In relation to teaching, my class with John, Ariel, Nancy, Belle, and Phillip came in and Nancy promptly informed me that “Phillip is Lady Gaga!”
I laughed, surprised, and asked Phillip to confirm this, which he did. I then asked Nancy if she was Justin Bieber, and she vehemently shook her head. “No, Teacher, you are Justin Bieber!” Of course, she was referring to my performance in the karaoke competition the week before, where I dressed up as the pop culture sensation and danced in front of an entire auditorium of adoring Chinese children and adults.
Much to my amusement, John began to sing, “Baby, baby, baby, oh!”
Oh my lands, I just adore these kids.
In my class with Kylie, Kyle, Paris, etc., Kylie was being super silly and so I began to tickle her and she giggled profusely. Kyle, with a smug look on his cute Asian face, opened his arms as an invitation to me to tickle him. I thought this was a tad peculiar, but it made more sense when I discovered that he isn’t ticklish. He and I have more in common than I thought!
I proceeded to tickle all of the other kids, and we discussed whether they were ticklish. This is the type of lesson I like best, where the kids learn English through spontaneous methods. By the end of class, they had learned their most advanced concept yet: whether someone was ticklish and where. Gongxi, gongxi, kids; that will take you far in life.
I tried to tell a few of my students that next week is my last week here, but most just stared at me blankly and then continued to work on their craft. However, after classes were over, I called Jack over and gave him a big hug and told him I needed to tell him something. He’s an extremely intelligent kid with a broad English vocabulary and an incurable crush on me, and probably my favorite student. I presumed he would be able to understand what I had to say. Everyone else had left, except for Flynn, who was collecting his things and finishing up his craft project.
“Jack,” I said, wrapping my arm around him, “you know how today is December 8th?” He nodded. “Well, on December 16, there will be no more ILP. No more English class.” Jack seemed to understand, and shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal. I continued, “That means there will be no more Teacher Jillian. I’m going home, back to America.”
Here, Jack pulled away to look at me, a startled yet puzzled look on his adorable face. “No more Teacher Jillian?”
Flynn was watching me, just as startled.
“No, Jack. No more Teacher Jillian; no more Zhongguo for Jillian. I’m going back to Meiguo next week.”
“Oh,” Jack whimpered, fully comprehending the meaning of my words. Since I was sitting down, he sat on my lap, wrapped his arms around my chest, and rested his head on my shoulder. Flynn stepped closer, silent, though his eyes betrayed his distress. Jack sat up and planted a long, sincere kiss on my cheek, his little face stricken with grief. Flynn, who only recently started hugging me (or showing any signs of emotional attachment or desire for physical contact), leaned forward my kissed my other cheek.
I embraced them both, on the verge of tears, and whispered, “I’m gonna miss you guys so much.” After I sent them on their way, I broke down. These children have been the focus of my life for four months, and the idea of leaving them and most likely never seeing them again kills me. Seriously; am I never going to talk to them again? They’re like my own children; I love them dearly—they’re a part of my heart. I feel as if I will be incomplete without them.
I don’t even want to think about it right now. They were right at training: don’t take for granted the time you have with your kids; don’t resent teaching them, or you’ll regret it in the end. I regret all those days I woke up and dreaded going to class. It became like a job, when I should have enjoyed it and appreciated the sweet spirits the Lord blessed me to have in my life.
On a lighter topic, Kelly asked me a couple days ago if I would be a judge for a high school English competition at DaGuangHua. I accepted, as it seemed like it could be an interesting cultural experience. Therefore, today I met with Cami, Adam, Abi; Kelly took us to the competition where we sat at a large meeting table. The high school students came in and sat at desks behind us. We were given sheets of questions to ask them and judging pads; we were to judge them on “Content,” “Language,” “Appearance,” “Feeling” and “Question.” One by one, the students came up and gave a prepared two-minute speech on a topic of their choice, in English.
Many spoke on following your dreams (one quoted Martin Luther King, Jr., where he mentioned the Lord’s hand in things), which I found intriguing because I’ve learned from older generations that, in Chinese culture, one forgoes their personal dreams to pursue a better future and financial situation for their elders.
A few spoke on learning to smile and the significance of smiling and having a positive attitude; one spoke on preserving the environment; another expressed his appreciation for ABBA and Mamma Mia! and how they have influenced him.
One boy spoke on magic and learning magic tricks, while he performed basic magic tricks: for the first trick, he retrieved a paper from his pocket, and then pulled a match out of his shoe; the match automatically lit. As soon as the match touched the paper, the paper ignited into flames and was consumed in an instant, during which the boy retrieved a rose from his back pocket and replaced the paper with it. It was meant to look as if the rose had appeared out of the smoke created by the burnt paper.
His second magic trick involved a hand-held fan and a handful of shredded paper. He fanned the paper, causing the small pieces of paper to fly out of his hand and all over the room; however, he continued to do this for at several seconds, and it appeared as if he had an inexhaustible supply of paper shreds. I was stumped and impressed by this trick.
After everyone had given their speeches, we split up into four groups, with one ILP teacher in each group, to give the students an opportunity to speak with and practice their English skills on a native English speaker. It was a lot of fun to chat with them and learn more about them. One of my girls wishes to be a fashion designer and travel to Paris and New York to gain inspiration and attend fashion shows. I was impressed and encouraged her to follow her dreams. One girl plays the violin, and I assured her that she had to be much better than me—a fact I do not dispute, and to which she was too embarrassed to respond.
My only boy said to me, “Can I ask you a question? You can answer if you want to, but if you don’t want to, just…don’t say anything.” I nodded. “Are you married?”
I laughed and shook my head. “No, I’m not married.”
He sighed as if relieved, with a sheepish look on his face, which was cute. Granted, he was probably a senior and hardly younger than me, but all of the students treat me as if I am a much older and wiser adult, an elder to be respected and emulated, and, honestly, it causes me to feel older. Therefore, when I say his sheepish grin was cute, I mean it in a platonic, little-boy-cute way.
After we chatted for a bit, Kelly announced that we would play charades. Our teams came up with a charade under five categories: Family, Animals, Stuff, Verbs, and Adjectives (don’t ask me how you do charades for an adjective—I’m sure it was just a bad translation from Chinese into English…maybe…).
The boy in my group (they all had Chinese names, which I never remember) came up with Farmer Mother, where he holds a baby in one arm and uses a hoe with his other hand. While he did it as a charade, he looked like a broken wound-up toy or an old person, or as a Chinese teacher guessed, a “disabled person,” which, obviously, could be very offensive but the Chinese have no sense of political correctness (which is probably a reason why I love them so much).
The game and the whole experience was very enjoyable and I’m glad I accepted Kelly’s offer to judge the competition. Kelly encouraged the students to take advantage of having native English speakers at their school, because they are very fortunate to have us, and to speak to us whenever they see us. I hope the students take their advice, because I really liked those kids and wouldn’t mind chatting with them again.
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