I set up this blog when Blogspot was available in China but Livejournal was not so I needed a new place to write if and when the fancy struck me. Now, Livejournal is available but Blogspot is not (other than with a proxy).
Does anyone care which I use? Should I revert to Livejournal or stay here and transfer previous material? Would a whole new place be even better?
Thanks for the feedback, whoever may be reading this!
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
A new year, a new resolution to keep up with this blog!
So... I'm back in Shantou, kicking and screaming all the way back once again! I seriously need to take the hint and maybe consider NOT signing another contract this spring. Remind me of this if you hear me utter anything along the lines of "well, at least it's something, it's a fallback"- it is no longer a fallback. It's a good place, there are good people, friends, students, support for teaching, opportunities for advancement etc, but 4 years will be more than enough.
That said, we started the year quite brilliantly with a professional development retreat to the beautiful island of Hainan. There was the awkward first faculty meeting and group picture, this preceded by the medical "body check" tests downtown which I joined once again this year to hold hands while blood was drawn, meet the new people and get a free ride to and from WalMart with all my stuff. New people are all sort of lost for the time being, but I'm sure will all know their way around faster than I learned to get around town. I still stick to my usual haunts and hope that La Kaffa will not be closed indefinitely, thereby depriving me of my favourite caffeine-providing locale.
The trip to Hainan started on the 5th, bright and early, with all of us appearing packed and ready for fun, sea, bonding and at some point professionally developing into masterful teachers (for those who have not reached that level yet). Flight was uneventful, apart from a cute airline logo, arrival in Haikou included coconut candy (everything there includes coconut in some form!) and the beginning of the Harry Saga. Harry was the tour guide we picked up in Haikou. He was irritating, clapped his hands to get us to do anything, stated the obvious (as in "ok, stand up now!" after we were told to get off the bus), started every sentence with "OK" and ended with "aah" and was generally more than we could deal with during 5 days of forced interaction in 90% humidity and 35C weather (that's realfeel 110-120F according to Accuweather), with daily wake-up calls between the hours of 7:00 and 7:30AM. After a quick lunch, we were taken to the hotel, which had a very pervasive mold/ smoke smell (especially in the room I was assigned and the dining room- enough to put you off any food!), then bused over to Hainan University for a tour during which we stayed on said bus, swung by Evergreen Park, had some dinner back in the hotel then basically crashed as many of us were still recovering from jetlag.
Next day, after a rather Chinese breakfast, we went off to be professionally developed by listening to various talks about teaching English, one of which, from our fearless leader, involved research carried out on myself and fellow faculty members. Apparently, I am easily identifiable as the perpetrator of quotes involving how the language of foreign teachers begins to include never-used-so-often-before words such as "delicious", "convenient" and "hometown". Several people guessed it came from me, even people who weren't sure I'd taken part in this project (about our Chinese and 'home language' selves). The afternoon session of the day involved us splitting into interest groups and discussing various aspects of ELT in China. I joined the Extra-curricular activities group, which ended up just being a group of ELC teachers talking to one HaiDa guy about what we offered, while he told us they had nothing like that and he didn't really know about what did exist at his school, though he suggested that we come up with a way to evaluate the usefulness of these activities rather than just doing whatever came to us at the time. A valid point, but he offered no suggestions as to how to do that... helpful! Dinner that night more than made up for the unfulfilling sessions, as it included a buffet of sushi and delicious desserts!
Day 3 was made up of a lecture/ workshop about the state of ELT in China given by a professor from Macao who had no problem telling it like it is on the Mainland. He may have been walking a fine line, telling us about which newspapers to take from HK and Macao back into 'China' and which it would be best to leave behind, while making it clear to us what he thought of Chinese policy making. I definitely enjoyed the pictures of lower-ranking political figures sleeping through reform speeches in silent protest, boredom or general disregard of their duties in light of the fact that they would have no say either way. Good to see our colleagues reacting to this and nodding along in a not so "toeing the party line" style.
The afternoon was full of bus-time as we made our way across the island to Sanya, land of beautiful beaches and fancy hotels, and our retreat 3 years ago. This time we stayed on a different beach, but the hotel had a great view of our stretch of sand and was close to a bbq area, complete with pushy little girls thrusting firecrackers and Roman candles at me (5 jiao for 1, 1 yuan for 2!) I ended up wandering down the beach with a few people until we found "cocktails" at a "beach bar": 4 mixed drinks of questionable alcohol content at a table on the beach, overlooked by a tiki lamp. It had atmosphere... kind of! New drink: Sanya Bay.
Day 4- was subversive and refused to get back on a bus and get dragged around to another beach, butterfly village, seashell museum and tropical forest (yup, all that in one day!), when there was a perfectly decent sandy area with beautiful waves right in front of my nose the whole time. An unnecessary 7:30AM wake-up call later, my roommate and I were on the beach with overpriced snacks in hand, ready to bake, swim and generally have a great day, starting at 8:30. We jumped in the waves, lay back down to dry off... then 3 guys decided that right next to our heads was the perfect spot for their sunshine-y day- there was no one else on the beach!! Miles of empty sand and they just had to come park themselves in our personal space and take out their cellphones and (presumably) take pictures of us. We quickly decamped cursing the locals and their lack of beach/ human etiquette and found ourselves a pair of wooden lounge chairs with a tiki parasol for 30RMB/ day. More wave-jumping action and perfect positioning between the two lines of breakage of the waves, a little chit-chat with a couple of new colleagues who also went the umbrella/ chairs route rather than the sand/ sun/ annoying people one and we headed back to go hunt down the Muslim quarter for some delicious, non-Harry-ordered foods. No dice with the taxis- they had no idea what the "muselin simiao (Muslim temple)" was. They did offer to take us to a famous temple 20km away though! We settled on a lunch of fish, tofu and egg, but at least, we ordered it ourselves, with me having to serve as the designated Chinese-speaker! Success- I can now get things done, more or less speedily and accurately! I am a whole new person (especially after amazing a new co-worker when I claimed to be "shy and introverted")!
The afternoon plans for yet more wave-fun were dampened by the threatening clouds and intense downpour, though we did manage to make it back out to "our bar" for after-dinner drinks with a bigger group of people. Much discussion and fun for our last day in Sanya.
Day 5- Breakfast (still not approaching "delicious"), bus to Boundary Island where we could swim or join the "water sports games" (oh, Harry and his Chinglish!) The bus ride was fine, the boat ride to the island was quite fun for those of us with a strong stomach- bumpy times! On arrival and after being vastly entertained by some hilarious mannequins in wetsuits- pictures on Flickr to come soon) we excitedly got away from Harry and headed over to the "swimming area"... it was tiny and packed with people. More subversion as a few of us carefully headed over to the next little bay, traipsing through masses of broken coral and happily jumped into beautiful clear water... until we felt a weird shock, heard a tinny sound and we whistled at to get the heck out of the non designate swimming area! There was a policeman on the shore looking annoyed and a guy on a jetski to help enforce the rules. No choice but to turn back and I headed back to the "corral" with two of my fellow rule-breakers (the other 2 tried, it seems, to find a good new spot repeatedly and to annoy the guard as much as possible by keeping eye contact and occasionally trying to make a break for it). Good water, annoying rocks underfoot but fun colleagues did make it all worth the trouble, the staring and the potential sunburn. A communal shower (thankfully no naked colleagues at that time), overpriced drinks, a neutral Chinese lunch later we met up with those who had taken part in the "water sports games" and saw the pictures of them holding onto the coral reefs and picking up sea urchins... my irritation at how these Chinese people (the scuba instructors who condone this, I mean), and other inconsiderate and ignorant people, ruin the environment knows no bounds at this point! I remember being sternly told not to even get close to the reefs when I went diving and here they are grabbing on, picking up random bits off the beach and buying souvenirs made of coral!! Gah!
