachers are supposed to teach the students how to read. The problem is that the kids can't read the book I'm teaching from. I've decided that if I am responsible for teaching the information and vocabulary words in the book, I"m going to have to get them to at least recognize the printed words in the book. So I will be teaching a little of both written and oral English.

Why "Flying Sable"

2008-09-03T18:35:00.002+08:00

I originally came up with my blog title for the simple reason that my name is Sable and "flying" comes with the territory of traveling. However, a new reason for this title came up today when I googled "flying Sable" to see if my blog would come up. The first link provided was a Wiki-answers article asking, "Could a flying sable antelope exist in ex-soviet Russia since there have been reports?" (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Could_a_flying_sable_antelope_exist_in_modern_Ex-Soviet_Russia_since_there_have_been_reports)
I am now tempted to claim this article as the motivation behind the name of my blog. Sable antelopes are actually from East and South Africa so if they are in Ex-Soviet Russia they are out of their element, just like I am out of my own. How would they have gotten to Russia in the first place? The same way I got to China- they flew.

Where I teach: Suzhou International Foreign Language School

2008-09-03T15:21:00.009+08:00

Suzhou International Foreign Language School (SIFLS) is where I am currently teaching and living. This school is a boarding school for the rich children of this region in China. My fellow foreign teachers include one Kenyan, two Australians, one Canadian, two Philippians, three other Americans, and one French-American. The school is rather beautiful and has a castle feel to it with canals running through the campus and flowers growing all over the place.
After you pass the gate and the pond you get to this parking lot. The building in the center is the main building for the administrators. To the right is the high school and behind that the foreign teacher's apartment building. To the left is the primary school where I work (I teach first grade).
The primary school reminds me of a shopping mall from the inside because of its set up. It has a courtyard in the middle with a playground and the hallways look out into the courtyard. The ceiling of the courtyard only covers the mid section, so some of the courtyard dos get rained on. Those parts have little pools/fountains that collect the water. Other than these ascetic differences, the school is basically set up the same way as American schools are. The classrooms have chalkboards and the walls are decorated with fun posters.

Here are a few slightly outdated websites describing my school:
http://www.go2esl.com/school.aspx?pid=jiangsu&sid=szif&v=0&t=T
http://www.glennsmart.btinternet.co.uk/suzhou.html

Using agents vs. applying directly to the school

2008-09-01T10:16:00.002+08:00

I made the awful mistake of going through an agent to get my job. His main concern was getting paid by the school to get them teachers, not to make sure that I was content with my stay in China. Thus our demands that he agreed to were not communicated to the school. So although he promised free Chinese lessons and that I would teach high school, I am stuck paying for Chinese lessons and teaching first grade. I spent a lot of time preparing lesson plans for high schoolers and now I have to throw out all that work and start from scratch teaching "Hello, my name is_____". In conclusion, when you apply for a teaching job, communicate directly to the school if possible or get the agent to understand that certain promises are the conditions of your employment and are not to be ignored.

Building Connections

2008-09-01T08:47:00.003+08:00

For all of those who are about to embark on a similar journey, probably the most important thing you can possibly do is to build a network of connections both in the country where you will live and back at home. Staying in touch with people back at home is important for several reasons besides the obvious that you love/like them. They will be the ones to welcome you home when you return or visit, the ones who will keep you up-to-date on happenings back in your hometown, and some of them can help you when little problems creep up (e.g. your bank is being cranky, you are really craving BBQ sauce from a particular store, etc.). Also maybe someone back home knows someone in your country of destination. As for connections in your new country, you'll need someone to watch your back if something happens, help with language barriers, provide a needed relief from culture shock, etc. Here are a few suggestions about how to build connections abroad even before you leave home as well as how to maintain friendships abroad.

