crazy faces.

teachers' class.

On Monday evenings I teach a beginner English class for Chinese teachers. The students in there are at somewhat varied levels of language ability, but one of my students in particular is definitely a beginner at English. Every time he comes in to class and I say "How are you?" he usually just responds by repeating what I say, rather than answering the question. It happens at other times too; for instance, once, when I found out that he was a chemistry teacher, I got all excited and said (slowly) "My father is a chemistry teacher."

He simply repeated: "My father is a chemistry teacher." :-)

Anyway, the past few weeks we have been learning a lot of food-related vocabulary, and on Monday I was teaching all the flavors--like sour, salty, sweet, bland, etc. Things weren't clicking with the class, especially with my aforementioned friend. My limited Chinese and their limited English were not connecting in this instance, but then all of the sudden, Mr. Chemistry Teacher came running up to the chalkboard, and wrote this:

He finally got it, and so did everyone else. :-)

Thanks, Dad, for making sure I knew this too.

Botanical Gardens--Round 2

May 1st is a national holiday here in China, so all of the students had a much-deserved day off. The night before, one of my students called and invited me to go to the "plant park" for the day with him and some other students. Not knowing exactly what the "plant park" was, I gladly accepted the invitation and agreed to meet them at 8:00 the next morning (wow...on a day off, seriously?)

Turns out, the plant park is none other than the Beijing Botanical Gardens. I had been there before, but it was great spending the day there again and seeing how everything had changed now that we're closer to summertime.

More than that though, it was so cool to spend a day in the life of my students: watching them interact with each other, listening to their music, and picking out words and phrases they used in talking with each other in Chinese (it was good listening practice!).

p.s. I LOVE ginkgo trees.

We climbed on rocks,

checked out the waterfalls,

But then it started to rain...

so, we sat on newspapers under a tree and waited it out--Bill on his PSP, Robin with his cell phone, and Crystal with her camera. I need to invest in an umbrella.

Later that day, the sun came out and we were at it again, this time catching tadpoles in the lake, right next to the "No Fishing" sign. :-) I really wish these kids could live in the country.

Checking out their catch.

Group shot at the end of the day: Bill, me, Robin, and Crystal.

At the end of the day I thought: "I have no idea why they wanted me to hang out with them on their day off, but I'm so glad they did."