What are your successes?

I asked the students to list ten things that were proud moments in their life.  This was a struggle for them since they are not taught to brag or stand out in the crowd because of their accomplishments.  I had to list ten things that I was proud of before I could get them to write anything.  Each list is one student’s entire list.

Once everyone completed their list, I ask all of them to tell the class the one accomplishment that they were most proud.  Leanne went first and said she couldn’t decide which one was her top accomplishment.  So I told her just to pick one.  She told the class she was very proud of her swimming ability.

Leanne’s response:

1. I won’t hold low self-esteem. Farewell to my low self-esteem.
2. I could be natural and modest enough to make friends
3. Learning swimming myself
4. Finding a part time job and do it well
5. Knowing what I am going to do.  I have dream which will definably be realized soon- simultaneous interpreter.
6. Visiting Shong Shan temple myself (it’s all about transferring buses and I have no sense of direction)
7. I have three confidents.  We never call each other friend.
8. I like reading.  I do proud of being like reading.
9. I care my family.
10. I live a simple and environmentally friendly life.  I am not a spend thrift (material girl).
11. I am concerned about people’s ability, not appearances.

Emily’s response: 

1. I proud of being a member of the World Academy for the Future of Women.
2. I proud of Jerrie let me work as a mentor for the UCPSARNET this semester. (My note- Emily was hired for $500 for three months to monitor all of my students’ work on social network group that focuses on social action to end poverty and the other UN Millennium goals.  This salary is beyond what Emily ever thought she could earn and she works about 20 hours or more a week for me. That works out to about $1/hour which is double what other students earn who work on campus)
3. I proud I have done a project as a leader to teach children education. I found a summer training class to teach children math and English and I succeed.
4. I proud of working in the world academy office to be a leader.
5. I proud of being a college student in Sias and I learn a lot in our campus.
6. I pound that I passed the CET-4 and CET-6 once a time when I was a sophomore. (my note- these are English language exams and the focus of everyone’s measurement of success)
7. I proud I live in a beautiful city, Ji Juan which has a lot of beautiful scenery.
8. I proud that Bridget say, “Emily, you’re great, you can solve this problem”.
9. I proud of my parents.  They work hard and earn a lot money to grow my sister, brother and i.
10. I proud I can recognize some foreign faculty, especially, Jerrie, Bridget, Ginger, Joyce.  They teach me a lot and I learn a lot form them.

Jude’s response: 

1. Cook (fish, chicken, green vegetable and so on).
2. Independent thought and life (middle school, high school, university life, I always alone).
3. Be glad to help others.
4. Respect people.
5. Wash my papa’s feet
6. To be a good student.
7. To be a volunteer in Sias.
8. Visit homeless people and help them.
9. Be a good daughter.
10. Always attempt to forget bad things and be happy.

ViVi’s response: 

What’s my proud of?  I’m proud of my parents.  They sacrifice their whole life for my four siblings and I.  They teached me how to be loving and beloved.  I’m also proud of my friends.  They encourage me when I' m in trouble and share happiness when one of us who succeed.  Surely, I pride of myself.  I have a strong will and insist on it.  Furthermore, I won good morals and know /insist/ the importance of being my personal best.

1. my parents love me.
2. They teach me amounts of knowledge about being a person of study
3. Selfless (my parents)
4. There are many friends staying with me
5. We share happiness and sadness together (my friends).
6. They are in good health (my parents and friends).
7. Good morals, kind, honest, friendly (me).
8. Positive attitude to life (me).
9. Independence (me).
10. Own my dreams.

Amber’s response: 

First, I think my success is that I have been a college student which makes my family proud of myself but also give me so much confidence to face difficulty life.  Second, I am proud of my personality.  I am kind, honest and enthusiasm.

1. I am proud of my positive attitude to life.  I can adjust my emotions appropriately.
2. I am proud of my diligent attitude to be a good student.
3. I am proud of having some confidents who always appear when I need them.
4.  I am proud of my courage and confidence to life.
5. I am proud of my special experiences, which make me earn some money and I can reduce the burden of my family.
6. I am proud of being a member of world academy for the future of women.  I lean a lot from our professors except that I make some good friends.
7. I am proud of being a member of the communist party in China, because that was voted by my classmates, of course, I am touched by their trust and support.
8. I am proud of everything that life gives me. 

Fullmoon’s response:

My success is that I have set up a club, got along with my partners, my friends, family and my teacher.  We have the same goals to make the club better and better.  So we have held a part named “Guitar Party.”  After that, our SKT Guitar Club was more and more popular.