How to maintain friendships/connections abroad:

1) Before going abroad, collect addresses/e-mail addresses of those friends.
2) Establish internet bonds (e.g. become Facebook friends with them, etc.) and send them your contact information including address, email address, blog address, emergency contact information, etc.
3) Buy a huge pack of postcards/international stamps from the airport when you land, and write the most important people first. Afterwards, pick a person a day to write a postcard to.
4) Send out a newsletter of your activities to those who are the most interested in your adventure.
5) Load your photos on www.snapfish.com and invite people to come view your photos.
6) Send out a holiday card to your contacts. A good way is to send out a photo-postcard of yourself in your new country. This can be done on snapfish.com and they can send it directly to your friends/family, thus saving on postage.
7) When you get home make sure to send out a mass email or letter summarizing your adventure and include your new contact information.

How to make connections in your new country:
1) Send out a mass email to everyone you know asking if they know people in the country or area where you are moving. Also contact your alma mater to see if they can set you up with alumni over there.
2) Write an email to those contacts introducing yourself and provide contact info to those people.
3) Join online community that joins together foreigners in that area (e.g. expat associations, church communities, etc.)
4) Once you are there, start meeting up with these people and have them bring their friends to your meetings. That way you not only have your original contacts as new friends, but also their friends as well. Even if you end up not getting along with your original contacts, you may like their friends/family/coworkers/etc.
5) Start getting involved in various activities. The trick here is to get people to go out to drinks after the activity is over. This way they realize that you are interested in friendship. Most people assume that you already have friends and family so don't bother to get to know you. If you ask them to go out to drinks after the activity it lets them know you are interested in becoming their friend (or more than a friend). To avoid confusion, it may be better to announce a general invitation to the entire group instead of individuals. I used to be apart of a language exchange group in Spain that met in a library. All ages attended the meetings, but when I invited all of them for drinks afterwards, only the people closer to my age attended or stayed for long.

Make sure that before you go back home you get all of your new friends' addresses and email addresses. That way you can send them holiday cards and a mass email announcing your safe arrival. To pessimists it may seem a waste of time to stay in touch with people you most likely will never meet again. To more practical people it is important because you never know when you may want a couch to crash on in a foreign country or a favor to ask. To me (a romantic when it comes to friendships) it is important to stay in touch with people who were important to you just for the sake of friendship itself. Besides, when you get homesick of the country that was temporarily your home, it is nice to have that connection with the friends you made there.

Small tip for using a rice cooker/steamer

2008-08-30T23:02:00.002+08:00

This blog is partially to help others in a similar set-up as I am. For that reason, I wanted to share something I learned today so that others won't make the same mistake I did. My rice cooker and steamer sounded like it was busy shooting out bullets instead of cooking rice, and I was totally lost as to why for a while. What I realized was that water had gotten onto the heater and since the pot was right on top of it, the water had no where to go when it evaporated-- thus making it sound like a mini-explosion. Moral of the story: dry your steamer before putting the pot on.

Cooking Abroad

2008-08-24T00:22:00.001+08:00

Here are four steps I follow when learning how to cook for myself and others in a foreign country.

1) Be Open
China has a completely different culinary tradition than the States. That means certain ingredients are hard to find (e.g. flour, vanilla, BBQ sauce, etc.) and that there are no ovens. The only ovens available are toaster ovens, which are not that common at all and hard to find for a reasonable price. Thus even if I could somehow import the goods I'm missing, I would still not be able to bake the cookies or cook the lasagna my taste buds have been craving. Though it is nearly impossible to have those special treats exactly like they are made at home, there are ways to get close as long as you are open to new things.

2) Learn About Your Options
Instead of concentrating on what you don't have, learn what options you do have. In my own humble abode I may not have an oven, but I do have a steamer. Thus I've researched steamed deserts online in an attempt to recreate and revise the simple pleasure of a cookie or a brownie. But before I feel confident enough to tackle that project, I have to learn how to use the steamer for more conventional items.

