Day One.

I have always respected and learned more from the teachers that have created comfortable and relaxing environments. Their approachability is directly related to my final grades. So, I started off my first class by explaining the laid-back atmosphere I wanted them to experience. "I want you to feel comfortable asking questions during class. If you don't understand something I say, please, stop me before I go on."

The class is about 3 hours long with a 20 minute break in the middle. During the break, I had a line of students standing at my desk with questions. They didn't want to interrupt. Ugh.

We played a few ice-breakers in order to get to know one another. I also used this time to assess their English skills. I'm quite surprised at the disparity between each of them. I asked each student to stand, state their Chinese name, English name, major or area of study, hometown, and their hobby. Cherry is from the (something or other) Province which is known for their pottery and fine china. Sunny loves sports - especially basketball. Marina hates all sports. Sam likes basketball too and hopes that I can get him a Lebron James autograph. Things were going well until the 8th student - Vivi. She stood up and only spoke Mandarin. All of my students started laughing. I said, "Vivi, this is an English class. We must speak English. If I can't understand you, how are we going to work on your English skills?" Cherry spoke up and told me that Vivi is self-conscious of her English skills and would rather not talk at all. I told my students that laughing at one another is prohibited. "We all have things we need to work on. No one here is perfect. Vivi, please say as much as you can in English." She struggled for quite some time. It was painful to watch and listen to, but she worked her way through it. And, no one laughed.

2 of my students didn't have an English name, so they asked me to name them. I now have a "Susie" named in honor of my mom and a "Wendy" a la Peter Pan. They were overjoyed with my choice for them. "Oh, such a pretty name! Thank you, Teacher," they both said.

We spent some time going over American and English proverbs. I split them into groups of 2 or 3 and assigned each group a different proverb.

Misery loves company

You can't teach an old dog new tricks

The grass is always greener on the other side

Bloom where you are planted

They really enjoyed this exercise and made me think differently about a few of them as well. In China, they say "if you share your happiness with a friend, it will be doubled. if you share your sadness with a friend, it will decrease by half." "Misery loves company" seems a little more terse, but I like the mathematical value they have given feelings. They seem so much more manageable now.

Before they left for the day, I asked them to write down what they wished to learn about this semester - specific topics and ideas. Sam would really enjoy a lesson on Obama, Lebron James, Kevin Garnett, and Shakira.

On the same piece of paper, I asked them to write down 3 stereotypes of Americans. Most of their answers are pretty predictable: rich, open-minded, adventurous, patriotic, innovative, diverse, optimistic, etc... Marina has just assured herself an A for the semester with this answer "Americans have their unique ideas about the same thing. They know what they want and do it - just like you!" Well put, Marina.