I have been at Jiangxi Science & Technology University for 10 days and I can sense my English skills going down hill. That is a joke between Christol and me. We are talking to so many people who speak Chinenglish that we are adopting some of there speech patterns. This must stop, I am sounding more blonde than ever.
I am teaching 16 hours per week that equals seven classes. The classes are Business Communication and Writing, Business Report (the students have to prepare an analysis of business} and Business Project (those students have to prepare a business plan). I have classes on the 6th, 5th and 1st (which is quasi-subterranean) floors. The buildings here on campus do not have elevators. Because of the heat and humidity (no air-conditioning in the school buildings), the hike from the 1st to the 6th floor is a bitch.
I am teaching juniors and seniors enrolled through the Lampton College Program. A college in Canada puts this program together. The students that are “accepted” to this program failed to qualify on the normal university track; and, what I was told, they come from fairly well off families. The kicker is that their parents do not want them at home, so they ship them off here. I have to be a disciplinarian and teacher; you can imagine that it is hard for me to fill that role. Being normal, yet immature, students they try to get away with anything they can. I have confiscated on cell phone that was ringing, told a student that was 35 minutes late to class to leave and lectured 75% of them that you are not prepared for class if you don’t brink pen and paper to class.
The female students appear to be smarter (or maybe just more interested) than the male students. The guys sit in the back and everyone avoids the front row. I have one particularly bad class. Three of the guys, after 20 minutes, had not started an in-class writing assignment. Took them out of the room to find out why, they had not brought pens to class. I counted to 10 then told them how wrong that was and that they have to get their shit together. The next day I found out that after two weeks the students evaluate you for the administration and that information is factored into your one-month probation review.
The campus is set on a hillside walking anywhere is up and down slopes; they are gentle but repetitive. This school lacks the facilities that are common on our college campuses such as, a gym, pool, tennis courts and student union. One thing that is in common is the food on campus.
Campus food service is the way American college food service was before it was out sourced, bad cafeteria food. There is very little beef, pork or poultry served. When “meat is served it is in tiny bite sized pieces and mixed with a wide variety of vegetables. All the food, except in one location, is kept under heat lamps in a warm water bath. It is not appealing to see. One location on campus has a service line where you pick your veggies and they cook them where you can see. We tend to eat there once a day. It is good to see that because sanitation is poor. There is not a health dept checking out how they store food pre and post cooking. I am starting to get tired because of the food. The first problem was the chopsticks, now it is from the food be unappetizing. I went out and bought eggs today so I can increase my protein intake.
The school does have a military presence. Every freshman must undergo two months of drilling. Watching them all that comes to mind is that they are dead meat in any type of war (cannon fodder.) Anyone that tells you there are only 1.3 billion Chinese people are crazy, I would bet the real number is closer to 2 billion. Explains why most of their military training is rudimentary. I guess they don’t need to know how to operate equipment if your sole purpose is to reinforce the idea that the leaders can just keep sending wave after wave of soldiers at your position.
LOL, I used the word “leaders”, that is the way everyone here describes people of authority.
There are two malls, really more than that but the others are indescribable, within walking distance. These malls carry the types of things you find in discount strip malls in large U.S. cities or Springfield, Illinois. Both have supermarkets on the upper floor and both keep their eggs out and un-refrigerated. They both have meat products, chicken feet, chicken carcasses, whole chicken and what appear to be the leftover trimmings from slaughterhouses in the U.S., the parts we don’t/won’t eat.
I am going to wrap this one up because it is longer than I thought it would be with these final comments. These people have a complete different way of thinking than most westerners. To them it is acceptable to pick your nose in public, spit on the floor of a building and spit out bones from you food on the table. Littering is rampant (you know that gets to me) they will drop whatever they have wherever they want (except in my classroom).
Next I will tell you about the Nan Chang City, PRC.
Even though it is strangely relaxing not understanding the language I miss English radio and television. Thank God, Buddha, Sol or whatever you believe in, for the internet and WXRT and WCKG. Seems the others don't work as well and aren't worth the aggravation to listen to.
Sheshe for reading.
Terry
