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| View of the Bund and Pudong in 1990 and 2010 |
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
The benefits of teaching conversational English
November
7, 2010
During my first year in
Shanghai I was teaching a lot of one-on-one “conversational English”. It
was more lucrative than teaching full time at an English center or school, and
I had to work fewer hours. I would meet with my Chinese students at their homes,
offices, or Starbucks. I essentially just had to talk to these people and
correct them when they made mistakes. The best part was that I could talk to
them about whatever I wanted, so I learned the Chinese perspective on many
things in which I was interested. The following are some of the things I
learned from my students:
Students:
Yami, 24, female, business
manager
Ms. Ru, 25, female,
housewife
Andy, 27, male, business
manager
Mark, 40, male, businessman
Jason, 31, male, business
owner
Kevin, 42, male, businessman
Tong, 25, educated in U.S.,
businessman
Andres, 36, male,
businessman, spent alot of time in Mexico
On education
Kevin – I want to send my
kid to high school in the U.S.
Andy – I bought a house in
Sydney so my daughter can go to school in Australia. When she is old enough,
she can decide whether she wants to be educated in Australia or China.
On Mao Zedong
Andy- Mao was 70% right, 30%
wrong. He did alot for China, but made some mistakes.
Tong – Mao created the China
that we have today. China would still be horribly poor without Mao.
Jason – on Jian Guo Da
Ye/The Founding of a Nation (about Mao) – That movie is made of lies. The
government made that movie. It is all lies.
On the Japanese
Andy – If China decided to
go to war with Japan, I would personally fund one war ship.
Jason – If you were
Japanese, I would be civil to you, but I secretly wouldn’t like you, and I
could not be friends with you. The Japanese have never admitted they were wrong
in Nanjing. They never apologized.
On politics
Ms. Ru – I don’t care about
politics. I only care about the health of my family.
Yami – I don’t care about
politics. I only care about myself. I like shopping. I don’t pay attention to
it.
Andy – There was an
earthquake in Sichuan that killed 70,000 people. Many children died because it
was during school hours and the construction of the schools was shoddy. Many
parents were outraged and saddened by this. The government paid these families
$8,000 each in exchange for their silence/not causing an uproar/uprising.
Fertility specialists were sent to Sichuan and provided government funded
advice so that couples could have new children and forget about the old dead
ones.
On democracy
Jason – I think democracy is
in China’s future. Maybe in 10 years. I want democracy. It’s good to be able to
vote.
Kevin – Not enough of China’s
population is educated. There are many poor people in China. We can’t have
democracy until people are more educated. Maybe in 10 years.
Andy – People are not
educated or wealthy enough for democracy.
Tong – There are too many
uneducated people in China to have democracy. Leaders could buy votes from
these people because they would rather have money or food than be able to vote.
On being the world’s
superpower
Andy – Are you crazy? The
U.S. is afraid of China?! The majority of China is so poor and uneducated! We
will not surpass the U.S. any time soon.
On religion
Mark – I’m a Christian. I go
to church and sing psalms with my family and Christian group. I don’t celebrate
Christmas because I dont believe in it. I dont think it was possible for a baby
to be born outside in December. Confucius is the closest thing China has to
Jesus Christ. He shaped alot of our morals and ideals.
On work ethic
Andres – Single child policy
has created several generations of spoiled whiners. They dont get along with
one another. They dont care to cooperate. They are tattle tales. They only look
out for themselves. They are terrible to manage.
On Taiwan
Andy – Taiwan is part of
China.
Shanghai taxis
October 20, 2010
Almost all taxis in Shanghai
are Volkswagen Santanas. When I first got to Shanghai, I had never heard of
this car. Perhaps the Germans figured it wouldn’t be successful in America
because there is already a mediocre Latino guitarist by the same name living
there. Cars named after guitarists nor guitarists named after cars wouldn’t
bode well in the American market.
Taxis here have a color
system of quality. The car above is in the second best tier. I have only heard
rumors about the color system, but from my daily experience in cabs, it seems
accurate. The best taxis are the best because it is harder to get driver jobs
for their companies. They are more selective.
