One of the common complaints of my dance teachers growing up was "Say something! I feel like I'm talking to a brick wall here." Mercifully, that tends not to happen with me as most of my students are young enough to be bubbly and playful (and the older girls figure out pretty quickly that I want responses). However, I bring this saying up because I had a horrible case of it the other night.
I teach one "ballet" class in my entire schedule, and ballet is in quotes because for the first half of the year, I basically didn't teach. I only had one student (Maggie), and she absolutely hated dance and did not care about it at all. In a one-on-one situation, there was very little I could do short of threatening her that would make her dance, and I wasn't about to make her more unhappy than she already was. Luckily, Maggie has a great natural facility with languages, so I was able to pique her interest in learning French ballet vocabulary. She was at least learning that, even if she flatly refused to try and execute the movements correctly.
This was our workable dynamic until the last few weeks, when we were joined by a new student Nina. Nina, in sharp contrast to Maggie, is nearly silent. She's extremely anxious, and has arrived to every class in tears because she's so scared/unwilling to leave her mother. We started with letting the mom watch class, and slowly weaned Nina away from her until the start of this semester, when Nina was able to enter class alone (albeit still crying). However, with boisterous, chatty Maggie, and miserable, silent Nina, it's been a struggle trying to balance the class dynamic and enable both of them to learn anything meaningful.
Now at the start of this semester, we got another student Rainbow. Rainbow, as it turns out, is six years old (Maggie is eight, and Nina is seven). The ballet class begins at 6:30 on a Monday night and is an hour and a half long, so Rainbow's age makes it difficult for her to focus. Another issue is that Rainbow doesn't speak a lot of English (neither does Nina, actually), and she's prone to daydreaming, so I have a hard time figuring out what she's retaining.
Last night, Maggie showed up to class without her ballet clothes. When I asked her why, she burst into tears and immediately fled the classroom to her nanny, who then came in and explained that Maggie's mom had forgotten to pack them (or something like that) but had insisted that Maggie go anyway. It's worthwhile to point out here that Maggie's mother works until about 9pm every night, so Maggie rarely sees her, and they're really a very disconnected mother-daughter pair. Once I explained to Maggie that I wasn't angry at her, but that she would have to sit out and watch class, she immediately cheered up. However, that left only Nina and Rainbow to dance, and neither of them would give me any feedback.
I tried to review the positions of the feet with them, but neither one would respond, and Maggie at the front of the classroom was getting increasingly frustrated with them. After dragging the two girls through plie, tendu, and port de bras without a single indication of understanding or retention, I gave up. They clearly were not going to learn any ballet like this. Not only was I teaching to a wall, it was a wall that was only capable of radiating intense misery.
I decided to show them some ballet videos instead (hopefully inspiring them!!!), but the wifi at the school was broken! One of my coworkers tried to help me get a video up while I played a rhythm game with the kids, but ultimately her attempts failed as well. So instead, we played ball for the rest of class.
During the whole fiasco of trying to get the wifi working, I ended up leaving the three girls in the room alone together, When I returned, Maggie and Rainbow were playing, and Nina was watching with a look closer to happiness than I'd ever seen on her. This was a big factor in my decision to let them play instead of trying to force the class - maybe once the three of them get comfortable together, Nina and Rainbow will be able to do something other than cower at the bar.
So, here's to all my teachers through the years who have faced unresponsive students. Thank you for your struggles and your efforts. Let's hope that my motley ballet class opens up soon!
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
The QUEST
So yesterday I mentioned that I left a bag with work visa documents on the bus, which was QUITE STRESSFUL. One of the documents I had was something I could only obtain in person in the US, so losing it would have set me back pretty much permanently on the visa front. 😓😓😓 The stupid thing is that I had two copies of both documents, but I put them all in the same folder instead of keeping one set at home.....Next time, I guess.