3) Be Creative
Once you know what your options are, it is time to be a bit creative. I had been missing my mother's beer bread, which is normal when I am away from home. Normally this is no big deal because the recipe is simple: beer, flour, and sugar. Nothing too complicated. However, without flour or an oven, I was forced to spin the recipe around. I turned to what I did have: rice and a steamer. I thus mixed together cooked rice, beer, and sugar and steamed the combination together. Of course the resulting concoction was not exactly beer bread. It was basically beer-rice. It tasted like beer bread but had the consistency of rice. Either way, it brought me closer to home and thats what mattered to me. For Abbie, the victim of my crazy cooking, the beer rice was a tasty departure from the normal white rice we have every single day.

4) Experiment
The beer rice is still undergoing some adjustments, because, like any good recipe, it requires a bit of experimentation. Next time I plan to try to cook the rice in beer and then try it before considering adding more sugar. Experimentation is the key for perfecting that recipe you already have, creating a new one, or understanding the limitations of your available ingredients/cooking appliances. The best thing about experimental cooking in China is that the food is so cheap that if you do make a mistake, at least the food used can easily be replaced.

A little blurb on Shanghai

2008-08-23T17:02:00.001+08:00

From the balcony of an upscale Shanghai apartment, the lights of the city shined brightly all around me and the illuminated Pearl Tower stood as a proud beacon of modernity and fusion of the western and eastern worlds. The city, like the Pearl Tower, is a mix of these two worlds as can be seen with every building, every foreign businesses, and every cross-cultural couple. In Shanghai there is a vast social network of foreigners that seems to have brought a bit of home with them. Stores, restaurants, churches, and schools representing mainly English speaking countries are grouped together in various spots throughout the city and suburbs. Truly Shanghai, at least for a little while, felt like a much needed retreat from Chinese culture.

Huashi: Visiting a small town family

2008-08-15T01:04:00.002+08:00

For a few days Abbie, Lin, and I stayed in Huashi just out of Jiangyin to visit Abbie's family friends. The family that took care of us was composed of a Chinese teacher (the grandmother), a school principal ( the grandfather), and their 10-year-old grandson who was staying with them for the summer while his parents worked. The family spoke almost no English, minus the grandson who knew enough to discuss how hot it was and how happy he was because of our visit. While we were there, we did little sight seeing, minus a temple made into a hotel and driving through the “best” town in China (the town is known to be a role model for other towns in the nation). The true adventure of these few days was interacting with the small town family and their friends/neighbors.

The family paid for us to stay in a hotel for the two nights we were there. Unfortunately, the hotel right next to them wouldn't allow foreigners to stay there “because of the Olympics” although the Olympics are in a whole other province. We ended up staying a bit far, so they had to orchestrate rides for us, having no car themselves. They overfed us really good food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and gave us necklaces made of crystal. After meals they would take us down to the street side where there were a few benches and a bunch of neighbors. We sat with the neighbors as they asked all sorts of questions, stared at us, and pushed their kids to speak to us in English. One boy's mother had to hold him in front of us and gave him what looked like painful nudges until he talked to us in English. Another smaller boy ran away from us and then locked himself into his parent's car because we looked different. Mainly the other boys were excited just to stare at us (which they did a lot of).

Getting around without knowing the language

2008-08-14T10:03:00.002+08:00

1) When you get to a new city, buy a set of postcards with the sights you want to see and the names of the sights in the native language on the back. That way when you get into a taxi or are asking for help, you can point to the postcard to eliminate confusion.

2) Take a picture of your hotel/place you are staying as well as a picture of the street sign as printed in the native language. That way you can refer to that on your digital camera when a taxi driver asks.

3) Have both a map in your language and a map in the native language. You can figure out things on the English map, and then use the native language map when communicating with people of the area. The English map might not be necessary if the native language has roman letters.

4) When trying to use gestures to explain, carefully watch their reactions as you do so. Sometimes a gesture can be interpreted in a very different way. In fact, if you are trying to communicate to anyone in anyway, watch their reactions. This limits various types of miscommunication.

