Sorry to be so dramatic, but I'm surrounded by military (students at the school, police on the streets, and events like the one below) & felt a colloquialism was appropriate.
My camera was dropped last weekend by one of my students during a local field trip to Purple Mountain. It's out of commission for the forseeable future - meaning no pics to accompany my rants.
China &
US military cooperation coverage from NPR:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6135356
This sound bite was very welcome news. It is this type of communication that is necessary between the US & China. This can only lead to more information, more clarity & greater understanding between the navies of these 2 countries. I hope to see more military collaboration in the future; this is a positive way to dispel fear & chip away at some big questions regarding intent (on both sides).
At an outdoor conference here in Nanjing, where I intended to find out some information about the city, I instead spent most of my time meeting some of the other Nanjing foreigners.
That was one goal of the Nanjing government officials in holding the event, the other being to entertain and not actually provide any information about the city of Nanjing. They left that up to the businesses that bought table space at the event. So, I learned about Nanjing from restaurants owners, bar managers, corporate recruiters & car dealers... There was only one local charity (a Christian foundation called Amity).
I was not entertained, nor did I feel well informed about Nanjing. Suffice it to say during the event I struggled to find ways of salvaging the visit and ended up talking with some of the guys decked out in full military uniforms. There were about 300 people at this event, and about 200 of them were military of some sort. Not the Chinese po-po, mind you, these people were foreign military (of course, there were no fewer than 30 Chinese police on the perimeter but they aren’t key players in this piece).
The majority were African & Middle Eastern. I met a few friendly Zimbabwean fellas; a couple of guys in their mid 20’s there to learn about computer engineering. Several Angolan guys were there on some sort of exchange. Several other African countries were represented though I did not see any Sudanese military. Other countries represented: Turkey, Russia (I think, could have been one or many of the Eastern bloc countries), and several from the Middle East but I’ve forgotten which countries in particular.
Anyways, being there I realized that China will satisfy its growing energy demand through deals & relationships with many of these countries. As you can read about in any newspaper, they also share military information. Thinking back on it now…maybe I was exposed to more information about Nanjing than I ever imagined possible!
Unfortunately, I wasn’t ready to really explore that notion at the time. I was too distracted by my (unmet) expectations. I didn’t understand at that moment what was going on all around me – had I been more open to the possibility that I might come across such a hotbed of international relations I might have been able to really appreciate my situation.
The event was not for me. Not for the benefit of this type of foreigner. It was just one of many informal demonstrations of China’s growing influence in the world - and a basic networking session.
I shared my initial reaction with some friends; that I was dismayed about having wasted a few hours of my life & learning nothing about Nanjing as it was explained to me in the brochure. Only now, reflecting back on it, do I begin to realize how much I actually took away. Regardless of opinions on these matters, to stumble into it & see it first hand was eye-opening. I’m only glad I stumbled into reflecting on it, too...and won’t pass up the chance to learn more next time.
It feels right that the first legitimate post I make to this blog be about my students given they’re the reason I came abroad. Two weeks of classes are over now, and these college students seem like they’re already starting to feel comfortable with me. When we first met, many of them would shy away, giggle and avoid eye contact at all costs. And then there were the girls…
Last week we got past most of that but many students are still reluctant to speak out, and speak up, in class. This seems part due to cultural difference & part simply due to a lack of confidence. From what I gather in my short time here, the students are accustomed to lectures & drills with little focus on spoken, creative application of the language. I’d like to see this hesitation subside & hope that next week will see the most vocal classes yet.
My job is to teach Oral English. Right now I have more than 200 students in 10 classes, although this number will fluctuate throughout the semester due to the arrival of a new freshman class in October and the departure of all seniors 5 weeks later. Frankly, this does not mean a whole lot of classroom time because each class only meets 1 day per week (in total, about 10 hours). This does, however, make my schedule flexible enough to focus on extracurricular activities with the students: we play basketball, hold an ‘English Corner’ to practice language & a small group of us have already been on a hike. The age range is about 17 to 22 years, the abilities range from beginners to advanced, and levels of enthusiasm cover the spectrum.
The school, called the Nanjing Technical College of Special Education (NTCSE), is modest and is located in Nanjing, China (Jiangsu Province), a city of over 6 million people. With about 4,000 students and an offering of 10 majors, the school is one of many 3-year vocational schools in Nanjing. The organization I joined in the US, Volunteers in Asia (VIA, www.via.org), works with the school because of its primary purpose – to cultivate future teachers of special needs children throughout China. The teachers themselves have no disabilities.
Many students come from the countryside and a large portion of those expect to return home when they graduate. It is difficult to say how many of the students I teach in the English department will actually go on to become teachers, but it seems that a majority of the current senior class will & they’re excited about it. The younger students generally express a different sentiment – one of feeling locked into becoming a teacher against their will, facing few or no appealing alternatives. I’m still exploring this sentiment & will undoubtedly oversimplify it, but as of now I think 2 big contributors are: 1) students moving from a poor region to the big city & 2) the way the educational system is structured. To compete for high $ (or, yuan) jobs, the students need to score tops on a national exam that is taken around the age of 16 or 17. Their scores determine essentially everything in their life from then on out. Students at 3-year vocational schools are not the…um, cream of the crop, and that’s openly acknowledged here. The top scorers go to 4-year schools, have the best access to higher education & will get the top paying jobs.
So, generally, students see the wealth around them & do not feel confident enough to obtain it for themselves, leaving them feeling inadequate & incapable of changing their situation. This doesn’t describe everyone, but it is common. I need to refine this interpretation, but this is the world I’m in right now and I’m all caught up in exploring it; this is what it’s all about. More to come.
If anyone has comments, please either reply to this post or send me an email (sdicke@gmail.com), whatever. The whole point is to better empathize with my students & I’d like to hear other’s impressions.
A fellow VIA volunteer mentioned something in her last email that I’m going to poach here. There are a zillion things that I could write, but most seem insubstantial after the initial intrigue has passed. I learn something new every day and have nothing to show for it. I hope to capture the differences that seem important in this blog, only dabbling into the smaller things for their entertainment value.
I hope this finds you all well, and I'd like to hear from all of you. I hope to send individual emails as I make the time. To end with, here are some random things on my mind:
There’s a lot of holiday planning going on right now (National Day) in China. Everyone, nearly 1.3 billion people, will be on vacation starting Oct. 1.
Learn Kung Fu in your sleep! Bruce Lee haunts my dreams. Seriously, he’s been in at least 3 dreams since I got here. Lucky for him we haven't had to battle.
Buddha be praised: China doesn’t export all the good tea to England! India, you have my soul but not my cup.
Who will correct me if I start speaking in broken English?
VIA vols: sweep out the cockroaches, check for outbreaks of bird flu & spray some DEET, I'm calling/writing to make some travel plans & will contact you shortly. My people in the US & abroad: you’ve got a place to stay in Nanjing. Swing through sometime & let’s do anything but sing karaoke. Shanghai is close to Nanjing & is a useful travel hub for planes, trains & buses to Nanjing.
Hey all - this site is where you'll be able to find out about my pursuits abroad. Bookmark this page & check back every couple weeks or so.