The night I lost the bag, I talked with my Chinese boss, and today she called the bus office, and they confirmed that they had it. So this morning I set out to the end of the M448 line to retrieve it! My boss was super nice and offered to come with me, but, buoyed by my successful Chinese of the day before, I decided I could manage on my own.
After a pleasant trip to the end of the line, I stumbled my way through explaining that I had lost my bag the day before (I did successfully ask if I had arrived at the company headquarters and was directed to the building next door, all of which I understood, so that was nice). I received the bag, signed papers indicating that I'd gotten it, and got back on the bus. With the time it took to fill out the paperwork and check that everything was in the bag, I ended up on the exact same bus I had come in on! So that was pretty funny.
I headed out to my company's headquarters next to drop off the visa documents. However, on the way, I got lost in a text conversation with my friend wherein she delivered some great news. Distracted by how excited I was, I almost missed my stop! I rushed off the bus just in time, only to discover.....I had left.....the bag..............a g a i n
I then caught the next M448 and proceeded to the OTHER end of the line, which was a much more miserable trip as I berated myself for being so unbelievably irresponsible. Well, I got to the other end, found the HQ there, and walked in to claim the bag with no problems. No problems, but as it turned out the same driver and attendant from the first two rides were there taking their midday break..... The attendant definitely looked at me with shocked amusement, and there was some light ribbing about the fact that I had lost the bag twice within a 24 hour period. (No one brought it up, but I would like to point out to the reader that I had now traveled the entire length of the bus route.)
The upside: I made friends with the attendant, who turns out to be only twenty years old! She actually thought I was eighteen when she saw me on the bus and that I was here with my parents, so she was really impressed that I was living alone. We chatted while I waited for the bus to be ready, which was maybe half an hour, and then we talked basically the whole way back to the station where I had lost the bag again. All in all it was over an hour of talking......entirely in Chinese.
Periodically, I had this giant urge to cry???? I was so emotional about how well the conversation was flowing despite my constant searching for words. Jianping (the attendant) was super understanding, of course, and the short of it is that we're friends on WeChat now, and we might go catch a movie tomorrow because it's her day off too!
I'm just stunned at how suddenly this ease with language became apparent to me, I guess. I always did well in Chinese class, but my biggest weakness was always free conversation because the scope of possible vocabulary is much broader than a single lesson. And yet! There I was! Genuinely having a conversation with a real person! Regardless of my struggles!
There's some lesson to be learned here about the difference between study and application, putting aside my need to be perfect at a subject, and the reason one learns a language in the first place, but I'm not going to type it out tonight. Not coming for a long time to memoir near you: Lindsay searches her soul about the importance of cross-cultural exchanges.
Anyway, one of the documents I recovered has to be sent back to the US to get authenticated by the Chinese consulate in DC, so that's frustrating.
Another positive though is that I looked really cute throughout the whole process, so I can't be too mad about spending all day running back and forth.
In miscellaneous news, I go running in a public park every morning and took a picture my first day back (when I was too jetlagged to run, so I just took a nice stroll haha).
I brought my camera to China with me after leaving it Stateside for the first five months, so get ready for some Quality Pictures going forward 👍
For fans of One Piece, here's a convenience store that I pass on my way to the park.
Peace, all.
The night I lost the bag, I talked with my Chinese boss, and today she called the bus office, and they confirmed that they had it. So this morning I set out to the end of the M448 line to retrieve it! My boss was super nice and offered to come with me, but, buoyed by my successful Chinese of the day before, I decided I could manage on my own.
After a pleasant trip to the end of the line, I stumbled my way through explaining that I had lost my bag the day before (I did successfully ask if I had arrived at the company headquarters and was directed to the building next door, all of which I understood, so that was nice). I received the bag, signed papers indicating that I'd gotten it, and got back on the bus. With the time it took to fill out the paperwork and check that everything was in the bag, I ended up on the exact same bus I had come in on! So that was pretty funny.
