21 March 2015

Gentlefolk,

We are now at the end of Week 2 of this semester ... what happened to my plan to do weekly posts?

Well, it's complicated.  I guess I could blame Bob Morrison for giving us copies of the British TV series SILK - which have kept us up till all hours - but what a pleasure watching such high-quality TV with marvellous acting and scripting.  The recent release of the new series of "House of Cards" (13 episode in one hit) hasn't helped either.

Or I could blame Little Eddie in Hong Kong - the poor little bugger was sick when we looked after him - and subsequently we both came down with bad flu when we arrived on campus.

Or I could blame WORK - yes, that four letter word which has been my preoccupation for the last 2 weeks.

This semester I have 5 classes a week (10 teaching hours), so not too onerous: three classes of Western Culture, one class of English News, and one class of Oral English. But two subjects are new for me, which has meant having to extract the digit and do some real work for a change.

My Western Culture course has always focussed on the USA and over the last 4 years I have compiled a comprehensive set of lectures on that country.  But one of the classes I had last semester is with me again this semester, so I've had to change tack.

My first thought was to swap that class with another teacher, so that I would have all new classes and could teach my usual American Culture course.  I found a teacher who was willing to swap one of his culture classes with my class (no skin off his nose), but there was a problem: the timing of his class clashed with one of my other classes.

Surely it couldn't be too difficult to change a class time?  Wrong.  The university would not countenance a change: the semester's timetable was final, and no amount of pleading could get them to budge - talk about bureaucratic!

I finally had to admit defeat. The only solution was to teach something else.  So this semester my three Culture classes will study the UK & Australia.  I've been wrenched out of my comfort zone.

Last week I described some famous British historical figures - they particularly liked hearing about King Henry 8th and his six wives: 2 divorced; 2 beheaded; one died in childbirth; and the 6th out-lived him.  What a rogue!

Did you know that three of Henry's wives were named Catherine, two Anne, and one Jane?  Co-incidence that Prince William's wife is also a Catherine (known as Kate)?

The other new subject is News in English.  I like news, and try to keep up with local and international developments, but how does one teach News?  And, later, how does one test the students' knowledge of this subject?

For the first two classes I took along copies of articles from the China Daily.  The students had 10 minutes to read each article, and then we discussed it.  But isn't that really just a Reading class?

Maybe I'm taking this too seriously.  To better understand their motivation, in the first lecture I asked ten students (62 in the class) why they had chosen this subject. Nine said they wanted to have a class with a foreign teacher, and an opportunity to practice their English; only one of the ten even mentioned news.  And here I was thinking that all these students were interested in current affairs.  

So where does that leave us?  With a Reading class (by another name), and some oral English thrown in to keep them interested.

For next week's class I've asked 4 students to select an item of news each (article, video, whatever) and to lead the discussion on their item.  Hopefully the atmosphere will be more stimulating than I have been able to achieve so far ... but that still leaves the question of how to test this subject?

Weather

When we arrived back in Qingdao 2 weeks ago the weather was cool.  In fact we had a few cold days when the maximum didn't go over 5C.

But on 18 March it suddenly changed, and we have had maximums of around 14C and 15C.  Fairly polluted, but definitely warming up.  Buds are starting to appear on trees ... spring is around the corner.  But I suspect we might have  a few more cold spells before we farewell Old Man Winter and welcome warmer weather.

Our China sojourn

We thought with the enforcement of the Five Year Rule we would have to finish teaching in July 2015, at the end of this semester.  We had one year in Dongying (2009-10), then a year back in Australia looking after Mum, and we are now in our 4th year here on the Qingdao campus.

The university checked with the Foreign Experts Office in Beijing and were told that because we had the break in Australia, our period of continuous service started in 2011.  So they offered us another year, which we have accepted.  Suckers for punishment.  What the hell, we're healthy and still enjoying campus life - golf and beach can wait a bit longer.  But poor you, having to suffer through another year of blog posts!

That means RTA (return to Australia) in mid-2016.  I'll turn 70 in 2016, so next year will be a good time to hang up the spurs.

Talking of birthdays, Vera has a significant birthday today.   An amazing lady; not one to sit still, she is always doing something: learning Chinese, or cooking, or cleaning, or tutoring, or exercising.  She has a wonderful way with people.  A dozen friends will join us for dinner tomorrow night.   What a gal!

Gym

Another big development: this week we started at the California Gym, a couple of km from the campus.  The facilities are basic and half the equipment doesn't work (the Southern Cross Health Club it ain't) but it's just great to get back to some vigorous exercise.

Brumbies

The Brumbies have had a very good start to this Super 15 season.  Did you see last Saturday's game against the Reds? (I caught it at Knuckles Bar down the road).  A remarkable five tries to zip romp, in Brisbane no less. Tomorrow the Waratahs in Sydney - always tough - let's hope they can keep it up.

...

A friend, Fu Xiao, took this photo and added the caption: "Love is the one thing that transcends time and space". Amen.

Well folks, that's it until my next post.

Best wishes, keep healthy and keep smiling.

Alex & Vera Olah
English teachers at the China University of Petroleum, Qingdao
www.upc.edu.cn
Saturday 21 March 2015