Free time, Individualism, growing up in America; all terms that I thought I knew a great deal of before teaching my first class at Southwest University. Although I continue to remind myself to be ready to expect the unexpected from my students and their experiences I am still shocked by some of their responses.
I opened up my first real unit on America by beginning with “Growing up in America”. I debated doing a couple of different units first; however, I finally settled on this one. As with my next unit “College life in America”, I believed that I would be able to have topics which were easily relatable to my Chinese students. My teaching style has taken on that of a performer on stage. If the crowd is cheering for an encore performance the artist naturally will play a finale that will bring the crowd to a standing ovation. Conversely, if you can hear a pin fall in the stadium the performer knows to call it a night and try again next time. Basically, if my students look like they are bored with something I change gears to keep their interest high which is a staple of any monitoring and adjusting teaching pedagogy. My period always include some kind of direct instruction. That might be power point or lecture. However, I try to limit both of these in favor of individual and group work time which my students respond well to. I do this in favor of my most successful period each class period which has been group sharing and activities.
In my group sharing sessions students are all required to respond to questions in the order that they are seated in a circle. In this way everyone is required to share unless they politely decline (this has yet to happen). These group periods I have found to be very successful for my student’s confidence in practicing their oral English. My student’s strength to me has been their emotional prepotency to share life memories which were very painful for them. In one such sharing period I learned much about the inner strength of my Chinese students.
The topic was “Growing up in America / China”. After my presentation and questions in other periods of class we went for a group discussion circle in the back of the class. This was not their first experience sharing as individuals in front of the large group. I have found that the group circle helps to break down some of my students self consciousness about sharing. I think that there are many extenuating circumstances why my Chinese students find it difficult answering questions individually in their desks. Many of my students do not often share in any of their traditional Chinese classes. Culturally making mistakes individually is taboo in China for both males in females. When my students make mistakes in class they often try to deflect their un-easiness by gracefully bowing out of any further sharing. I find that many of my students are from rural China and naturally shy as well. All of these factors along with others compound to make some sharing difficult for my students.
However, it was not my student’s reluctance to speak that shocked me on this day. Two topics of interest during this period were underscored in this unit: individualism and creativity. Both topics play deeply important roles in the lives of American students. They are also key pieces in American culture. In either case my students had not heard of these terms or knew very little of what they meant before class. After some real life examples which my students could all relate to: basketball (Kobe Bryant’s individual skill and role as a teammate versus his inability to do anything playing 1 on five against another team) and others my students felt comfortable with these terms. In our group discussions one major topic was at the forefront: “what was an experience that you learned a lot from as a child”, and “how do you think that it has influenced your life?”
In many cases I give my students an example to help them with their responses. I started out this particular unit with my learning experience I had when I was young and touched our neighbors grill. This life lesson taught me to never touch a hot grill. What I was about to hear from my students definitely gave me a different sense of creativity, individuality, and life lessons.
One of the central themes for my students in every class was estrangement from their parents. When you hear estrangement please do not think I am talking about that their parents voluntarily left my students. To the contrary, many of my students grew up in the early 90’s when governmental subsidization, laissez-faire economics, and the great migration of rural Chinese to work in the urban China was in full swing. Unfortunately, the burgeoning urban markets could not meet the supply of migrant workers. The result was that many millions of Chinese searched hopelessly for jobs in cities across China. In the case of many of my students their parents were part of that never-ending search for a steady job in the city.
Many of my students saw their parents once a year only during the Spring Festival holiday. Others saw their parents every few years. The sad reality of a history lesson hit home with the cold reality of their severed childhoods. All of a sudden my child hood experiences, concept of freedom, and individuality took a more sinister veneer. What must have it been like for my students growing up with little more than a friend, distant relative, or grandparent taking care of them? Certainly difficult! However, I was going to find that every single one of my Chinese students expressed neither solace nor regret. To the contrary, they expressed only feelings that it had all been worth it in the end! Each person told of how their remarkable experiences had made them a stronger women and man. There positive reflections really made me feel the strength of my students resolve to succeed in life.
Both individualism and creativity came through more in the periphery of our group discussion. Many of my students remarked how they envied the creativity and individuality of American students. Their sincere interest and excitement about these two topics really made me step back and try and appreciate the unique education, life, and family experiences that I had growing up in America. If nothing else this introspective reflection has allowed me to feel a stronger resolve to continue to be the best teacher I can be for these students. Many of my students have mentioned their desire to be able to also have similar life experiences to me. They really like the idea of being able to teach somewhere else and are especially interested in visiting America. All of these are reasons why I owe it to my students to give great lessons each class!
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