Anyway, boat ride back was, again, speedy, bumpy and entertaining, made more so by the screams/ squeals of my fellow workmates! More hours on the bus, then the visit of a conference center and another boat ride to the "Jade Belt"- a stretch of sand that looks out onto the South China Sea, a beach with waves the knocked over a few teachers and drenched more than that! The guy holding a turtle that kept trying to beat him up with its 'flippers' was just the cherry on top!
New hotel for the evening and a friend and I went to explore the area around the hotel in an attempt to stay awake past 8PM and find some ice cream/ dessert. The best part was the discovery of the NanGuo Supermarket, not for its offerings (we're better off in Shantou), but for its delectable Chinglish. There were aisles of "bumf", "dentifris", "clean air", "bathebles", "family thing" (yes, singular) and, my favourite, "mop/besom". We did not pay with our "credit carts", but this store definitely could have produced yet more entertainment if we had had time and energy enough for it.
Not much to add about today- a temple with some interesting statues of disgraced mainlanders (with good faces) this morning after a disappointing breakfast and an irritating experience with milktea people who seemed convinced that we did not need large cups and that the small or medium would be more appropriate. Much annoyance at the airport with people in the next line for check-in yelling at each other and shoving into us and Harry making the whole process go about as slowly as possible, while trying hard to grab all bags by the most tearable parts possible. Glad to have left him behind in Hainan! Flight was delayed, we got back to campus after a slight pause on the road to maybe wait for some freshmen. More disappointment and irritation when I got home and the best part of my day may have been the smoothies I had for dinner followed by the Singleton cult movie: Bridget Jones' Diary.
To look forward to (and by that, I mean, to produce fodder for sarcasm and my ever-decreasing patience): Freshman Orientation, grading and more grading... I need to get a squishy stress-ball for this week/ semester/ life!
That said, we started the year quite brilliantly with a professional development retreat to the beautiful island of Hainan. There was the awkward first faculty meeting and group picture, this preceded by the medical "body check" tests downtown which I joined once again this year to hold hands while blood was drawn, meet the new people and get a free ride to and from WalMart with all my stuff. New people are all sort of lost for the time being, but I'm sure will all know their way around faster than I learned to get around town. I still stick to my usual haunts and hope that La Kaffa will not be closed indefinitely, thereby depriving me of my favourite caffeine-providing locale.
The trip to Hainan started on the 5th, bright and early, with all of us appearing packed and ready for fun, sea, bonding and at some point professionally developing into masterful teachers (for those who have not reached that level yet). Flight was uneventful, apart from a cute airline logo, arrival in Haikou included coconut candy (everything there includes coconut in some form!) and the beginning of the Harry Saga. Harry was the tour guide we picked up in Haikou. He was irritating, clapped his hands to get us to do anything, stated the obvious (as in "ok, stand up now!" after we were told to get off the bus), started every sentence with "OK" and ended with "aah" and was generally more than we could deal with during 5 days of forced interaction in 90% humidity and 35C weather (that's realfeel 110-120F according to Accuweather), with daily wake-up calls between the hours of 7:00 and 7:30AM. After a quick lunch, we were taken to the hotel, which had a very pervasive mold/ smoke smell (especially in the room I was assigned and the dining room- enough to put you off any food!), then bused over to Hainan University for a tour during which we stayed on said bus, swung by Evergreen Park, had some dinner back in the hotel then basically crashed as many of us were still recovering from jetlag.
Next day, after a rather Chinese breakfast, we went off to be professionally developed by listening to various talks about teaching English, one of which, from our fearless leader, involved research carried out on myself and fellow faculty members. Apparently, I am easily identifiable as the perpetrator of quotes involving how the language of foreign teachers begins to include never-used-so-often-before words such as "delicious", "convenient" and "hometown". Several people guessed it came from me, even people who weren't sure I'd taken part in this project (about our Chinese and 'home language' selves). The afternoon session of the day involved us splitting into interest groups and discussing various aspects of ELT in China. I joined the Extra-curricular activities group, which ended up just being a group of ELC teachers talking to one HaiDa guy about what we offered, while he told us they had nothing like that and he didn't really know about what did exist at his school, though he suggested that we come up with a way to evaluate the usefulness of these activities rather than just doing whatever came to us at the time. A valid point, but he offered no suggestions as to how to do that... helpful! Dinner that night more than made up for the unfulfilling sessions, as it included a buffet of sushi and delicious desserts!
Day 3 was made up of a lecture/ workshop about the state of ELT in China given by a professor from Macao who had no problem telling it like it is on the Mainland. He may have been walking a fine line, telling us about which newspapers to take from HK and Macao back into 'China' and which it would be best to leave behind, while making it clear to us what he thought of Chinese policy making. I definitely enjoyed the pictures of lower-ranking political figures sleeping through reform speeches in silent protest, boredom or general disregard of their duties in light of the fact that they would have no say either way. Good to see our colleagues reacting to this and nodding along in a not so "toeing the party line" style.
The afternoon was full of bus-time as we made our way across the island to Sanya, land of beautiful beaches and fancy hotels, and our retreat 3 years ago. This time we stayed on a different beach, but the hotel had a great view of our stretch of sand and was close to a bbq area, complete with pushy little girls thrusting firecrackers and Roman candles at me (5 jiao for 1, 1 yuan for 2!) I ended up wandering down the beach with a few people until we found "cocktails" at a "beach bar": 4 mixed drinks of questionable alcohol content at a table on the beach, overlooked by a tiki lamp. It had atmosphere... kind of! New drink: Sanya Bay.
Day 4- was subversive and refused to get back on a bus and get dragged around to another beach, butterfly village, seashell museum and tropical forest (yup, all that in one day!), when there was a perfectly decent sandy area with beautiful waves right in front of my nose the whole time. An unnecessary 7:30AM wake-up call later, my roommate and I were on the beach with overpriced snacks in hand, ready to bake, swim and generally have a great day, starting at 8:30. We jumped in the waves, lay back down to dry off... then 3 guys decided that right next to our heads was the perfect spot for their sunshine-y day- there was no one else on the beach!! Miles of empty sand and they just had to come park themselves in our personal space and take out their cellphones and (presumably) take pictures of us. We quickly decamped cursing the locals and their lack of beach/ human etiquette and found ourselves a pair of wooden lounge chairs with a tiki parasol for 30RMB/ day. More wave-jumping action and perfect positioning between the two lines of breakage of the waves, a little chit-chat with a couple of new colleagues who also went the umbrella/ chairs route rather than the sand/ sun/ annoying people one and we headed back to go hunt down the Muslim quarter for some delicious, non-Harry-ordered foods. No dice with the taxis- they had no idea what the "muselin simiao (Muslim temple)" was. They did offer to take us to a famous temple 20km away though! We settled on a lunch of fish, tofu and egg, but at least, we ordered it ourselves, with me having to serve as the designated Chinese-speaker! Success- I can now get things done, more or less speedily and accurately! I am a whole new person (especially after amazing a new co-worker when I claimed to be "shy and introverted")!
The afternoon plans for yet more wave-fun were dampened by the threatening clouds and intense downpour, though we did manage to make it back out to "our bar" for after-dinner drinks with a bigger group of people. Much discussion and fun for our last day in Sanya.