There are the things:

1. I have a regulation work and rest.
2. I have a harmonious family.
3. I know what I want to do and what I can do.
4. I have made a short plan every week.
5. I have made three best friends.
6. I have talked with many different people and to feel about their lives’ environment.
7. I have set up a guitar club at SIAS.
8. I have improved myself when I was a freshman.
9. I can face my mistakes now.
10. I have been to orphanage many times and made friends with many orphans.

June’s response:

 

When I was a sophomore, I became the vice president of the speech club.  And I taught many students how to speech.  Like what can you make yourself don’t be afraid, how to be brave, how to make your speech amazing.  Maybe I couldn’t know everything about speech, but I can tell them my experience.  Then make them to speech well.  Though I met many friends.  We always play together and talk about many things and I can learn many things from them.

1. I am an auditor.
2. I have a happiness family.
3. I have many friends.  They all very nice.
4. I become a college student
5. I am a member of the world academy.
6. I was a vice president of the speech club.
7. I was a member of chorus club.
8. I have a chance to study violin.
9. I know many foreign teachers.
10. I like music.
11. I try my best to do everything and some of my dreams come true.

Saturday Afternoon

Names

Everyone in China has an American name.  The current generation of parents is giving their children a Chinese name and an American name at birth.  But most of my students were given their names when they are in the 5th or 6th grade, when they start to learn English.  Their teachers usually assigned them a name.  But some of them came up with a name on their own. And many of the names are not names as we know them.  They are more words that appeal to them.

Selia just took all of the first letters of names of people she admired and she made up her name.  Hope, a man works with Oliver, a woman.  Abner picked his name on his own but his boss doesn’t like it.  So she now calls him David.  He doesn’t like that name so I suggested that he tell her that. I don’t think he did because I heard a faculty member talking about David and someone asked, "Who is David”?  “He’s the kid who used to be called Abner.”  Lisa picked her name because she loved the name Elizabeth.  She told me it is the most beautiful name she has ever heard. But Elizabeth was too hard to say so she took Lisa which she thinks is the nickname for Elizabeth.

I have a Key, Moli, Miry, Talia, Wency, Mel, Sunny, Angella, Silvania, Monday, Jurny, Karin, Honey, Ryen, ViVi, Sun, Fullmoon and Shaina.  I meet a boy named Bush.  He heard that there was a famous American with this name.

I, too, have a new name: Long Nyu (Dragon Lady).

Euroasian Woodpeckers

Amy

I met Amy about a month ago.  I was having lunch with a friend of her mother.  Amy joined us because she wanted to meet a foreigner.

Hello, Bridge

I am Amy. Do you remember me?

This is the first time that I write to foreigner, so, I maybe make some mistakes.

Do you busy recently? I am trying to study english now.I get up to at 6:00am. It is a poor thing that remember English words. I ofen lazy to remember it.

I hope you have a good time.

Peter Hall

I am living in Peter Hall which is the housing dorm for foreign faculty (AKA: all the American faculty).  I don’t know how many there are of us because people come and go.  But there may be as many as 125 people at any one time.  Most of the faculty is young people in the middle of trying to figure out what they want to do when they grow up.  Then there are the married couples who just retired and want to try something different.  There is a growing group of middle aged people who got laid off and are now desperate to find any sort of work. Then there is the faculty who work for Fort Hayes University and are receiving a salary commensurate with US wages.  The young teachers who are hired directly by the SIAS University are making $500 a month.  And while that is a great salary here, these teachers are still paying off their student loans and paying health insurance and speak openly about their poverty lifestyle and they worry about missed opportunities to make better money in the US.

I have an apartment on the third floor.  It has a living room, a bathroom and a large bedroom.  My housing is better than I had anticipated. My bed is only the box spring with a foam mat on top of that.  My shower is huge and has six water jets that seem to be glued shut.  For a while, the water did not come out of the shower head but rather around the rim of this large shower head which made difficult to shower.  My shoulders got wet but my head stayed dry. The toilet has flooded the floor four times in two weeks and that does not seem to concern the maintenance crew.

I have a water fountain right outside my room where I can get clean, safe hot and cold drinking water.  I have a TV but I only get Chinese stations.  I have a coffee pot and I bought a blender.  So it is sort of just like home.

We all eat together and there are designated eating times but they seem to slide back and forth each day.  Breakfast starts around 7:00 AM and I never make that which is a shame because that is the only time coffee is served.  The lunch starts somewhere between noon and 12:30.  And every time I go to lunch at 12:45, lunch is over and the staff stands around and tolerates my lateness.  Dinner is advertised to start at 5:00 but it is never ready before 5:30.

Breakfast has two kinds of eggs and very greasy bacon that isn’t really cooked.  There is some bread and oatmeal and the yogurt is served in a pouch which you drink.

