My students have taken English since elementary school. They are wonderful at grammar exercises, but have trouble using the language. So we find ways to use it. Several students came to my apartment Monday evening and showed me how to make bowdza, a delicious steamed bun with a meat or vegetable filling (above). The rule was that they had to speak English. People become much more fluent when they're doing something practical. Their English is appreciably better at the end of one of these sessions. And when I'm around the students and we do activities like this, I pick up some more Chinese words.
Too bad that with 286 students, I can only do such activities with a small fraction of those I teach.
3 comments:
Those few are so very lucky....to have you as a teacher........Buy the dog........Joe will cope and so will the cats!!!
Wonderful stuff, Roz. We're going to be happy to have you home soon, but we'll miss all these great blogs about China.
So how do you make sure you are fair to all your 200 plus students? I would be so jealous if I were Chinese and my favorite teacher would hang out with my friends but I would be excluded. I would go on a strike and I would pour my anger out in my English essays like you would not believe :).
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