Greetings friends and family,
Tuesday had its ups and down, but I'm am thankful for the day, because the ups were such a blessing.
For breakfast I had one of the peaches I bought, which was much softer and a definite improvement over the peach I ate yesterday. And a piece of toast with peanut butter and a glass of milk.
They performed the skit this morning and I recorded it with my camera, so that should be a good laugh for the future. Now to figure out the second one before this night is over.
This morning I took some time away from my duties to talk via Skype to Mom and Dad. It was good to get caught up on everything. Though I had to hear it from Corey Grame that Ethan has started going steady with someone. I guess it’s up on Facebook, but I don’t get Facebook here.
For the last period of class today the children played what Aldwin called Hotseat. One student sat in the chair facing everybody else, and then Aldwin held up a paper with the name of an animal written on it. Then the student in the hot seat asked yes or no questions until they could guess the animal. I wrote out the names on the paper.
I got put in the hotseat last, and had to do it twice. The first time was spider. I asked more questions than I needed to for vocabularies sake. Then Aldwin wrote a new animal down, so that I wouldn’t know what it was. I started in, meaning to ask “Is it a dog-like creature?” But I got through “Is it a dog - ” and the kids went wild. Without meaning to I had guessed what it was on the first try! I felt really silly.
And then this evening I ate lunch with Benny, William, and their Chinese language teacher, Mr. Geng (pronounced more like jung). Benny made spaghetti, and it was delicious. After dinner a bunch of Chinese students and their friends came to the apartment to practice their English; English Corner they call it. Instruction is done via discussion and reading aloud, and we discussed and read aloud the greatest story ever told. Can’t say much more about that; it was an amazing time and showed me what is really going on behind the scenes around here.
I noticed something when I speak Chinese. The Chinese don’t react, unless I have it wrong. If I have the right word, they don’t even blink when I throw in a Chinese word. My guess, though it may smack of hubris, is that my pronunciation is good enough that the word registers with the listener without setting off the alarm “an American just said that.” I only venture this guess because I have been complicated on my pronunciation.
Just tonight, at English Corner, after we finished and were making small talk, Neo (I think it was Neo) said it was funny that I don’t like tofu, even though I pronounce it so well (dòu fu).
That’s all to tell for now. I need to get started on tomorrow’s Secret Ageent Script. I'm working on getting them uploaded in file form to the Short Fiction tab up top.
Because I must…
Jesse
Tuesday had its ups and down, but I'm am thankful for the day, because the ups were such a blessing.
For breakfast I had one of the peaches I bought, which was much softer and a definite improvement over the peach I ate yesterday. And a piece of toast with peanut butter and a glass of milk.
They performed the skit this morning and I recorded it with my camera, so that should be a good laugh for the future. Now to figure out the second one before this night is over.
This morning I took some time away from my duties to talk via Skype to Mom and Dad. It was good to get caught up on everything. Though I had to hear it from Corey Grame that Ethan has started going steady with someone. I guess it’s up on Facebook, but I don’t get Facebook here.
For the last period of class today the children played what Aldwin called Hotseat. One student sat in the chair facing everybody else, and then Aldwin held up a paper with the name of an animal written on it. Then the student in the hot seat asked yes or no questions until they could guess the animal. I wrote out the names on the paper.
I got put in the hotseat last, and had to do it twice. The first time was spider. I asked more questions than I needed to for vocabularies sake. Then Aldwin wrote a new animal down, so that I wouldn’t know what it was. I started in, meaning to ask “Is it a dog-like creature?” But I got through “Is it a dog - ” and the kids went wild. Without meaning to I had guessed what it was on the first try! I felt really silly.
And then this evening I ate lunch with Benny, William, and their Chinese language teacher, Mr. Geng (pronounced more like jung). Benny made spaghetti, and it was delicious. After dinner a bunch of Chinese students and their friends came to the apartment to practice their English; English Corner they call it. Instruction is done via discussion and reading aloud, and we discussed and read aloud the greatest story ever told. Can’t say much more about that; it was an amazing time and showed me what is really going on behind the scenes around here.
I noticed something when I speak Chinese. The Chinese don’t react, unless I have it wrong. If I have the right word, they don’t even blink when I throw in a Chinese word. My guess, though it may smack of hubris, is that my pronunciation is good enough that the word registers with the listener without setting off the alarm “an American just said that.” I only venture this guess because I have been complicated on my pronunciation.
Just tonight, at English Corner, after we finished and were making small talk, Neo (I think it was Neo) said it was funny that I don’t like tofu, even though I pronounce it so well (dòu fu).
That’s all to tell for now. I need to get started on tomorrow’s Secret Ageent Script. I'm working on getting them uploaded in file form to the Short Fiction tab up top.
Because I must…
Jesse