The Olympics from Inside the Great Wall

2008-08-13T12:32:00.001+08:00

“When I tell people my daughter is in China, they ALWAYS ask, what sport is she in. So I tell them competitive water floating, which you are so naturally good at. Of course I don't bother explaining anything to them, just walk away!” ~ Keith Walker (My step dad in an email he sent to me)

This month it is hard to talk about my adventures in China without someone asking about the Olympics. My Chinese friends are constantly discussing their athletic heroes and buzzing about how it is China's time to be in the spotlight. My American friends are keeping track as to how many medals the U.S. team is winning and, along with my European friends, are engaged in the political turmoil the Olympics is stirring up. I must admit that I am rather limited in my understanding of how the world views the Beijing 2008 Olympics. I have heard tales of the outrage of foreign journalists and athletes from friends outside of China, but these are merely whispers in the wind compared to the proud boisterous voices of Chinese citizens across the nation. To me the Olympics are not about the Chinese government showing off to the world to cover up a few injustices as some may allude to. The Olympics are about the Chinese people uniting together to show the world the pride they have in their nation.

Every town throughout China is decorated in the five Olympic rings, school children have fake tattoos of the Olympic mascots, Olympic commercials and adverts are everywhere as if people would actually need a reminder, and the general population seems to be glowing with pride for finally they, as Chinese citizens, have a place among the world. After feeling the excitement and anticipation in the air caused by the Olympics, how could I disillusion the Chinese by telling them what the other nations truly thought of their country? Who could break it to them that the Olympics are receiving negative coverage outside the Great Wall? This is why I was extremely touched that the nations of the world did not end up protesting the opening ceremony. I am not sure why they did not, but perhaps they finally realized that the Olympics are not about making a political point. They are about putting aside negative attitudes about others and coming together for friendly competition.

The way the Chinese people view the Olympics emphasizes this point. In the advertisements for the Olympics two main themes emerge. First of all, there is an idea that the average Chinese citizen is connected to the athletes. There are posters everywhere of the Chinese Olympic athletes being held up by sketches of ordinary people cheering them on. This is a very Chinese concept because it shows that we are all connected and that as these athletes succeed, so do other Chinese people. The second idea that emerges is that the Olympics are being used to unify and improve China at the very core of it: its people. There is another commercial that depicts various scenes of strangers going out of their way to help others and it ends with a scene of the Olympic torch being passed. The basic idea here is that the Chinese citizens should learn from the peace, unity, and comradeship of the Olympics to improve their own selves, and thus China.

Basically what I am saying is that if I had to turn on either the Chinese censured news (the English version) or the foreign news to view the Olympics, I would choose the Chinese news. As an American I have learned the value of free speech and speaking up when an issue arises. However, I believe that emphasizing free speech in the American classroom has led to us focusing on the wrongs of a government institution and overlooking the pride and happiness of its people. By focusing on the alleged negative activities of the government and linking these doings to the Olympics, the truly remarkable happenings of Chinese citizens gets lost between commercials. Leave the negativity for a forum other than the Olympics. It is time to let the Chinese people have their month in the spotlight.

Packing List for Living Abroad

2008-08-10T15:08:00.004+08:00

The biggest thing I like to stress when packing to live abroad for the next year or so is to prepare a scrapbook. This is very important advice handed down to me by some random guy in a Mexican Restaurant and revised by my own experiences. What did was have a page or two of pictures of each of my relatives/friends and of each of my favorite vacations. I also had a page with a map of the U.S.A. and a page of famous places in my home town. There are several importances to the scrapbook. First of all, it helps you show people your life/family back in the U.S.A. so in case you lack the words to describe them, a picture can help. Second of all, it can be used for when you are getting homesick and would like to look at the pictures yourself. The last reason is something I came up with myself: decorations for your new place. I brought sticky tack that can easily be taken off of walls with me to China. When I got to my apartment, I tacked my favorite pages on the walls, thus covering the large white spaces and making my apartment feel more homey.

