9/29/2013-Week leading up to National Week

Week leading up to National Day break

• This week we played time bomb 
• Basically, I have a prop
•   Usually an umbrella or the class sign, basically something they can hold with two hands. 
• They have to pass that prop around for 45 seconds and the last person that has this prop has to say an English word 
• There are two teams 
• I’ve found that boys vs. girls always works best because if I split them into front vs. back teams they’ll just pass it around to themselves but if it’s boys vs. girls there’s a good chance of the prop passing between teams 
• The fun part lies in the fact that the students don’t know what the word is until the last person holding the prop has been determined
•  If the last person says they want to say the English word, then I reveal the English word 
• If they get it right, their team gets a point. If they get it wrong, the other team gets a point. 
• However, the person holding the prop has the option of (before the word is revealed) giving the other team the chance to answer. If the other team says it right, the other team gets a point. If the other team says it wrong, the original team gets a point. 
• This was the first time in weeks that I didn’t have to call for attention to explain the rules of the game
• Mostly, whenever I’m trying to explain a new game there’s kids crying, blood everywhere, that sort of stuff 
• And playing the game was actually a lot of fun to watch 
• There was one class where the teacher put all of the smart kids in a bunch and everytime the prop passed over to that side of the room a scrum would ensue. Luckily, smart kids aren’t usually the biggest kids or the bullies so they would wiggle about for a while and then it’d be alright. 
• The words I used (in order) (I always said the words twice before the students pronounced it
• Law-法律 
• Phenomenon-现象 
• February-二月
•  Six-六 
•  Methionylglutaminylarginyltyrosylglutamylserylleucylphenyl- alanylalanylglutaminylleucyllysylglutamylarginyllysylglutamyl- glycylalanylphenylalanylvalylprolylphenylalanylvalylthreonyl- leucylglycylaspartylprolylglycylisoleucylglutamylglutaminyl- serylleucyllysylisoleucylaspartylthreonylleucylisoleucylglutamy- lalanylglycylalanylaspartylalanylleucylglutamylleucylglycylisoleucylprolylphenylalanylserylaspartylprolylleucylalanylaspartylglycylprolylthreonylisoleucylglutaminylaspfraginylalanylthreonylleucylarginy- lalanylphenylalanylalanylalanylglycylvalylthreonylprolylalanyl- glutaminylcysteinylphenylalanylglutamylmethionylleucylalany- lleucylisoleucylarginylglutaminyllysylhistidylprolylthreonylisoleucylprolylisoleucylglycylleucylleucylmethionyltyrosylalanylasparaginy- lleucylvalylphenylalanylasparaginyllysylglycylisoleucylaspartyl-glutamylphenylalanyltyrosylalanylglutaminylcysteinylglutamylly-sylvalylglycylvalylaspartylserylvalylleucylvalylalanylaspartylvalyl-prolylvalylglutaminylglutamylserylalanylprolylphenylalanylarginyl-glutaminylalanylalanylleucylarginylhistidylasparaginylvalylalanyl-prolylisoleucylphenylalanylisoleucylcysteinylprolylprolylaspartylalanylaspartylaspartylaspartylleucylleucylarginylglutaminylisoleucylalanylseryltyrosylglycylarginylglycyltyrosylthreonyltyrosylleucylleucylserylarginylalanylglycylvalylthreonylglycylalanylglutamylasparaginylarginylalanylalanylleucylprolylleucylasparaginylhistidylleucylvalylalanyllysylleucyllysylglutamyltyrosylasparaginylalanylalanylprolylprolylleucylglutaminylglycylphenylalanylglycylisoleucylserylalanylprolylaspartylglutaminylvalyllysylalanylalanylisoleucylaspartylalanylglycylalanylalanylglycylalanylisoleucylserylglycylserylalanylisoleucylvalyllysylisoleucylisoleucylglutamylglutaminylhistidylasparaginylisoleucylglutamylprolylglutamyllysylmethionylleucylalanylalanylleucyllysylvalylphenylalanylvalylglutaminylprolylmethionyllysylalanyl-alanylthreonylarginylserine 
• Aluminum-铝 
• Antidisestablishmentarianism-反对解散国教主义 
• Onomatopoeia-象声词 
• Little-小 
• Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious-奇妙 
• Would-将要 
• Cough-咳嗽
• Here's a video
• http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjE1NzY1Mzgw.html
•  Didn’t realize you could cry so hard you could puke 