At the top is teal. They are
the most reliable, clean, and the driver usually knows where he is going. In
the second tier is green (pictured above) and yellow. You usually don’t have to
worry when you get in these cabs. The third tier is bright blue, white, and
bright red. The bottom tier is dark red and dark blue; dark red being the
worst. These cabs are usually the dirtiest and the oldest. Dark red and dark
blue cabs are owned by the drivers themselves, so there are no real standards
of quality they have to live up to. If you get overcharged via faulty meters or
driving in circles, it is usually in a dark blue or dark red cab.
On the identification number
card, there are also stars. Stars denote a better driver. 5 stars is the most a
driver can have, I believe, but I’ve never seen more than 3. Drivers have to
pay to take a test to get stars, so most drivers do not have any. The ones that
do, are the best drivers in the city. They can usually speak very minimal
English. And after you tell them where you want to go, they will tell you which
way they will take to get you there and then ask if that is alright.
Flat head
September 19, 2010
The other day, I had a few
friends over. My Chinese friend, Tong told my ABC (American Born Chinese)
friend, Michael that he had the head shape of a white person. Michael’s head is
round, and Tong thought it was unusual for a Chinese person to have a round
head. Most Chinese people’s heads are flat in the back.
Michael said that other
Chinese people had told him that before. I was of the impression that Chinese
mothers lay their children on their backs often when they are babies, causing
their soft, developing heads to flatten in the back. Western mothers might
rotate their children more. Tong is of the impression that its just genes.
Chinese people have flat heads. Period.
Jessica, another ABC, told
us that when her mom grew up in China it was desirable to have the back of your
head be flat. When her mom’s friends were babies, their mothers would put
boards on the sides of their heads while they slept, keeping their heads in
place, and forcing them to sleep on their backs, thus flattening the backs of
their heads.
Fingernails
August 11, 2010
One day I got into a cab,
and I noticed that the driver had a 3-inch long pinky fingernail. From that
point on, I couldn’t stop staring at it. Wasn’t he afraid of breaking it? Maybe
he does alot of cocaine? Why wasn’t the other pinky fingernail that long? It
didn’t seem very easy for him to drive with something that long and sharp that
close to a steering wheel and the exposed skin of his other hand.
A rumor I heard is that
Chinese people like to grow out one or several of their fingernails in order to
demonstrate that they do not do menial labor. Driving a taxi is not considered
menial labor. There you have it: fingernail length as a demonstration of social
class.
Touching the Japanese
July 7, 2010
It has come to my attention
that Japanese people do not like being touched. At all. No touching. I don’t
know why they don’t like being touched. I only know that I now really want to
touch them, and it has become a goal of mine to touch as many of them as
possible.
I have succeeded in hugging
one Japanese girl and scaring one Japanese guy that was coming out of the
elevator. No success in actually touching him, but I came close. My pursuit
continues…
Ayi
June 8, 2010
Ayi is the word for aunt. It
is also used as a term of respect for older women. It is also used for the
women who clean houses in China.
Ayis are older women who are
paid to do housework. They can cook, do your laundry, get your mail, pay your
bills, and clean your entire house for you. Some ayis go to houses once or
twice a week. The pay rate for these women is around 10-20 kuai per hour. That’s
about $1.50-$3.00 per hour. Some ayis live in their employers’ houses in a
spare room. They are more like nannies. I once tutored for a Taiwanese family
who had 4 live-in ayis. I’ve also tutored for a family whose ayi was fired for
stealing jewelry.
For expats and wealthy
Chinese people, having an ayi means never, ever having to clean. If you speak
Chinese, ayis love to give you advice and chat with you. They like to say:
“You
need to wear more clothing.”
“Aren’t you cold?”
“You’re going to catch a cold.”
“You are sick because you have been eating too much hot.”
“You should be
wearing slippers.”
“You need to stop smoking.”
“You have a cough because you
eat too much meat and too much spicy food.”
“You’re Chinese is so good!”
“You
should eat rice with your salad.”
“You got fatter but I think you look better
this way.”
“Don’t drink Coke. It’s bad for your health.”
“You are too skinny.
You need to eat more.”
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