Week 8. Time for reflection
on Tina's Journal (China), 18/Apr/2009 02:31, 34 days ago
I'm just coming to the end of my eighth week in China. In some ways it feels like I've been here much longer, yet paradoxically the time has flown and I can't believe I've been here two months already! The week has been a relatively quiet one. I've continued my co-teaching with Miss Liao, who loves to try new methods in the classroom which is wonderful to see. She is I think one of the more 'open' teachers in the college so working with her is a real pleasure. I felt this week too that I was making a bit more progress with my Chinese lessons and now when I say to people the few phrases I do know, I don't seem to get a total look of incomprehension! I went to the hairdressers for the first time here and was happy with the final result. Lesley did help me there and kindly explained to them what I wanted doing. I heard there was an English Speech competition being held yesterday in the college so I went along to observe, only to be asked if I could be one of the judges..I happily accepted. It was quite a formal event and I was one of 9 judges. There were 20 contestants, all students, and each one had to talk about about a pre-chosen topic for 4 minutes, after which one of the judges would ask a question about the topic. Some of the topic subjects were:The significance of life; Something I've got from failure; The power of smiles; Never, never give up.After the competition I was asked to give a speech about the contest. This was followed by the presentation of prizes and photographs. I was actually quite impressed with how well some of the contestants performed and every time one of them seemed very nervous, the audience gave them a round of applause for encouragement.How do I feel after two months in China? The first important point is I'm still happy to be here. I don't feel like I want to escape or runaway, yet!! My reasons for coming here were altruistic, wanting to help people somehow improve and enrich their lives, however, I also knew that I would probably end up more enriched by my experience than the people I had come to help. This is partly due to my attitude of life, as I recognise that even the awful things that happen to us can help us to become better people, if we choose to let them. I still feel that I have something to 'pass on' here, even if that is just to help teachers recognise that children/students need to start 'thinking for themselves' and be more individualistic..something that China as a nation needs to accept. Having the type of political system it has, leaves little room for free expression and even true creativity. If the creativity was unleashed more, in some ways China would be a great and evenrespectednation. However, people need to discover this for themselves and the more people are exposed to outside influences the change will happen gradually and hopefully at a more natural pace. Just like water changes the shape of the rocks over time, our attitudes and behaviour can work in the same way.