Wrapping up a productive week in Kunming

Reflection for July 4 in China:  Are we adequately serving as good will ambassadors, or visiting firemen, or a little bit of both? Where do you stand in your cost-benefit study?

Baoli and her "gang of twelve" volunteers settled into their teaching routines at the Kunming Continuing Education Teaching Institute. The veteran teaching teams were busy making new friends and renewing old relationships. The newcomers, like Stella and Lester, were learning the routines and mastering their new tricks. Baoli's skillful assignment of teaching teams utilizing the available, extensive experience by our volunteers are bearing fruits. The Yunnan student teachers are showing their interests by working hard in classes; asking diverse questions to their instructors; actively participating in the songs and dances offered by our volunteers; and sharing, without hesitation, their teaching experience and friendship with their respective instructors.

In the morning, the Leon/Lester team continued to work on the students' prepared biographic summaries and pronunciations. The Nancy/Kitty team and the Esther/Wendy team worked on their respective skits with the students. The Janet/Michael team were immersed in sharing their mastery in various famous Chinese love stories. The Jim/Mary team played American folk song games, while the Dixie/Stella team continued to work with the students on their vocabulary and pronunciation.

In the afternoon, Nancy conducted a lecture on "Pioneers" in her family. Mary also lectured on Native Americans. Wendy lectured on "Pow Wows". The students seemed to enjoy the photos and drawings of miners, cowboys, Native Indian dancers, and drummers.

No job is finished until the paperwork is done. After the school work was over, Baoli asked the whole team to sign the completion certificates for the students.

Entry submitted by: Lester

"There is no end to learning"

How true the Confucian saying that there is no end to learning! Perhaps nowhere is this concept more evident than in the teaching-learning process. If the sage were living today, he would have more than a thing or two to learn about this ever-changing world, wouldn't he? I wonder what kind of student he would be if he were in our class. Would he give Nancy and me a thumbs-up for our teaching? Would he have trouble pronouncing the /i/ and /e/ phonemes? Would he say "pain" as "pen"? Would his pronunciation of these and some other sounds make Nancy throw up her arms exasperation? Well, enough of my reveries!

This was an unusually full teaching-and-learning day, enriched by an exhilarating field trip and concluded with a sumptuous banquet at the "Kind and Gentle Like Spring" restaurant.

In each of our group learning session, Nancy and I use appropriate songs, drills, exercises, and dances to help the teachers improve their English skills. Today was no different, but, in addition to using the Bingo game to reinforce their learning about antonyms, we asked them to write stories on such silly topics as "an elephant that can talk," "an invisible island," "a car that is afraid of kids, " etc.  At first, we thought the assignment might be somewhat daunting for them, but they allayed our anxieties with surprising aplomb. We did, of course, have to correct their pronunciations after their recitation to the group, but we were pleased by their overall performance and look forward to using the assignment as the basis of a skit.

Unlike the field trips that I took when I was a school girl, this afternoon's outing was a learning activity which was both inspiring and fun. At Hump Memorial Park, the stories and photos about the Flying Tigers, the construction of the airfield, and the building of the Yunnan-Burma road not only underscore the human capacity to endure extreme hardships and to make personal sacrifices but also affirm the triumph of good over evil. 

The sacred grounds around the Flying Tigers Monument provided a natural surrounding for volunteers and their teacher-students to take group photos. It was particularly amusing to see them compete for having a shot taken with us, as if we were celebrities. Their laughters and giggles as they stood by my side made my heart flutter with excitement. After the shutterbugs had put their cameras away, the group did singing and dancing in the much-admired accompaniment of Nancy and her sister, Dixie, strumming on their Ukuleles. The joyful noises this large group made reverberated through the verdant mountains and lush trees, so much so, in fact, that perhaps even the dead in those tombs on the hillside wished they could join in the fun.

To our gastronomic delight, the extraordinarily rich banquet of 30-or-so dishes promised to be something to write home about. Lester wasted no time to capture on camera the mouth-watering food arranged around an ornate centerpiece on an enormous round table. He had a hidden agenda, it seemed, and that was to have Stella learn to cook the dishes for his epicurean enjoyment after they return to the U.S.

