English Day 2007
Being a judge is really hard work. I can’t help but feel that every decision I made last Monday was somehow arbitrary and a little unfair. For the most part, though, my results were in sync with the winners and there were five judges in all, so I guess it’s just a feeling…
I know you’re all anxious to hear about how the foreign teacher’s performance went, so I’ll skip everything for now and begin with the ending of English Day 2007. After the last student performance and the last question and after all of the points had been tallied and the prizes awarded, it came time for closing remarks. They were made and then Winnie, who was host of English Day 2007, introduced the foreign teachers and told the audience that we had a special surprise for them: We were going to sing!
Twelve of the fourteen foreign teachers marched dutifully onto the stage, though maybe only two of us even like to sing in public and that’s only if alcohol is involved. The music started, and, what do you know? Mr. Negativity came sauntering up to the stage, front and center, as if he had planned to participate the whole time and his delayed entrance was all part of the act. I had noticed him wavering – he was the Canadian judge and as the American judge, I sat next to him through the whole event. I heard later from another source that what finally did it for him was his students in the row behind him egging him on to join in and to be a good sport and sing with us. Apparently my other source gave him a slight jab after our song was through, attempting to put him in his place. The long and short of it, though, is that for all of his complaining and dramatics, he came up there and made a fool out of himself in the name of continuity. And fools we did make. None of us had practiced. Lisa and I were in the front row – being the short girls that we are – and someone handed her a microphone. She thrust it in my direction and so I pretended to sing into it, though I knew better than to actually make sounds into a microphone. We got through the song and the children laughed a lot at us and it was splendid.
The school did a fantastic job of prepping for English Day and it went smoothly and was a lot of fun to witness. I was especially surprised at the types of pieces the competing students chose. One girl told about the life of Helen Keller (from Alabama, thank you very much), and a boy reenacted the “I Have a Dream” speech. I listened to him practice it in the office for three weeks. He listened to a recording of MLK Jr. giving the speech and at first, tried imitating King’s very specific sound. Listening to a small 11 yr old Chinese boy imitate Martin Luther King Jr. is something else. Luckily, a foreign teacher tactfully hinted that it wasn’t sounding appropriate or sincere and worked with the boy and his co-teacher to help him develop his own style. The final product turned out to be a great success and my favorite of the entire show.
Unfortunately, I’m feeling all worded out tonight and don’t feel that continuing about English Day will do it any justice so I’ll leave off here and ask that you look for the pictures from English Day (up any day now on the flickr page) to get a feel for it through images. I’m looking forward to a break and some traveling in the coming weeks – only two more to wait now!!! I think it will do me good to get out of Wuhan and see some other parts of China. I’m also looking forward to seeing a friendly face and doing some traveling with a good friend. I hope January is treating everyone well out there. And, for those of you in Seattle, we got a big snow day here too! So I know what ya’ll are going through (sort of, not really : )
Zai jian!
~Lillis
I know you’re all anxious to hear about how the foreign teacher’s performance went, so I’ll skip everything for now and begin with the ending of English Day 2007. After the last student performance and the last question and after all of the points had been tallied and the prizes awarded, it came time for closing remarks. They were made and then Winnie, who was host of English Day 2007, introduced the foreign teachers and told the audience that we had a special surprise for them: We were going to sing!
Twelve of the fourteen foreign teachers marched dutifully onto the stage, though maybe only two of us even like to sing in public and that’s only if alcohol is involved. The music started, and, what do you know? Mr. Negativity came sauntering up to the stage, front and center, as if he had planned to participate the whole time and his delayed entrance was all part of the act. I had noticed him wavering – he was the Canadian judge and as the American judge, I sat next to him through the whole event. I heard later from another source that what finally did it for him was his students in the row behind him egging him on to join in and to be a good sport and sing with us. Apparently my other source gave him a slight jab after our song was through, attempting to put him in his place. The long and short of it, though, is that for all of his complaining and dramatics, he came up there and made a fool out of himself in the name of continuity. And fools we did make. None of us had practiced. Lisa and I were in the front row – being the short girls that we are – and someone handed her a microphone. She thrust it in my direction and so I pretended to sing into it, though I knew better than to actually make sounds into a microphone. We got through the song and the children laughed a lot at us and it was splendid.
The school did a fantastic job of prepping for English Day and it went smoothly and was a lot of fun to witness. I was especially surprised at the types of pieces the competing students chose. One girl told about the life of Helen Keller (from Alabama, thank you very much), and a boy reenacted the “I Have a Dream” speech. I listened to him practice it in the office for three weeks. He listened to a recording of MLK Jr. giving the speech and at first, tried imitating King’s very specific sound. Listening to a small 11 yr old Chinese boy imitate Martin Luther King Jr. is something else. Luckily, a foreign teacher tactfully hinted that it wasn’t sounding appropriate or sincere and worked with the boy and his co-teacher to help him develop his own style. The final product turned out to be a great success and my favorite of the entire show.
Unfortunately, I’m feeling all worded out tonight and don’t feel that continuing about English Day will do it any justice so I’ll leave off here and ask that you look for the pictures from English Day (up any day now on the flickr page) to get a feel for it through images. I’m looking forward to a break and some traveling in the coming weeks – only two more to wait now!!! I think it will do me good to get out of Wuhan and see some other parts of China. I’m also looking forward to seeing a friendly face and doing some traveling with a good friend. I hope January is treating everyone well out there. And, for those of you in Seattle, we got a big snow day here too! So I know what ya’ll are going through (sort of, not really : )
Zai jian!
~Lillis
Comments
So did you do "Takin' it to the Streets" like I suggested? You did? Great!
Hey, so listen:
Last night was Gus's preschool's annual fund-raising thing: a dance and auction and raffle and dinner. When this one former preschool kid's parent came in, I heard her introducing her brand-new Chinese foreign exchange student. So later in the evening, when I passed this young (14-year-old?) Chinese girl, I worked up my courage and said, "Ni hao ma?"
(I add the question mark to indicate that I gave the phrase a question-y sounding intonation, because that's right, right?) She turned, surprised, and smiled. I communicated in Chinese!
Posted by: Ben | January 22, 2007 01:29 PM