Day 5- Breakfast (still not approaching "delicious"), bus to Boundary Island where we could swim or join the "water sports games" (oh, Harry and his Chinglish!) The bus ride was fine, the boat ride to the island was quite fun for those of us with a strong stomach- bumpy times! On arrival and after being vastly entertained by some hilarious mannequins in wetsuits- pictures on Flickr to come soon) we excitedly got away from Harry and headed over to the "swimming area"... it was tiny and packed with people. More subversion as a few of us carefully headed over to the next little bay, traipsing through masses of broken coral and happily jumped into beautiful clear water... until we felt a weird shock, heard a tinny sound and we whistled at to get the heck out of the non designate swimming area! There was a policeman on the shore looking annoyed and a guy on a jetski to help enforce the rules. No choice but to turn back and I headed back to the "corral" with two of my fellow rule-breakers (the other 2 tried, it seems, to find a good new spot repeatedly and to annoy the guard as much as possible by keeping eye contact and occasionally trying to make a break for it). Good water, annoying rocks underfoot but fun colleagues did make it all worth the trouble, the staring and the potential sunburn. A communal shower (thankfully no naked colleagues at that time), overpriced drinks, a neutral Chinese lunch later we met up with those who had taken part in the "water sports games" and saw the pictures of them holding onto the coral reefs and picking up sea urchins... my irritation at how these Chinese people (the scuba instructors who condone this, I mean), and other inconsiderate and ignorant people, ruin the environment knows no bounds at this point! I remember being sternly told not to even get close to the reefs when I went diving and here they are grabbing on, picking up random bits off the beach and buying souvenirs made of coral!! Gah!
Anyway, boat ride back was, again, speedy, bumpy and entertaining, made more so by the screams/ squeals of my fellow workmates! More hours on the bus, then the visit of a conference center and another boat ride to the "Jade Belt"- a stretch of sand that looks out onto the South China Sea, a beach with waves the knocked over a few teachers and drenched more than that! The guy holding a turtle that kept trying to beat him up with its 'flippers' was just the cherry on top!
New hotel for the evening and a friend and I went to explore the area around the hotel in an attempt to stay awake past 8PM and find some ice cream/ dessert. The best part was the discovery of the NanGuo Supermarket, not for its offerings (we're better off in Shantou), but for its delectable Chinglish. There were aisles of "bumf", "dentifris", "clean air", "bathebles", "family thing" (yes, singular) and, my favourite, "mop/besom". We did not pay with our "credit carts", but this store definitely could have produced yet more entertainment if we had had time and energy enough for it.
Not much to add about today- a temple with some interesting statues of disgraced mainlanders (with good faces) this morning after a disappointing breakfast and an irritating experience with milktea people who seemed convinced that we did not need large cups and that the small or medium would be more appropriate. Much annoyance at the airport with people in the next line for check-in yelling at each other and shoving into us and Harry making the whole process go about as slowly as possible, while trying hard to grab all bags by the most tearable parts possible. Glad to have left him behind in Hainan! Flight was delayed, we got back to campus after a slight pause on the road to maybe wait for some freshmen. More disappointment and irritation when I got home and the best part of my day may have been the smoothies I had for dinner followed by the Singleton cult movie: Bridget Jones' Diary.
To look forward to (and by that, I mean, to produce fodder for sarcasm and my ever-decreasing patience): Freshman Orientation, grading and more grading... I need to get a squishy stress-ball for this week/ semester/ life!
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
A few quotes
From random times this semester:
I just have to consummate my speaking paper. (last step of a process essay about prepping a meeting)
I went to the tonsorial shop for my hair cut.
Last week I watching movie. That movie is very hot. (from oral post-tests-can't remember the question or imagine what it could have been to get that response)
Sunday is the first day of a week. (response to describing a typical day of the week)
My father, he often go to bed with somebody [...] it is bad [...] maybe it is good (who do you admire most?)
Everyone make a drink (I think this was a mispronounced "dream")
My major is civil engineer, I want to be an architecture. (At least he knows his word forms, if not when to use them)
I frown upon ghosts. (vocab sentence for "frown upon")
We can see many loose boys and girls in the foreign films. (sentence for "loose")
He has hygienic hobbits. (sentence for "hygienic". may have been badly written "habbits")
The next round of essays should be fun.
I just have to consummate my speaking paper. (last step of a process essay about prepping a meeting)
I went to the tonsorial shop for my hair cut.
Last week I watching movie. That movie is very hot. (from oral post-tests-can't remember the question or imagine what it could have been to get that response)
Sunday is the first day of a week. (response to describing a typical day of the week)
My father, he often go to bed with somebody [...] it is bad [...] maybe it is good (who do you admire most?)
Everyone make a drink (I think this was a mispronounced "dream")
My major is civil engineer, I want to be an architecture. (At least he knows his word forms, if not when to use them)
I frown upon ghosts. (vocab sentence for "frown upon")
We can see many loose boys and girls in the foreign films. (sentence for "loose")
He has hygienic hobbits. (sentence for "hygienic". may have been badly written "habbits")
The next round of essays should be fun.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Stereotyping
Two weeks ago, my students took quizzes and the results were, as we say here, "less than delicious". One thing they need work on is "fast reading"- basically a skimming and scanning exercise with yes/no/not given answers. At my level, they are expected to read 400-450 words and answer 5 questions in 5 minutes . They tend to just answer from what they expect to read rather than the content of the passage, so I decided to write something completely false to see what would happen. Here is the edited version (to make sure they are not offended).
Stereotyping China- Fast Reading
Despite what you might have heard to the contrary, the stereotypes are true: all Chinese people are the same. They all have black hair and eyes, they basically all wear glasses and they are all smaller than the average westerner. Wandering around a big city in China, it is often difficult to remember where you are and where you have been since you feel like you are seeing the same person over and over again.
While to ignorant people it might seem that similarities would only be skin-deep, Chinese people really do not differ as much as you would expect. They see rice as a basic part of their nation’s cultural fabric and as a result will eat it at least three times a day. Even at breakfast, Chinese people manage to get their fill of rice through porridge, or ‘zhou’. For everyone, from small children to the elderly, it is seen as ‘un-Chinese’ and disrespectful to refuse rice if it is offered. The nation-wide pastime of tai ch’i is just as common as movies would have you believe. It is impossible to walk past a park without seeing at least 20 or 30 old people in traditional white outfits gracefully moving their limbs in a tranquil way.
It is often said the Chinese nation is a one of proficient martial artists. Since the population of this country is so abundant and the resources can be very scarce, everyone must know to defend him or herself. After school is over (sometimes as late as 9 p.m.), children gather at wushu schools run by monks from such temples as Shaolin. There, they are put through long drills of kicks, punches and weapon handling, during which they can be seen jumping between posts, flying through courtyards or even easily balancing on one leg for hours at a time. Girls learn to handle small knives, light swords and long bamboo poles while boys become skilled in the use of spikes, numchucks and wide blades. As adults, Chinese people keep up their skills by taking part in yearly wushu competitions and occasionally fighting for their honor. Crimes such as murder and theft are much higher in China than anywhere in the West due to these skills, but rape statistics at almost at zero as no one would be foolish enough to attack a woman trained in these lethal skills.
The last national Chinese trait that should not be missed is an impressive ability to solve any mathematical problem available. Schools, of course, instruct children in Confucianism, Chinese calligraphy and music (all children play the guzheng or erhu) but without mathematics, a child’s education would not be complete, by Chinese standards. As soon as a child is able to count on his fingers, he is given math problems to solve every night. By the age of 13, most Chinese children can solve the ‘quantum simplex’, an arithmetic problem that confuses many Western scholars. (488 words)
Questions: (Y/ N/ NG)
1. There is a wide variety of typical Chinese facial features.
2. All Chinese people have rice as a necessary part of every meal.
3. Tai ch’i is a good way for old people to keep their bodies healthy and flexible.
4. If you are a woman, you are more likely to suffer from rape than murder in China.
5. A Chinese child who immigrates to Europe will always be better at math than his classmates.
Stereotyping China- Fast Reading
Despite what you might have heard to the contrary, the stereotypes are true: all Chinese people are the same. They all have black hair and eyes, they basically all wear glasses and they are all smaller than the average westerner. Wandering around a big city in China, it is often difficult to remember where you are and where you have been since you feel like you are seeing the same person over and over again.
