was that a torrential downpour occurred out of nowhere during the middle of the day, and small floods occurred and stairs became waterfalls, and while I was wading through a river that was once a street back to class, a huge hole ripped in my umbrella and soaked me to the bone. Dang crazy Chinese Government-controlled weather. But besides that, things have been great, though at times a little stressful. The students are all wonderful, and my class, class M, is Magnificent!
When the students arrived and went through interviews on Sunday, they were told to chose an English name for the duration of T.I.P. and some of the more interesting named people that I have met so far include: Vinson, Prince, Panda, Gladiator, Snow, Charmian, Swift, and my personal favorite: Future!
Teaching has not been very difficult for me because the goal of the T.I.P. program is to get the students speaking in English, so I don't actually have to spend very much time standing there and talking, I usually just introduce an activity and then they gladly participate in it. In fact, I am not even a "teacher," I am a "facilitator!"
Usually I am not requited to help the students understand the basics of English (besides new vocabulary), because most of them have studied English since middle school, and, surprisingly, almost all of them are English teachers!
"How can this be?" you ask, "If they can barely speak English?"
Well, the thing is, in China, everyone learns and teaches English by speaking in Chinese, so most of the students know more grammar and vocabulary than I do, but they have never spoken in English before, because they have never been required to.
The most important thing in the Chinese school system is passing the test, so whether or not someone can speak a language is not as important as if they get a high grade on the test.
So this immersion program is very different in that regard; we have no grades or tests, but instead we encourage everyone to know their ABC's:
Attack your limitations!
Build your confidence!
Commit yourself!
Ok, goodnight everyone!
