So what goals do I set for the end of the year for my 小朋友們 that will constitute communicating effectively? How do you define communicating effectively? When I first arrived in Taiwan, my Chinese was rusty, and I was incredibly unfamiliar with the traditional characters having always studied simplified characters. Even ordering food was a challenge those first few days. But through translator apps and various pointing/acting methods, I didn't starve and was able to order what I wanted. Sure, my language skills weren't stellar, but I was able to communicate what I wanted through more than just words.
My latest example that has me pondering effective communication is..... Yep, you guessed it: the adorable students that I have the privilege of teaching. My relationship with my students is an interesting one because, on average, the most I've ever said to them outside of class (aka not related to lessons) is "Hi!/Hello!" with some hand waving and smiles mixed in. Granted this has still been the first few weeks, and I'm slowly having more short conversations with them as my Chinese improves and they grow more comfortable around me (the fourth graders even put my hair in a ponytail for me this morning). But it comes down to this.... Even having had such little verbal communication with them, I'm amazed at how much I already know about them. I know who struggles in English and who is so far advanced they are bored out of their minds. I know who doesn't care much for English class or using their English to communicate with me, but our 5x daily ritual of "Hi!" and enthusiastic hand waving/high fives is something they will never miss. I know which kids may not be doing exactly what you want them to do when you ask them to do it, but they will do it eventually in their own time if you leave them alone. I know who to continuously check in with when working on workbooks because they need the reassurance that they are doing the assignment right. Overall I'm just truly amazed at how good of friends we have become (as good friends as tons of tiny students and their teacher can be), how happy we are to see each other, and how much fun we have together all with bare minimum verbal communication.
Drawing from this experience, I think it's sometimes hard to forget how much body language and facial expression plays a role in communication when you live in a country where your first language is spoken everywhere. Needless to say I will never underestimate the power of the mighty smile, wave, and high five ever again.
One of the things that has stuck with me is something an administrator from my school said on day 1: "Our goal for having you here is not to make them into the best English speakers. We want to the kids to experience interacting with a foreigner in addition to you teaching English." As much as I hope by the end of the year they could be some of the best English speakers in Taichung, realistically I've set my goal to something I feel is much more realistic: I hope by the time I leave my students will know how to respond when someone asks them their name, reciprocate the question, deal with the question "How are you?", know a little more about how different the world can be (in both appearance and culture), have the confidence to make friends/attempt to interact with someone who doesn't speak their language, and to learn how to use more than words to communicate.
Quick updates:
It's official- I am now a celebrity to Grade 4, Class 1. I had my first small children mob experience with all of them demanding that I write both my English and Chinese names on whatever they could get their hands on.... paper, textbooks, and yes, their actual hands.
This week on Thursday is 中秋節/Mid-Autumn Festival so we do not have school Thursday nor Friday. But we only got Friday off because we all came in on Saturday and had those Friday classes on Saturday... yes you read that right... on Saturday. I had a 1 day weekend.... not fun. But because of the festival I have had a continuous supply of 月餅/moon cakes and 柚子/pomelo fruit, all of which is delicious. For my four days of a much deserved break I'll be visiting Taibei and Yilan.
In desperate pursuit of trying to find a way to connect with my 5-6 graders, I realized that I had a moral standing that I could not ask them to learn English vocabulary words if I did not even know them in Chinese. So I have been making it a point to be able to fully translate their dialogues and vocabulary. As a result, I came up with the idea that every time they have a vocab quiz/test, I will also take the same quiz/test (the students ask me the questions while I write my answers on the board). This could have potentially been awesome or undermined my authority, but luckily.... they all loved it. If anything, it brought us closer together as students and teacher because 1- it brought me down to their level that I am a language student too, 2- they were very impressed I could write Chinese (they knew I could speak a little, but I don't think they expected me to be able to write as well), and 3- they LOVED helping me when I forgot parts of the characters or wrote it wrong (seriously, it was kinda scary as to how much they loved correcting me). But probably the coolest part of this experience for them came from their reaction when my co-teacher told them that they would be giving me a test.... "Wait... we're going to give Teacher a test?" It was like I had said I can breathe underwater. I couldn't tell if they were more surprised that they were allowed to quiz a teacher or that I was going to be tested on writing Chinese. Either way... it worked! And now every time they have a test/quiz, so will I.
