E
very
Wednesday, a group of students at the Vocational-Technical Institute (where
we were teaching) interested in English would meet together. The first meeting
was held outside. There were tons of students there that first night. Mostly
it was a question and answer session. Actually, a lot of them were… Some
of the students who were involved with the club would present topics like
love, health, holidays, etc, and would then ask the foreign teachers for
their opinions. It was a lot of fun getting to interact with students on
a more personal level. Some days it was a little hard to be enthusiastic
while talking to them (particularly about love), but it was fun seeing them
be sporadic. A lot of my students would clam up in class, but would feel
less pressured when speaking in English Corner.
There
was a lovely birthday party for English Corner while we were there—it was
our first taste of a party Chinese-style. We had hosts who told us what
would transpire, and lots of fun games. Jeff was good with the tongue-twisters…though,
I thought the students would’ve benefited more if not facing up against
teachers. We had cake (which was kinda like angel-food cake with whipped
cream on top) and Jeff and I sang for them.
For our final English Corner, we sang some Christmas songs with our students. They really enjoyed doing that—they were all amazed by how fast I could type. As the weather turned, we met in the library and had a projector and everything, which was nice. Of course, my fellow classmates and friends have always been astounded by how fast I can type, so that was nothing new.
Jeff and I never had classes on Wednesday, so it was always a treat to go to English Corner in the evening. We were escorted to the library by our students and then walked back home so they could make sure we were okay. Sometimes we would stop in the student center and play ping pong with the students. I wasn’t particularly smashing, but Jeff loved it.
Sorry...I just thought with the captain issue in question, I'd throw
in my name for consideration.
Pintel