(LAST POSTING OF 2007 EXCHANGE) Hangzhou: Teaching, Classes, and People

(Ms. Arkin)

I have written a lot about the different cities we have visited in China, but not so much about my experiences in Hangzhou. I don’t even know where to begin. I know I wrote about our arrival and the trip to the West Lake. I also mentioned my bike riding skills (or lack thereof), but I don’t think I have written anything about teaching, our classes or any of the people I have met.

CHINESE CLASS: We have this class twice a week. Our teacher’s name is Gao Li and he is a Chinese literature teacher, but somehow got assigned to teaching us Chinese! He is a really good teacher because he is very patient and doesn’t laugh (which I know he must want to) at the way I pronounce the words and my inability to use the correct tones. He also knows I need visuals, so he spells all of the words in Pinyin so I can see the sounds and tones that I often can’t distinguish by ear. If the weather is nice we go outside and sit by the well. If it is too sunny by the well, then we move to one of the gardens where we sit under a tree and resume the lesson. We also read Chinese poetry so we can practice our tones and learn about culture at the same time. Yesterday was a treat because we saw a slide show of traditional Chinese dresses and then we got to try some on and take pictures. Chinese class has been a very pleasant experience.

CALLIGRAPHY: I never thought I would enjoy a class in calligraphy since my fine motor skills are anything but good. But this is an example of how a good teacher can make you enjoy something you would ordinarily despise. Mr. Yang is our teacher and even though he doesn’t speak English, I think he might have the best personality in the world! I wish I could understand Chinese because I know he would make me laugh. In class, he communicates effectively through body language and the words “no” and “okay”. He shows us the right way to make the strokes and says “okay” and then the wrong way with the word “no.” He also uses chalk to write the characters on my paper, so when I paint them I only need to trace over the chalk. One day instead of class, he took us to the West Lake to see the calligraphy museum and go to lunch at one of the private room restaurants with a beautiful garden view. I think he just wanted to get out of the building on a beautiful day. Sometimes Mr. Yang smokes in the classroom next to the open window. He offers me cigarettes and I tell him smoking is “bu hao” (no good) and make a fake choking action.

HANGZHOU HISTORY: This is a hard class because our teacher doesn’t speak English and we don’t speak Chinese. It is hard to teach history through body language. I have the feeling that I could learn a lot from him, if we had a common language. He shows us pictures of the West Lake and different kinds of Chinese art. He explains the significance in Chinese, often throwing in some English words or stopping to look up the translation of a word. I feel badly that he has to teach us since we don’t understand anything he says. It must be frustrating for him. He did bring us little guide books in English of Hangzhou which has been of immense help to me. It tells about all of the tourist sites and also has an English map.

PHYSIQUE: This is where we do dance and yoga type exercises. We have this class once a week. Our teacher is very cute with a perfect figure and a short, geometric kind of hair style. She wears glasses and is always smiling. She doesn’t speak English，but doesn’t need to in order to teach us the dance steps. She knows how many steps to teach at a time, how much repetition I need, and how slowly to demonstrate the steps so that it is fairly easy to put them together and remember them. That is not to say that I am at all graceful or coordinated in my movements, but for the most part, I can remember the routine. One class was torturous, however. Instead of dance, we did one and a half hours of abdominal exercises. The next two days every muscle in my stomach, back and ribs was sore. It felt like someone took a baseball bat and swung it repeatedly at my rib cage. I could barely move when I woke up. The next week we were dreading class because we thought it would be just as hard. Although we all really like our teacher, we were happy that she was late because that meant fewer minutes to work out. When she finally arrived, we got to play 30 minutes of ping pong which made us even happier. Then we went to the gym to practice our dance. I had come prepared for this class by bringing a bottle of water with me. That way I wouldn’t have to bug her to take me to the special teachers room to get water from the cooler. That’s what I thought at least. After dancing, she told us to “take a rest”. I was in need of a rest and proudly pulled out my water bottle to get a drink. The four of us were sitting on the mats, resting, as I opened the bottle and took a big swig. That is when I started spitting and flapping and making spastic garbly noises. It is strange thinking you are drinking bottled water when in fact you are drinking some wretched concoction that is 44% alcohol. As soon as I chugged it, I felt my throat burn and I had no idea what was wrong with the water other than that it tasted totally vile. I finally spit it into a handful of tissues, allowing only a little to make its way down my throat. For a fleeting moment I thought I had been poisoned. Why would water taste like that? It is still strange to me that I bought the “water” from a display case in the supermarket that was directly next to the soft drinks and children’s juices. I guess that’s what happens when you come from a state where you can’t buy alcohol in supermarkets. I guess that’s also what happens when you come to China and can’t read Chinese characters. Anyhow, when our teacher returned, I showed her what I did. She laughed hysterically and took me to the private teachers office to get some water.

MARTIAL ARTS / BADMINTON: We have this class once a week as well. Our teacher is Mr. Zhang (I think) and he is a Kung Fu Master. We were supposed to learn Kung Fu,but he felt that we weren’t going to have enough classes to learn enough about it, so he decided to just do different sports with us such as badminton, basketball, and ping pong. I only had two classes with him because I was often scheduled to teach during this time. I did learn to pick up a badminton from the floor with the racket. I also hit 3 badmintons up into the crevice of the corner of the ceiling, where they can’t be retrieved. I think he is a very patient teacher!

CHINESE PAINTING: Another class that is not my area of expertise! Our art teacher is amazing. She showed us some of her work and she paints things that look like photographs. She can also fix any mistake at all. When I tried to paint pink flowers that looked like pink paint splotches, she fixed them and made them look like flowers again. She also salvaged a butterfly that looked more like a blowfish. We only had 3 painting classes and she always had two students who are seniors to translate for her. One of them just worked on her paintings. The other student asked us nonstop questions about America, Hip Hop, Prisonbreak, House, movies, filmstars and more. One class I painted cherries. Another class I painted flowers. The last class I painted birds. I threw them all away except for the pink flowers and butterfly that the teacher fixed. She said I had to pick something to be mounted so I could bring it home!

PAPERCUTTING: We practiced the Chinese tradition of paper cutting. Boy, does that take a lot of patience. Our teacher was very nice and skilled. She makes papercutting look easy. It is very detail-oriented. I lost patience on my papercutting project and by the end I was just doing everything really quickly, in order to be done. Of course rushing only made me make more mistakes. Our teacher sensed my frustration and helped me finish it, fixing it up for me as well. We also learned how to make Chinese knots. Molly and Candice took off with this and have been knotting away at lunch, during class, etc. They are very crafty. I wish I could be crafty because I like to fidget, but I can’t make the knots look they way they’re supposed to. Again, our teacher was very patient. Lots of times she just did the knots for me, so they would look good. But at one point, she stopped making my knots and I was forced to figure it out myself.