A language anecdote

On Thursday, like every other Thursday, I was leading Fu Xing's English Village class. We have a different class come through every Thursday morning to do English-related activities. Last Thursday, we had two first grade classes come to play a simple game with post office vocabulary, then get a sticker.

Students don't start learning English in public school until 3rd grade, so the 1st graders don't really know any English except maybe "Hello" and "1, 2, 3." Maybe a few go to private English schools outside of class. We just play an easy game, make sure they say things like "Ready" and "Thank you," then they're on their way.

At the end of the game, as I handed out stickers to the winning team, one of the 1st grade boys stuck his sticker to his hand and then held the sticker back, looking confused. He said, in Chinese, "Teacher, there is no trash can, what should I do with the back to my sticker?" So I reached out my hand and took the sticker back from his. Then his face lit up and he smiled. This is the point where other students have said, "Katie 老師聽得董國語!"

But being in 1st grade and in a different linguistic mindset, he made what seemed to him a perfectly valid assumption. He said, in Chinese, "Wow! I can speak English!"

I don't think being a linguistics major is a prerequisite for finding this adorable.

Christmas comes to Fu Xing

I could either write one really long update about the holiday season in Taiwan, or I can break it up into hopefully digestible bites. So, here's the holiday update on how Christmas came and went at Fu Xing Primary School. We spent about two weeks of class doing holiday-related activities... I could write about it, or I could show pictures. I think I know what all my blog-readers prefer.

First, I taught them about the holiday season in the US (I even tried to talk about Chanukah before Susan told me it was too hard to understand...). Then they drew/colored pictures to decorate the classroom and listened to Christmas music. No pictures of that.

Second, they wrote letters to Santa. Some choice entries:

(As you can see, some didn't quite grasp the concept of a form letter.)

Third, my fifth graders put on a Christmas recital in their music class. It involved "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and "Santa Claus is coming to Town," in English!

Here they are, performing "Jingle Bells," or 叮叮當, on the recorder. Did you know that recorders come in soprano, alto, tenor, and bass varieties?

A performance of "We Wish you a Merry Christmas:"

Also, we watched the old cartoon version of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" in all my classes... 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders alike found it hilarious, captivating, and comprehensible-- even without subtitles. I'm sad that I no longer have the ability to laugh at cartoons just for being funny-looking. Anyway, the movie got across the message that I thought many of them needed to hear: Christmas is not defined by presents or decorations or fancy food.

A picture of the kids enjoying the Grinch (I'd never seen them pay this much attention all semester):

My grinch lesson board:

For those classes who had time, I wanted to tell my favorite Christmas story, "'Twas the Night Before Christmas." The language is a little steep, though, even for native English speakers of the same age, so, with the help of my fantastic co-teacher Susan, I translated it into a Chinese poem with (approximately...) the same meter and rhyme scheme. Then the students drew/wrote their reactions:

Some sample "reflections" on the poem:
Stanley, from class 4-5:

I like this poem, but is very long. X'mas's night is quiet so is good. reindeer it's fling very high. He is very fat. He has elf and toys, he want give many children. He can go any ( ), Many children has a stocking. children want a gift any years. They are happy in this day. The world is love X'mas. so I like x'mas, too.

Heidi, from class 5-3:

I like this poem, this poem is old, it is 200 years old, I like their's Santa. hope Santa can give me a computer, but Santa is not here, this poem is long, the picture is beautiful, the Santa is fat, and teh Santa is nice, hope can listen again. Merry Christmas.

If anyone is interested in my (illustrated!) Powerpoint of "Twas the Night before Christmas" with Chinese and English, let me know.

And finally, since I did have to work all day on Christmas, I figured the only way to get through it was to bring it. So, of course, I brought it. And "it" was a reindeer sweater and antlers.

So, a belated Merry Christmas to all of you, from Fu Xing Primary School!

Who ordered pizza?

Saturday accomplishments:

• Finish another NYT Sunday crossword with Jonathan
• Buy groceries
• Discover that Taiwan does sell deodorant, razors, and hand sanitizer, at least a little bit
  
• Clean entire apartment (thanks to 小清)
• Wash and air-dry sheets, pillowcases, and blanket...
  
• Wear a sweatshirt and long PJ pants, however briefly and artificially, thanks to a strategically aimed air conditioning unit (I miss being cold)
  
• Watch some actual TV on my Slingbox
• Get the most expensive thing at Ice Art (actually on Friday): 雪花冰 with fresh mango, kiwi, and strawberry, and a scoop of chocolate chip ice cream for just over $7 US... probably the most you could spend on a single food item in Kaohsiung
• Find and navigate the online menu, then place an online order (all in Chinese) at必勝客; have a phone conversation with the server there, and pick it up
• Purchase three tubes of SPF 50+ sunscreen
• Watch "Pretty Woman" with Chinese subtitles
  

Tomorrow's to-do list:

• Write my weekly reflection (assigned by Fulbright and the Kaohsiung Bureau of Education)
  
• Go to Costco and a bookstore with my host family
  
• Plan lessons?
  
• Find a song to sing for demanding 4th graders
• Make a list of the top players in the MLB to help my baseball classes pick English names ("Po-sa-da!" "But Posada isn't his name... his name is Jorge... so you can be Jorge, or George!" "PO-SA-DA!")
• Triple-check that my DVR will be recording all the new TV starting up this week (via Slingbox, of course): Grey's, The Office, How I Met Your Mother, Chuck, and (many) more

With such a big day ahead, I better get started on sleep. More inspiring posts to come, but my mom said she wanted me to post more. So post more I shall.

Bonus language post!

A few people have asked me about the language stuff in my first post. So here's a quick how-to, for all of you who care to know:

If the Chinese characters are just showing up as question marks...
If you're using Windows XP, go to the Control Panel (classic view preferable), and go to "Regional and Language Options." Go to the "Languages" tab, and check the box next to "Install files for East Asian languages." If you do this and it still doesn't show up, tell me! There might be another step involved.

If you, too, would like to use the hover-over feature in your blog...
Try out the following html. Except replace the []'s with <>'s.

[span title="Xing bu xing = Does this work? (sorta)"] 行不行?[/span]

Here's what it looks like: 行不行?

If you're hovering and the translation isn't appearing...
Try hovering over some other Chinese first. Odds are, I was just too absent-minded (read: lazy) to code that word. If it still doesn't work, huh. Let me know, and I'll figure it out.


A final note on 中文
I'll be using 繁體字 on this blog, or at least trying to. My 中文 education is as follows: 1 year of just 拼音 at Conestoga, then 1 year of 繁體字 to start at 哈佛, followed by 2 years of 簡體字, and ending college with another year of 繁體字 when I studied 古文 and 廣東話. FYI, 簡體字 are used in 中國大陸 and 繁體子 are used in 台灣. Because I'm going to 台灣, I'm trying to focus on 繁體子 here.