Learning English

Many Chinese students wish they could have excellent English, and that they could use their English in all sorts of jobs after they graduate. However, students usually get discouraged when they are speaking with native English speakers like myself because they realize how much they don’t understand. Even more discouraging is when they listen to native speakers talking with other native speakers, and they quickly get lots in the midst of mumbled and quick idiomatic and cultural English.

This past summer I really wanted to show my younger freshman and sophomore students different examples of Chinese friends and former students that I have know who have achieved a higher level of English or are using their English in different ways across the globe. I hoped to encourage them by showing them young Chinese people who could show them that it is in fact possible to have good English and to use it after they graduate.

I asked these people to answer a few questions and record themselves, which resulted in the following 2-part video compilation. While this video is geared toward my students, I thought I would share it with you all so you could have the chance to see some of my students (and yes, most of my students are female, so most of the people I interviewed were female, and only one guy had the time to help out). Enjoy!

*cue inspiring music*
Part 1 from JSweeting on Vimeo.

Part 2 from JSweeting on Vimeo.

Student Writings

As I mentioned in my last post, one of my assignments for my students was to create a story based around a picture from my winter vacation to Thailand. Below is another picture and the accompanying story. This was the only picture I had that represented my time of grad classes in Thailand, but my students took it in a quite way.

Nmonds, make you full of energy. I like it! But more exciting, there were two beauties beside me. Do you want to know them? They are my friends, haha. We played an interesting game and I won the award. On the picture, I was showered by the holy light, just like Statue of Liberty. We are the delicious food together and played some games. However, I felt something wrong, my body was being invisible. My friends were scared and brought me to the hospital. However, the doctor said the food was right and the problem was myself.

They made an advertisement for the snack. Mr. Sweeting said you would become handsome like me if you eat it. But Sydney said he was lying. This kind of food is for girls. The other girl said I would try it, and i think after I drink, I will find a foreign boyfriend. Then the girl eat it and she was beautiful, and then someone would fall in love with her. After finishing this advertisement, Sweeting went home and said goodbye to the lovely girls. Sweeting was very happy, and he waited for a call from the girls. But until now, he received nothing. However, he is still very happy because he realized he is now with his students again!

Student Writings

Two weeks after returning to class, semester is in full swing! I received a few new classes this semester, and as always, I gave them a survey about their English. Here are my favorite answers:

List an area where you think your English is good.
Redding

List an area your English needs to improve in.
Writting.
All.

Write about one thing you are looking forward to, or not looking forward to, about this class.
You are well done.
I hope we can have a freedom class
Cosplaying

Do you watch English movies?
Yes. for few years, I like to watch English movies. In vacation, I watch the movie of “the scissors Edwards” it’s great.

When foreigners speak to other foreigners, how much are you able to understand?
To be honest, I have no exactly idea
I feel they are talking “blah blah blah…” some of it


Another one of the assignments for my writing class was for my students to create a story based around a picture from one of my past vacations to Thailand. Below is one example of a picture and the accompanying story.

Mr. Sweeting was playing with an elephant. We guess that the elephant is female. The elephant must love Mr. Sweeting. The boy was playing with them, too. The elephant though: Oh, my gosh! He’s my man. How he is alike my forth husband ~ oh, don't go, boy!!! Mr. Sweeting felt very excited. Then the elephant rolled him up. Sweeting had a question to ask “why doesn’t the elephant have tusks?” The elephant said, “I pulled out a tooth to give to Mr. Sweeting as a gift.”
“No, I am a human, you are an animal. I can’t date you. You’re lovely, but…I’m so sorry” said Sweeting.

“wo, wo, wo” a cry from the elephant.

The Most Popular TV Show In The World

Recently I read an article about the Walking Dead where it was “hailed as one of the most watched TV series of all time with 16.1 millions viewers.” Then there was the last Super Bowl, watched by around 110 million viewers, making it the most watched event every year in America.

However, neither of these even come close to the most popular tv show in the world. What is it, you ask? It’s called Dad, Where Are We Going?

Crickets.

You’ve probably never heard of it, yet during the season it was weekly averaging around 600 million viewers. Yes, obviously, this show is a Chinese show. I get that China always wins the number games, but 600 million viewers is still a bit staggering!

This show was all the rage with my students this past semester, so I figured I would give it a shot.

Dad, Where Are We Going? is a Chinese reality tv series that is about famous Chinese celebrities from the big cities (you know, the cities of 20 million people) who take a trip with their child to the countryside and try to survive.

