WorldTeach China Summer: Quotes

Our Students

- Christina Li

I’m going to miss these kids so much – especially the Nanfang kids. I can’t really pinpoint why or how or what makes me feel such a palpable connection. I’m ashamed to say that I still don’t know everyone’s name despite having known them for two weeks now, but even so, I love every one of them. Every kid is so different, so individual in personality. They may have grown up in China, a world away from my own childhood and upbringing, but not so deep down, they are every thirteen year old middle school student the world over.

Worldteach has shown me that teaching primary and secondary school students is not my calling in life. Teaching is too much like performing. I’ve never been one for public speaking, for cavorting in front of people in an effort to crack a smile or a laugh, but here, I have done that and more. Without a common language to communicate in, our language was hand gestures, bizarre facial expressions, unintelligible pictures on the blackboard, running, dancing, proposing, interviewing – well, that and those handy little electronic dictionaries that every other student owns.

Teaching has definitely been an experience that’s stretched my abilities (particularly my acting and non-verbal expression skills, though I’m afraid they’re still pretty miserable; I was the kid in middle school that didn’t get an A in drama class because I was so hopeless :-P). From the moment I walk into the classroom until the whistle blows signaling the end of class, I have to be in a different mode – teaching/acting/performing mode if you will. There’s no time to sit back and relax or let my guard down for a moment – it’s a constant push to hold their attention and entertain them.

In one of my classes here, at every free moment, Mr. Hou (the Chinese teacher) would call out, “Free talk with the foreign teacher!” and I would subsequently get mobbed by the class. They would quiz me on every topic imaginable – from Taiwan to the Backstreet Boys. After discovering that I was a biochemistry major, one student asked me to write American chemical equations on the board – I tried to explain that American and Chinese chemical equations were probably pretty similar (perhaps even identical!), but he would not be fazed. :-P

Our teaching group has one class of kids that we call the “rowdy class,” and I happen to have them after lunch everyday when they least want to be in class. The boys there are so goofy and so cute. One student Mike follows everything he ever says in class with “Xiao Yi Si” (no big deal) in that characteristic lilting Zhuzhou accent, accompanied by an arms-out shrug and facial expression that screams, “Yeah, you know I’m good…” :-) Of course, he used the same expression after he boosted himself up on the doorframe and crawled in the tiny window above the door to open the door for us when we were locked out one day after lunch – in which case, it was totally warranted.

That class also has a kid named Leo, the epitome of the cool middle school kid. He’s got the stylishly disheveled hair and braces (because those are cool in middle school :-P), and he always sits in the back corner of the classroom. When we do activities in class, I always explain the directions to the entire class first and then walk around the room to make sure everyone understands what to do. As soon as I approach his little corner, before I can say a word, he rushes to assure me, “I know, I know.” On the day I taught describing people and family members, Leo informed me that he had a “beautiful mother and handsome father,” and as a result, “me – handsome boy.”