Photos of the Week: Land of the Rising Sun

A quick thanks to my friends Joe and Emily for giving me the idea to post a "Photos of the week" blog. I'll try to add some new pics every weekend or so.

And, on that note, I finally finished posting the photos I took during my trip to Japan in February on my Flickr page. I know that I still owe you some blog postings about my trip to Japan (specifically, the differences I observed between Japan and China), so I'll try to work on those soon (don't hold your breathe). In the meantime, you'll just have to stand by and enjoy these pictures. As a preview, some of my favorite Japan photos are below. Enjoy!


I visited my college friend Brooke in a seaside city called Hamamatsu where she is teaching English with the JET program. I followed her to school one day to check out what high school in Japan is all about. This is one of Brooke's students practicing calligraphy at an English Corner Brooke organized.



I was lucky to catch some of the first cherry blossoms (sakura) of the season budding while I was in Japan. This picture was taken at a beautiful park in Hamamatsu.




Young students in Japan wear helmets when walking home to protect them in the event of an earthquake. No, I'm not kidding.






More cherry blossoms. This is probably my favorite picture I took while in Japan.







Me at a Buddhist shrine in Hamamatsu. These red gates are all over Japan, though I'm not exactly sure what they mean. Special thanks to Brooke for snapping this pic.

Dear Teacher Zach...

A few weeks ago, I was inspired by the note giver to create a lesson plan for my students revolving around them writing letters to me. I told my students that they should write me a letter about themselves and that could write anything they wanted and ask me any questions they wanted. I read them a brief example, and then gave them 20 minutes to work their magic.

The letters my students gave me were really amazing. Most of them followed a simple pattern to the tune of, "Dear Teacher Zach, My name is... I am 12 years old. I live in China. Your class is interesting. Will you be my friend?" But, some of the letters I got were really unique. They ranged from quirky, to interesting, to depressing, to ass-kissing, to laugh out loud funny. It was a very revealing week concerning the lives of my students and it was also one of my favorite lessons this year.

After working my way through a stack of nearly 1100 letters (picture on the left), I decided to share some of my favorites with you below. Note that I've left the letters in their original form and haven't corrected any grammar or spelling. However, I've added a few comments to the letters illustrating things that might not otherwise be apparent. The comments I've made appear in parenthetical statements and are italicized. When reading, remember that my students are pretty young and most of them haven't studied English for very long. Enjoy! (I know I did.)


Dear Teacher Zach:
Last week, I meet a boy. I'm really suprised, because he looks like my favorite boy friend. I found I love he. I think he is very cool and kindly. But he doesn't like me. he likes another girl. I'm very sad. I don't know why. Do you like a girl when you are a student?

Your friend.
Marcia

Dear Teather zach:
I like some fruit. The apples is my favorit fruit. How about you? I love you never!

Your student: Zhang Bo

Dear teacher Zarck:
My name is Trangle. I look like is (Whatever was written here was erased with whiteout). Maybe I can as an actor. My favorit sports is tennis and swim. How about you? I think maybe you like golf.
Can I ask you something? What girl's style do you like? The cute girls or the other. Haha! Maybe you can't answer.

Your Dear student: Xu YingDear

Teacher Zach.
My name's is Wang-Zhixiong. I am 13 years old. I have a red glasses. I have a short, straight black hair. I really like your class, because in your class, I feel so happy. I think you is a good teacher. In our school, I think anyone both like you! My favorite subject is English and P.E. They are fun! How about you? Do you like sports? What is your favorite sports and subject? And, what is your favorite color?

Your friend,
Wang Zhixiong :)

Dear Teacher Zach
I am a new student in the class. I think your class is very interesting, in your class we needn't write a lot of things and sometimes we can take games.
You say you are a volunteer. I think it is very cool. I will be a volunteer when I grow up

Your student
Liu Hao

Dear Zach,
My name is Addison. Can you give me so many money? I love money very much. Do you love me? I'm very interesting

Your's
Addison

Dear Teacher Zach,
First, I will say. I'm very happy to know you. I'm a student in class 15 (One of my most advanced classes). My Chinese name is Li Xinyi. and my English name is Lily. It's a very beautiful name from a flower.
I like English and watching movies. Do you like movies? My favorite movie is The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. I think it is a very good movie. Shakespeare is my favorite writer. (Wow, a student after my own heart.) I like he's book "King Lear". Do you know it. I holp you like Shakespeare.
At last. I holp you happy every day.

