Wednesday, December 14, 2005
APPARTIMENT, NEW CLASS, MORE TEACHING
I started moving into my appartiment today. It is basically unfurnished which means I'll be making a trip to the oh-so-evil empire of Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart just recently expanded here and like all Wal-Marts has a very large selection of items for cheaper than elsewhere (even in a country as cheap as China.) The only other thing I need to do for the appartiment is some serious work on the bathroom. A Chinese toilet, OK, I can deal with that. A shower that is directly over the toilet and without a showerhead, that will be an issue. Some rubber piping and a showerhead and it'll probably be fine.
My Chinese class continued and since I only knew 60% of the characters in the book they were just finishing they moved me into a class that wasn't as far along with an American and an Indian. On the bright side, I am so far ahead of them that when I go away for a month in January, when I return we should be at the same level. 哎呀汉语是很难.
Yesterday I had another class. This time a dozen 4 & 5 year olds. They too learned musical instruments, but had no trouble with "xylophone." "Saxophone" and "trumpet" were impossible for them, and I decided against teaching them "ukulele." 4 year olds are a lot less well behaved when there arent 11 year-olds to keep them in line. I had to break up a fight, confiscate a bunch of paper airplanes and generally couldn't get them to shut up. Even the songs, a usually fantastic way to engage a 4 year-old didn't work. I guess that's what happens when their parents make them learn English. I heard an interesting thing today. That is, "As long as you don't kick them out of class or hit them you can do whatever you want." I'll keep that in mind next time they cause problems.
I came up with a new Chinese name. My previous one had been Guo Jun Xi meaning something like "strong handsome." This was given to me by a couple of girls who really liked me, but it seems a little well, pretentious. That having been said, I also wanted a name that was closer to my own. Since ben with the 4th tone means stupid, I decided to use the 3rd tone meaning origin or root. My Chinese name is now 本佳民. Ben jia min meaning "origins of excellent people" or "root of excellent nations." I like it.
I started moving into my appartiment today. It is basically unfurnished which means I'll be making a trip to the oh-so-evil empire of Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart just recently expanded here and like all Wal-Marts has a very large selection of items for cheaper than elsewhere (even in a country as cheap as China.) The only other thing I need to do for the appartiment is some serious work on the bathroom. A Chinese toilet, OK, I can deal with that. A shower that is directly over the toilet and without a showerhead, that will be an issue. Some rubber piping and a showerhead and it'll probably be fine.
My Chinese class continued and since I only knew 60% of the characters in the book they were just finishing they moved me into a class that wasn't as far along with an American and an Indian. On the bright side, I am so far ahead of them that when I go away for a month in January, when I return we should be at the same level. 哎呀汉语是很难.
Yesterday I had another class. This time a dozen 4 & 5 year olds. They too learned musical instruments, but had no trouble with "xylophone." "Saxophone" and "trumpet" were impossible for them, and I decided against teaching them "ukulele." 4 year olds are a lot less well behaved when there arent 11 year-olds to keep them in line. I had to break up a fight, confiscate a bunch of paper airplanes and generally couldn't get them to shut up. Even the songs, a usually fantastic way to engage a 4 year-old didn't work. I guess that's what happens when their parents make them learn English. I heard an interesting thing today. That is, "As long as you don't kick them out of class or hit them you can do whatever you want." I'll keep that in mind next time they cause problems.
I came up with a new Chinese name. My previous one had been Guo Jun Xi meaning something like "strong handsome." This was given to me by a couple of girls who really liked me, but it seems a little well, pretentious. That having been said, I also wanted a name that was closer to my own. Since ben with the 4th tone means stupid, I decided to use the 3rd tone meaning origin or root. My Chinese name is now 本佳民. Ben jia min meaning "origins of excellent people" or "root of excellent nations." I like it.
