Thankful in China

Well, Thanksgiving has been an extended celebration here in China. Turkeys, pumpkin pies, and casseroles were not lacking even though I am thousands of miles away from home. My first Thanksgiving feast was a week before the actual holiday when we had a traditional American Thanksgiving for our Chinese teachers. The Chinese teachers initially took very small portions as they walked along the buffet line, but then they saw the Americans plates were piled high and they too were soon eating like Americans. My second Thanksgiving meal was on Thanksgiving day with just my teammates at my wonderful team leaders home. I got to try sweet potato casserole with the marshmallows on top for the first time and we were able to watch the Macy's Day parade online after dinner. The third meal was this weekend when many English teachers from our organization annually gather. There were 80 of us and we all brought our favorite dishes. I made pineapple casserole, a southern treat! We ate, played games, and sang Christmas carols around the fireplace. Although, nothing beats being home, I continue to be thankful for the family and support He has given me here and the beauty of true community.
I also got to teach my students the story of Thanksgiving. To teach a very simplified and shortened version, I had different realia such as a pilgrim hat, a turkey, and a Mayflower ship and had some of the students act as I narrated the story. We then had a big turkey on the board and each student got a colorful feather to write something they are thankful for and they would then come and put it on the turkey. Many said they were thankful for their parents, friends, and teachers, including Ms. Katie.
My interesting experience of the week was having a whole class of students apologize to me. A few weeks ago I noticed some of the boys in one of my classes sticking their middle finger up at each other. Unfortunately they have probably seen some American movies that have this and although they don't know exactly what it means, I have been trying to tell them to stop. We were taking a test last week and one boy was choosing to not do his test and goofing off, so when I asked him to do his work, I got the finger. I discussed it with the Chinese teacher and she had him individually apologize to me, and then she wanted to the whole class to apologize to me for the overall bad behavior. So I walked in and she was yelling at them in Chinese as they were all standing up and had very shamed looks on their faces. In unison they all bowed to me and said "sorry" three times. I felt terrible for the ones who have never been anything but a help to me and I could not help but feel a little uncomfortable as I am not use to being bowed too. I know this is a symbol of respect in this culture and I truly do hope it changes their behavior, but I also want them to know I forgive them. "Oh, China" is all I can say sometimes!

"Move forward, and stop"

Recently I have been realizing that it sometimes seems my 10 year old students work harder than I do. Their typical schedule begins by waking up at 6:00am, classes from 8:00-12:00, followed by more classes from 2:00-4:30, and then sometimes they have evening classes. I have been a little under the weather this week and have been going to bed really early. I will be lying in bed and hear students outside my window “attention, move forward, and stop, 1-2.” This is a regular chant they say as they are walking in a line from one place to another. I look over at the clock and it’s almost 9:00pm. They continue this draining pattern 5 days a week...I’m exhausted just thinking about all the studying and work they do!
We have been studying an exciting topic…food. This week we learned words like chef, soup, carrots, celery, onion, mix up, cut up, serve, restaurant, and menu. I was able to show a cooking scene from the Disney movie “Ratatouille.” It fit all of the vocabulary so well and my students loved it! I love when students are learning but they don’t even realize it! My Chinese co-teacher that also teaches my students English is having some of the higher-level students act out a scene the story “Ali Baba” that they are reading in her class. She asked if they could use my apartment to film the scene, so today I had eight of my little 4th graders in turbans and middle-eastern costumes in my apartment. It was quite adorable and entertaining!
This week we will be another busy week of teaching and we are preparing a Thanksgiving dinner for all of our co-teachers on Friday. We have ordered the turkey and will be doing our best to create all of the traditional side dishes with the ingredients we can find. We hope to have a recipe station, share the history of the holiday, and share things we are thankful for as we take the opportunity to serve our teachers, share some American traditions, and The reason we are thankful!