Your friend.
Lily.

Dear Teacher Zach,
My English name is Catherine. I'm very like your class, because it's fun, and not boring. The Tuo Fat is delicious, right? (Tou Fat is a Chinese popsicle-like thing made of small cubes of flavored gelatin and is sold at the school store. I love it and eat it nearly every day.) And the green tea is great! (I also drink a lot of bottled green tea.) I like you, because you are very handsome and kind.
I really like skating, how about you? I think, Chinese children are very buzy and tired. Are the American children like us?
I'll tell you a secret, I am very adore you!

Your friend,
Catherine

Dear Teacher zach,
My name is Tan zhe shu. I'm 12 years old. I'm from Changsha. In 1995, I come world. I like play football. My favorite movie is..., oh I don't have a favorite movie. I like green.

Tan zhe shu

Dear Teacher zach,
You is very cute, but hard have very freckles, and very muscular.
Frend zuo Quan

Dear Teacher Zach,
I am a girl in class 16. I have an English name that is Betty, and my Chinese name is------ (She wrote her name in Chinese characters here and I'm sad to say that I can't read it or reproduce it). I really love your class very much. I think you are interesting and a little cute. You beard is too long, you must cut (I had about a week's worth of stubble on my face at the time). Do you think so? If you cut your beard, it will make you more handsome. Um. this idea is perfect.
At last, I'll ask you some questions. Are you have a wife, if answer is "Yes", I hope you are all well. What kind of music do you like best? What class do you like best? Can you tell me the different in Chinese children and American children? Which one do you love?
Ok! This letter is so long. Bye-bye!

Your student
Betty

Dear Teacher Zach,
I'm from class 5, grade 7. You're also forget me, my name in Chinese is "xue ze ze", and in English is "Paul silver xystus". I think you are cool, I meet so many American teacher. but you are best of them. You are from America. I think America is a very very nice country, I want to go there, because my father is be gone there and take a photo and video, I want go there! And I like UK too! I like the movie of there--"Harry Potter", "Mr.Bean." Remeber me, zach! I'm in class 5, "Paul. silver. xystus." you can call me "paul".
Remeber me, Zach!! (Ok, I promise I won't forget Paul.)

Your friend--
paul. class 5.

Dear Mr. Zach,
Hello, my name is kelly, I am your student, I very like your teach way, we all like you.
Chinese students are very busy, they are study every day, every month, every year, and they have lots of homework and lots of classes. Saturday and Sunday they can't go ant play, they can only study in home, I think we are poor, we are all don't like teacher. Why don't we like teacher? Because they usually give us lost of homework and often don't like us, then, Why do we like you? Because you to us very good, and donte give us homework, so we are all like you.
By the way, we are all think you are handsome too!

your friend,
Kelly

Dear Zach,
I am your student in Class 16, Grade 7. my English name is Will hawkers. I'm the tallest boy in class! Can you remember? I want to be a judge. Because my father is a great judge. Even he's died. I want to be a judge. Work for people, work for country, work for justice! How about you? I want to know something about you.

Best wishes!
Your student: Will: Hawkers.

Dear Teacher Zach,
My name's Catherine. I'm a student in grade seven class fifteen. I like eating and sleeping very much. Maybe you think I'm very lazy. Yes, sometimes I'm very lazy, but sometimes I'm very hard. I'm a lazy and happy girl. I have two small eyes (I'm glad you aren't a Cyclops). And I have straight black hair.
My English marks are always very high. So I'm a good student. Do you like to be friends with me?

Your friend,
Catherine.

Dear Teacher zach
My name is Sue. I'm 12 years old, I like swim and play tennis. I like action movie- kiss of the dragon. I don't like carrot, Well, I look like is god, :) , I like black and white. (Yes, I suppose God does work in absolutes.)

Your friend Sue

Dear Teacher Zach,
My name is Davis. I'm 12 years old. My favorite country is Japan. Because I like Japan comic very much! I think Japanese are very kind and friendly. Japan is free, not like China. Japan's citys are clean. I like Japan's food, too. Do you like Japan? I like it very much! (Wow, this kid is a heretic. Most of my students HATE Japan and the Japanese.)

