Jade Monkey Tap Dances

I mean this both figuratively and literally, by the way.

A few nights ago our program leader on the American side, Minru Li, brought his family in for a few nights. His 70 year old cousin is, among other things, a tap dancer and accordian player! He demonstrated his tap dancing in the lobby of our hotel, and invited us to join him. I was wearing sandals, not exactly good for tapping, but I was lucky to keep up with the 70 year old guy! One of the other teachers made sure to get a shot of me up there.

Figuratively, I've had to tapdance around the queries of my students about religion and individualism. I've become fairly good at the political "non answer". Actaually it isn't a non-answer so much as a carefully worded answer. Each class has a class monitor, who is a Communist Party Member. I'm not sure what kind of notes he or she might be taking, and in general we've been asked to keep things away from sensitive topics, which is fine by me.

We're heading into week two, and I'm still trying to tweak my lesson plan so that all the material is covered and the students have enough opportunity to speak. I don't know how many of you know the crazy schedule this program has adopted (to the disgruntlement of the American teachers). There are 20 teachers and over 400 students. The students rotate through the teachers, so that each teacher only sees one group of students ONCE in the entire program. We do have a sort of "homeroom" which we will see each Friday, but otherwise its "assembly line English." Not only that, but most of what we're teaching is actually public speaking so that the kids can win these all-important speech contests. Sorta like teaching to the test. So, not the best pedagogy but we're all doing our best.

Tonight I finally satisfied my craving for Korean food. Four of us went out for dinner around 7:30 and we found an excellent Korean restaurant inside a 4-star hotel. The food wasn't too expensive, though. And it was goooooood! I had Kimchi Chigae, a sort of ultra-spicy soup with kimchi of course.

After a busy weekend, I need to be getting to bed in a few minutes, so I'll end this for now. Here's hoping all of you are enjoying summer!

Sent on Sun, 18 Jul 2004 14:51:28 +0100 (BST) -- though what BST is, I have no idea.