Paper, Scissors, Stone!

[Alert! Typhooooooon day!! The government has just announced that we have Monday off due to super typhoon Jangmi. Now we return to our regularly scheduled post...]

For whatever reason, people here are convinced that rock paper scissors is really paper scissors stone, even though in Chinese it is 剪刀石頭布 (scissors rock cloth). We use it quite often in class to level the playing field a little in competitions. PS I suggest listening to Scissor Paper Rock by Architecture in Helsinki while reading this post.

Paper. A few people have asked me if I'm taking Chinese classes here, and answer is, not officially. However, I thought I would share some of my informal "textbooks." Auntie Chen got me hooked on Wan-wan comics (left), and our life advisor Kelly kindly lent me the Penguin Revolution series (right). On a less frivolous note, it has been helpful to read the teacher's manuals in Mandarin for supplemental ideas, and Roxanna lent me a great book of kids games that is by now smothered in post-it notes.

Scissors. So what do I do when my fellow ETAs are off at Chinese class? Erhu lessons, of course. As chance would have it, there is a music school right by our apartments. My instructor is an older man, very experienced and enthusiastic. He is intent on sending me back to America with some solid skills, which is exciting (but also pressures me to practice). We've been working on changing hand position and playing 良宵, a piece that 劉天華 improvised on New Year's Eve. One of my co-workers lent me her old erhu -- it was in several pieces but my instructor managed to put it back together again, almost as good as new. He made me watch while he fixed it so I would have some idea of how it all goes together. The typhoon has offered a great opportunity to practice, since there's not much else to do, and the wind is so loud that the neighbors (hopefully) can't hear the dying-chicken screeches.

Stone. As the last bit suggests, we live in a close community. Everything is just a stone's throw away. Occasionally it's mind-boggling how small Yilan is, for instance when I nearly ran into my host sister Rain (such an apt name for this region!) as she biked the opposite direction on the running/biking path we frequent. Or when we saw not one, but two local teachers while scootering in between Yilan and Luodong. It is also not unheard of to run into German tightrope-walkers at the local supermarket. Moreover, as one of our neighbors remarked, Yilan has more 人情味 than most places. People are so friendly and willing to answer (as well as ask) questions, and to help us feel at home. 

哈哈

I'm not sure whether to be offended or just amused.

I think we will be happy in this year

Tomorrow is world car-free day -- good thing I'll be scootering to work. It's also perfect timing for the 6th graders' lesson on environmental pollution... Their textbook has sentence patterns like, "The river was dirty last year. The river is clean now." So I'm going to show them some before and after photos, and have them discuss what changed. I'll also tell them about the burning of the Cuyahoga River. Hopefully it will be an interesting integration of subjects and push them beyond the textbook a little. This grade has been the most challenging thus far. It's a challenging age, but I think there's potential for some real interaction. Last Monday marked the end of the observation period and I started co-teaching officially. To get to know the 6th graders better I had them write a little about themselves... below are two of my favorites (and just in case you weren't sure, Wayne is not in fact twenty years old... sometimes they get confused between twelve and twenty).

I think we will be happy in this year, too, as long as classroom management doesn't become an issue. One of the students has a history of tantrums - purportedly he once stormed out of a class and hitchhiked to Su-ao. Fights have broken out in the other class (not while I was teaching), compelling my co-teacher to spend more class time on disciplinary measures. Anne's mother was also a teacher at our school for many years, and her advice was to find ways to relate to the students. For now some of the girls have been teaching me Taiwanese phrases and games (paper rock scissors, jump!) at recess.

對啊，對啊

Typhoon Sinlaku is coming, so in case the power goes out, here's wishing everyone a Happy Moon Festival in advance! Next Friday we will meet our host families and we're preparing a 'variety show' for them, including some songs, skits and the Soulja Boy dance... Those of you who read Adam's blog will have already seen this, but it was too good not to share - it's a Taiwanese pop song that we are planning to perform, and yes, it is all about eating breakfast.

Good morning, Teacher Mandi!

That's what my kids have to say when they see me each morning. Most of them don't manage all seven syllables, and the first-graders just chant my name, but I don't mind. This is the second week of school and I'm mostly observing to get a hang of different teaching styles. Anne is also a homeroom teacher so when I don't have class I hang out with her second-graders, which is a great way to better understand what it's like being a student here and now. 

This stealth shot shows some of the daily activities I bear witness to: Kiki is finishing her lunch (this arrives in giant pots and the kids help themselves to a balanced meal of rice, meat, veggies and soup), Amanda is wiping off her desk, Michael is goofing off as per usual, and Nina is working on homework. The students here are given many more responsibilities and held accountable for it -- they help clean the classroom and hallways before and after school, bring their own lunchbox and cleaning rag (your ID number will be recorded if you forget something), and brush their teeth before being allowed to play. None of this was a surprise, though, and actually things seem a bit more relaxed than when I went to Hushi elementary school twelve years ago. Although morning assembly has retained its military flavor, we only have it once a week and the students stand in the hallways in the shade (none of that sunstroke I remember...) Teachers use more creative teaching methods and I have yet to see any instances of corporal punishment. Another interesting thing is that in addition to Mandarin and English, the kids also learn Taiwanese. Quite a change from when students were fined for speaking Taiwanese in class. I might try to sit in on a class from time to time. Currently I'm using some Mandarin for the younger kids and pretending to be at a loss for the older ones (Roxanna told the 4th and 5th-graders that I can understand Mandarin but not speak it... so far so good!)