While to ignorant people it might seem that similarities would only be skin-deep, Chinese people really do not differ as much as you would expect. They see rice as a basic part of their nation’s cultural fabric and as a result will eat it at least three times a day. Even at breakfast, Chinese people manage to get their fill of rice through porridge, or ‘zhou’. For everyone, from small children to the elderly, it is seen as ‘un-Chinese’ and disrespectful to refuse rice if it is offered. The nation-wide pastime of tai ch’i is just as common as movies would have you believe. It is impossible to walk past a park without seeing at least 20 or 30 old people in traditional white outfits gracefully moving their limbs in a tranquil way.
It is often said the Chinese nation is a one of proficient martial artists. Since the population of this country is so abundant and the resources can be very scarce, everyone must know to defend him or herself. After school is over (sometimes as late as 9 p.m.), children gather at wushu schools run by monks from such temples as Shaolin. There, they are put through long drills of kicks, punches and weapon handling, during which they can be seen jumping between posts, flying through courtyards or even easily balancing on one leg for hours at a time. Girls learn to handle small knives, light swords and long bamboo poles while boys become skilled in the use of spikes, numchucks and wide blades. As adults, Chinese people keep up their skills by taking part in yearly wushu competitions and occasionally fighting for their honor. Crimes such as murder and theft are much higher in China than anywhere in the West due to these skills, but rape statistics at almost at zero as no one would be foolish enough to attack a woman trained in these lethal skills.
The last national Chinese trait that should not be missed is an impressive ability to solve any mathematical problem available. Schools, of course, instruct children in Confucianism, Chinese calligraphy and music (all children play the guzheng or erhu) but without mathematics, a child’s education would not be complete, by Chinese standards. As soon as a child is able to count on his fingers, he is given math problems to solve every night. By the age of 13, most Chinese children can solve the ‘quantum simplex’, an arithmetic problem that confuses many Western scholars. (488 words)
Questions: (Y/ N/ NG)
1. There is a wide variety of typical Chinese facial features.
2. All Chinese people have rice as a necessary part of every meal.
3. Tai ch’i is a good way for old people to keep their bodies healthy and flexible.
4. If you are a woman, you are more likely to suffer from rape than murder in China.
5. A Chinese child who immigrates to Europe will always be better at math than his classmates.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Student presentations
I have been bad at keeping up-to-date with my adventures here, but this weekend I have some down time so I thought I'd write up my notes on student presentations. As usual, for level 4, students gave presentations about original business ideas. Among the weird Chinglish and strange products, as few quotes stood out. "Pressure" was pronounced "pleasure" repeatedly (just think about "when you are facing much pressure, going to bed is very helpful" or "nowadays, women face many pressures in life" or "people are slaves of pressure").
In my first class:
"Do you want to enjoy your lovers on valentine’s day?"
"help the students while hunting jobs" (I'm thinking... with a gun)
"our slogan is... "magic"" (accompanied by a grandiose arm-swoop- you could almost see the cape)
And my favourite- A group promoting a "superstar factory" where they can make you famous, beautiful or whatever. The whole presentation was pretty good, but the highlight for me was one of the students, John (who was in the musical last semester for EF and is kind of a clown) who was supposed to be a girl who is ugly (holds up picture of ugly face with glasses/ pigtails/ warts etc in front of his head) then is turned beautiful (flowing hair, thick lips and large eyes) by the service. He spoke in a falsetto voice, shook his arms (and cardboard face) at the sky in desperation at "having everything, except friendship and love... because I am so ugly!!" and scared people into crossing the street by his/ her ugliness. His switch into a low announcer/ tv-presenter-style voice for the end of the commercial ("and now, if you want to contact us, don't hesitate to dial...") was the icing on the cake.
Class 2 was less delicious, though still quite quote-worthy.
There was "Dig truth" the P.I. company that will solve all cases, including "high-tech crime, love triangle, economic crime" and promised to work with black and white people, out of their 221b Baker Street address.
Two students promised: "We will only service people once in their life" (I believe about a wedding service so successful you'll never divorce).
A tea shop suggested that "if your product is equal to rubbish, if you don’t have to advertising".
There was a travel agency that made people use their imagination to see great sights. When a reporter joined a tour and questioned the methods was murdered by the guide.
One used the slogan "Yes, we can!" repeatedly and emphatically to tell us how good they were at solving all sorts of sartorial, behavioral or financial problems. The moment when one student pretended to strip and change into other clothes was priceless, as was the response of "who made you look this stupid?!" from the kindly assistant.
Finally, a punching-bag company promised any way to "release yourself" would be made available to you to avoid pressure ("pleasure") from overwhelming you, because suicide and killing parents and friends would really be a pity. (Imagine this being said in a very peppy tone)
Class 3 has my outgoing students but sadly, their presentations weren't quite as memorable, weeks later. My notes read like this:
Falsetto- help! Help me! I can’t see you!- lion: oops- my supper! (this was to advertise glow-in-the-dark clothing to be worn during safaris to avoid getting found and eaten by lions when you're looking for help)
1/3 of our life is spent on the bed- pillow is a very important part of our bed. If have 2 dream pillows, can share dreams. It smells good, but be careful that the pillow can’t be eaten! Complementary pics on pillows to make “romantic pairs” (in reference to special pillows to help you dream better and, I think, record your dreams)
“rear-service”- Cindy… not sure what that means. Company Escort service. Symbol similar to “ming” (cuddly sun and moon) spooky bodybuilder/ soldier “if you feel lonely, come this way →” we have 1G RMB- I am so happy (this group offered escorts to help you with any situation you need- visiting parents, outings, protection etc... I'm still unsure about what 'rear-service' is, but they were very excited about starting their business with 1,000,000RMB as they mentioned it at least twice).
enjoy life, enjoy housea? Oh, you know, I hate my life, I want to have a look. Q&A session- 1G RMB- so cheap? (this group offered houses built on the sea that are basically houseboats. The customer who was fooled into parting with 1,000,000RMB for one seemed quite happy about his bargain during the interview he gave.)
L&F- love and flowers (and puppies?)- boy playing a girl- as usual… dancing- translate The Song- awkward date “don’t you want to say something else?”- “I love you” to Rachel- shock. shut up! Who says I have a gf?- hugs- weird falsetto (students chant “kiss kiss”) (bear in mind that Rachel is a male student and the group was mostly male- they like to cross-dress for oral tests. I can't say I remember exactly what was going on, except that the name of the company made me think of wandering around fields and listening to "the sound of music" and that flowers were supposed to solve all marital and realtional problems)
Robot woman to clean day and night (she will reinforce all stereotypes about what women should do for the house)
"You wish, I do". If you want to go to the moon, sorry not possible. But if you want to be king for one day, we will contact the people at gugong (Forbidden City) and do something. (We will make all your dreams come true... except the impossible ones).
In my first class:
"Do you want to enjoy your lovers on valentine’s day?"
