English Corner

A student organization at SCUT to facilitate students engaging with Foreign Teachers and Foreign Students is established on Tuesday and Thursday evening from 6:00PM-7:00PM.   The official dinner hour for students in daily from 5:00PM-7:00PM.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays students have the opportunity to eat dinner at 5:00 then attend English Corner for one hour just before their evening classes begin at 7:00PM.  It is scheduled outside Teaching Building #31 regardless of the weather conditions.  On some evenings it has been cold and rainy so we have moved under the entry canopy of the building but we are never allowed to gather inside the building. 

There are two students that are responsible to chair this student activity, a boy Chen and a girl, Dreamer. They are both undergraduates and have done an outstanding job of preparing topics and events for us to have informal casual conversations weekly.  Generally the topics are great to generate initial conversations, however students quickly become comfortable and begin asking questions about America and how students there live, what they like to study, what they do in there spare time, why do they always seem so happy?  Most Chinese students admire American students and their lifestyle but cannot comprehend how it all works together. All would go to America given the chance but few will ever get that opportunity.  We have become the window to that vicarious experience for them.  Needless to say there has never been a time this whole year when I wondered what we would talk about next.  There are plenty of questions about the smallest of details of things they perceive American students do and say.  

In February after students returned to campus after Chinese New Year someone had seen "So You Think you can Dance" and wanted to learn to dance.  Tuesday evening became dance night.  Craig and I used some of our Hi Tech equipment we had purchased in Guangzhou, downloaded some tunes and spent Tuesday evenings for second semester teaching students American Dances. I taught the dances while Craig managed the music and speakers.  Students learned several line dances, the Cha-Cha, the Waltz, and Circle Dance and the traditional American Cotton Eye Joe and The Virginia Reel.  After I started the dance lessons on Tuesday I would often hear students on campus  during the week and in class yell "Hey Cha-Cha"  they loved to learn to dance, an opportunity they had never had before. One Tuesday the crowd of students was large and the music was loud to enable all students to hear the music and my call,  the security guard marched over to take the speaker away and waved at us to leave. The CCP does not allow large unauthorized groups to gather on campus.  I thought we were through for the evening and possibly the semester until I watched Chen step up and handle the situation expertly.  We continued to dance until classes began at seven and every Tuesday night for the remaining semester.  I think we will read about Chen later on as a leader in China.

Chen and Dreamer organized a farewell party for us on the last Thursday evening we were scheduled to participate.  We had games, speeches from the Foreign Teachers (we were surprised to be part of the program), refreshments and gift presentations.  I have to say that I will miss the informal conversations and opportunities to explain what life in UT, my family and students daily activities are like.  The Chinese students have been superb, very curious and eager to learn on every level.  I am sure I will miss talking to them. 

 

 Those are not cherries on top of the cake, they are tomatoes.  A new treat for us!