Pushing the Envelope

A usual post would not do the last few weeks justice. I have entered the beginning of the end, yet it seems like things just keep escalating in work and play. At Web, I have had to force myself to try and return to some sense of normalcy. For a time my English Corner presentations were becoming obscure and absurd. First there was my millenarian phase, with powerpoints on End-of-the-World scenarios and Nostradamus. This was naturally parlayed into NCAA Bracketology, only to devolve immediately into Lawnmower Racing. It's typical for Web instructors to put down a vague or nonsensical topic and then settle on something and revise it the day of, but I was actually creating whole lectures on vague and nonsensical topics (Strangely enough, my discussion on "Beating the System" went well, despite not knowing what the "system" was or how to beat it) It had to stop before I tapped my inner-Samuel Beckett and began to fry their brains (and mine). Lately we've been back to talking about housing and food.

My increasingly-abstract topics in EC was probably a reaction (and catharsis) to the outright boredom I was experiencing with the standard Web lesson plans, especially the "Business English" ones. I try and finish the truly-awful ones early, if I even attempt them at all, and try and have discussions with the students. I've had some interesting conversations, but most are repetitive. When I ask them for something they want to discuss, it is either my home or movies.

Fortunately my day job has become more interesting. My college students are talking more and I've been busier with things around campus. The sudden arrival of summer brought more opportunities for sports. I've played Tennis with Steve for several weekends now. Tragically I did not take a picture of his "tennis outfit" on the first day. Now not even the purple socks remain. Usually we end up having to share the courts with the Tennis classes--a gaggle of girls who hit the balls everywhere while the coaches just stand and gossip. My friend Max has more pull with the local powers so when I play with him we get the court to ourselves.

Gettin' it Done

It's also basketball season. I've been playing on our department team, managing not to embarrass myself too much. After years of watching, I'm starting to learn the fundamentals of actually playing the game. Basketball needs a position for someone who just passes the ball, because that is what I am good at--I mean, who needs two point guards? At the same time the student leagues have been playing, and I've had a chance to watch my tutor Shen Yang lead his team: The Foreign Language Institute "Denver Nuggets." They have some good players, especially a point guard who is named "Anthony" according to the back of his uniform.

Mach's gut (and hao bisai)

Freshman Boot Camp

It's that time of year again--the flowers are in bloom, the smog is not as noticeable, and the familiar twang of "yi, er, san, si" permeates the air. Ahhh...freshman military training.

Military training is required of all college freshman in China. They spend their entire day with their class and a drill instructor, dressed in fatigues and sneakers, learning how to march in formation. They gain important combat skills such as proper arm-swinging, stepping in sync, and singing patriotic songs. So the end result is a well-drilled troop of mostly girls marching and singing "jun zhong ju hua" ("Chrysanthemum in the Army"), followed by a rousing verse of "tuan jie jiu shi ji liang" ("Union is Strength"). A lucky few get to fire actual weapons.

Of course the real reason they have to do this is nationalism. What better why to foster obedience to the state than to have them march in the hot sun for 8 hours 8 days straight with your classmates? Chinese college students take every class with the same group of people. They learn as a unit, they live as a unit, and then they become an actual "unit" of model Chinese citizens.

And of course it is also adorable. I finally managed to find my little Dong Fang freshman on day 2. This is the class that is already incredibly good at speaking in sync, so I knew they would be good at walking in sync. They were all smiles as usual, and according to them they liked their instructor. He, however, was not happy to be there, having commanded plebes for five years already. One of my star pupils seemed very excited about the whole experience--her brother is in the army and she plans on marrying an officer.

I took some pictures, and did a few satirical drills of my own for their amusement.

I love Spring.
Leb Wohl

Job Fair!

Inexcusably I have waited too long to write about what was a very enlightening episode in China. It was called the "Job Fair for Foreign Professionals." Actually it was the "'Job Fair' for 'Foreign Professionals'" (note the apostrophes).

Like the very well (and comparatively overpaid) livestock we are, a large portion of the foreign teachers in Changzhou were loaded into buses and shipped to Nanjing to fill up the "career event" hosted by Jiangsu Province. When we arrived we met our good friend Max, the most gregarious Chinese student I have ever met. Max lives in Nanjing and stays there when he is not back at school playing tennis (like most Chinese seniors, Max doesn't have classes). Since one of our number decided not to come, Max became "Daniel" and joined us for the fair and subsequent tour.

