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Bryan Stumpf's China Journal |
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Teaching Abroad Since I began teaching in Shanghai, I’ve had to make some adjustments in my teaching approach. When lecturing to American students, I sometimes speak too fast. Being aware of this, I started my Chinese classes making sure to speak slowly and clearly. However, I may have been over-compensating because some of the students told other teachers that I was speaking too SLOW. Also, Chinese classrooms are very different than American classrooms. The seats are connected to each other like the seats on an airplane. In fact, all three of my classrooms have seating arrangements like a jumbo airplane, with seats of five in the middle and seats of three on the sides. Since the seats are connected, just like in an airplane, if a student from a middle seat or a “window” seat wants to get to the aisle, then the students in the “aisle” seats have to get up to allow for that student to get through. And in front of the students is the teacher’s “pulpit” – a little raised platform, like a stage and a podium for me to stand behind. I suppose the classroom setting is intended to make abundantly clear the teacher-student hierarchy, but frankly, I don’t much care for the pulpit. First of all, it’s a bit dangerous. The chalkboard is inconveniently a couple of feet wider than the raised platform, so whenever I try to write anything at the edges of the chalkboard, I risk plummeting from the platform. And second, the podium seems to have a peek-a-boo effect on my students - whenever I step out from behind the podium, I notice many students can’t resist giving me a look over. They seem particularly interested with what kind of shoes I am wearing. I’m not sure what myths they have heard about American shoes, but I must disappoint them since I wear the same plain brown shoes to every class. I’ve gotten to know my students pretty well in the past five weeks. They have proven to have longer attention spans than most American students. But whether they understand me is often hard to tell - I sometimes have a hard time reading their expressions. For example, I noticed Ozzy always sits in the front row with a disdainful look on his face. At first, I kept wondering what it was about the class that was causing him so much pain. Fortunately, I soon discovered that Ozzy always has a disdainful expression on his face - it’s his natural expression - and there wasn’t anything about me that was actually causing him any agony. Or so it seems. Many of the students are very concerned about politics in the United States. Many have asked whom I will be voting for in the next presidential election. And when I gave them an assignment to answer the question, “What is the worst problem in the world today?” the three most popular responses were - in order of popularity - overpopulation, pollution, and America’s War with Iraq. On Thursdays, I always like to arrive early to the main campus of Jiao Tong so that I can see the college professors doing their morning exercises. Many do tai chi, but some just do regular exercise. For example, just this morning I saw an old schoolmarm doing push-ups on the sidewalk. Too bad we don’t see more American college professors doing jumping-jacks on campus before classes. I often eat on campus. I’ve explored a lot of choices in the Chinese cuisine and have found a few favorites. I mostly eat what the Chinese call pancakes. They look kind of like pancakes, but they use a lot of egg when making them so it’s actually more of a cross between an omelette and a pancake. Although my chopstick skills have improved, I think another reason I always eat pancakes is because no chopsticks are necessary when eating them After a month in Shanghai, I finally went to McDonalds last weekend for two reasons: 1) Even though I never go McDonalds in the states, I felt it was time for some good ol’ American food, and 2) I needed to fulfill my requisite McDonalds-in-a-foreign-land experience so I could return to the states with my own “Royale with Cheese” type story. I discovered the Chinese McDonalds have basically the same menu as the States, but there was this new food item called Shrimp McNuggets. So I joined the horde at the counter to place my order for Shrimp McNuggets. Remember what I said about the Chinese not believing in lines? Well, at the Chinese McDonalds you don’t get in line in front of a server like in the states, you hunker down within a huge crowd at the counter. When the servers are ready for a new order, they raise their hands and clap until someone pushes and shoves their way to the counter. After a couple of failed attempts to reach a server, I eventually crowd-surfed my way to the counter. Like many of the McDonalds I had seen in Europe, foreigners don’t have to worry about the language barrier when they place an order because there are always pictures of different menu items that you can point at. It was the same at the Shanghai McDonalds - on the counter, I found the picture menu. I pointed at the Shrimp McNuggets and said “Shrimp McNuggets” a few times. The server smiled, nodded, and went to grab my food. She returned with a friendly smile, and placed on my tray a cup of hot chocolate. I had to pause a moment because of the spectacular miscommunication. But I didn’t want to pause too long, fearing the server would clap her hands and I would be shoved aside by the next eager customer. I tried to solve the problem by pointing at the hot chocolate, frowning, and shaking my head “no,” then pointing at the picture of the Shrimp McNuggets, smiling, and nodding. It worked. The Shrimp McNuggets were terrible and I’ll probably never go into another Chinese McDonalds again, but I learned that sometimes it’s best to avoid speaking altogether and just point at pictures to get what you want. I have no classes next week because of holidays and I’m leaving for Beijing tonight. I’m looking forward to the time off so that I can catch up on my journals. And I am sure I will have plenty to share with you when I return from the Forbidden City! Hope all is well on your side of the globe!
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