The following list is merely just a suggestion. However, I wouldn't suggest packing much more than this considering you can easily buy more things in China and you'll want to save room for the goodies you'll bring back with you.

Checked Luggage
(Check luggage restrictions before packing, but usually you cannot exceed 50lbs. per bag and you may have to pay extra for a second bag.)

*Scrap book/ photo book of family/friends/trips/etc.
Clothes for the current season (remember it is hard to find American sizes in China)
*Clothes for other seasons (depending on your size and taste, it may be easier and more fun to buy a winter jacket there)
Toiletries (enough for a few days because this is easy to buy later)
Shoes (make sure they are comfortable because you may be walking a lot, and if you are already tall, leave your heals at home or else you will tower over everyone even more)
First Aid (your body will react to various elements, so be prepared for the possibilities)
Tums
Pepto bismol
Individually wrapped crackers (for stomach)
Band Aids
Disinfectant
Neosporin
Decongestant
Benadryl
Headache medicine
Pain reliever
Rash cream
*Fever reducer
*Day cold medicine
*Night cold medicine
*Hobbies (I like to knit, so I made sure to bring my knitting needles)
Belts (very important in case you drop a size while in China)
*Personal items
Feminine items (obviously only if you are a woman)
Gifts for people that help you or you stay with
Extra bag to bring home things you buy in China

Carry On

Computer/electrical items (Try not to bring new things with you for the obvious reasons, however if you want to buy a new computer for China, I suggest a smaller one from the EePC series so that you can easily take it with you when you travel and won't weigh you down too much)
Money
Toothbrush/toothpaste
Entertainment
Gum (to help pop your ears)
Tissues (in fact, always carry these around with you because toilet paper is rarely provided-- just like in Italy)

*Signifies objects that are not necessary for smaller trips. Basically smaller trips will need smaller quantities of the other stuff.

How to get a teaching job in China

2008-08-10T14:44:00.000+08:00

Our friends who wanted to teach in Japan for a year were rather fortunate. Japan has an organization to recruit, interview, employ, and take care of English teachers: the Japanese English Teacher Exchange Program. China does not have a system as efficient as the JET program. Instead there are smaller programs that are run by companies instead of by the government. The benefit of these smaller programs is that they usually come with Chinese classes, teaching English as a foreign language certification courses, group vacations, and a third party to deal with troubles that may arise with the school. At first we explored these programs, but most of them required an upfront payment for their services. Afraid that the programs were scams to rob foreigners of their money (a common enough occurrence to be a real concern) and considering we were traveling together so a program wasn't as necessary, we took a different approach to finding our job.

There are several websites where you can post your resume or explore classified adds for teaching jobs in China. We went through several websites that popped up on a Google search, and now we can't remember which ones were the most useful. We decided on an area in China we wanted to teach in so that we could narrow the search a bit. First we considered Chengdu so we would be close to our friend Lin Shi's family in case of an emergency. Unfortunately we found out that in the Sichuan province you need to have two years of teaching experience post graduation in order to obtain a working visa. Thus we then turned towards Suzhou because it was near Abbie's friends of her family, it was close to Shanghai, and we heard stories of its beauty. After deciding on the area and applying to a few of the schools there, we checked out the various schools validity by not only looking at their websites, but also doing a general search on the school names to see if they were mentioned anywhere else. By doing this we discovered that Suzhou Foreign Language School (the revival of the school we are currently teaching—Suzhou International Foreign Language School) had a bad reputation in regards to their treatment of foreign teachers.

Through our searches we discovered that normally a 6 month contract will not provide reimbursement for flights and generally has less benefits than a full year contract. Payment generally depends on the area and the benefits provided by the school. To figure out how much money you should be getting paid, it is important to look at how much other schools in the area pay per month and take into account what benefits you are receiving. We are getting 5,000RMB per month (a little over $500 a month depending on the exchange rate), but we each have our own huge apartment, we'll receive a traveling allowance for winter break, we get 3 meals a day during the school week provided for us, internet is free, they pay for our utilities up to a certain point, and they are taking care of the visa for us. Also keep in mind things like food and other daily expenses are cheaper here than in America.

