First Lessons Down - What's with the English names??

Well, my first week of lessons is now over, so I
thought it would be a good opportunity to give you an
update.

I have 7 classes a week, each class lasts for 2 x 45
minute periods. So that is a total of 10.5 teaching
hours per week - not bad! I don't have any classes on
Friday, so I get to have 3 day weekends this semester.

I have 2 advanced writing classes (3rd year students),
2 audio/visual classes (3rd year students) and 3 oral
english classes (1st year students). The freshman
classes do not start until October 7, so I am only
teaching 4 classes/week at this stage.

I have now met the other foreign teachers. Apart from
Washington Butler Jnr who I have previously told you
about, there are 4 foreign teachers who are teaching
English. Annie is a Phillipino lady (mid 40's) who
taught here last year. Benjamin is a Kenyan man (not
sure of his age) who also taught here last year. There
is also a Phillipino couple, Gonnie and Rex, who have
a young son. This is their 4th year teaching at this
school. So, Washington (who I will refer to as
"Denzel" for the amusement of some of my friends!) and
I are the only native English speakers, which I find
quite amusing. The Phillipinos, whilst their English
is very good, often pronounce some words quite
differently, and their sentence structure is not
always as a native English speaker would say the
sentence.

My first class was at 8:00am on Monday morning. It was
an audio-visual class. Apparently, Yancheng Teachers'
College is not in the habit of providing foreign
teachers with any sort of curriculum, syllabus or even
course objectives. So my questions as to what the
objectives of this course are were met with answers
like "Oh, it is easy. Just let them watch movies". Ok.

The AV classes are held in a "language lab". Each of
the students have a head set and a screen on their
desk which is connected to a computer out the front.
Unfortunately, no one has shown me how to use the
equipment, and my requests for instructions have been
met with very vague answers about it not working at
the moment, and there being no projector... Great.

Anyway, I wanted to spend the first class getting to
know the students. So I went around to each student,
(all 51 of them!) and asked them to introduce
themselves. Unfortunately, that only took about half
an hour so I still had 15 minutes of the first period
and the whole 2nd period left! I offered to answer any
questions they had, but they seemed reticent to ask
any. So, I started talking about different genres of
movies and music. Still, very little input from the
students.

In the 2nd period, I managed to get the DVD working,
so I slapped Moulin Rouge on for awhile to fill up the
time. They did not seem to know the "musical" genre at
all. In hindsight though, I am not sure that Moulin
Rouge is the sort of film I should be showing them.
Afterall, it is set in a brothel/dance hall in Paris
and the lead character is a prostitute. Not the sort
of wholesome movies they are used to, I expect.

So, for the next 3 classes, I put some thought into
how I could drag out the introductions to last both
periods. I wrote up on the board a few things that I
wanted the students to talk about when they introduced
themselves and the last thing was to ask me a
question. That seemed to work well. Until one of the
students asked if I liked singing - to which I
answered in the affirmative, and then the next student
asked me to sing them a song. "What, right now" I
asked. "Yes", came the reply. So I sung the first
verse of the national anthem, very badly. The
Australian idol judges would have said it was very
"pitchy" and that I was "letting the nerves get to
me". The students all clapped very politely afterwards
and then we moved on to the next person. It was very
embarrassing. Silly me for telling them they could ask
me anything!

Anyway, the first classes seemed to go ok, although I
think I am going to have problems bringing the
students out of their shell and getting them to talk.

They all gave me their English names, because they
know the silly foreign teachers cannot speak their
language and therefore cannot pronounce their names.
Some of the English names were quite hilarious -
Smiling Fish, Ice Man, Eleven, Pear, Apple, Lemon,
Yobby, Funny, Luck, An'nan (as in Kofe's son - he told
me), Jordan (after Michael as he likes basketball),
Cushing, Manson, Snow, Blue (these last 2 had to be
named by an Australian foreign teacher, don't you
think?), Cloud, Say, GiGi, ViVi, CiCi (all of whom
were friends who sit together in class) etc...

I finished my classes for the week on Wednesday by
lunch time as the freshman classes don't start until
October. So, I have 4.5 days before my next class. I
went back to my very bare apartment and had no idea
what to do with myself. The internet connection was
down (and stayed down for 4 days), the cable tv was
connected but the only channel which is not available
is the only English speaking channel (there is only so
much time one can spend flicking through 39 channels
of incessant Chinese gibberish) and I had finished the
1 novel which I brought with me. I was bored
senseless! And its not like you can relax in the
comfort of the apartment - both the lounge and the bed
are as hard as rocks! I was at a bit of a loose end. I
started talking to myself, but did not like the echo,
so I shut up.

However, yesterday I went on a long walk to the "big"
supermarket and back. I have to go to the supermarket,
rather than the market at this stage, as I cannot
communicate at the markets. The "foreigner" walking
the streets of Yancheng was quite a draw card and I
got many stares. When I left around 10:00am, the
streets were fairly quiet. However, on the return
journey around 11:30am, the streets were alive with
bicyles, tricyles, scooters & motorbikes. It was lunch
time, and everyone was on their way home for their 2
hour siesta. It was quite an experience, trying to
cross roads and navigate my way around the traffic.
Although technically they drive on the right side of
the road, practically they drive where ever they want!
And the horns are honking incesssantly, to warn of
their approach. It is quite a sight for sore eyes.

In the afternoon, I met Annie and, after showing me a
few things on campus, we went to dinner with a student
of hers at a little hole in the wall restaurant. We
then went to Gonnie and Rex's apartment and they have
heaps of English books and DVDs which i can borrow to
save me from going insane in my apartment.

So, all in all, it has been an interesting and
challenging week. There have been high parts and low
parts, but i am looking forward to the challenge.

Once again, I have written an epistle. I promise I
won't bore you stupid with lengthy emails everyday.
Just while I am settling in!!

Keep in contact and take care.

love Meagan