There are lots of crying spoiled children (who all have their ridiculously cute moments) and fathers who realize they don’t really know all that much about fatherhood.

If you are interested in a Chinese reality tv series, if you miss living in China or being with Chinese people, or if you are just interested in Chinese culture (especially when it comes to the family) then take a look at this show! While the show is in Chinese, I found a site which has English subtitles and embedded it below if you are interested in watching it.

Faces: Why I Stayed

Here is a look back at some of my students from each semester I have taught in China. These people are why I stayed.

These were the first students of mine that I taught- Monday morning at 10:00am. Ever since my first day of teaching in China, this class has had a special place in my heart.

Lots of great conversations and relationships happened in this class. This was always the funnest class I taught last year.

These are the guys in my Freshman Business English class- Carter, Corin, Dante, & Ashton (yes, I did give them those names). Their English isn't great, but every class they sit right behind my podium on the front row ready to begin. I love getting to teaching them and am looking forward to hanging out more this new year!

These girls are also some of my new freshmen. Their English is pretty good and they are all close friends with each other which has led to some fun times together! ...they made me sit in the middle...

These were some of my seniors last year! These dear people all hold a special place in my heart, and I feel honored at the fact that I can call them friends. 

Last but not least- Johnson, Little Star, Leo, & Edison. I had a ton of fun with these guys! They helped with my haircuts, brought a lot of joy to class, and always kept things interesting!

Same Planet, Different World

Living in America, I always imagined other countries to be far off exotic places! Even as I write this, sitting in Thailand, I remember how I used to imagine Thailand as such an exotic and mysterious place. But after living in a small city in China for some time, Thailand practically feels like America.

For me, as I have become more immersed in a place, it becomes less exotic yet more complex. Beyond that, you remember you live on the same planet as everyone else, but at the same time you are in a completely different world.

China (or Thailand) is not like America, yet it is hard to describe what life is like over here unless you actually experience it. It is hard to describe how almost every single aspect of your life and how you live it is effected by where you live.

It is not like moving to another state, where there are many familiar things. It is not like moving to Europe, where people still look like you and act in a similar way. It is not even like going to a Spanish-speaking country, where you might be unfamiliar with the culture, but you can still read the language (even if you can’t understand it too well).

Everything is different, and you pretty much only experience the familiar when you are eating food that tastes like home. Most things you thought were normal, or have never even thought about, are turned upside down. Different isn’t usually bad, but it is uncomfortable sometimes.

At the end of the day, I do miss a lot of things about America. It’s comfortable, it’s clean, people stand in lines, there are smoking laws, and when something looks like a chocolate donut, it probably is a chocolate donut.

China is not very comfortable, most places don’t have the standard of cleanliness that I am used to in America, lines are almost nonexistent and cutting isn’t seen as rude, breathing in pollution and secondhand smoke is common, and foods that look like chocolate donuts are really red bean paste donuts.

However, amidst all the differences, good and bad, God made me for this place, this different world. I don’t know for how long I will stay here or what my future will look like, but I know I am supposed to be here now. And in that I rest, for there is such a great peace in knowing you are doing what you were created to do.

China From The Air

Pacific Sunrise

 Countryside Villages, Northeastern China

Pacific Sunrise

Why Not?

One day, a few years ago, I received an e-mail about an opportunity to teach in China. After countless thoughts, prayers, and conversations, I decided to take chance…and that chance changed my life. I never felt a specific call to come to China, I never dreamed of living in a place so different from my home, and China was never a place I was really attracted to. 

When it came to making the decision to teach for a year in China, the question that settled in my mind was “why not?” There were plenty of reasons to stay home- family, friends, food, familiarity, but if I chose to stay in the comfortable, who knows what I could miss out on? 

I spent my whole life reading stories about people who went on adventures. Some stories were true, some were fictitious, yet they all involved people who left the world they were familiar with to discover a bigger world.

One of my favorite quotes is from one of my favorite adventures, The Lord of the Rings, where Frodo says to Sam “Remember what Bilbo used to say: 'It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.’” 

When I stepped on the plane to China, I had no idea what was to come, I had no idea where that road led. But, one of the greatest parts about adventures is that you often experience the unexpected. 

I didn’t expect to love teaching English. I didn’t expect to have amazing students. I didn’t expect to fall in love with these people and this place. I didn’t expect my life to change into something I could have never imagined.

Don’t be afraid to take a chance. Don’t be afraid to ask “why not” and take a step into the unknown.