Culture

Field trip!

/ edebock / 3 Comments

Spring… the time of year when teachers often take classes on field trips.

Imagine a field trip where the pupil teacher ratio is 1:1. Now imagine that there are only 4 students, all girls and that they’re in their late teens! I’m sure my Canadian colleagues who are busy herding groups of 20 or more children through museums, historic sites and other educational venues would have seriously envied us today!

This afternoon’s Class A field trip was a "western picnic" partially planned by the girls themselves. We rode the bus to beautiful Children’s Park. I’m not sure why it’s called that. It was occupied mainly by seniors including some in wheelchairs who appeared to be on outings from a nearby care centre, and other than a small playground/amusement park area in one corner, there wasn’t anything specific to appeal to children. It was, however, a lovely spot for a picnic.

In addition to teaching them English, we’re also trying to introduce our students who plan to study abroad to western culture so our menu didn’t include any Chinese food. Instead, we ate sandwiches, potato chips, cookies and miniature chocolate bars. If we could have, we would have introduced them to s’mores but even Carrefour, the French department store that carries some import foods, didn’t have the ingredients nor did we have anywhere to roast the marshmallows.

After lunch, we had a photo scavenger hunt. Each student/teacher partnership had eleven items to find and photograph. The list was, of course, in English. Finding "something fuzzy" is a challenge if you don’t know what the word fuzzy means! I explained to my partner that it meant soft, like an animal’s fur and we set off to see if we could find the cute little puppy that had passed by while we were eating. It was nowhere to be found and I was very proud of Sheila when she spotted the poplar fuzz gathered along the edge of the sidewalk and asked, "Is that fuzzy?" We were the last to return to the starting point with our list completed but we were declared the winners because our pictures were the best! Yay!

Next came a word game. Each of us was shown a word but one person’s was different from everyone else’s. Without giving away it away, we had to take turns saying simple sentences about the word until we could guess whose was different. With word pairs like shampoo and conditioner, bread and cake, and orange and tangerine, it was tricky and the girls had to think hard to come up with good sentences. There was lots of laughter and good-natured bantering and though the senior ladies sitting near us had no idea what we were saying, they clearly enjoyed watching the girls’ enthusiasm.

Yes, this was definitely the most relaxing field trip I’ve ever been on!

My name is Guang

/ edebock / 6 Comments

Richard and I are still somewhat uncomfortable with the fact that our students are required to use English names at school but I find the stories behind these names fascinating. Many were simply given them by their first foreign English teacher while others chose from a list of names when they first came into the school to register for classes.

Some choose a name that sounds similar to their Chinese name. Bradley’s real name is Li Borou. According to Chinese tradition, his family name comes first but reversed, it would be Borou Li which sounds a bit like Bradley. Now that he’s considering going to Canada to study, however, he’s concerned that Bradley Li (pronounced Lee) will sound odd so he has started signing his name, Brad Li.

Others are influenced by the entertainment world. Grace chose the name of a favourite character in an American television drama and was tickled to discover that I have a fondness for the name because it was also my grandmother’s.

Big Jacky, easily the tallest Chinese person I’ve ever seen, is class monitor for one of my university classes. His duties include stopping by the office when he arrives to pick up the key and unlock the classroom. He also insists on carrying my books up to the sixth floor for me every time! When I asked him how he got his English name, he explained that he’s a fan of Hong Kong actor and martial artist, Jackie Chan, who was actually born Chan Kong-sang.

Sissi (pronounced Cee Cee) was a nickname given to one of Richard’s students by her grandmother when she was just a little girl. Since it’s easy for even we foreigners to pronounce, she decided to use it instead of adopting a different English name. I think it suits her.

One of the most unusual names we’ve encountered is Dragon but his choice made perfect sense once he explained it to me. Apparently his Chinese name means little dragon.

Their English names aren’t particularly important to most our university students who are simply taking an English course because it’s a graduation requirement. When the year is over, many of them will never use the name again. When they wrote their midterm exams, I discovered that Patricia didn’t even know how to spell her English name! It’s a different story for our students who are preparing to study overseas, however. Recognizing that they will be using this name for several years, possibly the rest of their lives for those who dream of making Canada their permanent home, some of them aren’t satisfied with a name that was chosen hastily or thrust upon them by a teacher they’d only just met. Stacie is such a student. Last time I talked to her, she was considering becoming Monique!

