Tuesday, April 11, 2006
March 30th email
Dear Everyone,
We have been busy. I don't remember what I last wrote about. *checks old emails.* Okay! Remember me mentioning that I got to help Claire with her pronunciation for a test? She made a 99!! What a diligent student!
Wednesday we taught 4 classes and then the elementary school let out at noon. They only go a half-day on Wednesdays. But they still feed them lunch before they go home... I guess that keeps the lunch crew employed. It is fun to watch the kids draw. Little kids take it very seriously and work hard. Big kids take more seriously that fact that their classmates will critique their efforts, so many of them goof around wildly with their drawing in order to avoid being teased. I have kept one of the wilder drawings where a boy has drawn a devilish looking cartoon-type bad guy with-- get this-- with little hair bows on his head!!
We had a full six classes with Kiwi yesterday. Samuel got tired and was easily distracted by children who wanted him to look at their drawings. Actually, with 32 children per class wanting attention, this is what can be labeled a MAJOR distraction. Kiwi and I got to laughing at the number of times I had to get Samuel back onto the task of translating for me. In one class Kiwi was not busy with papers or anything, so he did a lot of the translation. I'm not sure Samuel noticed. :)
Speaking of Kiwi-- since he speaks fluent English (as well as German. He met his Taiwanese wife in Vienna, Austria!) he's really the last teacher to need a native speaker as a teaching assistant, but he sees the value of the children getting a lot of exposure. Samuel just makes one more person for them to hear as well as interact with. The more the merrier!
When teaching with Tina in one class the other day I was having trouble with that particular class getting a slow start, and I wanted to tell them we needed to hurry along or we wouldn't have time to finish. I laughed at myself for wanting to say, "Andele! Andele!" as though children with a language barrier just needed me to switch toSpanish, naturally! I explained to Tina that we intersperse Spanish in our speech just like they do Taiwanese with their Mandarin Chinese. She thought that was so interesting she told the whole class.
After team meeting last night-- which is prayer time with a scripture passage read by Drew (very nice)-- we went out to supper together. We were all dashing along on the way there, but after we ate everyone got really slow and quiet, and when we left everyone just sort of ambled out the door. We divided up to go different places, andI was walking with Ginger and Samuel down to Lucy's to get Samuel a haircut, but I kept wanting to hurry up and WALK!! It was so funny the way we just crawled along. I couldn't go on ahead; I didn't know the way!
Lucy's was closed. She only takes off two days a month. Isn'tthat pathetic? She is closed on the 15th and 30th. Heading back to the dorm we decided to stop in at Jennifer's cram school. Jennifer and Roger were in the middle of remodeling instead of holding class. They have to relocate a bathroom and restore a balcony in order to meet some sort of building code certification.
Jennifer is taking us to see some sights this morning at 10, andwe'll be stopping for tea at a place that is actually under a lake. (Slytherin's common room, right here in Kinmen!!)
We'll spend the afternoon with the junior high kids at their sports meet. Samuel is so good to keep up relationships with the juniorhighers. He knows their schedule and goes down to their common room to spend time with them just as though it were a regularly scheduled class for him.
Tomorrow we'll have family treatment with a little fellow named Albert. I think he's in 5th grade.
Sunday we'll attend church and have lunch there. Then we'll go with Selena to do some sight seeing and have supper.
Bonnie, Mai says, "Hi!" She was on the phone with Ginger as we were walking along last night. Ginger told her I was there and actually said, "Yea, she's just creepy! She's like BJ all over again. I hear her voice or see her out the corner of my eye, and I just freak out!" Samuel and I laughed a good bit over me being called creepy and having it be a compliment. :)
Love y'all more than air!
Mama
We have been busy. I don't remember what I last wrote about. *checks old emails.* Okay! Remember me mentioning that I got to help Claire with her pronunciation for a test? She made a 99!! What a diligent student!
Wednesday we taught 4 classes and then the elementary school let out at noon. They only go a half-day on Wednesdays. But they still feed them lunch before they go home... I guess that keeps the lunch crew employed. It is fun to watch the kids draw. Little kids take it very seriously and work hard. Big kids take more seriously that fact that their classmates will critique their efforts, so many of them goof around wildly with their drawing in order to avoid being teased. I have kept one of the wilder drawings where a boy has drawn a devilish looking cartoon-type bad guy with-- get this-- with little hair bows on his head!!
We had a full six classes with Kiwi yesterday. Samuel got tired and was easily distracted by children who wanted him to look at their drawings. Actually, with 32 children per class wanting attention, this is what can be labeled a MAJOR distraction. Kiwi and I got to laughing at the number of times I had to get Samuel back onto the task of translating for me. In one class Kiwi was not busy with papers or anything, so he did a lot of the translation. I'm not sure Samuel noticed. :)
Speaking of Kiwi-- since he speaks fluent English (as well as German. He met his Taiwanese wife in Vienna, Austria!) he's really the last teacher to need a native speaker as a teaching assistant, but he sees the value of the children getting a lot of exposure. Samuel just makes one more person for them to hear as well as interact with. The more the merrier!
When teaching with Tina in one class the other day I was having trouble with that particular class getting a slow start, and I wanted to tell them we needed to hurry along or we wouldn't have time to finish. I laughed at myself for wanting to say, "Andele! Andele!" as though children with a language barrier just needed me to switch toSpanish, naturally! I explained to Tina that we intersperse Spanish in our speech just like they do Taiwanese with their Mandarin Chinese. She thought that was so interesting she told the whole class.
After team meeting last night-- which is prayer time with a scripture passage read by Drew (very nice)-- we went out to supper together. We were all dashing along on the way there, but after we ate everyone got really slow and quiet, and when we left everyone just sort of ambled out the door. We divided up to go different places, andI was walking with Ginger and Samuel down to Lucy's to get Samuel a haircut, but I kept wanting to hurry up and WALK!! It was so funny the way we just crawled along. I couldn't go on ahead; I didn't know the way!
Lucy's was closed. She only takes off two days a month. Isn'tthat pathetic? She is closed on the 15th and 30th. Heading back to the dorm we decided to stop in at Jennifer's cram school. Jennifer and Roger were in the middle of remodeling instead of holding class. They have to relocate a bathroom and restore a balcony in order to meet some sort of building code certification.
Jennifer is taking us to see some sights this morning at 10, andwe'll be stopping for tea at a place that is actually under a lake. (Slytherin's common room, right here in Kinmen!!)
We'll spend the afternoon with the junior high kids at their sports meet. Samuel is so good to keep up relationships with the juniorhighers. He knows their schedule and goes down to their common room to spend time with them just as though it were a regularly scheduled class for him.
Tomorrow we'll have family treatment with a little fellow named Albert. I think he's in 5th grade.
Sunday we'll attend church and have lunch there. Then we'll go with Selena to do some sight seeing and have supper.
Bonnie, Mai says, "Hi!" She was on the phone with Ginger as we were walking along last night. Ginger told her I was there and actually said, "Yea, she's just creepy! She's like BJ all over again. I hear her voice or see her out the corner of my eye, and I just freak out!" Samuel and I laughed a good bit over me being called creepy and having it be a compliment. :)
Love y'all more than air!
Mama
# posted by JEB @ 7:36 PM 
