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Sometimes being away from home feels like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oll6UfK6iUg
Particularly when it's got past the oh-my-daaays-it's-all-like-totally-new-an-exciting-an-ting stage, and into the realms of oh-my-s***-I've-run-out-of-washing-powder-and-I-have-a-slight-cold-and-it's-sodding-February.
Then the lady sitting next to you at lunch shares her food with you and you manage a vague chat despite the Sichuanhua. And you have a lesson with a student named Draco (no really. We also have a Severus. It never gets old.) who, when you ask why she (yes, Draco is a she) is learning English does NOT respond with the standard 'because my grades are a little terrible, I only got 97% on my last test and my parents are very angry', but comes out with: 'well I really like Eminem yeah and I know he use some bad words like s*** and b**** and thing like that but I think he really say some thing to me so I think he's not come to China so I better learn English so I can go see he concert in America.' Swiftly followed by this, during a getting-to-know-you mingle exercise:
LM: So, Echo - tell us something you found out about Draco
Echo: She favourite book is unbearable
LM: Really? Why?
Echo: No no, the book name is Unbearable.
LM: Umm...Draco?...What's this book about?
Draco: Well there is one man he name Tomas and he have one wife and dog and they living Europe and some very bad thing happen him.
LM: Um...Draco...Are you in fact talking about Milan Kundera's seminal work 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being'?
Draco: Yes! Is very great book, my dad don't know I read but I think is very good.
Draco is 14. I love her.
The prize for greatest/most terrifying teaching moment to date, however, has to go to H. A getting-to-know-you mingle with H yields the following: H is 19 and would like to be a physics professor. In his free time he enjoys reading the works of Homer. He really likes Einstein because he was a genius. He does not like human beings because they are destroying the planet. In a one-to-one lesson ostensibly concerning his holiday preferences, I asked whether he would prefer to go somewhere modern or somewhere with a lot of history. From this, we proceeded to the importance of preserving cultural heritage and his dismay at China's failure to do so, to the beauty of Classical civilisation, to Neo-Classical literature. From here it was a short leap to H referencing Rousseau and ending the lesson exclaiming 'MAN IS BORN FREE BUT EVERYWHERE HE IS IN CHAINS!!!"
Not since the lesson where one of my students launched into a venemous and entirely believable tirade re: the state of bribery and corruption in State institutions have I been so terrified of deportation.
I finished my day eating shao kao (assorted mystery meats and veg skewered, lathered in hot Sichuan spice and roasted over coals) sitting on an upturned bucket in the street, and feeling a tinge more like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHEOF_rcND8
- comments
Yeranti Shona Lucy, you are amazing! (Heart swells with pride). As indeed are all these kids. I happened to do a workshop yesterday with a girl called Dannie Darko, which was a fab name-check, but she didn't quite manage the depth of self-education and deep thought that your lot are demonstrating in her first language, let alone a second. Must be all your influence - keep it up!
Yerma Superb blog Lucy - fantastic to hear about your work and how much you are getting out of it. Just like yeranti I'm full of pride and respect for what you are doing, plus you've managed to bring a massive smile to my face after a grim walk to work this morning through horizontal sleet!
xavier du hey.am Xavier.visiting u r blog hah;)