Lunch and dinner are just about the same menu every day.  On one side of the serving area, there is a salad bar which the Chinese don’t understand.  They put out huge clumps of lettuce, some long carrot sticks, green raisins, peanuts, olives, cherry tomatoes and a few dolloped of seasoned mayonnaise and some oil.
On the entrée side, we have chicken, lots of chicken, usually four different varieties.  There are chicken wings, chicken balls rolled in sesame seed, chicken and green beans, curry chicken and a roasted chicken which is just dumped in a pot and people can pick away at it.  On Thursdays, we have baked potatoes. On Friday, we have microwave pizza.

Last week, we had salmon which caused a little bit of a problem.  The chef only makes portions of food for 15 to 20 people.  That way there is very little waste.  When something is served and that portion is finished, that’s it for the night; there is no replenishing the food choice.  So last week, just the first 15 of us got the salmon.  I wasn’t aware of this practice of one portion and done.  So I mentioned to people, who arrived a few minutes after me and sat at my table, to try the salmon.  Well there was none left which irritated most people. So I discovered that there is an unwritten rule:  if you get something to eat that the others didn’t get, shut up about it.  Don’t rub it in. Ok, now I know the rules.

Help for Depression

Today, I had to give a presentation to my students about depression.  There were maybe 300 students in the audience and it was too large a crowd to talk about such a sensitive topic.  Most of them really weren't interested in the topic but the Prevention Center is seeing more evidence of it. And there was a thought that a presentation on the topic by an American would be better received.

When it came time to answer questions, the students were slow to ask me anything.  The language barrier is always tough and the sensitivity of the topic also limited any interaction.  But then one student nervously raised her hand.  She needed some clarification about what I had said.  Sometimes she feels sad, lonely and confused.  Did I think she suffered from depression? I told the student that if she thought she was depressed, she should discuss this matter with her family doctor.  The student thanked me for my advice, nodded and then politely sat down. And then another student raised her hand, “In America, in your country, does everyone have a family doctor?” she wanted to know.  And then there was an undercurrent of discussion about the question.  And it dawned on me that they didn’t know what a family doctor was.

I had a professional counselor from the University Prevention Center with me who informed me that none of them had a family doctor.  None of them go for regular physical exams.  If they need medical help, they go to the hospital and wait in line and maybe they get help.  The man from the Prevention Center then told the students that they should go to the psychiatric hospital if they thought they suffered from depression.  The hospital is about 1 ½ hours away from the university.  He thought it was slightly better than the local hospital.  Then he told them that they probably wouldn’t get medicine there either because it just wasn’t accessible in China.  Finally, he told them that the most viable solution for any of these college students who may suffer from depression was to come to the prevention center and get some help from college students who have been trained to be peer counselors.

Longmen Caves

Trying To Get Information

This is an email correspondence from a student to a former faculty member.  He wrote to her and she included me in her response.

From:  (student)
Sent: Thu 3/8/2012 7:30 AM
To: (faculty member)
Subject: I need your help

Good morning! I read something about my government, I am surprised It that I can’t believe it. I hope I can read more about my government from USA's view.  So can you asked your friend who study my government to give your suggest, then help me buy a or two book (English or Chinese are all OK) for me about my government to help me know clearly about my government? You bring it when you come China, I will give you money for pay for it when you come back China, I wouldn't don’t give you money. I know American people don’t like buy things for others but I cannot buy these book in China and I cannot go other country now. So can you help me buy it and take it to China when you come SIAS? If you can't or have difficult, it is OK.

From: (faculty member)
CC: bkelly327@gmail.com
Sent: 2012,3,8,11:31
Subject: RE: I need your help

When I come to China I will talk with you about what you have asked.  Please be careful.  I am copying Bridget Kelly the World Academy facilitator who is there now.  You may wish to speak with her.  I am not certain what you are referring to so I can't respond to your e-mail or find books because I am not certain what you are asking... however you sound concerned and I think Bridget would be a great person to talk with. Stay safe.

From:  (student)
Sent: Fri 3/9/2012 5:30 AM
To: (faculty member)
Subject:?? I need your help

Thank you. Don't care of me. I wouldn't do anything, only to learning and to learn more about my government. I will send email to Bridget Kelly to learn more from her.

Mr. Wang is a hero who is a police leader in Chong Qing of China. But he want to America for get protect. I feel surprised. Then I started study that thing. I study different newspaper and different people's views. From this thing I get know my government limited many things. They are so corruption. And I learned many things are wrong. But it just little message from Chinese newspaper. I feel I am so stupid in the twenty life. I hope I can get more message from America book. And I want a clearly knowledge to help me understand what happened of my country. I hope I can get more message, then I can own critical thinks to help me grow up quickly in my mind.

