FREE TALK
Many of the Chinese teachers, particularly the older ones, have NEVER had the opportunity to talk face to face with an American. They learned their English in schools from other Chinese who had limited (at best) experience really speaking English. So one of the benefits our team brought to China was the opportunity to talk.
Every morning, we have two free talk times. While half of the teachers are teaching, the other half are divided into eight groups of about 5 people to talk with one of the NESTers (Native English Speaker Team members). Prior to coming to China, the NESTers “designed” twenty conversations. The conversations are not exactly scripted, but they have some suggested questions to get us started.
The first week, we talked about things like travel, family relationships, ordering in a restaurant, entertainment, and technology. The idea was to get people talking about fairly “light” topics for which people already have a lot of vocabulary.
This second week, we are delving into deeper waters. On Monday, we talked about parenting – a topic of intense interest in a country where only one child is permitted per family. Yesterday, we talked about holidays and traditions. We learned a lot about how Chinese people celebrate major festivals – Spring Festival, Ching Ming, Mid Autumn Festival. In turn, we were able to share how (and why) we celebrate American holidays. I especially appreciated the opportunity to discuss how my family celebrates Christmas morning and why it is important to remember the true meaning of that holiday. That sparked some interesting discussion. Today, we talked about emotions. My group didn't go especially deep, but another team member said that his discussion led to some important issues.
Especially motivating to us has been the afternoon “free talk.” We began by sharing essays from NPR’s “This I Believe" radio series. For today, I wrote a poem, probably the first poem I ever wrote entitled, “I Wonder.” In the poem, I reflected on the many mysteries of life and how these mysteries were not adequately explained by science or by chance. The resulting discussion (about 6 people were present plus three Americans) was both interesting and encouraging.
Tomorrow will be our final afternoon free talk time. For that, we have asked any interested teacher to read his/her own essay. There may only be a couple who have both time and inclination to write, but it will be interesting to see what they have to say.
In many ways, it is hard to believe that our time here is almost finished. We trust that some of what has been done here will remain. Thank you for your thoughts toward us.