I headed out to my company's headquarters next to drop off the visa documents. However, on the way, I got lost in a text conversation with my friend wherein she delivered some great news. Distracted by how excited I was, I almost missed my stop! I rushed off the bus just in time, only to discover.....I had left.....the bag..............a g a i n
I then caught the next M448 and proceeded to the OTHER end of the line, which was a much more miserable trip as I berated myself for being so unbelievably irresponsible. Well, I got to the other end, found the HQ there, and walked in to claim the bag with no problems. No problems, but as it turned out the same driver and attendant from the first two rides were there taking their midday break..... The attendant definitely looked at me with shocked amusement, and there was some light ribbing about the fact that I had lost the bag twice within a 24 hour period. (No one brought it up, but I would like to point out to the reader that I had now traveled the entire length of the bus route.)
The upside: I made friends with the attendant, who turns out to be only twenty years old! She actually thought I was eighteen when she saw me on the bus and that I was here with my parents, so she was really impressed that I was living alone. We chatted while I waited for the bus to be ready, which was maybe half an hour, and then we talked basically the whole way back to the station where I had lost the bag again. All in all it was over an hour of talking......entirely in Chinese.
Periodically, I had this giant urge to cry???? I was so emotional about how well the conversation was flowing despite my constant searching for words. Jianping (the attendant) was super understanding, of course, and the short of it is that we're friends on WeChat now, and we might go catch a movie tomorrow because it's her day off too!
I'm just stunned at how suddenly this ease with language became apparent to me, I guess. I always did well in Chinese class, but my biggest weakness was always free conversation because the scope of possible vocabulary is much broader than a single lesson. And yet! There I was! Genuinely having a conversation with a real person! Regardless of my struggles!
There's some lesson to be learned here about the difference between study and application, putting aside my need to be perfect at a subject, and the reason one learns a language in the first place, but I'm not going to type it out tonight. Not coming for a long time to memoir near you: Lindsay searches her soul about the importance of cross-cultural exchanges.
Anyway, one of the documents I recovered has to be sent back to the US to get authenticated by the Chinese consulate in DC, so that's frustrating.
Another positive though is that I looked really cute throughout the whole process, so I can't be too mad about spending all day running back and forth.
 |
| I paid probably too much for the filmy top layer but BY GEORGE I love it |
In miscellaneous news, I go running in a public park every morning and took a picture my first day back (when I was too jetlagged to run, so I just took a nice stroll haha).
 |
| There's three lakes and tons of plant life 😊 |
For fans of One Piece, here's a convenience store that I pass on my way to the park.
Peace, all.
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Valentine's Day....Celebration?
I didn't do a diddly darn thing for Valentine's day except buy myself a bag of dried mangoes, haha. But I'm back in China after a lovely Chinese New Year vacation tour of south VA and NC to visit my friends in their various new lives~
So here's what I did do today:
So here's what I did do today:
- Successfully asked the front office of the apartment complex to have my light changed (no English or awkward miming!!! 100% organic Chinese).
- Told the cashier at the convenience store about the situation (some awkward stumbling, but still no English!!!!!).
- Found the Fedex office by my studio using the Chinese version of Google Maps and shipped my diploma home for notarization.
- Stopped by the bank to pull cash just in case my automatic rent payment doesn't go through (again).
- Got pudding tea.
- Went to work early to work on curriculum summaries for potential customers like an ADULT
- Got hit by a wave of jetlag (because I didn't really want to be working....).
- Finished a few anyway, then went to take a twenty minute nap to be refreshed and bright eyed for my students on the first day after break.
- FORTY MINUTES LATER woke up and changed rapid-fire and managed to teach a pretty decent class.
- Went home, leaving a bag with a scarf and necessary work visa documentation on the bus........
- Bought groceries and dinner.
SO, HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO ME
Started off pretty okay but now I'm...hmm....stressed.
My boss has agreed to call the bus company and ask about the bag, and since tomorrow is my day off, I'm gonna go to the bus terminal and hope for the best. I think it'll work out!!!
Wish me luck.......
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