Our school isn’t the only one that requires its students to choose an English name. Apparently this is common practice across China. When we met Michael, one of our "angels", in Jinan last week, I asked him how he got his English name and he explained that he’s a fan of both Michael Jordan and Michael Jackson.

After hearing many of these stories, I began to wonder what I would do if I had to choose a Chinese name. I’ve always been fascinated by the meaning of names so I wondered if my name, which means shining light, might have a Chinese counterpart. Over lunch one day, I asked some of our students if they knew of a Chinese girl’s name that meant light. Sure enough, Sissi told me that her mother’s name, Guang (pronounced Gwong), was the one I was looking for. Though no one actually calls me by this name, I’ve decided to adopt it as my Chinese name. I even like the look of its Chinese character. It reminds me of a burning candle or a lighthouse.

光

Since Chinese women take their husband’s family name when they marry, I guess I’m actually Meng Guang because Richard’s Munchkin class (his 12 year olds) recently decided that he should have a Chinese name too. They dubbed him Meng Fei, naming him after a popular TV anchorman who gained nation-wide fame as host of the popular blind date reality show "If You Are the One"!

This is China!

/ edebock / 5 Comments

On Tuesday afternoon, people bought roasted chestnuts and other snacks at the little corner kiosk but less than 24 hours later, it was nothing but a pile of rubble! No, we don’t live in a war zone and we’re a long distance away from China’s recent earthquake, but to look at the area a few blocks from here last week, one would have seriously wondered.

We first noticed that something was amiss when we left the school for a quick lunch before Tuesday afternoon’s dance class. (See Can I have this dance? posted on March 26) Along a two or three block stretch, the fronts had literally been torn off every business! Restaurants, bakeries and other businesses were continuing to serve customers while completely open to the street!

The next afternoon, we decided to walk that way again to see what was happening. That’s when we discovered that the snack shop on the corner was gone and that the new fronts on the other businesses were being constructed about a metre further back from the street than where they’d previously been. What in the world was going on? Had they encroached on city property and been forced to move off? Had a bylaw suddenly changed, requiring them to make these alterations? That kind of thing happens in China all the time, we’re told.

On our way home, we decided to circle around through some of the tiny back streets and that’s when we discovered that the destruction was much more widespread than we’d first realized. Piles of broken glass and rubble were everywhere! On one street, we came across a backhoe in the process of demolishing a small structure. The area was cordoned off with yellow ribbon and a row of uniformed policemen stood nearby. I wanted to take photos but I thought better of it. As foreigners, we’re already very conspicuous. I didn’t want to find out what kind of attention a foreigner with a camera might generate!

There are lots of things about this country that we’ll never understand and this situation is definitely one of them! Rumours have abounded this week. We’ve heard tales of an upcoming international gathering of some sort coming to Dalian soon and the city wanting to clean up and put on a good face for the world. Knowing that that’s what happened in Beijing prior to the Olympic Games being held there in 2008, I might have believed that story had I not seen the mess on the back streets. I could imagine a cavalcade of foreign visitors traversing busy Huanghe Road where we initially witnessed the changes happening but they’d have absolutely no reason to enter any of the tiny back streets.

Others have speculated that there may be gang involvement. We’re told that, through extortion, gangs exert firm control over certain territories within the city and that business owners regularly pay the gangs for "protection" ensuring that their establishments will not be disturbed by the ruling gang or by others including the authorities. Did the business owners in the affected area anger the controlling gang and lose their protection allowing the city or the police to enforce changes? I have no idea! I do know that this kind of gang activity has been documented in US cities with large Chinese populations which leads me to believe that it probably happens here too though we would never actually see it.

Today we walked through the affected area again. Though some of the businesses are still undergoing reconstruction, the rubble is mostly gone and the area cleaned up. One would hardly know that anything untoward had happened. Perhaps what surprises me most in all of this is the fact that, in the midst of everything that was happening, for most people business continued as usual. People seemed to simply accept what was happening without protest or emotion.