• There was just one child in my class who WOULD NOT pay attention (my classes isn’t all fun and games, I do actually teach them English too) and so I took his schoolbag and said, “if you want to see your book bag again, I want to see your mom” 
• After school, his dad came (which was close enough) and I met with him out at the school gate and when it came time for the child to apologize, he was not only crying a lot but also on the verge of puking
• At that point I almost gave the child his schoolbag to puke in but then I thought, “ah, bad idea” 
•  In the end, the child ended up puking on the pavement and normally I expect all of my naughty students to apologize but in that case I made an exception
• If you’re reading this blog and you think I make all of my students cry, you’re wrong 
• It’s only about 2% of them that I make cry in a given week, but it’s only because they’re naughty, and then after I explain to them what they did wrong and they apologize to me, it’s usually about 6-7 months before they act up again. 
• The thing is that I teach 900 students a week, so if one child cries and the rest smile, I think I’m doing pretty good 
• The thing is that I know I’m strict by even Chinese teacher standards, but I think that teaching oral English is something that you have to listen to what I’m saying in order to say a word or a sentence right, and for that to happen, students need to be quiet when I’m talking, and if they’re not quiet when I’m talking/teaching, they’re in trouble with me
• I also give them opportunities to talk, in case you were curious or worrid
• My favorite is when two boys are talking and I say, “Hey, you can flirt with your boyfriend after class” 
• My second graders love that one 
•  I miss my old apartment 
• I’m trying to live in a smaller, cheaper apartment this academic year and it’s taking a lot of getting used to 
• Basically, I moved from a western-style apartment with all of the furniture and appliances provided into a 430 sq. foot apartment with nothing in it and it’s taking a lot of getting used to 
• I could still afford the old apartment, I’m just cheap and wanted to save money to (maybe) go to Tibet/Northwestern China or Vietnam 
• You can find a good mosquito net for 50 RMB 
•  The first night I slept in my new apartment, I left the windows open because I didn’t have a fan yet and sure enough, when I woke up the next morning I had around 30 mosquito bites on my right shoulder and arm, 10 on my back, and about 20 on my legs 
• Those little buggers feasted on me so much, some of them exploded and left blood stains in my apartment
• I got a mosquito net (and a fan) the next day and that was the best 50 RMB I spent this week. 
•  I do love my new neighborhood 
• I can walk 100 ft. and enter a night market with 4 RMB milk tea, Beijing roast duck, tons of restaurants and stores, a guy who sells cute rabbits, etc. 
• Plus, it only takes me 7 minutes to walk to my school so that’s worth killing mosquitoes any day of the week.
• Plus, there's this naked guy

 

• I was walking around my neighborhood at 5 AM and I heard this banging metal sound and sure enough, it was a grown (at the time clothed) man beating the heck out of a lady's push cart of crayfish
• The guy got really worked up, went into a massage parlor, started tearing that place up, and the boss of that place got a butcher knife and made him leave
• When the massage parlor boss got the guy out of his shop he told the drunk now down to his pants man that "Hey, if you want a massage, you can stay but if you don't then get the hell out!"
• Sure enough, the drunk guy went down to his boxers and socks on this warm, misty day and demanded his massage to which the massage parlor boss declined his business
• Then this drunk guy went across the street to the convenience store, grabbed a couple of water bottles and threw them up in the air, went over to a lady pushing a cart with cut up, raw meat on it, grabbed 4 or 5 big slabs of meat and threw those in the air, and then finally decided that now was the time to get rid of the boxers
• I was trying to give the Shenzhen police a call the entire time and I connected with them 3 times but on the third time they recognized my voice and just hug up on me.
• I guess there's a reason why the motto for the Shenzhen Police Department isn't "People First"