"help the students while hunting jobs" (I'm thinking... with a gun)
"our slogan is... "magic"" (accompanied by a grandiose arm-swoop- you could almost see the cape)
And my favourite- A group promoting a "superstar factory" where they can make you famous, beautiful or whatever. The whole presentation was pretty good, but the highlight for me was one of the students, John (who was in the musical last semester for EF and is kind of a clown) who was supposed to be a girl who is ugly (holds up picture of ugly face with glasses/ pigtails/ warts etc in front of his head) then is turned beautiful (flowing hair, thick lips and large eyes) by the service. He spoke in a falsetto voice, shook his arms (and cardboard face) at the sky in desperation at "having everything, except friendship and love... because I am so ugly!!" and scared people into crossing the street by his/ her ugliness. His switch into a low announcer/ tv-presenter-style voice for the end of the commercial ("and now, if you want to contact us, don't hesitate to dial...") was the icing on the cake.
Class 2 was less delicious, though still quite quote-worthy.
There was "Dig truth" the P.I. company that will solve all cases, including "high-tech crime, love triangle, economic crime" and promised to work with black and white people, out of their 221b Baker Street address.
Two students promised: "We will only service people once in their life" (I believe about a wedding service so successful you'll never divorce).
A tea shop suggested that "if your product is equal to rubbish, if you don’t have to advertising".
There was a travel agency that made people use their imagination to see great sights. When a reporter joined a tour and questioned the methods was murdered by the guide.
One used the slogan "Yes, we can!" repeatedly and emphatically to tell us how good they were at solving all sorts of sartorial, behavioral or financial problems. The moment when one student pretended to strip and change into other clothes was priceless, as was the response of "who made you look this stupid?!" from the kindly assistant.
Finally, a punching-bag company promised any way to "release yourself" would be made available to you to avoid pressure ("pleasure") from overwhelming you, because suicide and killing parents and friends would really be a pity. (Imagine this being said in a very peppy tone)
Class 3 has my outgoing students but sadly, their presentations weren't quite as memorable, weeks later. My notes read like this:
Falsetto- help! Help me! I can’t see you!- lion: oops- my supper! (this was to advertise glow-in-the-dark clothing to be worn during safaris to avoid getting found and eaten by lions when you're looking for help)
1/3 of our life is spent on the bed- pillow is a very important part of our bed. If have 2 dream pillows, can share dreams. It smells good, but be careful that the pillow can’t be eaten! Complementary pics on pillows to make “romantic pairs” (in reference to special pillows to help you dream better and, I think, record your dreams)
“rear-service”- Cindy… not sure what that means. Company Escort service. Symbol similar to “ming” (cuddly sun and moon) spooky bodybuilder/ soldier “if you feel lonely, come this way →” we have 1G RMB- I am so happy (this group offered escorts to help you with any situation you need- visiting parents, outings, protection etc... I'm still unsure about what 'rear-service' is, but they were very excited about starting their business with 1,000,000RMB as they mentioned it at least twice).
enjoy life, enjoy housea? Oh, you know, I hate my life, I want to have a look. Q&A session- 1G RMB- so cheap? (this group offered houses built on the sea that are basically houseboats. The customer who was fooled into parting with 1,000,000RMB for one seemed quite happy about his bargain during the interview he gave.)
L&F- love and flowers (and puppies?)- boy playing a girl- as usual… dancing- translate The Song- awkward date “don’t you want to say something else?”- “I love you” to Rachel- shock. shut up! Who says I have a gf?- hugs- weird falsetto (students chant “kiss kiss”) (bear in mind that Rachel is a male student and the group was mostly male- they like to cross-dress for oral tests. I can't say I remember exactly what was going on, except that the name of the company made me think of wandering around fields and listening to "the sound of music" and that flowers were supposed to solve all marital and realtional problems)
Robot woman to clean day and night (she will reinforce all stereotypes about what women should do for the house)
"You wish, I do". If you want to go to the moon, sorry not possible. But if you want to be king for one day, we will contact the people at gugong (Forbidden City) and do something. (We will make all your dreams come true... except the impossible ones).
Your posterior is...
Most Saturdays, we play Frsibee with students. Different ones come each week, but there are a few we've seen repeatedly. One of them, a boy yesterday referred to as 'active/ good kid in white' is Philippe's student and not shy about getting very close to his opponents (sometimes uncomfortably close, in fact) or saying what he thinks. After Philippe slipped and landed on his butt trying to catch our flying plate and was picked up by another student (crazily playing in jeans and a button-down shirt), he turned to me and asked if he'd torn his clothes.
"No, but your butt is..." I started.
"Nice," added 'kid in white'.
I was going for "dusty", but whatever... Would it have been weirder coming from a female student? I can't tell.
"No, but your butt is..." I started.
"Nice," added 'kid in white'.
I was going for "dusty", but whatever... Would it have been weirder coming from a female student? I can't tell.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Bollywood!
I am a movie star.
Well, maybe not quite. More accurately, last Friday, I was an extra in a ridiculous, low-budget Bollywood movie. Philippe had met a guy recruiting the day before, so we found ourselves, up, breakfasted and rounded up with 25 or so other goreh youths in front of the local McD's at 8 a.m. then herded onto a bus, and driven out of town towards "Filmcity". Sound glamorous?
When we got to our movie's set, we were led to a room and given our costumes- black, white, grey or a combination of those- in my case, a white skirt (thankfully longer than I originally guessed), 2 stripe-y tank tops (black and white) and a really short white shirt (puffy sleeves, collar, strange mid-belly length... unflattering!); in Philippe's case, shiny black pants (think "fake leather") and a black shirt with white "washer" pattern (think "70s"). In both cases, our shoes didn't fit and it was like foot torture... for 11 hours. My hair was pulled back and curled, then sprayed into place. It was a little scary. All the other girls looked more classy, sadly, but some of the other guys rivalled Philippe for ridiculous outfits (see-through shiny white shirt, anyone?)
We then sat. Had a tiny cucumber and tomato sandwich. Sat more. Wandered around and found a mirror to see how ridiculous we looked. Saw some guys in obvious wigs (reddish and fluffy). Sat around.
Finally, around noon, we went on set and discovered quite how weird the day would be. The scene was set in a club called the Blue Elephant (with shiny giant blue elephant head cutout and hung front the ceiling). There were 2 stages (one with poles, one with a band), a raised bar and some raised areas, balcony-style, parts of which were covered in what looked like thick chicken-wire. We went up there. These balcony sections were surrounded by what looked like banisters, but was in fact plastic piping and not sturdy, as we were reminded by a loud voice answering to the name of Sweety, in the same breath as we were told to stand as close to the edge as possible, dance and wave our arms about. Philippe was somewhere under those platforms, standing around a table with some other guys, I was at the top with a bunch of girls. We basically danced over and over again to the same 15-second part of a song, occasionally being shifted from one platform to another.
There was a long lunch break. Then more dancing on platforms, this time while pole dancers did their thing on their own stage.
Then a random long-ass break. Then more dancing.
The whole "we'll get you back to Colaba by 9 p.m." was looking increasingly unlikely when Philippe started regularly going to argue with the agent-guy who had brought us over and eventually, we started walking off to change. They brought us back and shot their last scene as fast as possible. We still didn't get back to Colaba until a little before 11 p.m., half an hour after a girl's hostel closed and an hour before our night train to Jalgaon for the next step of the adventure.
Death-trap of the day: unstable platforms with fake railings.
Well, maybe not quite. More accurately, last Friday, I was an extra in a ridiculous, low-budget Bollywood movie. Philippe had met a guy recruiting the day before, so we found ourselves, up, breakfasted and rounded up with 25 or so other goreh youths in front of the local McD's at 8 a.m. then herded onto a bus, and driven out of town towards "Filmcity". Sound glamorous?