"This is China" is the simple explanation that most people give!

Tomb Sweeping Day

/ edebock / 7 Comments

Tomorrow, April 4th, is Qingming Festival in China. Pronounced Chingming and known as Tomb Sweeping Day in English, this is a day to honour dead ancestors by travelling to the family tomb to sweep, clean and place flowers and offerings of food and drink on the grave.

Burning paper that is meant to resemble money in hope that the deceased is not lacking anything, is also a common practice; so common, in fact, that the authorities are urging people to take precautions and not allow fires to get out of control. Apparently, across China, a total of 520 million people visited their ancestors’ tombs during last year’s festival and 200 forest fires were reported during the three day holiday!

This week, we see huge stacks of the gold coloured paper everywhere. Looking something like fancy paper napkins, it’s piled in the marketplace and outside stores waiting for people to purchase it and burn it, sometimes on the graves but not always. Paper burning was also part of the Lantern Festival that took place at the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations. That night, as fireworks exploded overhead, bonfires lined the streets outside our building and we already saw a couple of people burning a pile of the paper a couple of evenings ago on the sidewalk directly across the street from where they purchased it.

In addition to remembering dead ancestors, in modern times Qingming has also been seen as a time to pay respects to those who’ve died in incidents considered sensitive in China, incidents such as the Tiananmen Square massacre that took place in Beijing on Tomb Sweeping Day in 1976.

Qingming is celebrated on the 104th day following the Winter Solstice or the 15th day after the Spring Equinox. In addition to being a time of remembrance, it’s also a time to celebrate the coming of spring and in farming communities, it marks the time to begin plowing and seeding. Outdoor pursuits including kite flying are popular Qingming activities. Though spring seems a little late this year, the past couple of days have been the warmest since we arrived in China. The grass is finally starting to turn green and I was delighted to notice tiny buds on one of the trees we passed on our walk this afternoon.

We hope that the beautiful spring weather continues for the next few days as we’re off to Dandong for our three day Tomb Sweeping holiday. Dandong, a 4 hour bus trip north of here, is located just across the Yalu River from North Korea but more about that when we get back!

Can I have this dance?

/ edebock / 7 Comments

Richard and I came to China to teach English so what were we doing teaching a group of eager students to do the fox trot early yesterday afternoon?

Like many social media sites, WordPress is blocked in China. I’m delighted that I can continue posting to my blog via email but one thing I haven’t figured out how to do is include links to previous posts. You may, however, have read the one entitled Sunday afternoon in Zhongshan Park that I posted a couple of weeks ago; the one that talked about me dancing in the park with a Chinese gentleman. Pictures of that event quickly circulated amongst our students who were clearly delighted that we would so willingly engage in the activities of their culture. Hearing about this and learning that we love to dance led one of our fellow teachers to suggest that we should consider starting a noon hour dance club for the students. Jesse, a retired science teacher, already offers a rocket building activity twice a week.

We loved the idea and so did the kids. With Bradley’s help, Richard started searching out and downloading appropriate music. Bradley, a bright 23-year-old, is one of my students that we’ve quickly developed a great friendship with. That’s him I’m dancing with in one of the photos.

Though our schedule is much lighter, our English immersion students are in school from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday to Friday. They have a two hour break at noon though which leaves plenty of time for a quick lunch followed by a dance class. Ten students showed up for our first class yesterday; five guys and five gals. Perfect, we thought, until we discovered that even though they go to school together every day, most of them were too shy to dance with a member of the opposite sex! They had no problem partnering up with someone of their own gender though and the classroom was soon ringing with laughter as they tried out the steps.

We started with the fox trot because it’s relatively easy but over the coming weeks we’ll be adding the polka and a couple of different waltzes to their repertoire. We’ll also introduce them to the jive. I can imagine already how much fun that will be!

If it’s Friday, this must be the Black Dog

/ edebock / 2 Comments

Until fairly recently, I would never have imagined that I’d someday be a resident of the People’s Republic of China but we received our Residence Permits today! They’re valid until July 31st.

