Just another Limerick in the (Chinese) Wall

Hi everybody!How are you? For me, it is 7 am here in Rzhao, and I will prepare for class. We are going to attack the subject of limericks today. That is going to be interesting. And if we have any time left after that, we are going to look at the pics Patrick sent from Saint Louis, really funny ones! The series is titled "I love the South", meaning the redneck southern states of the US of A! You should see those pics!They are going to learn a whole new set of vocabulary with those, lol! Consider that teaching English in China basically comes down to putting the dictionary into their heads. They do not understand that vocabulary is just a tool, not the goal. So they often balk at anything more than treating a text as a means to punch words into the brain. I work on changing that, a difficult task. I love a challenge! Yesterday, I made them do a simple interview. I told them I want to know more about their city. So I prepared a questionnaire. Questions like: How many inhabitants are there in your city? do you have a river? Do you have theaters, movie theaters, museums, parks, etc...I also asked them if they had busses.... lol! Then I tought them the word "gazillion", lol. First, I asked the class all my questions, wrote them on the blackboard, and the answers, too. I had everybody write along. Then, I grouped them into teams of 2 and made them do the interview. Told them we are now in a TV show, one is the journalist, one the city official, guest of the show, and all others the spectators on the live show. So, all the teams had to come to the front of the class to do the interview. I also told them they had to rate each teams performance and write it down in a list, so we could tally it up at the end.You should have seen the mess at tallying! It took 2 of us almost an hour to write the table of ratings for 9 teams! The papers they used were merely scrap paper, and the writing method was all but a method, more in the vein of a messod, lol. They could not read their own stuff!Well, it was a worthwhile experience. They almost figured out everything that they had learned from it. So now, I made them a little memo paper about that experience. We will treat it today, first thing. Mona's teaching style.... so totally anti-Chinese style!
And the day after..........All right, this was an interesting day for all of us! This morning, it was so quiet in my class, before I even showed up, that I thought nobody had come at all. You have to bear in mind that my room is right next to my classroom, so there is only one door separating me from my work! As I stepped through that door at 8 sharp, I saw a very unfamiliar sight, more like a strange dream: all my students were lined up very neat and orderly, seated in proper rows of tables and chairs, their hands meekly before them, and their heads slightly bowed, all jabber mouths shut! I almost tiptoed to the front of the class, looked at them and greeted them: good morning, guys! "Good morning, Moneva" came the chorus' answer. Wow! I started class, expecting them to loosen up after a short while, but nothing! They kept put, being very polite and almost shy, doing their best to pay attention and being "good". Hmmmm... what should I make of this new and unexpected situation? Well, after some more minutes, I just couldn't take it any longer, so I asked them: "What is going on here today?" Answer: "Nothing". Aha..... I said: "Something is not right.... what is the matter with you?" "Nothing, really".... Hmmmm, nothing!?"You are so quiet, nobody sitting on the sofa, nobody chatting, nobody goofing off and nobody crowded right in front of me, so I can hardly move.... that is just not normal!" "No, no, really, nothing at all, Moneva, really!" I scrutinized them, one by one. No eye contact, all heads bowed. "Listen! Yesterday, you were my usual bunch of loud and jittery people, and today, you are sitting here like wax museum dolls!? I don't buy it!" Wo bu mai zhang! No matter what I tried, all I got were some shy laughs, heads still half bowed! The total mystery! Finally, I decided to just treat this as normal and proceeded with the first hour of classes. The revision of yesterday's interview work, and the paper I had prepared for them.R&R time rolled around, with a little overdraft at about 9:20. I went to the kitchen to get some tea and to chat with Lilian, my Chinese colleague. I told her of my "strange" or "estranged" students.She listened carefully, then got herself into a good laughing fit. "I know what it is!" she said."Yesterday, you announced to them that you wanted to work on Limericks, right?" I said I had announced that, yes. "There you have it! They are afraid." "Afraid????!!! Of what???" "Well, they now believe you will ask them to write a limerick themselves, and they don't know how to do that, so they are afraid! So they all behave!" Ahhh, I just hope you are now laughing as hard as I did when I heard that! I went back to my classroom, and I left them all to believe that sooner or later that day, their time had come, lol!We worked on one limerick, the most famous British one there is, I think: There was a young lady of Lynn.... you all know the story, right? With a lot of drawing of lemonades in glasses and straws and explaining that this is just a joke, not to be taken as the latest news flash from BBC News, they finally grasped the idea of a funny punch line and what a limerick is supposed to be. They just could not get over the idea that any person could "really, really" be that skinny! If you ask me, we will have to work on only another 500 or more limericks, before they will be ready to write their first home made one! So, I guess that will make for a well behaved class for the remaining 2 weeks of my teaching! Ahhhh, the power of 5 simple little lines in good English! I will make a limerick of this, I think it would be worth while, just to commemorate it! When I think that in only two weeks, our seminar will be over, I feel sad already. These students have grown on me in only such a short time. We go and hang out together after class, in the afternoon. Sometimes at the beach, but often, they just show up and hang around the courtyard, or in my room. I like it and don't mind at all. My hosts, An and Lilian, the owners of this little private school, will take me on a trip to An's family in Heilongjian Province, after we finish the summer sessions. That is the outer most north-eastern Province. We will probably go there for 2 weeks. At the end of that trip, I think I'll be headed back to Beijing a little early. I'll be back in Saint Louis on September 18, if all goes as planned. I will miss my new home here in Rizhao, Shandong Province. That is how I feel about it, my home in China, and my family in China. If possible, I'll come back next year and do it again! Alright, I should be headed for bed now, it is 3:30 in the am, time for a little xiuxi xiuxi! Tomorrow, we have classes! And as usual, be well y'all!
Have a wonderful evening!