Dalian: A City by the Sea
Trip Start
Jun 17, 2005
1
10
21
Trip End
May 15, 2006
Dalian,
China
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
For the past three weeks I have been living in Dalian, a city by the sea, in northeast China. Dalian is quite a modern city with newly built buildings less than a couple years old. It has a history of only 100 years. Compared to China's rich history that has spanned over 5,000 years Dalian is a newly born city. During the Japanese-Russo war in the early 1900's, the Japanese took claim of this harbor city for over forty years. Russia also once had claim to this land as well, as one local resident had told me, the name Dalian itself is a Russian name. The planning that went to build this city was well thought of as can be seen by the wide sidewalks and aesthetically pleasing gardens. There is a small Russian and Korean community here, mainly wealthy foreigners.
My first couple weeks teaching here has been quite eye opening. I have been teaching at Rockies English School, which is a language-training center for students who would like to improve their English skills. I teach four sets of classes that meet three times a week. Each class session is two hours long for a total of twenty-four hours per week. The school is actually located in a hotel on the fourth floor and the classrooms I teach in are just tiny hotel rooms without the furniture. There are anywhere from 10 to eighteen students that attend my class. Sometimes the hotel will turn on the air conditioner and sometimes they won't. The AC is very low and with eighteen students packed into a tiny room, the classroom can get very stuffy. I teach three levels of writing with three different age groups.
My initial impression about the students in China have been mixed. I have noticed that with the younger age group they are quite more energetic. Whereas, my middle school students seem to be so tired and stressed out from all the schoolwork that has piled up on them. On top of that, they are going through adolescence and trying to find an identity for themselves. And then there is my senior level class, these kids are even more stressed out and yet they have such great personalities. They are very articulate and interested in this world. I have had some great conversations with these students about anything from Mao Zedong to McDonald's. I look forward to meeting these kids because they have answered many of the questions that I have about China.
The education system in China has not progressed at all. The instructors teach the old fashioned way and the students listen. Students then are asked to do mindless, repetitive tasks such as copying a sentence down fifty times. It is busy work for the already busy. For all the hours that are put into learning, very little learning seems to occur. Instead, students are trained to be machines, ready to spit out meaningless information at anytime. What they really should be doing is learning how to think for themselves and tap into the creative juices that kids are known to have. They need an outlet to express themselves. Unfortunately for many, the education system has not allowed them this opportunity, instead, they are like walking zombies searching for the creativity they once had.
A Funny Moment
Just the other day a funny thing happened to me. We were playing a game in my low level writing class in which the students had to come up with as many words they could think of in a chosen category. The category they were working on was "occupations." After a minute or so, one of the girls, no older than ten years old came up to me and said, "Teacher! Teacher! How do you spell 'hooker'?"
English Corner - August 14, 2005
Yesterday I was at Zhongshan Square in the heart of downtown Dalian. Every Sunday at 3:00pm many Chinese people go there to practice speaking English. There are a small number of foreigners that come there to practice with them. I was one of them. It was quite an interesting experience as I began to talk to one or two Chinese people who had realized that I was a foreign born Chinese who could speak English fluently. Soon enough, a crowd of about ten to twelve eager learners had their ears tuned to me. We talked about many interesting conversations such as the differences between American and Chinese culture, the differences in the education systems, ancient Chinese history, and some of the current problems China is facing today. I even tried to push the envelope to get them to talk about sensitive issues such as Tibet-China relations, Tiannamen Square, and Mao Zedong. In China, from what the people have told me, you are allowed to demonstrate and speak freely about controversial topics. However, it is not really encouraged. Some of the people did open up to me about these topics, but for the most part many felt that expressing one's views out in public was not appropriate. Was this a cultural difference or a government's ploy to prevent a possible uprising from the masses? I am not sure.
No Water - August 16, 2005
Yesterday morning a major water pipe broke in our district leaving hundreds of thousands of people without water for the rest of the day. It was quite an inconvenience as we were left to deal with this problem on our own. No running water equated to a multitude of difficulties. Toilets could not be flushed, showers could not be taken, and hands could not be washed. On this hot, muggy day, a distinctive foul smell seeped above the sewer holes in Dalian reminding us of how much we really do depend on water.