As I was writing this journal, Dixie called to say that Leon had found a way to import photos and videos to his Mac and invited me to her room to let Leon upload the videos on my iPad for Baoli. So in a late-night crash course,  I learned something new. Indeed, there is no end to learning. From learning about how to teach ESL effectively, to learning the songs and dance steps, to learning the technique of uploading or downloading photos, we live and learn until our visa on this planet expires.

"Their Lives Matter to Us"

“If I died tomorrow, I would die feeling I’ve lived my whole life 110%. And for that, Tiger Mom, I thank you.” Sophia Chua Rubenfeld, oldest daughter of Amy Chua

 

We have an unprecedented opportunity here as volunteers to gain a "ground-level" perspective of Chinese culture.  When my friend, Jane Tom, asked me for advice about what to say in a speech at her daughter’s wedding, I replied, “Tell everyone how proud you are  of her and why,” and she replied, “That’s not Chinese.” When Matt Fong, the son of our neighbor, was the republican running against Diane Feinstein he was asked whether he had really attended an EST seminar. He confessed and added rather sadly, “It’s the only time my father ever hugged me.”  

We think these Asian American parents don’t represent American ideas of good parenting. In fact Amy Chua, the tiger mother, appalled most Americans and Jane and Matt Fong’s father seem too stinting in their praise and affection. But even in China people are questioning what the "tiger mother" calls traditional parenting and asking questions like, “Why can’t we produce a Steve Jobs?” And they are personally aware of the system’s harsh consequences. One of our teachers left our class in tears after receiving a phone call from  her distraught  daughter who had not done as well as she hoped on an exam and therefore would not be able to attend the school she had chosen. Another stayed in class but her eyes filled as she told me the same thing had happened to her niece. And still another, to my surprise, asked me what I thought about "tiger moms" (I didn’t realize people in China knew the term), and unhappily confessed to being one and not being able to stop herself from calling her 7-year-old “stupid” and then hearing him cry in his room. These teachers are clearly unhappy with China’s educational system and sometimes with themselves.  And apparently people outside the school system agree. Global Volunteer Stella reported that in church Sunday the minister preached against the great importance the Chinese put on tests and the pressure they put on students.

At our afternoon meeting last time, we taught with Global Volunteers the director of Foreign Languages  Learning in Yunnan Agricultural University, who had just returned from observing teaching in America, contended with passion that “there is never enough praise while any criticism is too much.” I looked back at his audience expecting to see some resentment and saw only solemn faces and nods.

So what is our role as Global Volunteers here? We have brought games, songs, dances, new techniques and knowledge about child rearing. We believe in praise and have modeled it in our class rooms. We could be seen as the solution to China’s education problems.

But in the back of our minds, we know that Asian parents in America are on to something. My friend Jane Tom’s daughter is a Harvard graduate and so are Jane's four other children.  Matt Fong, our neighbor’s son, was secretary of State of the State of California.

 But we don’t need just my personal anecdotes to tell us that traditional Asian parenting can produce very successful children. My granddaughter’s Chinatown elementary school, where she is one of very few white students, is rated as one of the best in the city. Lowell High School, the top public high school in San Francisco, which admits students on the basis of test scores only, has a nick name: Chinese Girls’ School. And the University of California at Berkeley has more Asian students than white.

So what is the best way to educate for success? The Chinese who may think we know best I suspect are not aware of how often we Americans have changed our minds and our practices. Pick the baby up or let him cry  - teach students to read with phonics or lots of stories – teach by focusing on the book or the child - always teach with groups or emphasize individual effort  -practice zero tolerance of any infractions or create a Summerhill.

I think what we bring as Global volunteers is not just the techniques for getting teachers to teach their children to speak and enjoy learning English, but the example that we care. Wang Baoli spoke of this eloquently in our first meeting and our teachers seemed impressed. I think it helps explain the success of different kinds of teaching and parenting.

Asian parents in America may not hug and praise much, but their children can tell, perhaps especially by their hard work and sacrifices, that their children matter to them. The tiger mother Amy Chua apparently has a grateful daughter.

