China Four
Sunday, September 19, 1999

Tonight at 7:00 we again had English Corner. This is a time when all the students studying English can come together and practice their English. It is interesting watching the Chinese students because they are always in packs. They are classmates, roommates, and friends, and they always travel together. But when you mix different groups of them together, you get some strange reactions. They tend NOT to do this on their own, and the first year students are greatly intimidated by the second year students. The class I teach on Fridays is strictly second-year students, and these are the ones that are most likely to come to the dorms, and when they are at the dorms, the first-year students just plain stay away!

Another note about the students, and it is somewhat off the subject, but is a necessary part of the discussion to follow; namely, in China, students have one chance on a "College Entrance" exam. How they do on that test determines the institution they go to, and ultimately the quality of their life. No letters of recommendation, no extra credit. Every wrong answer, every mistake is critical! 

Given this background, at English Corner one of the first-year students, Sophia, asked me how she could improve her English. There were about 20 students (both first and second year) waiting for my answer (they hang on every word). My paraphrased response went something like this:  Mistakes are our friends! We must push the limits of our learning beyond our comfort zone, and actually strive to make mistakes. What I mean by this is that if we are afraid of making mistakes, then we will suffer from a paralysis in learning. If we let the fear of error control our actions then, we will only speak those English words and sentences that we already know. We will not learn anything new!  However, if we think of mistakes as our friends, then we will use new words and phrases – sometimes incorrectly – but, in so doing we will improve our English. (This is actually the same message that I gave my class, but this is the first time that the first year students were hearing this.) To emphasize the point I used myself as an example. I am a teacher (and, therefore, to them infallible – God I love China), and every time I speak Chinese, I make a mistake (for some reason they had never thought of my feeble attempts at Chinese as mistakes before). There is always someone correcting me, yet I do not take the criticism to mean that I am a bad person, but rather I use the criticism to learn better Chinese.

The other thing I told them is that the first-year and second-year students must work with each other. That the first-year students, by speaking and studying with the second-year students will benefit from their experience. And, the second-year students, by tutoring and teaching the first-year students, will improve their English because there is sometimes no better way of learning something than by teaching it. The way that the first and second-year students looked at each other after I told them this, you would’ve (not would of) thought that I had just turned the entire social structure of China upside down. (Who knows, maybe I did.)   I also, told them to take advantage of the American students, and myself, that we can help them with their English, and in return, they can help us with our Chinese. I also told them to read as much as they can in English to pick up on new words. Their Library actually has several English books, magazines, and even the China Daily in English. The crowd of students kept growing, and one asked about watching TV, or listening to the radio. One of the Chinese teachers was also listening and he told them not to listen to the BBC (the English is too difficult), but he told them about an excellent program on VOA (Voice of America), that is specifically designed to help people learn English. He told them, find it on their radio dial, and even record it, so they can play it back until they have it mastered.

As the crowd of students kept growing, and as the discussion went on, one of the students right out of the blue asked if I had any more Mooncakes (a discussion of Mooncakes and Mid-Autumn Festival will follow). As I thought about her question (and the fact that I had only 3 Mooncakes left in my apartment – not nearly enough to feed the multitude), this almost biblical feeling came over me, and I thought, could I feed them all?

And this leads to my next observation about China: namely me in it. This has been an incredible experience. I have had a student ask me about Shakespeare’s quote, "All the world’s a stage…", I have had discussions with faculty about Plato’s point that it is better to suffer evil than do evil. Back home every one thinks they have all the answers for themselves, or at least that no one else can tell them what the answer is. But, here, it is as if no one pretends to know what the answers to life’s deepest questions are, and they thirst to discuss it. In philosophy classes here they read Marx and Mao. Unfortunately, neither of these two satisfies the thirst that these people have here. And I have come to truly realize the absurdity of those who mock philosophy as having no practical value. Here we are in a totalitarian regime. They have Mathematics, history, psychology, physics, music and art (they even have pictures of Newton, Darwin, and Beethoven in their library). They have Soccer, Basketball, ping-pong, and badminton. They have karaoke, discos, cell phones, pagers and computers. They have free enterprise (there is a restaurant just outside the gate that is now serving steak and baked potatoes. Unfortunately for them, they did not realize we did not come here to eat steak and potatoes.) They are, in every "practical" sense of the term, just like us! The difference is that their "Philosophy" class is limited to the readings of Marx and Mao. How "practical" is philosophy? It is so Practical, that we can not live without it!

