September 20, 2009

Week two was more challenging, but taught me a lot and moved me in the direction of routine life. Storytelling on Monday was a success, though sadly I was asked to change books yet again so that the school could buy the book to give to all the kids. It is still a balancing act trying to find material that is suitable for the kids' age level, but also suitable for their English comprehension level(s). I have pretty much lost all possible nervousness about public speaking. Luckily that only took a few weeks of ridiculous teaching activities in front of large crowds.

        Classroom teaching was the biggest shock this week. I suddenly realized that my kids are third graders and can barely complete the conversation, "Hello, my name is Kelley. What's your name?" The activities I prepared for them were too difficult, making them and me equally frustrated. After a few painful days of adaptation and exhaustion, my co-teachers and I attended the first Fulbright workshop with all the other ETAs and LETs. This was a lifesaver. We heard ideas about how other people plan and divide up the work. My co-teachers were much more willing to plan a few weeks in advance, tell me specifically what the goal of the lesson should be, and give me a specific responsibility from the textbook!

        A weight was lifted after the meeting and our lessons improved the rest of the week. We prepared ideas for the entire next unit and received helpful feedback from our principal. In the midst of my learning curve, I gave a Free Talk with Kelley class on Tuesday for my fellow teachers to practice their English. We informally discussed music, movies, questions they had about me, and I was very impressed with their ability to understand and speak English. Fifteen people showed up and this week we are planning to discuss current events.

        Chinese class continues to bestow useful vocabulary and proper pronunciation upon us all. I made several new friends this week at church, the grocery store, and on the bus because I was able to communicate in Chinese! Everyone flatters me about my speaking ability, but I take it with a grain of salt because I know that most of them just like my foreign appearance. My co-teachers and host family are much more willing to correct me, though they do get a kick out of my Chinglish.

        This was also my first week at English Village. I go to San Min twice a week and work in the "department store" section of the English world. For two hours I see eight groups of 5-8 kids and teach them a couple of typical dialogues. The first day I felt like the kids didn't learn much or truly understand the sentences, even though they are all 5th graders. So my second day, I came in prepared to translate the sentences into Chinese (if need be) and they thought that was hilarious. I could tell that they learned more and participated more effectively.

        Friday I spent the afternoon with Winnie; we walked around a department store where she helped me find some cheap, healthy international food. Then we went to a plant shop on a street corner and I bought a beautiful jasmine plant for my room. My room smells delicious! Winnie brought me back to her apartment for a bit and it was really cool to see her setup compared with mine. She had huge photos of her and her husband hanging on the walls and her daughters have apparently been instructed to call me "Kelley Jiejie" (Sister Kelley, basically).

        Saturday I visited with my host family at their apartment. Few people live in houses in Kaohsiung, just as in most cities in the US, but they all have beautiful apartments. They were surprised to hear how much I pay for rent...but I think I live in a very nice area and have my own bathroom. Anyway, my family taught me how to make dumplings and we ate a very delicious meal together. Then my host sister's friend Amy joined us and we went to the Rui Feng night market, which was right by their apartment complex. It was more crowded and bigger than most markets here, containing not just stalls of food, clothes, and every imaginable trinket or toy, but also carnival games. Mahjong, a game similar to dominoes, bowling, shooting balloons, and ring toss were among the brightly lit games. We didn't buy anything, but had fun walking off our dinner and chatting in various languages.

        I'm finally making progress on my law school apps and hope to send off most of them before next weekend. Several of the Fulbrighters are planning to take a day trip to Tainan next Saturday, so I'd like to join them. Speaking of the Fulbright crew, we were also in a local newspaper this week. A story about our teaching and the ridiculous picture of us in aboriginal hats made the news! Here is a link to the story (in Chinese only): http://udn.com/NEWS/DOMESTIC/DOM6/5133453.shtml

        I'm not sure if I should update more frequently or about fewer subjects; maybe focus on the details of a particular experience or insight? But I hope everyone is still enjoying the blog.