One important thing to keep in mind is the visa. To obtain a teaching visa in China they need a copy of your college diploma, which gets complicated if you are trying to obtain the visa ahead of time and you haven't graduated yet. What we ended up having to do is apply for a tourist visa using www.travisa.com and then apply for a teaching visa while in China. The benefit of doing it this way was that the school paid for the required medical examination, which could otherwise be expensive for those without medical insurance in the States. We will also be receiving a foreign experts certificate, which is just another way of glorifying our positions as foreign English teachers.

If you chose to find a job on your own instead of taking part in a program, then we suggest creating your own “program” with an orientation period and travels. This part of your preparation can start before you even find a job. By becoming involved in Chinese club or having a Chinese FAB, you can start making valuable contacts that will help you in your adventure. As Knox students that have been immersed in an international community, we are very fortunate to have made Chinese friends. Already I have mentioned several ways in which our friendship with Lin has helped us. Our two weeks in Chengdu with her also severed as an “orientation” period to some extent, because it helped us become accustomed to the food/water, communicating even if through hand signals if not the language, haggling/ cutting prices, and learning Chinese particular customs. Our orientation extended when Lin continued to travel with us to Suzhou and helped us learn how to navigate through the city, set up bank accounts, and pick out cell phone plans. Even if you were unable to make friends from your country of destination while you were at Knox, there are still other ways to discover Knox connections abroad. We contacts Beverly Holmes in the Alumni Relations Office and she provided a list of alumni in China. Two of these alumni, a couple that live in Shanghai, were extremely excited to hear that we would be living near them and even invited us to come stay with them if we are in the area or ever feel home sick and want some western food.

To summarize, here are the steps we suggest for finding a job abroad:

1)If you are still at Knox, sign up for a FAB from the designated country, become active in the club of the designated country, and/or take classes about the language, culture, politics, philosophy, history, etc. of the designated country.
2)Figure out which area you want to teach in and figure out if you want to do it as part of a program or find a job on your own. Then research various programs/jobs you want to apply to.
3)Check the validity of the job/program by talking to the Knox Career Center, using your connections in that country, doing Google searches, etc.
4)Compare the contract with other contracts in the area.
5)Contact your connections in or from the area to see how they can help you and how you can help them.
6)Figure out the requirements for the visa in your area and try to get some of them taken care of, if not all of them, before you go out of them (e.g. having 16 passport sized pictures with a white background ready).
7)Plan to arrive a week or two before you are supposed to even if you stay in a hotel for those days because it is important to give your body time to get used to the new schedule as well as the food and water of the area.

Chengdu, Sichuan

2008-08-07T22:31:00.000+08:00

Abbie and I arrived in Chengdu on July 20th, and were picked up by Lin Shi, a Knox student who we've come to be friends with over the course of last year. The great thing about staying in Chengdu for two weeks before heading to our apartments and jobs in Suzhou was being able to have Lin help us adjust and recover from the dreaded jet lag before meeting our employers. The secret for getting over jet lag quickly is to sleep as much as possible on the plane ride(s) over and then staying up till 10pm once you get to the destination. That way you automatically get into the swing of things. I didn't quite make it to 10pm, but 9pm seemed to be good enough because I was automatically on the right sleep schedule for work for I got up at 6am the next day. That was not quite good for the vacation schedule though, but after Lin filled our days with activities, I was able to sleep in quite well. As far as getting adjusted to the water and food, that was a different story. Making that story short, if you travel in China, make sure to bring lots of Tums, and start taking them as soon as you get off the plane, and with every meal until you feel well adjusted.

