Teaching Chinese

Let me rephrase. I'm teaching English. To the Chinese. Or rather, to some Chinese. More specifically, to a small group of Chinese students who are at Greenville for the purpose of learning English. So I'm teaching English...not Chinese. I don't know Chinese. I know that the word for "hello" sounds like knee how, "I love you" waEHknee, and "class is done" sounds like shaKU. That's the extent of my knowledge, and I have no clue how to form any of the characters for those few words. But I know English, and I know that you put the stress on the first syllable of the word English, and I'm told this will help my students as they take English Pronunciation Level 3. We're just over the halfway point of their 7 week course, and I'm doing my best to impart my knowledge of pronouncing English, and becoming ever more grateful that I didn't have to learn English as a second language.

I know what you're thinking. Rachel's in a classroom again. She is surely going to teach after Greenville. But I'm not. Well, I don't know what I'm going to do, but I still don't plan on teaching. The thought of having to make lesson plans and use them every day makes me want to...I was going to say shoot myself, but that's perhaps over dramatic. All that to say, I don't want to teach. And I don't think I will be in a classroom after graduation.

I don't like it. I don't like standing up in front of students reading from a textbook. I don't like lesson planning. I don't like thinking, "Will this make sense to them?... Does this make sense to me?" I don't like taking phones away because my students aren't paying attention. I don't like having to wake kids up in my class when they clearly don't care about what we're learning. I don't like being told, "This isn't important." I don't like repeating lessons over and over. I don't like playing teacher to kids just a few years younger than I am. I don't like when I can't understand their English, and try to make them repeat things too many times. I don't like the blank stares when they don't understand.

This isn't to say that it's all bad. I like getting paychecks! And I get paid to teach two hours every day, which doesn't seem like a lot, but ask any unemployed, full time college student and they will tell you that it is, in fact, a lot. Somedays I like that I have to play dress-up to go teach. No sweats for Rach this semester! Shocking, I know. I like when my students correctly guess how to pronounce or define a word I didn't think they would know. I like when they take an interest in my Spanish speaking abilities. I like when we have game days and we share words in different languages back and forth. I like when we play telephone with minimal pair words, and they are laughing too hard to talk, because they know they aren't pronouncing the word right, but don't know how to change it. I like when we talk about alien movies and conspiracy theories. And when they tell me how big badminton is in China. I like when they do their readings and I can hear them trying to use the language like we've showed them. I like when they call me professor because they can't remember my name (I am hardly a professor!). I like the days when they're alert and attentive and they get it.

Yes, I like when they get it. Then I don't mind teaching so much. Some days...