Just as a final summary on how I'm doing.... I absolutely love living here. Especially now that I've gotten into the swing of things. I love my job, I love my apartment, I love my room mates, I love my friends, and I am so happy with my life here. Granted, its all very tiring, but it's worth it. My language skills aren't improving as fast as I had hoped, but if that's the only complaint I have, I'll take it.
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| Classroom at school with a bunch of adorable Grade 3 students |
Drawing from this experience, I think it's sometimes hard to forget how much body language and facial expression plays a role in communication when you live in a country where your first language is spoken everywhere. Needless to say I will never underestimate the power of the mighty smile, wave, and high five ever again.
One of the things that has stuck with me is something an administrator from my school said on day 1: "Our goal for having you here is not to make them into the best English speakers. We want to the kids to experience interacting with a foreigner in addition to you teaching English." As much as I hope by the end of the year they could be some of the best English speakers in Taichung, realistically I've set my goal to something I feel is much more realistic: I hope by the time I leave my students will know how to respond when someone asks them their name, reciprocate the question, deal with the question "How are you?", know a little more about how different the world can be (in both appearance and culture), have the confidence to make friends/attempt to interact with someone who doesn't speak their language, and to learn how to use more than words to communicate.
Quick updates:
It's official- I am now a celebrity to Grade 4, Class 1. I had my first small children mob experience with all of them demanding that I write both my English and Chinese names on whatever they could get their hands on.... paper, textbooks, and yes, their actual hands.
This week on Thursday is 中秋節/Mid-Autumn Festival so we do not have school Thursday nor Friday. But we only got Friday off because we all came in on Saturday and had those Friday classes on Saturday... yes you read that right... on Saturday. I had a 1 day weekend.... not fun. But because of the festival I have had a continuous supply of 月餅/moon cakes and 柚子/pomelo fruit, all of which is delicious. For my four days of a much deserved break I'll be visiting Taibei and Yilan.
In desperate pursuit of trying to find a way to connect with my 5-6 graders, I realized that I had a moral standing that I could not ask them to learn English vocabulary words if I did not even know them in Chinese. So I have been making it a point to be able to fully translate their dialogues and vocabulary. As a result, I came up with the idea that every time they have a vocab quiz/test, I will also take the same quiz/test (the students ask me the questions while I write my answers on the board). This could have potentially been awesome or undermined my authority, but luckily.... they all loved it. If anything, it brought us closer together as students and teacher because 1- it brought me down to their level that I am a language student too, 2- they were very impressed I could write Chinese (they knew I could speak a little, but I don't think they expected me to be able to write as well), and 3- they LOVED helping me when I forgot parts of the characters or wrote it wrong (seriously, it was kinda scary as to how much they loved correcting me). But probably the coolest part of this experience for them came from their reaction when my co-teacher told them that they would be giving me a test.... "Wait... we're going to give Teacher a test?" It was like I had said I can breathe underwater. I couldn't tell if they were more surprised that they were allowed to quiz a teacher or that I was going to be tested on writing Chinese. Either way... it worked! And now every time they have a test/quiz, so will I.
Just as a final summary on how I'm doing.... I absolutely love living here. Especially now that I've gotten into the swing of things. I love my job, I love my apartment, I love my room mates, I love my friends, and I am so happy with my life here. Granted, its all very tiring, but it's worth it. My language skills aren't improving as fast as I had hoped, but if that's the only complaint I have, I'll take it.
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| The insane amount of pills I had to take when I got sick (and this is just the "after dinner" round) |
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