Your friend,
Davis.

Dear Teacher Zach,
My name is Lyle. I'm 13 years old. I like reading. reading is my favorite way to relax, I like reading at school, I like reading in the library and I like reading at school. As you can see, reading is a very important part of my life. I work hard at all my lessons. And I like English best. My dream is to be a English Teacher when I grow up. And I know it is not easy to learn English wear. There is a long way to go. But I work hard.

Your friend,
Lyle.

Dear Teacher Zach.
I am an outgoing boy. My name is Own. I am thirteen years old. I feel terrific lately. And how about you? How's everything going with you? Have you changed much? Or just gaining weight? (Ok, this student gets an F.) Tell me about your life. Thanks.

Your student, Owen

Dear Teacher Zach,
Do you like Chinese food? Do you like to have tea? Let me tell you something about tea. More than three hundred years ago most of the people in Europe did not know anything about tea. Once an English doctor came back from China for Christmas vacation. He gave his mother some tea as a gift...
Next, let me tell you something about myself. My name is Kobe. I'm 13. I'm from China. My parents is You Tai Ren (This is how you say "Jewish" in Chinese). If you believe me, you are a fool.

Your friend,
Kobe.

Dear Teacher Zach,
My name is Li Yang. My English name is Herakles-Advent-Isolated-Demon-Epic-Smith. (Best name EVER!) I'm 12 years old. I hate sports, so I'm a little fat. I don't like eating things which are bitter. I love Kentucky Fried Chicken. I want to be a diplomat when I grow up. Please write and tell me something about yourself soon.

Your friend,
Haides (Wow, yet another name.)

Dear Teacher Zach-
I'm Wang Monkey. I'm 14 years old. I like climbing the best. I like movie which is about monkey. I like bananas. I look like a handsome monkey. I like yellow best, because I like bananas.

Yours, Monkey.

Kindergarten Combat

*This blog was written November 8th, 2006*

I teach at a campus about 30 minutes outside of the city of Changsha. So, everyday day I take a bus to and from the school. Today, at the end of the day as I was walking across my campus on the way to the bus to go home, I noticed a small group of students standing in a circle and shouting about something. I couldn't quite see what was going on, so I walked closer to investigate. As I approached, the students stepped aside to reveal a scene straight out of a kungfu movie. Only, this grisly movie was being acted out by kids who couldn't have been older than third graders.

It was a fight; a really rough fight. I watched, horrified and shocked, as I saw two pint-sized students engaged in mortal combat. It was brutal. There was eye-gouging, choking, and even kicks to the head.

I ran over and pulled the two of them apart just as one was digging his fingers into the other's eye socket. They were both panting heavily, but once I stepped in they seemed to calm down. For my part, I felt lucky that these kids were less than half my size and that I could so easily stop them. After I separated them, they remained silent as I held them arms-length from one another, but there was fire burning in their eyes.

Luckily, they both came out of the scrape in pretty good condition. One of them had a bloody nose and the other's shirt was torn, but these certainly weren't life-threatening wounds. I asked them to apologize in English, but they didn't understand. I asked again in Chinese, but they still remained silent. I really wanted them to make nice, but clearly it wasn't going to happen. Feeling slightly defeated, slightly awed, and mostly feeling disturbed, I called a Chinese teacher over to clean up the scene and I ran to catch my bus.

Oh China... Land of mortal kindergarten combat.

A Humbling Experience. A Dumb American. A Near Riot.

A few weeks ago I had an embarrassing reminder of just how ignorant Americans sometimes are about the rest of the world…me included.

I was playing a game with one of my most advanced junior 1 classes (11-13 year olds) and everything was going smoothly until the very end of class. I had the class divided into two teams, girls versus boys. (Chinese people go nuts for any kind of competition and when I’m looking for a sure fire way to get every student interested and involved in a lesson I simply split them into teams and watch as epic battles ensue.) For this particular game I asked a person from each team a question (exp. How many states are there in America?). If they answered correctly they had a chance to throw a paper airplane at a large dartboard-esque target I drew on the blackboard.

