Post #110 3 July 2016

Gentlefolk,

This post is about farewells with Vera's private students.

Jack & Jenny

Every Friday night from 7 to 8.30pm Vera taught English to Jia Su (Jack) and Xue Zi Xuan (Jenny).

She started 4 years ago - now they are 15 years old and about to enter Senior High School. Their parents are friends, and decided that the kids should learn together.  Jack is a good boy, but hyper-active, always full of energy and willing to express an opinion. Jenny is much quieter, lovely girl.

Bright kids, they both have very good spoken English now.

Their parents gave us a scroll as a farewell gift, and invited us to dinner.

Jack & Jenny presenting Vera with the scroll.

Jack's father, Jia Qiang, explaining the scroll to Vera.

From left: Jia Qiang (Jack's father); Wang Xiao Yue (Wendy, Jack's cousin); Xue Zi Xuan (Jenny); Vera & me; Jia Su (Jac); Xue Fang Shu (Jenny's father); Gao Li Wei (Jack's mother); Dong Xiao Jing (Jenny's mother).

Wendy, Jenny's father, Jenny, Jack & Vera

Rachel and Ruby

On Saturday afternoons from 4 - 5pm Vera taught English to two young girls, Gao Xuan Yue (Rachel, now 9 years old) and Yan Ru Yu (Ruby, now 11 years old).

Their parents are friends, and wanted the kids to learn together.

Rachel was not even 5 when Vera started teaching them. Not easy, keeping a such a young girl interested for an hour - it's actually harder work than teaching older children.

Have they made progress?  Difficult to judge, but I'm sure that they absorbed much of Vera's teaching.  Time will tell.

We are constantly surprised at how Chinese parents give their kids a range of extra-curriculum activities - push them  - and are willing to spend significant money on private tutoring. This is such a competitive society that parents seek any advantage for their kids (also have lessons in a musical instrument, and calligraphy, etc, etc)

Can't imagine too  many Aussie primary school kids spending their Saturday afternoons learning another language, can you?

Vera with Rachel and Ruby.

The girls with their mothers, Cui Ai Xia and Liu Ran Feng.

Having dinner.

From left: Liu Ran Feng (Ruby's mother); Vera; Ruby; me; Yan Fang Jing (Ruby's father, a specialist at the big hospital in Jiaonan, he has a bad leg - maybe from polio? very nice guy); Gao Si Yong (Rachel's father, works for Unicom Telecom); Cui Ai Xia (Rachel's mother); and Rachel.

Scarlett

One of Vera's students when she taught Primary School in Dongying was Liu Si Qi (Scarlett).

We met Scarlett and her parents Professor Liu Bao and Wang Jun Hong when we came to this campus 5 years ago, and Vera offered to chat with Scarlett every Saturday morning from 8 - 9am.

Well, Scarlett is now 15 years old and will shortly start Senior High School. She has turned into a lovely young lady.

Vera with Scarlett.

We just realised that Scarlett is now taller than Vera!

Vera with Wang Jun Hong (Scarlett's mother). We became good friends with Scarlett's parents.

Dr Shi Tian Ming and Professor Liu Bao (Scarlett's father). Prof Liu brought some special "bamboo spirit" - tasty but strong. I actually got a bit tipsy, and had to walk home (didn't trust myself on the bike!).

Helen & Gavin

Every Saturday night from 7 to 8.30pm Vera taught English to Shu Ming and her daughter Song Shu Xian (Helen) and a family friend Gong Zhao Ting (Gavin).

From left: Shu Ming (Helen's mother); Gong Zhao Ting (Gavin); Song Shu Xian (Helen), Vera.

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Vera has known these students for 4 or 5 years now.  She has watched them grow and change and (hopefully) improve their English skills.

They were only children, but Vera took her role as an English teacher seriously and prepared lesson plans each week. I'm sure the kids, and their parents, understood and appreciated her dedication.  She has a special way with children, which facilitated communication and learning.

After so long, Vera regarded them as family.  They were a big part of her life here. So it's been tough saying goodbye; lots of emotional scenes in the last week, on all sides, as she bade farewell to "her kids".

We're hoping to return here for a visit in about 3 years, and hopefully will get to see all these good friends again.

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That's it for this post.

Best wishes, keep well and keep smiling.

Alex & Vera Olah
English teachers at the China University of Petroleum, Qingdao
www.upc.edu.cn
Sunday 3 July 2016

PS  Two hours ago we saw our son, Andrew, and his wife Caroline and Little Eddie off at Qingdao Airport.  They visited from Hong Kong for a long weekend, to see us before our departure from China in a week.  It was fun showing them around our "adopted city".