Photos

What would you do if you could do anything?

I asked my students to write a response to this question.  They looked puzzled at first but then they just started writing and writing.  I thought I would give them just 10 minutes to respond but they needed 20 minutes.  They got out their dictionaries and they conferred with one another.   And then I asked if anyone wanted to read her response to us.  She got up, stood up straight and tall and read her thoughts and her classmates cheered for her.  Then everyone wanted to read their responses and every response got a round of applause.

“If I have the ability to change people’s skin color, I will do it. Because there is no difference between people’s appearance.  No discrimination anymore.”

“If I could do anything I want to do a leader who can lead other women do their life better or make a band with my best friends.  We dance and sing many beautiful songs. It is not important for our’s fame. But we love our life.  If I could do anything, I join in a party army to protect our country and our people.  If I could do anything, I travel our earth around with my husband.  If I could do anything, I want to do everything I want. I want to keep the world peaceful and to speak English perfect.”

“If I could do anything, I would want to be a superwoman to feed my family and protect my homeland.  I would show my love to my parents, every minute with them and I would like to ravel all over the world with the person I love.  I would try to make their world more friendly and warm with my own efforts.”

“Last semester, my teacher asked us this similar question.  It’s a really good question.  I think I will bring happiness to the people around me if I could do anything.  Happiness is free; also it’s the best thing in the world. As far as I am concerned. In fact, being happy is really simple.  So I want to bring happiness to the people. Cherish those people around us. Try our best to do what we can now.”

“Yesterday in our school, I saw a boy hitting a girl with my own eyes. But no one stopped it.  I guess they are a pair of sweet heart.  So if I could do anything I would teach girls protect and rights and make girls stronger.”

“I believe that I will learn how to cook, make clothes, make shoes and draw.  One word, learning everything which I haven’t learned. Though I’m a common people, but I’m a happy girl.”

“I want to travel around the world and see what they are doing in other countries.  How can they balance themselves between life and work? How do they live their life and I also want to help these have no money to go to school. I want to have a coffee shop. Have a house near the sea, want to fly like Harry Potter to see the blue sky and ocean.”

“If I could get the rule and the truth of human heart, I would try my best to help those who lose themselves in the hearts.  I want to help them to save themselves as well as me.  I think the life’s meaning is to make the man in our heart inside true love.”

“I want to come back to be a baby girl again and again.”

“I want to travel around the world because I am full of curiosity to the world.  I want to experience different cultures and customs. I also want to communicate with different people and learn many good things.”

“First donate money to help poor children on the west of china. Pure water, health-food, get rights to go to school. Second, I will go to America and England as an international student.  I want to learn more about western country’s culture.  Third, I want to make a better life for my family because I don’t want to living a poor life as I know.  I have never seen my parents have new clothes.  And they borrow money to give me the chance of educated in the college.”

“Absolutely, travel around the world to touch the culture I only heard about. People’s minds will be filled up in the route of traveling.  I can get touch with the society, find out the real problems and draw public attention.”

“I want to go back, go to 1990, and keep company with myself, tell myself, you should learn something you really like and keep moving on.  You should be kind to your family members, friends and teachers, you should keep health, you should be honest to be a friend and talk with friends happily, but I know it can’t achieve.  What I can is that improve myself in every aspect. To try not to shy, do not be guilty of wasting time in the future.”

“I would make a day from 24 hours to 30 hours or more.  So every day I can have more time to sleep and to do my work and to do some exercise making myself more healthy.  Every day I am very busy with all kinds of things and I always think my time is not enough.  I would go back to the past.  Go back to my 18 year old, because the time is my best recollection in my full life and I will value the time.”

“If I could do anything I would travel the world!  I love traveling so much.  I think it’s best to travel with my family. Although we haven’t travel together frequently, we love each other very much, besides, if I could do anything, I would do something to help develop the friendship among countries. It’s a simple of people’s happiness to have a warm world. In all, I hope that everyone in the world would be happy in their life.”

“If I could do anything I like, I wish I can swimming in future, remember all English words and use them, and help who has disease have a colorful life.”

“I hope I can buy a house for my parents and let them live happily”

“If I could do anything, firstly, I will try my best so I won’t feel regret one day.  And I wish I can become a teacher to teach the poor children in countryside, because it’s always my dream from I’m a child.  Even I don’t know why I want to do clearly.  Maybe it’s just a dream but I believe it must be a colorful experience.”

The Great Wall of China

Facing Change

Blocked!