Life has pretty much settled into routine and classes are going well. On Friday afternoons, I have a class that ends at 4:50 p.m. and Richard has one that starts at 6:00. That gives us just over an hour for supper; not enough time to go home and barely enough time to eat out. That’s when we go to the Black Dog.

We have no idea what the restaurant’s real name is but it was dubbed the Black Dog by one of our fellow teachers because the owner’s black cocker spaniel is often there. Cats and dogs in restaurants are not uncommon here.

Like many restaurants in the area, the Black Dog is tiny with just four tables and sixteen chairs. The red metal tabletops are badly scratched. When we arrived today, a group of men were playing cards at one of them. As they got up to leave, one of them grabbed a broom and swept up the cigarette butts that they’d left on the cement floor.

Though it may not sound like the place you’d choose to go out for dinner every Friday, it definitely meets our needs. It’s one of the closest places for us to walk to, the owner greets us at the door each week and the food is delicious. Perhaps the greatest draw for us though is the fact that the extensive menu has been translated into English and the school provided us with a copy. We choose what we’re going to have for supper on Thursday evening or Friday morning so that we can order as soon as we arrive. We usually share a meat dish and a vegetable dish and we each have a bowl of rice.

Our favourite vegetable dish so far is called Three fresh vegetables (potato, eggplant, green bean) in the menu but the green beans are actually green pepper! Broccoli with mashed garlic was also delicious as was tonight’s Eggplant with soy sauce. Since we’ve been eating a lot of pork, chicken and shrimp, we try to choose other kinds of meat when we eat at the Black Dog. Fried mutton with Chinese onion was pretty good but we learned today that ordering the Braised mackerel wasn’t such a good idea. There was nothing wrong with it. In fact, it was quite tasty but it took a little while to prepare and we weren’t sure we’d have enough time to eat it. That might have had something to do with the fact that when we ordered it, one of the fellows from the kitchen left the restaurant, rode off on his bicycle and returned a little while later with the fish in a bag! He’d obviously rushed off to the market to buy it. At least we knew it would be fresh. Within about ten minutes of his return, it was on our table and even though we had to pick out the tiny bones, we were done in time for Richard to get back to school before his class was due to begin.

The Black Dog menu has plenty of options to choose from but there are several items that we probably won’t try. We’ve eaten jellyfish before and don’t like the texture so we won’t bother with the Cucumber with jellyfish, the Chinese cabbage with jellyfish or the Mature vinegar with jellyfish. Besides, I have no idea what the difference between mature and immature vinegar might be! I’m not attracted by the Cucumber with pig ear or the Chinese onion with pig ear either. I’ll also avoid the Sauteed silk worm with chili and the Spicy pig intestines. After all, my stomach doesn’t do well with spicy foods. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!

Things are different here!

/ edebock / 9 Comments

We’ve spent quite a bit of time in Asia over the past few years. As a result, we haven’t really experienced culture shock since arriving in China but there have definitely been some surprises. In no particular order, here are a few random differences that we’ve noticed so far.

