Teaching English

As a native English speaker, I find myself giving mini English lessons to people all the time. I also regularly tutor some Korean friends, and I've seen incredible improvement in my roommate's English (her native languages are Kazakh and Russian).

I've realized that if I hadn't learned English as a child, I don't think I would be able to study and learn it. I believe that English is a more of a spoken language and that grammar rules have been applied after-the-fact in an attempt to try to explain the language. You're welcome to disagree with me, but I've been around polyglots from a dozen different native languages and backgrounds for the past four months. They have all studied English at some level, and we're all studying Chinese together. We're very interested in languages, in methods for learning languages, and methods for teaching them.

Some of my friends have been studying English for over 12 years, but with no one to practice with and no one to correct them, they mostly know only vocabulary. I highly commend them for their hard work studying, and it's so rewarding to help someone learn when they really want to work hard.

Some difficult concepts that I've failed at explaining about English include: using the present tense to talk about definite future plans ("I fly home in August" instead of "I will fly home in August."), the very clear but subtle difference between "about to" and "going to," why the present perfect tense is so important ("I have lived here for two years" means you still live here), and when to use which preposition. One of my Korean friends made up a song to help with prepositions. It's to the tune of that West Life song: "You are so beautiful to me, I am so jealous of you, I am so happy for you, etc." Also, I had a discussion with my roommate about how "I'm up for that" and "I'm down for that" both mean you want to follow through with the suggestion that was just made!

One beauty of the English language, however, is that when a mistake is made, the speaker's meaning is still easily understood. Maybe an incorrect verb tense was used, the verb was unnecessarily made plural, an article was left out, or an incorrect preposition was used, but the listener still has a full understanding of the speaker's meaning. That's the point of a language, anyway: to communicate. In contrast, when I make a mistake in Chinese, the listener usually has no clue about what my meaning is. Maybe they don't try to understand me, but the nature of the language is very different from English.

On a related note, I've notice that in China, English is taught as a skill, not as a means of communication. Some Chinese students want to practice their English on me, and it's difficult not because their English is poor, but because they don't want to communicate with me. They want to spit out English sentences. This isn't communication!

So, to all of my foreign friends: keep studying English. I'm proud of you. I don't think I could learn the language!

The Earthquake

Yesterday there was a major earthquake just south of where I live in China. I am going to give my personal account of what I experienced without attempting to compete with the news reports that are being updated hourly.

On Monday afternoons I tutor a Korean friend because he wants to improve his English. Usually we meet at 3:00, but yesterday he had an appointment so we met at 2:30. We study in a classroom on the second floor of Zhuan Jia Lou, the building where I live.

We were studying negative prefixes for adjectives. I would read the words and he would repeat them. As I was reading "impatient... dishonest... incorrect..." I began to feel extremely dizzy. I ignored it.

Then my friend, instead of repeating the words, gave me a funny look. I scanned the room and realized the whole building was moving. That's when I knew it was an earthquake.

At this point, the vibrations were strongest. The desks we were sitting at undulated as if they were ocean waves. We could feel the building sway.

We had to decide whether to immediately take cover or to go outside. The vibrations became calmer and we quickly walked outside. Some other students and all of the workers at Zhuan Jia Lou were outside as well.

After a few minutes we went back inside because there was nothing we could do. My friend and I continued our lesson: "unusual... abnormal... unforgettable."

Gifts

I visit an elementary school in Lanzhou once a week so the children can practice their English with me. I enjoy observing the children; they are always so happy and so eager to learn.

They are excited to get to know a foreigner. They ask me questions about myself and about America, and they teach me Chinese words and characters.

Sometimes they try to bring me gifts like their own stuffed animals or candy. I was even brought some live crabs in a jar. I can’t accept anything from them but am always touched by their sweetness.

Last week, though, one girl gave me a small origami box that she had made herself and filled with flower petals. And this week, a different girl gave me a card she had written: “Dear Caiti: I’m Wendy, it’s so good to have you to be my English teacher, you look so lovely and you’re so kind to us, I like English and I like you.”

I’m not one to cry, but if I were, this would be an occasion.

It’s little things like this that make me love living in China.