Some of the more impressive sights in Chengdu include the temples and the pandas. Wenshu temple, a Buddhist temple, was absolutely amazing. Abbie especially liked it because it had a vegetarian restaurant. I liked it because it had ponds filled with turtles—my favorite animal. Throughout the temple we saw ribbons tied to consecutive posts that had paper prayers for the victims of the recent earthquake in that region hanging on them. Going to Chengdu after the earthquake that struck only months ago was a unique experience for many reasons. First of all, the earthquake seemed to inspire a sort of pride in the community, so shirts displaying pride in China could be seen everywhere. Also, tourist attractions were slightly cheaper to try to bring tourists back to the region. There were less foreigners that could be seen on the streets than before. A parent of Lin's friend commented how wonderful it was that Abbie and I visited Chengdu during this time period. We got to see make-shift-houses put up for victims of the earthquake, and we also were there for an aftershock, though we didn't feel it or know it happened till Lin's parents called worried that we might be scared. Something that seemed amazing to me, especially in light of Katrina, was how there was almost too many people trying to volunteer to help the affected community. They had to deny some volunteers and block off a lane of the highway specifically for the use of people helping out in that area. Overall the whole scene was touching,

Luckily only one giant panda went missing during the earthquake. As a symbol of the nation and a source of great pride for people of that area, this was very fortunate indeed. Though some pandas are wild, some of them are being kept within Chengdu in an area designed to research their breeding habits. This area is about as large as the St. Louis Zoo, but is designed only with two animals in mind: giant pandas and red pandas. They are treated rather well, even though for the right price they are trained to pose for pictures. Personally I think the red pandas are cuter because of their bushy tails and because one actually stopped to smile for a picture. In general I loved how close you could get to the pandas and how people friendly they seemed. They looked so cute that I wanted to hop the fence and cuddle with them!

One weekend Lin's parents took us outside of Chengdu to Leshan and Mt. E Mei. In Leshan we saw the world's largest Buddha statue. To get to see the statue close up, we climbed lots of stairs and passed Buddhist temples and more statues of Buddha. Most of the things I saw reminded me of my Asian Art history class I took one summer at UMSL, and actually seeing the world's largest Buddha was like stepping into the textbook for that class. If I remember correctly, when I took the test for that class the one question I got wrong was identifying that particular Buddha-- how strange that now that is the one question on the exam I would get right now. To be able to see the entire statue, we had to take a boat out to view it. The statue is at carved into the mountain in front of the intersection of 3 rivers and is truly an amazing sight.

Mt. E Mei will forever be one of top memories of China. It is one of the tallest mountains in China and the amount of stairs I took to get to the top far surpassed that in Leshan. On the way up I saw some hard-core backpacking westerners, and thought of my sister and her company Ginkgo Adventures (www.ginkgoadventures.com). She could easily do an adventure trip in this area and Lin Shi said she would be willing to help translate if that meant she could go. At the top is a statue of some god associated with Buddhism painted in gold and a temple made of pure gold. When I was looking back at the statue I saw it be engulfed in a cloud and practically disappear as if it never existed. The clouds surrounded me when I was there, and now I can say that I have truly touched the sky and been amongst the clouds. Another amazing sight there was the Suicide Cliff. Apparently, because many people have jumped off this cliff at night the phosphorus of their bones glow. I'm happy that we weren't there when it was dark because I think the sight of glowing human remains would disturb me a bit. The picture below of a wild monkey may seem like too much of a close up to be taken by a tourist like me, but I assure that monkeys here can come a bit too close for comfort. Take for instance the poor little girl whose hard boiled egg got stolen from her and the woman who had a shopping bag ripped open and bag of chips stolen.

Other fun things we did while in Chengdu include ice skating, bowling, karaoke (for Abbie's birthday), playing pool and table tennis, shopping, eating extremely spicy foods, watching The Three Kingdoms (part 1 of a new Chinese movie), and spending a few days at Lin's home relaxing. I would like to say that studying Chinese was involved somewhere within those days, but I also would rather not lie. To some extent I think we have come to rely on Lin a bit too much, and I'm not sure what we will do when we no longer have our trusted translator. Still, overall Chengdu was wonderful and I highly suggest a visit if at all possible.