The trouble began right after the final bell rang, signaling the end of class. When the bell rang the girl’s team (ironically named “The Winners”) was trailing the boys with a score of 25 to 45. I decided to give them one more shot. Almost every girl in class shot her hand up in the air to answer a question, eager for a chance to redeem their gender and snatch victory from the boys. The previous two questions I asked students to name the capitals of France and the U.S.A., so I decided to keep on this track and ask another capital. I chose a tiny girl with huge glasses to answer the question. She stood up with a massive grin on her face. “What,” I said without thinking, “is the capital of Australia?” (Before you read any further, please stop for a moment and ask yourself the same question. Do you know the answer? Are you sure? Ok, read ahead.)

Without pausing the student confidently answered the question. The only problem was, I either didn’t hear or didn’t understand what she said. “Can you repeat that?” I asked. She said it again. Whatever she was saying started with a K or a C, but I couldn’t understand it for the life of me. “Please spell that,” I said to her. “C A N B E R R A,” she said, pronouncing each letter clearly and pointedly. I wrote it on the board and stared long and hard. Canberra? I’d never even heard of that. “Wrong!” I yelled. “The correct answer is Sydney.”

That was it, the girls lost it. “No! No! You are wrong,” they screamed. “Our Chinese teacher told us the capital of Australia is Canberra!” It was at this point that I dug myself deeper into a hole that was already bored through the middle of the earth. “Well then, I’m sorry but your Chinese teacher is wrong,” I blithely said. “The boys win.”

Pandemonium. Anarchy. The girls were all standing and shouting at me in Chinese. I had no idea what they were saying, but they were frothing at the mouth. Two girls burst into tears. An unknown assailant chucked a wad of paper at my head. A few girls stood on their desks and began pumping their fists in the air (yes, this REALLY happened). I was half expecting a Molotov cocktail to smack me in the face. The boys meanwhile sat calmly in their desks, snarky grins smeared across their faces.

Things looked bad and I had to act quickly. “Maybe I’m wrong about Australia,” I sheepishly admitted. “I’ll look up the right answer for next class.” Then I gave the girls another question (the capital of England), which they easily got right. The tiny girl with huge glasses took a shot at the target with her paper airplane and missed. The boys won and I hurried out of class with my tail between my legs.

As soon as I stepped out of the classroom I phoned Tess (a fellow WorldTeach teacher at my school), told her my sorry tale, and then asked her the capital of Australia. She wasn't sure either, so she looked it up online and low and behold, the girls were right. I quickly thanked her and hung up. I felt queasy. Attempting to salvage some pride, I next called Jackie, another WorldTeach teacher and one who had just returned from a vacation in Australia weeks prior. If she didn’t know the answer, I reasoned, I was partially pardoned because most Americans must be ignorant shmucks when it comes to our friends in Oceania.

Jackie didn’t know either.

The next week I returned to the riotous class, confessed my sin, and apologized. Actually, the class seemed to have forgotten the whole incident. “Mei guan xi! Mei guan xi! Mei shi,” they kept saying. It’s all right. It doesn’t matter. Still, I’m not sure how much effect the incident had on my credibility with the class or the amount of respect they have for me.

Stupid Americans. I knew I should have taken geography in high school.

The Note Giver

Every Monday afternoon, just after I finish teaching for the day, an 11-year-old student of mine from class #4 shyly approaches me and hands me a small note. The note is always written on a little blue square of paper no more than 2x2 inches big. She started giving me the notes in early November, and, at first, they were pretty minimal. The very first note simply asked me if I knew of a popular British boy-band song (I didn't). As weeks have passed, the notes have become more and more complex, and her English, while still stilted, really seems to be improving.

The note she handed me Mid-December week read…

Dera zach,
December on twenty-five is Merry christmas. happy to you. (she drew a miniature picture of an elf here)
“ho, where is my christmas sock;
Yes, it’s in my family
Do you like Christmas? Yes, you like!

The girl herself is petite and unassuming. She has shortly cropped pitch-black hair, a tiny semi-circle scar to the left of her nose, and dark, quiet eyes. While many of my students are loud and rambunctious (as can be expected from any 11-12 year old kids) she is calm and often looks sleepy. Before she began handing me the notes, she never left an impression on me. In fact, had it not been for the notes, she would have been lost in the crowd amongst my 1056 others students.

Yet, there she is, week after week, small blue note in hand, making friends with her foreign teacher, and ensuring that I start my week with a big smile on my face.