When we got to our movie's set, we were led to a room and given our costumes- black, white, grey or a combination of those- in my case, a white skirt (thankfully longer than I originally guessed), 2 stripe-y tank tops (black and white) and a really short white shirt (puffy sleeves, collar, strange mid-belly length... unflattering!); in Philippe's case, shiny black pants (think "fake leather") and a black shirt with white "washer" pattern (think "70s"). In both cases, our shoes didn't fit and it was like foot torture... for 11 hours. My hair was pulled back and curled, then sprayed into place. It was a little scary. All the other girls looked more classy, sadly, but some of the other guys rivalled Philippe for ridiculous outfits (see-through shiny white shirt, anyone?)
We then sat. Had a tiny cucumber and tomato sandwich. Sat more. Wandered around and found a mirror to see how ridiculous we looked. Saw some guys in obvious wigs (reddish and fluffy). Sat around.
Finally, around noon, we went on set and discovered quite how weird the day would be. The scene was set in a club called the Blue Elephant (with shiny giant blue elephant head cutout and hung front the ceiling). There were 2 stages (one with poles, one with a band), a raised bar and some raised areas, balcony-style, parts of which were covered in what looked like thick chicken-wire. We went up there. These balcony sections were surrounded by what looked like banisters, but was in fact plastic piping and not sturdy, as we were reminded by a loud voice answering to the name of Sweety, in the same breath as we were told to stand as close to the edge as possible, dance and wave our arms about. Philippe was somewhere under those platforms, standing around a table with some other guys, I was at the top with a bunch of girls. We basically danced over and over again to the same 15-second part of a song, occasionally being shifted from one platform to another.
There was a long lunch break. Then more dancing on platforms, this time while pole dancers did their thing on their own stage.
Then a random long-ass break. Then more dancing.
The whole "we'll get you back to Colaba by 9 p.m." was looking increasingly unlikely when Philippe started regularly going to argue with the agent-guy who had brought us over and eventually, we started walking off to change. They brought us back and shot their last scene as fast as possible. We still didn't get back to Colaba until a little before 11 p.m., half an hour after a girl's hostel closed and an hour before our night train to Jalgaon for the next step of the adventure.
Death-trap of the day: unstable platforms with fake railings.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
"I am sooo not getting on that death-trap"
This is a theme, so far this trip. There are many different exciting ways of getting around the country and half of them look like they were never designed to hold nearly as many people as they are doing.
Our second day in Mumbai, stopped by a pastry shop for breakfast (recommended in the LP and making Philippe salivate in front of the glass cases of chocolate and fruit concoctions), moved our stuff to the Salvation Army's hostel and we internetted. Then we headed over to the Haji Ali Mosque in northern Mumbai. To reach it, you take a really long bus ride through "real Mumbai" (not the touristy area around Colaba) then you walk out into the sea (Arabian Sea?) passing vendors and beggars aplenty. The mosque itself is a place of pilgrimage so it's a really interesting atmosphere. I was crazily on the lookout for what to do, this being my first mosque-experience, and me being really afraid of making a faux-pas and offending someone. I followed the women into the female entrance while Philippe got to go through the main entrance, all unshod and head-covered. It was really a great and interesting experience.
We also saw the laundry facilities for Mumbai's hotels, restaurants and general populace. This is an intricate network of washing tubs, rinsing areas, hanging posts, swinging lines and sorting people, all looking like it's been around for quite a while. We saw laundry being swung around, stomped on, hit against the stone tubs and twisted into the lines to hang without pins. Impressive.
Our day ended with a swing by Chowpatty beach where there were hundreds of people flying kites. The colors of the sarees and kites were amazing, and the gelato we treated ourselves to after a long day of walking wasn't bad either. The best, though, was wandering around the snack stands by the side of the beach. We tried panipuri (crunchy little puff with lentils and tamarind sauce inside), bhaji sandwiches (deep fried veggies in bread roll) and chai. We also got a weird thing in a leaf that tasted like rosewater, coconut and other things that I found horrible, but Philippe downed because it was served directly into your mouth by a man with a crazy moustache. The "death trap" part was the crazy ferris wheels that were made to spin by guys jumping up onto it and then swinging themselves off and pulling it down with their bodyweight... does that make sense? It was so strange to watch and, combined with the fact that it looked ready to fall apart, did not encourage me to try it, no matter how much Philippe made puppy eyes at me for great pictures.
The next day, after a slow start to the day and a chance meeting with a Bollywood guy looking for extras for a movie, we headed to Elephanta Island, to gaze at temples carved into rocks. The boat ride over was quite long, made more so by the cramped quarters and the slightly sketchy guy who was trying to get a picture of himself sitting next to me. Also, the random throwing of trash into the ocean was a delight... not. The site on the island is a group of about 4 main caves up a hill, with some monkeys. It was good to visit, being a completely different sight from what we'd seen so far. I realise that it's an impressive feat- carving huge temple caves from a rock, sculpting rocks into huge statues etc- but I felt bad being left nonplussed by the visit. The threat of monkey bites did little to add to it! There was a thoroughly impressive sculpture of three--headed Shiva.
After our boat excursion, we decided to delve into the mysterious world of train-ticket buying in India. Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (Victoria Terminus or CST) is a beautiful building which combines all sorts of architectural styles on the outside. Inside, it's amazing how many people it can hold without seeming all that crowded. After asking several people, filling in some paperwork, getting a guy to leave us a lone and purchasing a book of all Indian trains for all the days of the week until June, we got our stamp, went to the reservation room and found that our train was fully booked and we'd have to be waitlisted. Too bad, we thought, but whatever, we didn't want to waste more time standing in the reservation room listening to a guy trying to sell chai by rattling some plastic cups at us. Then, we spotted the "Foreign Tourist" window. Surrounded by "Foreign Tourist Only" benches, it became our haven for over an hour while we deciphered train time tables, bothered the nice lady behind the window repeatedly and finally settled on one night train towards Ajanta and Ellora and a waitlist spot on another night train to Ahmedabad. Tickets in hand we avoided bus touts, traffic and wrong turns to return to Chowpatty and sample bhelpuri (crunchy, crispy, spicy and delicious), pav bhaji (lentils with onion, tomato and peppers eaten with grilled bread) and get a picture of P eating the yucky leaf combo from the guy with the moustache. I had to fight valiantly but managed to get away with some slightly less weird stuff and an odd-tasting glace cherry... I think this will be the worst thing I eat in the country, but everything else so far has been amazing.
Death trap of the day: tourist train on Elephanta!
Our second day in Mumbai, stopped by a pastry shop for breakfast (recommended in the LP and making Philippe salivate in front of the glass cases of chocolate and fruit concoctions), moved our stuff to the Salvation Army's hostel and we internetted. Then we headed over to the Haji Ali Mosque in northern Mumbai. To reach it, you take a really long bus ride through "real Mumbai" (not the touristy area around Colaba) then you walk out into the sea (Arabian Sea?) passing vendors and beggars aplenty. The mosque itself is a place of pilgrimage so it's a really interesting atmosphere. I was crazily on the lookout for what to do, this being my first mosque-experience, and me being really afraid of making a faux-pas and offending someone. I followed the women into the female entrance while Philippe got to go through the main entrance, all unshod and head-covered. It was really a great and interesting experience.
We also saw the laundry facilities for Mumbai's hotels, restaurants and general populace. This is an intricate network of washing tubs, rinsing areas, hanging posts, swinging lines and sorting people, all looking like it's been around for quite a while. We saw laundry being swung around, stomped on, hit against the stone tubs and twisted into the lines to hang without pins. Impressive.
