teaching English – Casting A Stone

If one of my professors in university had been a hot red-head – I would have been day dream’n and getting nothing done. Oh, wait…I was day dreaming but it was because the red-head was sitting behind me and distracting me! Now that guy is the professor.

He has given his final lectures for the semester and is now administering exams. We both can hardly believe that his first year of teaching English is done. Although teaching here has been drastically different from what and where he has taught in the past, He has loved it and is ready to tackle another year.

He has been able to share more content than we ever could have imagined and the time investing in students has been rich. Not only that, his students have asked if he will be their teacher again next year. Now that makes ya feel good! More good news, he has been assigned more literature classes come fall and the department has asked him to give lectures on cross-cultural communication to the other staff. All in all a great note to end on.

It has been a great semester, but we are looking forward to a change of pace. As soon as Hubby gets the last exam graded we will be boarding a train for Beijing. From there we are headed to the States. Main objective for our trip is to get our youngest son a new leg…a prosthetic with the toes broken off…not so useful. We also are looking forward to some American food and time with friends and family.

The summer will go fast for sure….which is a good thing because we are excited to get back here and start another year of doing what we love doing best!

The whole apartment was filled to the max and buzzing with conversations, laughter and games. But, in that moment, four young ladies had pulled me aside and I was taking a minute to get to know them.

One of the reasons we love living here and what makes teaching these students so exciting is diversity. Three of the four of my new friends were from different minority groups. Before we had visited Ch!na we pictured everyone as Han – the majority people group. I couldn’t have been more naive.

Of the girls I was chatting with one was T!betian, one from a muslim people group Hu!, and another from the Tu people group. As I listened to them tell me about their different villages, food and customs I was struck again – I love living here with these people!

The university where Hubby is teaching has a new policy to only accept local students from this province. This is helping students from the countryside who are part of minority groups get accepted into the school. Of Hub’s freshmen oral English class %90 are from Q!nghai which accounts for the greater diversity in the open houses and student activities that we plan.

It isn’t just Hubby’s classes – as I am getting aquatinted at the orphanage I am learning of the diverse backgrounds of the teachers, nannies, foster families and also the children. Just two examples, the teacher who is quickly becoming my closest friend is Hu! and a 7 year old new arrival to the children’s home is T!betian.

With diversity comes challenges. We are working hard to understand and get to know the people who have been placed in our lives. They all respond differently and bring different cultural understandings to our table. We enjoy a good challenge but could use your thoughts as we strive to connect and love our friends here well.