I used praise in my classroom and received it from my mother throughout my life, but I disagree with the speaker from the Agricultural college.  I think there sometimes can be too much praise and sometimes too little criticism. And I think even striving for a balance is hard.  But what there can’t be is too much caring.  We Global volunteers have shared techniques for making learning English more fun. But I hope the main impression we leave is the one that is more important. Strict or lenient we care. The lives of our Chinese teachers and their students matter to us.  
-Janet

Weekend for Vacation Volunteers in China

Thought for the day:

"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end. "  - Ernest Hemingway

The trails of our intrepid band of 12 Volunteers separated and converged in several ways for Saturday and Sunday.

Free time destinations included Tanhua Si Park, Green Lake Park, Yunnan Ethnic Peoples’ Theme Park, a Yi Stone Village and Shilin Stone Forest, the Provincial Museum, the Kunming Exposition Hall, the Military Museum and Anning Hot Springs.

Special meals were served to the Volunteers al fresco at the Inn in the Stone Village, and at a rustic Dai barbecue restaurant near Anning. Special dishes were enjoyed by some of the Volunteers at the elegant restaurant of the Green Lake Hotel. 

Li Baokun (Chris), our Host, directs the Continuing Teachers’ Education Program at Yunnan University.  He accompanied the Stone Village/ Stone Forest Four on Saturday, and the Hot Springs/ Dai Barbecue Six on Sunday. 

Our Country Manager, Wang Bao Li was our companion to Tanhua Si Park and to Anning.

Tanhua Si Park is reached by public bus, about 10 minutes’ ride from our Hotel. The grounds of the 7-story Pagoda slope gently up from the Park’s entrance at street level.  There are sections of garden, pavilions, fish ponds, covered passageways, bamboo groves, and a grass-covered open space on a hill.  We saw drawing classes, crafts stations for young children, fish feeding and fish catching, picnicking, music rehearsals, and martial arts practice. Inside the pagoda, we ascended 7 levels and were rewarded with views of the City and of the Western Hills. 

The Hot Springs, an hour’s drive from Kunming, is in a delightful pine forest setting.  The dozens of pools come in a variety of temperatures and colors.  One of the cooler pools was the one with small fish that delicately nibbled the feet of Lester, Stella, Leon, Nancy and Bao Li. After relaxing in a couple of pools for almost 3 hours, that group headed to one of the many Dai barbecue places.  The meal consisted of grilled chickens, split and flattened, with heads still on, crispy-skinned whole fish, mushrooms wrapped in banana leaves, whole eggplants stuffed with green onions ground meat and chilies, doufu, grilled bread, soup with greens, and pineapple rice served in a pineapple shell. The seasoning, very spicy, was superb. 

All, in all, the weekend was relaxing and restorative. Now we are energized for the final 5 intensive days of classes and 2 afternoons of off-campus activities with our students!

- Dixie

First Week of Teaching English in Kunming

Thought for the day:

Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if only the best songbirds were singing.                      

 

The end of the first week of teaching. The volunteers and their teacher/students are settled into their morning routines as witnessed by the stories of successes and semi-successes heard on our bus back to the hotel and at lunch.

Lunch was also an opportunity to discuss plans for our first free afternoon and our weekend activities. Several weekend activities were planned that will be reported in the weekend journal. For this afternoon, Dixie and Leon offer to lead a walk to some of the nearby Kunming attractions, with a promise to get back to the hotel in time for dinner at six.

Lester, Stella, Kitty and Esther us up on the offer which began with a ride on the 69 bus, westward to Zhengyi Road, which is a pedestrian street leading south through a mixture of old and modern buildings. On the left were stores with familiar western names such as Papa John’s. On the right were the remnants of old Kunming, including a partially restored 300 year old mansion. We hesitantly entered the courtyard and found several young people busy working on computers. One took us under her wing and led us around telling us (through Kitty acting as interpreter) that this building was the only one in the area not damaged by an earthquake and was being prepared as museum to illustrate part of the early history of Kunming. 

