“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes but in having new eyes.” –Marcel Proust
This quote is appropriate in how I am currently feeling. The past few weeks have been a huge blessing to me. It is difficult to describe my experience to people and to express emotions that I feel. I’ll give it a shot but I still believe that some parts of it are indescribable.
When I left you last I was being a tourist in my own town. I haven’t done too much ‘touring’ but I have been doing a good deal of living. I even took some time to paint my bedroom so my walls are not dirty white anymore. One wall is dark purple and the other three are clean white! 🙂 If you remember from a previous post, I had agreed to teach English for a winter camp at Nong Da. I wasn’t really looking forward to it but thought it would a good way to make some extra money.
This particular group of students is studying there on a government scholarship. They are being trained to be future leaders in their country. Most of my students are from the far western Chinese province of Xinjiang. I also had a few that were from Beijing. The students from Xinjiang are minorities…Uygher and not of Han descent like the majority of the Chinese population. They were chosen to attend high school in Beijing. The downside to this honor is that they only get to see their families 2-4 weeks out of the year in the summertime. They don’t even get to go home for the largest of all Chinese festivals, The Spring Festival. 🙁 Even though they have many hardships in their lives, they have made the most of their individual situations. I have never taught a nicer group of students. They were very respectful, friendly and lots of fun! I also thought it was interesting and also ironic that the future communist leaders were being trained by democratic/capitalist Americans! 🙂
On the last day of the camp I was required to give them an oral exam. Basically, they had to visit with me for five or so minutes, one-on-one, so that I could evaluate their grammar, pronunciation, and fluency. I took it as an opportunity to learn more about their backgrounds, their families, their goals and their feelings about life. This was probably my favorite part of the class. I wish I could have done it on the first day. Although with a small class it was pretty easy to get to know them. I had them for three hours each day and we had some break time so that I could chat with them.
Teachers don’t have favorite students 😉 but if we did mine might be Tom. He is from a family of five. He has two older siblings and one of them is married and has a child. All of them live in the same house and his parents are farmers. I asked him if he could change one thing about his life what it would be. His response was that his family could have more food. They are happy that he is studying in Beijing, not only because it is a great opportunity for him to further his education, but also so that they don’t have to feed him. 🙁 Or maybe it would be Sophia, one of the sweetest Chinese girls I’ve ever met. She is intelligent, kind, caring, and beautiful. She would be good at whatever career she wants in life. But I have a feeling she is already feeling the pressure of getting married and having children. She is only 17. I hope that she is able to reach some of her dreams in life. She really wants to work in finance. It could also very well be Owen. (Actually, it would be pretty tough to have a favorite in this bunch. They were all really awesome!) Owen is the one who disagrees with education in his country. He would like to see changes in the way children are educated in the future. Maybe it is a good thing he will be some sort of leader in his country. 🙂 I asked him what he disagreed with. His response was that he didn’t think Chinese students were allowed to develop their creativity enough.
I’m really glad that I agreed to do the camp. At first I was not super excited about it but it ended up being very worthwhile. I won’t forget these kids. 🙂
The members of the class that were there the for the last day. A couple of the Beijing students had left already to travel with their families for the festival. This bunch was awesome!
During my teaching at Nong Da, I was also able to meet quite a few foreigners who were also pretty awesome! Below is a picture of the foreign teachers. One of them is not foreign but her oral English was really good so Mr. Wang had her lie and say she was from the states. Two of the teachers were British, one was Canadian, one was Chinese, one was from Latvia, and the rest were American.
A group of some pretty awesome people! Our bus rides in the morning were never lacking entertainment. I'm happy that I met these people. One of them will be in Seoul at the same time as me and he and I are going to hang out one day! From L-R back row: Jasper (GB), Vincent, Gordon, Rebecca, Danielle (Chinese), George (GB), Deke, Landon, Sigmund, Mike, Graham, Benny. From L-R front row: Vivian (Mr. Wang's assistant--hilarious that Chinese people pick this name because Vs are really hard to say for them), Sebastian, Mary, Barrett, Laura 1, Laura 2, Amber, Ona (who is actually from Lativia but speaks perfect English and also really good Chinese!)
After my teaching ended on Thursday last week, I headed to the city of Tianjin. My next post will be about my time in Tianjin. Enjoy!
