Rod’s Observations #1

Looking back over our 3 weeks in China, here are some observations.  For simplicity, I will write short sentences in list form:

1. Our 13 hour flight from LA to Hong Kong had the longest series of “heavy turbulence” that I’ve ever experienced.  Only three hours into the flight, I began to wonder how much more I could take.  But I found peace and endurance by praying to God.  Thankfully, the 3 hours from Hong Kong to Shanghai were more comfortable.
2. Jean and I are here for 7 weeks as I teach (with great assistance from her) two accelerated courses: a technical course (Embedded Systems Technology) and an Oral English one.
3. Our school/college is called Aurora, and we live in a nice hotel owned by them, about a one-mile walk from campus.
4. We have a cohort of 40 students, all but one with an English first name they’ve chosen.  At this point, we know them all by first name: Alex, Jay, Emma, Joker, Pizza, Yves, Lucian, Bourbon, Rita… They are precious young people around 19 years old in most cases.
5. Shanghai’s population is about 20 million.  We are staying in the northeast region of Shanghai, about 1 hour by car from the downtown center.
6. We did not see any other Westerners for the first 7 days—and then only a senior couple at the metro station (about a 2-mile walk from our hotel).
7. Many people ride battery-operated electric motor bikes, and they are very quiet, which can be dangerous for us pedestrians.  Our hotel is on a busy highway with lots of trucks passing by.  There are three types of “travel lanes”—two lanes each way for cars and trucks, a protected lane for bikes and electric bikes, and the side walk for “imperial walkers” (pedestrians).
8. Most of our walk to campus is along a fairly narrow “country lane” that has several factories and a prison in the first third, then we reach a band with farming on both sides (vegetables on the left and grapes on the right), and the last third, after crossing a bridge, has small shops and little one-room restaurants.
9. Everywhere we go, people stare at us.  But we feel love for them and are not bothered, in general.  Yesterday, was the most gawked at day of all.  On the highway and along the country lane people seemed to turn their heads a lot and “gawk”.  I felt concern for some who were driving on the electric bikes as they might crash while not looking ahead. J  Interestingly, I do notice a number of the men gazing at my lovely wife. ;-\
10. During our walk to/from school, we often just greet the people with “ni hao” (“knee how”), hello, or good morning (“zao shang hao”).  Most of the time, we get a warm response and a bright smile, showing surprise that these “wai guo ren” (foreigners) can speak their language.  So, overall, the people of this part of China seem quite friendly.  Since our days in Singapore, I have made a habit of learning Mandarin daily for 10-15 minutes.  It is encouraging to finally use it in the “mother country”!
11. Our life here has been quite exhausting but rewarding.  The language barrier (many are weaker in English than we fully realized), pre-requisites they haven’t had (which we thought they did for the technical course), and for some students, their own lack of discipline (“no enough” sleep, poor attendance, coming unprepared, talking in class) make us feel like we are in Bootcamp—and we’re the Drill Sergeants!  On the other hand, it is a privilege to be here and try to help them grow—both in maturity and academic discipline.

Teaching students to take notes in class