What has this done for me, a philosophy teacher? It has energized me! People eager to ask questions and engage the arguments! What is the meaning and purpose of life? If I received a nickel for every time I am asked that question… As I mentioned before, it has made for an incredible experience, and one that has transformed me as a philosophy teacher. Never before have my words on the subject been taken so seriously. I understand and appreciate that. And, I have come to be very careful in my choice of words, both for making sure that I am saying the right thing, but also to use words that others can understand. But, rather than making me hesitate in engaging in a discussion, it has only forced me to dig deeper into my mind in exploring the questions anew for myself (especially since I am without my friends, my books). I try to be as diplomatic and polite as possible. If I received a nickel for every time I was asked the question "what do you think of Marxism?"… I have taken to the very polite response by answering; "I am not a Marxist." Oh, it is great to be alive! If only my students in class back home could realize how important philosophy is.

On to another subject: Monday, September 20

Today began mandatory drills for the first year students here at Zhaoqing Institute of Education. There have been several members of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on campus to run them through their drills. All classes for first year students have been canceled this week. They meet over by the basketball courts at 6 AM. They drill until 7. They get an hour break for breakfast. Back at 8 for more drills. Lunch is at 11:15. More drills are from 3-5. They break for dinner, and then at 8 PM they have a lecture on various topics. This was their day from Monday through Thursday. Thank goodness the humidity has dropped this week. These kids are tired by the end of the day (did I even have to say this?). I have gone over there with Mrs. Guo to watch her class drill. (Next week they will have a competition, and the best class will get 100 Yuan). At first, the soldiers were a little startled to see an American in their midst. But, they have warmed up and accepted me as a teacher here (lots of respect, even from soldiers). On Tuesday, the drill sergeant for Mrs. Guo’s class had her students box us in while marching, having them march as close to us as possible without touching. He was not trying to scare or intimidate us, but he was allowing Mrs. Guo to see how well her students were doing (the prize money you know). On Wednesday I was over there watching in the morning, and it came time for a break. The soldiers invited me out to play a little basketball with them. Oh, to be Michael Jordan for an hour! They thumped me good! But, alas I got my revenge later, when, on another break, Mr. Wei (the school’s vice-president) was mock-marching for the students, and he invited me to join him. So there I was getting the last laugh!

Today, September 24, is Mid-Autumn Festival. It is one of the more important holidays in China. It is also known as the Moon Festival. Gazing at the moon and lighting fireworks are popular activities, and it is also a traditional holiday for lovers. The festival takes place on the 15th day of the 8th moon (using a lunar calendar), and this year it is September 24. It is a time for families to gather for a meal, and it is also a time to exchange moon cakes. Hmmm! I like moon cakes!!! Moon cakes are a sweet pastry that are shaped like a cup cake, but flatter on top. They have different fillings ranging from nuts, to eggs, to things one does not dare ask about. They are so rich that one would normally cut them into quarters to eat. They are good. We have been invited to a Chinese family’s home for lunch today, and we have also been invited to dinner on a boat tonight (hmmm… more snails!).

