a few of my favorite things

One of my friends at home asked me for a "5 best" list of top moments since I've arrived in China. Corny question, but it got me thinking about what I have really loved about my travels so far, and which parts I'll be remembering for a very very long time.

I have had so many surreal moments, and my blog has recorded many of them: seeing the giant Buddha on Lantau, splashing in the ocean tide off the coast of Thailand, walking away several hundred dollars richer at a casino in Macau, standing dumbfounded by the gorgeous skyline of the cosmopolitan Hong Kong islands, biking through crazy Shenzhen traffic, long meals with friends at Chinese restaurants... But when I think of the moments when I have actually been the very happiest, at the top of my being, they have all taken place in the classroom. So I still haven't come up with a neat top-5 list for your easy-reading pleasure, but I have come to the conclusion that I need to devote a bit more of my blog to my students, who are a huge part of my life here in Shenzhen. Here are a few stories and student profiles to kick it off...

• Charles is a top student in both my 4th-6th grade English class and my Year 5 POI. His family lives in Hong Kong, but he has Canadian citizenship and a hint of a British accent. Even when I am angry with him I cannot help but laugh. One time, after I told him I wouldn't call on him if he kept being so noisy, he stamped his foot and said, "Teacher, if you don't choose me, I will become bored and will no longer participate in class." Thank you, Sir Child Prodigy. Now please sit down and restrict yourself to language your classmates will comprehend...
• In both of these classes with Charles is another student named William, and if he knew he was making an honorable mention in my blog right now I'm sure he would be shocked. His English isn't great (once, when Charles found out he and William both scored 38/40 on a test, Charles buried his head in his hands and cried in despair, "I got the same score as William?! WILLIAM?!") but he is really ahead of his peers in other ways. Once, he was trying to explain "clone" to me. He held up a piece of paper: "Like this, Teacher, except when you make more that are same... Yes, copy. Except not paper. Baaaaa. Baaaaa." When I guessed clone, he knew immediately that I understood; the Chinese word sounds almost identical.
• Ben and Coco. I couldn't do the roll call of awesome students without mentioning these two. Actually, I could probably write an entire blog entitled "Adventures of Ben and Coco" and never tire of it (although my readership might wane). Their adorableness is only enhanced by their sponge-like English abilities; they couldn't speak a word of English in September and now I rarely hear a word of Chinese.

"Fat teacher can swim." Yes, the arrow at the bottom, pointed to the bloated and horizontal teacher, says "Amber." Good thing I'm not sensitive. (Not to mention that before this, Ben told me, "Teacher, you so small. So small! I will..." and then made a crunching motion with his hand, dropped an invisible object onto the floor, and squashed it into the tiles with his foot.)

• In my Year 2 POI, I am absolutely infatuated with each of my seven students. They might be my most diverse group: I have representatives of Taiwan, Hainan, Hong Kong, mainland China, Canada, Korea, and Honduras (seriously; ranks up there with my Year 5 from Zimbabwe). So for now I'll tell a tale of Brian, who is Ben-and-Coco-like in his ability to learn English, and hilarious in what he creates with his limited vocabulary. During our "home" unit, I had the kids build teepees out of chopsticks and a cut-up old T-shirt, and then design their own teepee on a sheet of paper. Brian drew elaborate geometric patterns on his teepee, and smiling monkey clinging to the top, shooting a banana to another monkey on the corner of his page, and a line of chefs carrying steaming platters of hamburgers wrapped all the way to the back of the paper. Each time he added more, he looked up at me with a super-intense smile across his face and bellowed, "TEACHER! COME LOOK!" I couldn't even be mad at him for yelling. Actually, to be honest, it's pretty hard to imagine getting mad at him for anything.

• Then of course there are my high school students, who can be an adolescent pain - like I was, 6 short years ago?! - but are awesome in their ability to actually communicate ideas and think creatively. The Chinese school system seems to do a pretty good job squashing the originality out of its students, but my Korean students never cease to crack me up. My Overseas Chinese class of 10 has a wide range of English abilities, from near-fluent Colin to barely-squeaking-by Joshua (pronounced Joe-SHWA, which is apparently what his Korean teacher believed to be the proper way to say his name). In a 3-paragraph argumentative essay on whether it is better to attend school or live on the street, Colin put together a cohesive argument for dropping out of school, because "advanced theory is useless for uninterested students" while "a student interested in music might be able to pursue that career if he didn't need to waste time at school." Joshua supported the opposite argument, writing: "Live on street not good. For example, attack by mosquito. Very, very annoy."

And now, typing those stories, I'm smiling all over again and wondering how I ever get frustrated with teaching. Ah, well... If law school doesn't work...