Our day ended with a swing by Chowpatty beach where there were hundreds of people flying kites. The colors of the sarees and kites were amazing, and the gelato we treated ourselves to after a long day of walking wasn't bad either. The best, though, was wandering around the snack stands by the side of the beach. We tried panipuri (crunchy little puff with lentils and tamarind sauce inside), bhaji sandwiches (deep fried veggies in bread roll) and chai. We also got a weird thing in a leaf that tasted like rosewater, coconut and other things that I found horrible, but Philippe downed because it was served directly into your mouth by a man with a crazy moustache. The "death trap" part was the crazy ferris wheels that were made to spin by guys jumping up onto it and then swinging themselves off and pulling it down with their bodyweight... does that make sense? It was so strange to watch and, combined with the fact that it looked ready to fall apart, did not encourage me to try it, no matter how much Philippe made puppy eyes at me for great pictures.
The next day, after a slow start to the day and a chance meeting with a Bollywood guy looking for extras for a movie, we headed to Elephanta Island, to gaze at temples carved into rocks. The boat ride over was quite long, made more so by the cramped quarters and the slightly sketchy guy who was trying to get a picture of himself sitting next to me. Also, the random throwing of trash into the ocean was a delight... not. The site on the island is a group of about 4 main caves up a hill, with some monkeys. It was good to visit, being a completely different sight from what we'd seen so far. I realise that it's an impressive feat- carving huge temple caves from a rock, sculpting rocks into huge statues etc- but I felt bad being left nonplussed by the visit. The threat of monkey bites did little to add to it! There was a thoroughly impressive sculpture of three--headed Shiva.
After our boat excursion, we decided to delve into the mysterious world of train-ticket buying in India. Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (Victoria Terminus or CST) is a beautiful building which combines all sorts of architectural styles on the outside. Inside, it's amazing how many people it can hold without seeming all that crowded. After asking several people, filling in some paperwork, getting a guy to leave us a lone and purchasing a book of all Indian trains for all the days of the week until June, we got our stamp, went to the reservation room and found that our train was fully booked and we'd have to be waitlisted. Too bad, we thought, but whatever, we didn't want to waste more time standing in the reservation room listening to a guy trying to sell chai by rattling some plastic cups at us. Then, we spotted the "Foreign Tourist" window. Surrounded by "Foreign Tourist Only" benches, it became our haven for over an hour while we deciphered train time tables, bothered the nice lady behind the window repeatedly and finally settled on one night train towards Ajanta and Ellora and a waitlist spot on another night train to Ahmedabad. Tickets in hand we avoided bus touts, traffic and wrong turns to return to Chowpatty and sample bhelpuri (crunchy, crispy, spicy and delicious), pav bhaji (lentils with onion, tomato and peppers eaten with grilled bread) and get a picture of P eating the yucky leaf combo from the guy with the moustache. I had to fight valiantly but managed to get away with some slightly less weird stuff and an odd-tasting glace cherry... I think this will be the worst thing I eat in the country, but everything else so far has been amazing.
Death trap of the day: tourist train on Elephanta!
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Mishandled
"Your luggage has been mishandled."
"Alright, what does that mean? Where is it"
"We're not sure. Maybe still in Hong Kong, maybe in Delhi, maybe here in Mumbai... maybe elsewhere"
"SO basically, you have no idea..."
"It has been mishandled."
Not sure exactly how the conversation really went, but it seems to have been somewhere along those lines. When we got into Mumbai, after what felt like a ridiculously long flight (China and India are close together on the map, as Philippe reasoned) we got to the baggage pick-up area to find out that both our bags, as well as those of about 10 other people had been mysteriously mishandled and were plainly not there. They couldn't tell us where, or when or how, just point out that the bags were not there and they would look for them and let us know what happened. Since it was around 12:30 a.m. and the whole process lasted a good 2 hours, we decided to skip the whole "sleeping thing" in favor of sitting around then heading over to Sassoon Dock to see fisher-people unload the night's catch, as recommended by the Lonely Planet as a good activity for night owls. We took a pre-paid taxi from the airport to the Gateway of India (cool 1950s style black car with yellow roof and nifty old-fashioned "for hire sign") then wandered over to the docks, inadvertently walking through a section of slums which was a sudden awakening to the poverty that 55% of people in the country live in.
The unloading was cool, with people throwing up baskets of fish from their boats to the dock and people packing them up to sent to restaurants and markets. Would have been even better if we could have bought some! We then found a hostel (hard to do at 7am, pre-opening and checkout time) and slept through half the day.
Feeling rejuvenated, we had our first India meal (delicious dhal!!) which I was unable to eat in a convincing Indian style... finger-eating does not come naturally. We walked quite a few miles around the city, seeing a museum, a synagogue, a church (oldest Mumbai building), the University, the High Court, some cricketers, a train station and a market where we had to buy a few things to replace our grubby travel clothes, since jeans and hiking boots are great, but in this heat, with no change of clothes... ick.
In the evening (after more deliciousness), we made do with tiny black shampoo bought at a street stall (the shampoo itself really was black) and dried ourselves with our t-shirts before collapsing into sleep. We were rudely awakened an hour later by the arrival of our bags, mysteriously found in HK and shipped over on the only flight of the day... phew!
"Alright, what does that mean? Where is it"
"We're not sure. Maybe still in Hong Kong, maybe in Delhi, maybe here in Mumbai... maybe elsewhere"
"SO basically, you have no idea..."
"It has been mishandled."
Not sure exactly how the conversation really went, but it seems to have been somewhere along those lines. When we got into Mumbai, after what felt like a ridiculously long flight (China and India are close together on the map, as Philippe reasoned) we got to the baggage pick-up area to find out that both our bags, as well as those of about 10 other people had been mysteriously mishandled and were plainly not there. They couldn't tell us where, or when or how, just point out that the bags were not there and they would look for them and let us know what happened. Since it was around 12:30 a.m. and the whole process lasted a good 2 hours, we decided to skip the whole "sleeping thing" in favor of sitting around then heading over to Sassoon Dock to see fisher-people unload the night's catch, as recommended by the Lonely Planet as a good activity for night owls. We took a pre-paid taxi from the airport to the Gateway of India (cool 1950s style black car with yellow roof and nifty old-fashioned "for hire sign") then wandered over to the docks, inadvertently walking through a section of slums which was a sudden awakening to the poverty that 55% of people in the country live in.
The unloading was cool, with people throwing up baskets of fish from their boats to the dock and people packing them up to sent to restaurants and markets. Would have been even better if we could have bought some! We then found a hostel (hard to do at 7am, pre-opening and checkout time) and slept through half the day.
Feeling rejuvenated, we had our first India meal (delicious dhal!!) which I was unable to eat in a convincing Indian style... finger-eating does not come naturally. We walked quite a few miles around the city, seeing a museum, a synagogue, a church (oldest Mumbai building), the University, the High Court, some cricketers, a train station and a market where we had to buy a few things to replace our grubby travel clothes, since jeans and hiking boots are great, but in this heat, with no change of clothes... ick.
In the evening (after more deliciousness), we made do with tiny black shampoo bought at a street stall (the shampoo itself really was black) and dried ourselves with our t-shirts before collapsing into sleep. We were rudely awakened an hour later by the arrival of our bags, mysteriously found in HK and shipped over on the only flight of the day... phew!
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Awkwertaining
There have been a few awkward moments in the last couple days of teaching as we tackle the thorny subject of censorship. For some of these kids, it's obvious that government censorship of all types of media is good. For others, it's clear that the system has problems and that the truth isn't being altogether being reported. Either way, standing in front of a class of 35 Chinese students and asking them "what kind of censorship have you come across in your life?" and "what are some reasons to censor material?" sort of seems like asking to get into trouble. I feel like I have to tell them that I'm not encouraging them to seek out "bad material" but in a way, I guess I am.
We discussed censorship in general and whether total free speech was a good idea. There seemed to be pretty general consensus that a society without any form of censorship would quickly descend into anarchy and 'social instability', would be confusing and full of truths and fake truths, but in the end, it would be quite creative.