Lunch was wonderful! Vicky, one of the students here at Zhaoqing, has a friend named Tommy who was in Mary’s class this last summer. He and his parents hosted our lunch. Matthew and Pamala were fighting colds, so they missed out, but the rest of us went. We took the bus downtown. The family lives in an apartment complex for the father’s work unit. So everybody that lives there works at the same raw materials factory that Tommy’s father works at. Neither Tommy’s father nor his mother speak English, and Tommy speaks only a little. But food can bring anyone together, and the Chinese have learned this well. They served duck, and chicken wings, dumplings, fish (sort of like Arthur Treachers style), and two different servings of vegetables. They actually served cold beverages during lunch (Coca-Cola and an orange drink). After lunch we retired to the living room for cha (tea) and some grapes, apples, and moon cake. We chatted for a while, I was complimenting the father on some of his things about the apartment. One of the things in particular was a wooden model. He offered to sell it to me, and then he disappeared into the other room, and then emerged with another model (of a Chinese junk) waiting to be put together. He made a gift of it to me, so now, in my spare time, I’ll have something to do. We stayed at Tommy’s until a little after 3, when it was decided that, if we were going to go out for dinner (who could think of eating at this point), we better get back to campus so that we could nap, or walk, or both, and then be ready to go by 6 PM.

Friday evening’s dinner was hosted by Liu Zhengguang, Zhaoqing’s city planner. His daughter, Windy, is in my class, and if he was trying to score big points with the teacher – it worked! His brother, traded his car for the evening with someone who owns a bus. The bus picked us up promptly at 6. Windy was there to greet us, and inside the bus were her uncle (driving), her father, mother, aunt, and grandmother. On the way to the restaurant we picked up Windy’s cousin and "sister". She is not really Windy’s sister, but rather was her nanny when she was little, and so they have become like sisters. We ended up at the same restaurant on the boat that I ate at with the teachers just a few weeks ago, but this time, the students got a taste of the "Seafood of Zhaoqing!"

Windy sat at the table with our group which included the delegation from ARCC (minus Matthew and Pamala – still fighting colds) and Forrest and Mrs. Krim (amazing how they find free meals). The family sat at the other table. Of course, even in restaurants, no meal would be complete without the TV on, and they had it on at the other table. I think it took our group to warm up to the seafood (not to mention the fact we were still stuffed from lunch – like going to your parents and in-laws for Thanksgiving), but, once the shrimp showed up, the sharkfest was on! There were snails, and clams, and some pork, chickens feet, jellyfish, some sort of fish (we’ve given up asking what type—see previous newsletter for discussion of genus and species), and some yam cakes, and a "corn pizza", and some other dishes that escape my memory. There was some pijiu, cha, and rice porridge, and two servings of tang – soup(every respectable Chinese dinner begins and ends with soup). Toward the end of dinner several of Windy’s classmates showed up to take us about town. Robert, Rachel, and Jen stayed downtown with the students, and Rita and I returned to the school.

As it turned out all the action was happening out by the school. Across the highway from the school is Ferry Lake Park. They were shooting off fireworks over there (for those that don’t remember, the Chinese invented fireworks), and there was a steady stream of cars heading out from the city to the park. The big thing to do at Mid-Autumn Festival is to look up at the moon at midnight. Well, I wasn’t going to make it that late, but I walked over to the park and watched as more and more people kept showing up. Kids carried around little plastic lanterns with either flashlight bulbs in them, or with candles in them. As I meandered around, I couldn’t help but think that this holiday was a little bit of New Years Day, Valentines Day, 4th of July, Halloween, and Thanksgiving all wrapped into one. As I walked back to school I ran into Mrs. Guo and Mrs. Chen (Old China and New China – I’ll explain later) with their husbands. They were heading out to catch a glimpse of the moon at midnight. How sweet!

This next week is a short school week. Friday, October 1 is National Day. In fact it is the 50th anniversary of the birth of the People’s Republic of China. It is really a big deal here (sort of like being in the U.S. on July 4, 1826). The school will be shut down for 5 days, so we are going traveling. We will leave for Kunming on Thursday and then also visit Anshun (can you find these on a map?). before returning the following Tuesday (October 5). I mention this in case you are accustomed to receiving these newsletters on Mondays. We will be out of computer contact for a while. However, I look forward to sharing more adventures and insights with you in the upcoming edition of China Five.

Zaijian,
Gordy