The fair lasted all of 30 minutes. We went in, heard the last few bits of the opening speeches, got coffee, and then proceeded to walk around the booths. Every participant was given a badge and some literature about the various schools and companies. When I said I wanted this stuff, our waiban, Teddy, questioned its usefulness--Teddy often forgets that its never about use for me when comes to these things, but pure novelty.

Most booths were for a Jiangsu or Shanghai school looking for foreign teachers, such as Yangzhou Lucky Kids Bilingual Art Kindergarten and Jiangsu Animal Husbandry & Veterinary College. All I can say is that I am not working at Jianhu Experimental Junior High School until they are out of the experimental stage. Though the book mentioned some, I did not see any non-school-related companies, though there were some tables for exchange programs looking to hire Chinese nationals. At one I discovered "Kelvin" Li, the CIEE guy who oversaw our orientation in Shanghai (aahhh, memories).

What everyone really came for was the free day-tour of Nanjing. In fact most didn't even know it was a job fair and came dressed for sightseeing, not business. The tour of Nanjing's historical walls and temples was fun, but I had been there before. The massacre museum and memorial--the best (and most overwhelming) site--was not included. Our tour guide's heart was in the right place, but not her English, nor her understanding of the difficulties involved in organization a group of rowdy, sarcastic foreigners. Her staccato tidbits of information about each sight and unrelenting commands were usually met by speedy (and sometimes racist) British or Australian wisecracks. Not to say that the Americans were less rude--we just didn't have the rapier wit.

That night we went out and I forgot my salary card in the ATM again. That is all I am going to say about that night in Nanjing.

Leb Wohl.

New Classes

I originally started the semester out with only 8 hours of classes--two regular Freshman O.E. and the special class of students who are paying big money to study abroad in England next year (and whose English is god-awful). Feeling like 3 classes would be anti-climactic for my last teaching semester, I introduced an "idea" for a "movie class" to my "boss," "Steve". The department was sold on the idea, but it was clear it would never be a real class, but more of a club (less work for me!). I wrote a brief semi-fictional autobiography and a class description and sent it to Steve along with the most eccentric photographs of myself that I could find.

My first class had a whopping 4 people. I then decided that it might be helpful to actually tell some of my current students about it. The second week had a better showing with a lot of my freshmen attending. I had hoped for some older students. I started with The Searchers, considered one of the best westerns ever made and good introduction to the class (the first film of many introductory film classes). Though it is a pretty straightforward movie, there are several key subtleties in both the plot as well as the artistic composition of the film. For example the most important camera shot in the film is the "doorway" shot, in which a character is framed looking inside a room or house from the outside (or vice versa). It is supposed to represent the barrier between the wilderness and civilization, or between the lone cowboy and the comforts of family life.

Easy, huh?

They seemed to get the plot, though I am not sure they saw too far beyond a typical cowboy story. I tried to get a conversation going about the typical Western themes seen in the film, including racism, but no dice. At least I'm pretty sure I got my points about cinematography across.

The other problem is that it is an old film, which for most Chinese students equals boring. Unless it is full of colors and effects, they tend to lose interest. But many of those kinds of movies have little narrative or artistic value. The problem with those that do is that they are often way above their heads. I have had to find a balance of excitement, relevance, and simplicity. Films that try to say too much to the audience don't work. Blade Runner was too cerebral, Lost in Translation was about right. As long as their is something unique about a film, it works, and usually I concentrate on that one unique thing rather than analyze the whole film from an artist's perspective. For LIT I concentrated solely on the nature of the main character's relationship, including the unheard lines that Bill Murray whispers into Scarlett Johansson's ear.

Unfortunately our discussions about the films are only ever one-sided. I will ask them what they liked about a film, or what they thought was interesting, and they will say it was "funny" or "exciting." Then I will proceed to lecture about the "subtleties" that they may have missed. It's more of a lecture class than I would have wished, but I have never had a problem telling people how I interpret a movie.

Which is the right way to interpret a movie.
Leb Wohl