February 22nd, 2016

February 22nd, 2016

9:58 am on the 24th, about the 21st

Ah, that's right, I got up way too early, did some writing and then ran through a quick hour long workout with my window open, before, slightly late, running to work, and carrying my coat for the last stretch so I could cool down and not be all sweaty. That's likely why I'm sick now.

First class had Sherry, Marcia and Anna having to present their "letters to a friend" assignment before moving on to a sort of "question web" I'll call it. I put a statement on the board, and they have to use question words to ask ten questions about it. I told them "I earned my TEFL certificate last summer." Plenty of questions to be asked there, and they did a fine job of finding them.

Next class had three students presenting on historical figures- Lee did Beethoven, Sherry did Hans Christian Anderson (sp?), and Li Bin did George Smith Patton (so THAT'S what the S. stands for!) and we worked on the phrasing of "how long before x did you y?" or "how long after y did you x?" I told Li Bin that to say Patton "had got battle achievements" or however he phrased it exactly, was incorrect, but I couldn't back that up with why- the best I could figure was it was a matter of formality (and that's the best I could figure after trying to look it up).

After the two hour break (again, no notes, sorry, probably nothing interesting happened) was a class on finding out how similar or different you were to your partner- in attendance was Leon (who I always forget, but I'm locking it down now), Eamonn, May, Mandy, and Jasmine, this quiet girl at the front who I partnered up with for the sake of this classes surveys. We tallied scores at the end, and MY team had the lowest scores! What? How is that possible? Leon, very interested in my answers, had me give my responses to the class, and we got to see that I just score low with everbody... so, I'M the different one? Wha-a-at?

I guess anyone could see that coming from a mile off.

Dany gave an English Corner on the amazing human body, what with all our glands and sweat and whatnot. Meanwhile, I chatted with reception woman Dora the longest we've ever talked- maybe her English is improving? We chatted about Wechat and I argued the superiority of western social media by virtue of the metric that multiple cultures use them together, which was a point that either couldn't be argued against, or couldn't be argued against with the level of English proficiency that she had. Also she and Adam had a good laugh at my flip phone, Dora took a picture of it.

AND she told me that a word that sounds like "newbie" in Chinese means great! Newbie! (I doubt that's how it's spelled in Pinyin- I told her "newbie" is negative in the west, like you're new and don't know what you're doing)

Next was the class on talking about what 8 items you'd bring with you to survive on an island for two years. Ruby was the only student prepared for the class- also, she wasn't wearing her usual sports suit, but, like, almost a nice suit. Very sleek, nice. Meggie copied 80% of Ruby's list, which I said was a fine thing to do, it was a mostly good list (the homework tells you you have clothes, you don't need to bring more, and a telescope probably is less useful than something else you could bring). Jessi opted to bring a dog, a cat and wine- she sounds like a bohemian westerner already- but had a LOT of trouble adding to her list.

And then there was Shark, who was amazing. He stuck to his guns for a long time, saying he'd only bring "some books. A fishing rod." YES. Amazing. He eventually hit on the idea of bringing some kind of advertisement, to get other people to come to his island and charge them admission- the homework says you can't leave, it doesn't say anything about no people ever coming by. Shark, I salute you.

My last class was a doozy with Cindy, Sherry, Anna, Queena, Belinda, Steven, a Lily, an absent JK, Mars, and Daisy, who was clearly disappointed when I called her name but looked at someone else. OKAY locking that one in, won't happen again. 

We had to play through this board game, to advance you had to flip coins (because of a lack of dice, I've written about this game before- I was determined to do it better than last time, so I brought TWO sets of coins so we wouldn't be playing two identical scenarios... but then I forgot to pick up personal game pieces for everyone. Whoops... I tore pieces of paper and handed them around the table, giving them to Mars on my right, and having them passed around until one got to Belinda on my left- everone thought it was weird that I didn't just pass a paper to my left, right, left, right, whatever, but I was just being silly. Belinda said I was a "naughty boy" which is so weird- people here like to use "delicious" all the time for food, and "naughty" for bad behaviour, which obviously lacks a lot of the connotation is has accrued in the west.) anyways anyways- the game went fine. Mars felt the need to explain a bunch of stuff in Chinese to people, which isn't exactly kosher- and at one point I gave Cindy a hard time about asking Mars questions- I forget what she said exactly, it must have been a question for me, and I asked "are you sure you don't want to ask Mars about that?" and she turned SUPER red. Of course, unlike a million or so people on this planet, I'm not a dick about that, and didn't feel the need to point out "oh wow, look how red you are", rather I pretended not to notice and moved on. Like you're supposed to!

 We went a bit over time, I should have started sooner, but I didn't think it would take so long to play through the game so I wasted a bit of time at the start to slow things down intentionally. Belinda's was the first piece to cross the finish line- and everyone expected to keep playing, but I said, oh, you did it, first team with someone across the finish line- you won the game, and there's Belinda with that astonished face.

I signed everone's books and bade them get outta here (I didn't say it like that at all) I was very tired, and not feeling well, and started having to sniff back rolling snot. Mars commented on my looking tired, and I got the feeling he'd have offered to give me a ride home if I hadn't assured everyone of how close I lived. After everyone else left, Anna approached me about how you get in the teaching game, she wanted to teach someone Chinese- I only have so much useful knowledge on the topic, but I suggested she should find someone online, and I told her about kijiji. She thanked me for my time and boy was I glad to leave.

I was supposed to go bowling with Aimen and some friends of his this night, but I got home to find a note saying it was cancelled anyways- sweet. I woulda begged off going anyways, but this is easier on the conscience.

That's all my notes. I'm kinda tired now, too. - 10:53 am