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Bryan Stumpf's China Journal |
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First Week of Classes I’ve finished my first week of classes. I teach on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Each day, I teach from 8am – 12pm. That may sound like a long class time, but the class is nicely broken up: I teach writing from 8-8:45am, then a 10 minute break, then writing again from 9:05-9:50am. Then we have a 20 minute break. Then I teach speech from 10:10am-10:55, then a 10 minute break, then more speech from 11:05-11:50. Not too bad, right? You also have to factor in the 1 hour bus ride to and from campus on my Tuesday and Wednesday classes. That campus, on the outskirts of the city, is called the “suburban campus” and it’s located right next to a nuclear power plant. The students are great; they are very attentive and respectful, something you don’t always see in the States, and always eager to assist me with anything. For example, when class time was over on my first day of classes, Van Halen jumped out of his seat to erase the chalkboard for me. By the way, I actually assigned Van Halen his English name. There were several students without English names on the first day so I had to supply many of them with names. Most of the names are from movie characters or rock groups. One student is named Journey, another is named Boston, and another is named Rush. Three students were named after characters in “Jaws,” in the back row of my second class you’ll see Brody, Quint, and Hooper. And in another class, there are two characters from “Lord of the Rings” – Theoden and Pippin. I’ve also assigned some students movie star names: Bogart, Brando, and Harrison. I named one student Hitchcock, but he didn’t like that name so I renamed him Homer (after Homer Simpson of course, not the Greek writer). Also from “The Simpsons,” I named some students Bart, Lisa, and Marge. And some students received rock star names - in my third class there’s Ozzy, Bono, and Neil Diamond. I also named quite a few after family and friends. My mother Karen, sits right next to her mother Doris in the first class. And my sister Kristie sits right next to Ozzy. And regarding friends, I have one student named Bob, and another named Cheedy. The students have also chosen names for themselves - one older gentleman student named himself Gorgeous. When walking the streets of Shanghai, I’ve noticed all drivers constantly honk their car horns. They blare their horns so much that people rarely respond to the honking. On the bus rides to and from the suburban campus, the bus driver rarely lets off from the horn. When I asked my colleague Xiaohong whether the constant honking bothered her, she was like, “What honking?” Also, I noticed that if someone is in front of a vehicle, like a pedestrian or a biker, the driver of the vehicle won’t stop or slow down. Instead, they maintain the same speed and just blare the horn. I assume they expect the pedestrian or biker to get out of the way in time to avoid a collision. When I asked Xiaohong if she had ever seen anyone get hit by a bus or car, she said, “Of course, there are many accidents, but I haven’t seen any.” And along with constant honking, it seems no one in Shanghai ever fixes or replaces their brakes. So near every intersection there is the ever-present squeaking of brakes to commingle with the honking. All in all, I’m actually having a great time and I have learned a lot. I have improved my chopstick skills, but I still use them like a fork, scooping up food rather than picking up little pieces of food – one piece at a time. That’s all for now. Hope
all is well on your side of the globe.
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