My favorite comments though, were along these lines:
"It is a good idea to ban certain books in small towns and villages, because the people there are simple minded and cannot think well about all the ideas. They cannot understand what they should follow and they will be confused. They will believe everything in the books including some lies."
"Sometimes, censorship is necessary. For example, there is a religion that is evil. Information about the evil religion is censored otherwise, people want to follow it. The government protects the citizens from the evil religion." (we all know what she's talking about but no one is saying the words, though one student named the "evil religion" and everyone was shocked that she had said the F-G words.)
"The government censors some information because it is not good for the citizens to know everything. If they know everything, maybe they will not trust the government and there will be a unstable society... [pause for thought] I think this is not good."
"A society with no censorship is bad. One example is Germany... If before the Second World War there had been no censorship, we could have avoided the war." (as a colleague responded today when I related this, "I'm pretty sure there was censorship of things like "I like Jews"- by shooting you in the street". Another colleague who also has classes at my level said his students had also referenced WWII, but said that if there had been more censorship of books, like Mein Kampf, we could have avoided the war. What have they been taught?!)
There was also a reference to a period of Chinese history of about 10 years that was not taught or included in many books (at least not accurately) because it did not reflect well on the government and China in general, and talk about more abstract ideas like censorship in news being bad as we cannot get the whole truth if we only read government-approved stories, censorship of movies and books to protect kids and the like.
We then had a discussion about specific aspects of censorship that were mentioned in our book:
- Should publishing a book that some consider disrespectful to a certain religion be allowed?
- Should burning the national flag to protest government policies you don't agree with be allowed?
-Should distributing pornography be allowed?
-Should people be allowed to encourage young men to refuse military service because they disagree with a certain war or war in general?
-Should making fun of the U.S. president and making rude or disrespectful comments about him in the press be allowed?
-Should selling rap music with obscene lyrics or lyrics that encourage anti-police sentiment be allowed?
Some of these ideas were obviously easier to discuss and more relevant to the students than others, but mostly, they believed that publishing the book, selling porn to adults, making fun of the U.S. president and selling rap with such lyrics should be allowed. Selling porn to kids, burning the national flag and encouraging refusal of military service did not get so many supporting votes, though we did get a little debating going at least about flag burning. The idea that it was dangerous was shot down but a student saying "it is a powerful way to show that I disagree and it doesn't hurt anyone" got a few more responses from both sides. There seemed to be disagreement about what a flag stands for; if it was the country itself, then burning it to protest government decisions would be wrong, but if we hold it as a symbol of the government, then it might be more ok. Selling porn to children would be a good idea only in so far as it might encourage parents to explain things to them at an earlier age, but mostly, we unanimously voted for keeping kids' illusions about the birds and the bees. A student last year who was voting against distribution of pornography quickly changed his mind when another classmate pointed out that his vote would mean that he would not able to view it... there might have been a similar sentiment among my male students this time!
The military service question was a little harder to tackle with such platitudes as "it is our duty to defend the country" being thrown out but, for me, the best answer came from some who quite articulately pointed out that maybe the situation of war would make a different. She explained that, in her point of view, if the country is invading another one, refusing military service and encouraging same would be okay since it is not harming our own country. However, if our country was being invaded, it was our duty to protect it and therefore, refusing military service would be wrong, and encouraging others to follow us would be really bad. I really enjoy students thinking a little further and am very impressed when they can put such thoughts into coherent English words.
I managed to shock a few students by starting this discussion class with pictures and asking them whether they thought censoring them was a good idea by forming a line of opinion.
We definitely got some good conversations going about what it's reasonable and advisable to hide and what is unnecessary, among all the giggles those pics generated. I might be going for shock value, but I don't know.... I think they're old enough, no?
We discussed censorship in general and whether total free speech was a good idea. There seemed to be pretty general consensus that a society without any form of censorship would quickly descend into anarchy and 'social instability', would be confusing and full of truths and fake truths, but in the end, it would be quite creative.
My favorite comments though, were along these lines:
"It is a good idea to ban certain books in small towns and villages, because the people there are simple minded and cannot think well about all the ideas. They cannot understand what they should follow and they will be confused. They will believe everything in the books including some lies."
"Sometimes, censorship is necessary. For example, there is a religion that is evil. Information about the evil religion is censored otherwise, people want to follow it. The government protects the citizens from the evil religion." (we all know what she's talking about but no one is saying the words, though one student named the "evil religion" and everyone was shocked that she had said the F-G words.)
"The government censors some information because it is not good for the citizens to know everything. If they know everything, maybe they will not trust the government and there will be a unstable society... [pause for thought] I think this is not good."
"A society with no censorship is bad. One example is Germany... If before the Second World War there had been no censorship, we could have avoided the war." (as a colleague responded today when I related this, "I'm pretty sure there was censorship of things like "I like Jews"- by shooting you in the street". Another colleague who also has classes at my level said his students had also referenced WWII, but said that if there had been more censorship of books, like Mein Kampf, we could have avoided the war. What have they been taught?!)
There was also a reference to a period of Chinese history of about 10 years that was not taught or included in many books (at least not accurately) because it did not reflect well on the government and China in general, and talk about more abstract ideas like censorship in news being bad as we cannot get the whole truth if we only read government-approved stories, censorship of movies and books to protect kids and the like.
We then had a discussion about specific aspects of censorship that were mentioned in our book:
- Should publishing a book that some consider disrespectful to a certain religion be allowed?
- Should burning the national flag to protest government policies you don't agree with be allowed?
-Should distributing pornography be allowed?
-Should people be allowed to encourage young men to refuse military service because they disagree with a certain war or war in general?
-Should making fun of the U.S. president and making rude or disrespectful comments about him in the press be allowed?
-Should selling rap music with obscene lyrics or lyrics that encourage anti-police sentiment be allowed?
Some of these ideas were obviously easier to discuss and more relevant to the students than others, but mostly, they believed that publishing the book, selling porn to adults, making fun of the U.S. president and selling rap with such lyrics should be allowed. Selling porn to kids, burning the national flag and encouraging refusal of military service did not get so many supporting votes, though we did get a little debating going at least about flag burning. The idea that it was dangerous was shot down but a student saying "it is a powerful way to show that I disagree and it doesn't hurt anyone" got a few more responses from both sides. There seemed to be disagreement about what a flag stands for; if it was the country itself, then burning it to protest government decisions would be wrong, but if we hold it as a symbol of the government, then it might be more ok. Selling porn to children would be a good idea only in so far as it might encourage parents to explain things to them at an earlier age, but mostly, we unanimously voted for keeping kids' illusions about the birds and the bees. A student last year who was voting against distribution of pornography quickly changed his mind when another classmate pointed out that his vote would mean that he would not able to view it... there might have been a similar sentiment among my male students this time!
The military service question was a little harder to tackle with such platitudes as "it is our duty to defend the country" being thrown out but, for me, the best answer came from some who quite articulately pointed out that maybe the situation of war would make a different. She explained that, in her point of view, if the country is invading another one, refusing military service and encouraging same would be okay since it is not harming our own country. However, if our country was being invaded, it was our duty to protect it and therefore, refusing military service would be wrong, and encouraging others to follow us would be really bad. I really enjoy students thinking a little further and am very impressed when they can put such thoughts into coherent English words.
I managed to shock a few students by starting this discussion class with pictures and asking them whether they thought censoring them was a good idea by forming a line of opinion.
We definitely got some good conversations going about what it's reasonable and advisable to hide and what is unnecessary, among all the giggles those pics generated. I might be going for shock value, but I don't know.... I think they're old enough, no?
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