Indecisive? There's help (kind of)...

If you can’t decide what to drink with your breakfast this morning, what type of keyboard to purchase, or which gesture to use, there’s help. Don’t know whether to break up with your significant other? Can’t pick out the perfect book to read next? Need a snappy quote for your Facebook profile?

Well, all of these (and thousands of other) conundrums can be solved through the use of my now-favorite Web site, hunch.com.

Users sign up for a free, no-strings account (they don’t want your money) and answer some questions about their preferences. The main part of the site, though, is thousands of “topics” that users choose to “play” and see "results." Users are encouraged to give lots of feedback, add their own results, and even create their own topics. Don’t get it? It’s like a decision-making, advice-giving combination of Wikipedia, Facebook, and Match.com.

Some topics are serious, some are educational, and some are simply for fun.

Not for you? You might be surprised at how much you learn from and have to teach Hunch. It’s for everyone; that’s the point.

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TESOL

(Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages)

This summer, I’ve been volunteering teaching English in Columbus. The free classes are offered four days a week at a community center. They are sponsored through a federal grant, and any adult who wants to learn English as a second language can attend.

Most of the students are from various countries in Africa: Sudan, Senegal, Guinea, Mauritania, and Ghana. (I had to study a map after my first day of class!) The students generally can speak their African languages and French – and I’ve become pretty decent at BS-ing my way through French.

Each class is two hours and is taught by a teacher employed by the community center. My job is to work one-on-one with the students who need extra help in the class.

Teaching is hard work. Not only do the students have no English skills, some of these adults are illiterate in their native languages. All of the students work hard; the class is free, and they wouldn’t be there if they didn’t want to come. But how do you explain English sentence structure to someone who doesn’t know what a verb is? How do you describe the difference between “we” and “they” if their language doesn’t distinguish between them the same way English does? How do you make them copy off the blackboard when they don’t know the alphabet? These are things I am learning how to teach. (It’s not impossible!)

Every day is a new challenge. But I’m learning a comprehensive method for teaching English. When I go back to China in September, I plan on offering free, elementary English courses. I taught English last time I was there, but I had no method… and I think I failed. But this time, I’m determined to succeed.

Bridge to No Where

Last August I visited Dandong, China, on the border with North Korea. I took a boat on the Yalu River, which separates Dandong from a North Korean city (Sinuiju is its Chinese name). Seeing North Korea was possibly the most memorable part of my trip to China.

I took some video there and here is some of the footage, set to a song by A Rotterdam November. (It's also on Youtube if you're having trouble viewing it here.)

Xinjiang and Current Events

While in China, I traveled to the Xinjiang province. I met several of the Muslim minority of Uighurs*, and even became good friends with a Uighur girl about my age. Moreover, Lanzhou has a high Uighur population, whom I interacted with on a daily basis. During my time in China, I learned about the daily struggles of minorities in China.

A good friend of mine who is Han Chinese surprised me one day. This girl is extremely intelligent, sensitive, and kind. She has lived in America (albeit not-so-diverse Muskingum) and speaks English. We were saying goodbye as I was about to take a train to another province. One of the last things she said to me was, “Watch out for the minority people. They are dangerous.” I kind of laughed and asked why, and her reason was that they are allowed to carry knives on trains (unlike everyone else, I guess). I’m not sure if I believe her excuse, but that is beside the point. I understand her concern for my safety, and, yes, there had been recent riots involving minorities. The problem here, in my opinion, is that the Han Chinese fail to see how they and the Chinese government provoke these riots. The minorities aren’t innately riotous and violent. The monkeys at the zoo aren’t either, until you start throwing your trash at them and banging on the glass.

Minorities in China have no way to peacefully express their opinions. There is no organization, and it’s not because they are incompetent. It’s because the government moved massive amounts of Han Chinese into minority regions. The minorities used to be the majorities in their provinces, but were overtaken by the Han (Voice of America).

The government, without fail, cites its generosity toward minority and autonomous regions whenever problems arise. “We gave you billions of dollars and you should be thankful,” the government storms (Associated Press). It reminds me of parents who try to buy their way into a good relationship with their children. The kids don’t want another video game or more candy; they want love and understanding. So it is with the minority regions in China. They may be thankful for the new infrastructure and bolstered economies, but what they really want is independence. And, my opinion is that the government has poured money into these regions partly because a ton of Han Chinese moved there and insisted on more development.

These problems in China have no obvious solution. I disagree when westerns cry for China to give these regions their independence; it’s more complicated than that. China believes that Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and Tibet are and always have been part of China. And the minorities want their freedom and independence. If China lets one area go, the rest will follow. This would create a disaster for China, and an international disaster for the rest of the world to deal with. Probably even more minority deaths would occur. I see China’s side, but I don’t agree with their methods. If the government could be more understanding toward the minorities instead of trying to control them and make them conform, the problems of unrest might diminish. Instead of teaching children to distrust minorities, teach them to get along, share, and play nicely.

Lastly, the western world has been all up-at-arms about Tibet; why are the Uighurs and Xinjiang less important (My Sinchew News)? I know, they are lesser-known and the nature of their culture is different, but I just wanted to throw that out there for some thought.


* “Uighur” is just one of several English spellings for this people group, and is pronounced /wee′ -gher/.