  • Waking up in the middle of a densely populated city and hearing a rooster crow! We haven’t figured out where the rooster resides but we did see a chicken wandering beside the street one day. I wonder if it ended up in someone’s cooking pot?
  • Two or more girls walking arm in arm or holding hands. This is extremely common amongst women of all ages and is nothing more than a sign of friendship. I quite like it.
  • Spitting! Everywhere. All the time. That I don’t like! The spitting itself is bad enough but it’s the loud hawking up of phlegm that precedes the shot that really gets me. I have to constantly remind myself that these people (men and women) aren’t being intentionally rude or gross. This is simply an accepted practice in their culture. I must admit to giving the man who nearly hit my shoe at the street market on Sunday morning a very dirty look though!
  • Using paste to attach a stamp to an envelope. I still chuckle when I think of the expression on the face of the post office clerk when I licked the back of a stamp the first time we mailed something! He hastily pointed to the pot of paste and the worn out brush that I was supposed to use to apply it to my stamps. I’ve been careful to do it the right way ever since even though it doesn’t work half as well as licking the stamp!
  • Toilet paper without a cardboard core. You can buy it with the core but it isn’t as common and since we have nothing to hang the roll on, it isn’t needed. Also, when the roll gets small it fits easily into a coat pocket or purse which is very handy considering the fact that toilet paper isn’t provided in public bathrooms including the ones at the school.
  • People burning stuff whenever and wherever they choose. I was about to hang some towels out to dry one morning last week when I noticed a group of men burning a large pile of trash directly below our window. The fire smouldered all day while the towels dried indoors!
  • I’m not sure what the law says but in practice, pedestrians DO NOT have the right away in Dalian and since parking on the sidewalks is commonplace, one needs to be constantly vigilant while walking. We take our life in our hands each time we cross a street!
  • The city employs an army of street sweepers. Dressed in green and yellow, they use straw brooms to sweep the gutters and gather up the ever present garbage. Their efforts seem somewhat futile as people think nothing of throwing more trash on the ground.
  • In an environment where cleanliness doesn’t seem to be a priority, who would have expected to find scented kleenex? I’m not sure if all the tissues here are perfumed but the ones we bought have a lovely lavender scent! Richard doesn’t particularly care for them but I think they’re great. He may suggest that we look for unscented ones next time but since we can’t read the labels, he could be out of luck!
  • Many of the vehicles on the road are made by North American, European or Japanese manufacturers and look just like the ones we’d see at home but some are also manufactured by Chinese companies. It’s the three wheeled ones that make me giggle every time I see one! They look like Mr. Bean should be behind the wheel!

 

Sunday afternoon in Zhongshan Park

/ edebock / 9 Comments

Our students are encouraged to spend time with us outside class so that they can practice using their English in a variety of different situations. One of my classes has taken this to heart and we’ve already been out for several meals and activities with some of them. Last night I taught one of the girls the expression “win-win situation” because it is exactly that. They have the opportunity to develop their language skills while we get to experience things we’d otherwise having difficulty accessing because of our lack of knowledge of the language and the culture.

Yesterday was a perfect example. We met Vicky, a native of Dalian, for lunch at a restaurant near her home and experienced spring pancakes for the first time. Spring pancakes are essentially small, thin tortillas that you wrap a variety of stir fried foods in. A little bit messy but very delicious.

Afterward, we walked to Zhongshan Park together. The focal point of the park is an old Buddhist temple. Having seen many of these in other Asian countries we could easily imagine its original splendour but unfortunately, it’s in a sad state of disrepair and people were scattered about the steps and plaza selling a variety of rather junky looking wares.

Behind the temple is what could easily be a beautiful park. Vicky was embarrassed by its unkempt appearance but I could easily imagine how much better it will look when the bare trees burst out in leaf. It was the vibrancy of the many people enjoying the park that delighted me however! Clusters of men gathered around poker games while one group played a form of checkers. Musicians playing a variety of traditional and modern instruments played in different spots throughout the park and on a wide open plaza overlooked by a bronze statue of Sun Yat-Sen, a revolutionary leader of the early 1900s who became known as the founding father of Nationalist China, people were dancing! We stopped to watch and particularly admired one very graceful couple. When the man noticed us watching, he left his partner and approached us. Extending his hand, he asked me to dance and dance I did! The steps were new to me but he was a skilled leader and I soon picked up on the routine. What fun! Richard and I love to dance so on Vicky’s urging, we took to the dance floor together when my Chinese partner returned to his lady.

Moving on, we came upon what at first appeared to be a children’s playground. Upon looking more closely, however, we realized that it was actually a collection of exercise equipment for adults. Of course, I had to try out a few pieces! We also enjoyed watching a man working out on the parallel bars. His routine made my 20+ push ups each morning look quite pathetic!

After leaving the park, we took a bus to a shopping mall where we’d arranged to meet a fellow teacher and a couple more students. We relaxed and chatted for an hour or more in a lovely coffee shop before walking to another restaurant for supper. Three more students joined us there. There were now nine of us and seated in a private room around a circular table, we enjoyed another feast and more visiting before finally making our way home.

It was definitely a winning day!