Before we knew it our first day of class was here. The first classes had us teaching Oral English to college freshman, Pazi with International Business majors, and Adán with Chinese and Education majors. The first thing we noticed was that the university's classrooms are predominantly in poor to average condition as compared to the U.S. It's interesting to see that the actual buildings themselves are freezing because they have no heating system. Luckily each individual classroom has an old school furnace. We learned quickly how important it is to keep the doors closed while in session. Our classes are mostly broken up into two-one hour blocks. We teach from 8am-10am and then 10am-12pm. The students also get 10 minute breaks each hour so classes work out to be 50 minutes at a time.Our objective for the first day of class really was to just get a feel for the classroom dynamics in China and to gauge the English ability levels of our students. Honestly we had not idea what to expect going in, but were pleasantly suprised coming out. The students here are very respectful, almost too respectful. What I mean by this is that traditional Chinese classrooms are set up to allow little student input so it was hard at first to have them volunteer comments. Couple this with the fact that many of the students are shy or reserved and it was tricky to get dialogue sparked. However, after much probing they began to open up. They showed an eagerness and desire to learn that was truly infectious. Many of our students were intrigued by us knowing second and third languages and when we told them about our ethnic background they became curious. In fact, they even asked us to provide them with possible lessons on Latinos.
All in all, it ending up being a good first day for us. We were pleased with the immediate rapport we were able to build with students and our ability to capture their interest. Pazi even had one group not want to leave when the last bell rang for class to dismiss! Later after visiting with Michael, a foreign instructor who has taught at three other Chinese universities, we learned that bar none the students at BISU are the most courteous and polite. So far so good. Next up for Adán will be reading skills classes for juniors and Pazi will continue her schedule with freshman.
Sandy Shows Us the Ropes
On Tuesday we had lunch with Sandy, a foreign instructor from Austin, Texas. It turned out to be heaven-sent. Sandy is an extremely down to earth person but with a fiery, opinionated side you can't help but love. She took us to The Cat's Eye. Little did we know that this whole-in-the-wall restaurant would quickly become a favorite. Interestingly enough, The Cat's Eye is maybe 150 meters past the supermarket we shop at. You would never guess that this joint could make pizza that rivals any kind from Idaho. As we devoured our food, Sandy began to tell us about her journey from Austin to Brazil, back to Austin, and then to China. To make a long story short, she has her grandchildren here and because of it has chosen to make Beijing her home for the past 4 years.
After lunch, Sandy graciously took us on a tour of the local farmer's market, shops, restaurants, and other locales she frequents. It was great to get firsthand tips and advise from a seasoned pro who not only knows the area pretty well but speaks decent Chinese too. She even went out of her way to show us the post office, cafeteria, and several other buildings on campus that Li was not able to describe to us well. At the close of our afternoon we could not thank Sandy enough for taking the time to help us. She insisted that it was her pleasure. Sandy is definitely someone that we will get to know much better as the semester goes on.