The walk continued south to a huge open market with stalls selling anything anyone could ever want or need:

• living birds, turtles, snakes, scorpions, frogs, puppies, piglets, fish, rabbits, mice, and other creatures which might be used as pets, or eaten.
• embroidered bags, hats, scarves, blouses, shoes, pants and all varieties of clothing.
• tools and machines of every kind and description

But you get the idea. Since this particular walking group consisted of committed non-shoppers, we passed through this extensive market relatively quickly and came upon the four story “Bird and Flower” market which is famous for selling almost everything except birds and flowers. Here you will find larger and more expensive items like furniture, ceramics, clothing, etc. However, we were not tempted by wares in this building. We continued south (after a detour to the west toward the Provincial Museum to find a place to cross Dongfeng Road). We made a short stop at a Starbucks (known for their clean, western style bathrooms) and came to the Golden Horse and Jade Rooster Memorial Arches. Continuing south we finally reached the West Pagoda and walked to the East Pagoda past very realistic life-sized bronze statues commemorating the Tea and Horse Road of Yunnan. Then we hailed cabs back to the hotel for dinner. 

After dinner, Mary, Wendy, Lester and Stella went to “Dynamic Yunnan” a spectacular display of the dance and music of the minority peoples of Yunnan

-Leon

More Lessons; More Discoveries in Kunming

Thought for the day: It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that things are difficult.  -- Seneca

This saying may be appropriate for some people, but not for our Kunming Global Volunteers, who have dared to bring their culture and life experience to a group of people who are daring in their own way to gain knowledge of a foreign people who insist on saying "ih" instead of "ee" and provide fly swatters to whack on whiteboards.

 

Thursday began and ended with a gentle rain. We climbed the three, four, or five flights of stairs at the school to reach our classrooms, as usual. The teachers of elementary students that Kitty and I are encouraging to speak -- and to listen -- became talkative for the first time. We passed out menus and fake money and introduced the Restaurant Scenario to four groups of two or three "diners" and a "server" for each group; the pretend dining experience was a great success.

Jim and Mary's class enjoyed a game of Around the World, with a wide range of questions for the person who attempted to answer before each of her opponents could speak up.

The afternoon brought more questions, this time for Esther, whose talk on parenting programs sparked a lot of interest. Jim spoke about a different area of education, presenting a look at the demographics in American schools.

Leon, Dixie, and Nancy scouted out a route to the Bird and Flower Market, observing that more old buildings have been demolished since last year in the busy area that is becoming filled with new shops, including American chains whose names are all too familiar. But the birds and bunnies and bangles still abound in a warren of tiny stalls.

Thursday's meals brought sensory delights, as they have every day. Our bodies were well-fed with no difficulty at all, as we dared to try the continuing variety of unfamiliar foods at the porridge restaurant's buffet and the delicious dishes ordered by our steadfast Wang Baoli.

-Nancy

A Good Kind of Busy

 

Thought for the day: Act as if what you do makes a difference.  It does.

Today was a jam-packed day.  All the teams taught their morning classes.  Mary and I continue to be impressed with the students’ eagerness to do a variety of activities.  Today we played vocabulary games, talked about the lectures that Leon and Lester gave, talked about what makes a good teacher, taught some idioms, and did some song preparation for this afternoon’s activities, among other things.  Today we also got to know a bit more about our students by having them introduce each other.

We came back to the hotel and had another delicious lunch together.  We were then able to rest a bit before heading back to campus for afternoon activities.  Since this year’s group is so large we divided the students in half.  Half the classes listened to Michael’s lecture on “What American Students Study When They Study China and Chinese”.  The other half did songs and dances under Dixie’s and Nancy’s very capable leadership.  After about an hour the students switched sessions. 

We got back to the hotel at 5:00.  Some of us prepped a bit for tomorrow’s classes before going out to dinner.  We went to a nearby restaurant where the specialty is a large fish that is turned inside-out to reveal a fluffy sweet-and-sour treat.  We also had many other dishes.  There was really a lot of food!

We also discussed where to go this weekend with a van that the school has graciously offered to furnish.  If it can be arranged several volunteers will go to Stone Village and Stone Forest on Saturday.  Temporary plans for Sunday are to go back to a hot springs park that some of us went to last year.  It will be a very relaxing way to spend the weekend after our first week of teaching.  It was a busy day.  But it was a good kind of busy!

-Jim