Basketball

I wrote this post back in May but forgot to post:

Taiping is famous for its basketball team. There are three classes in each grade and in fifth and sixth grade 1/3 classes is a special basketball class. The students are put in new homerooms each two years.  So a teacher and a class stay together for two years (ie. your teacher and class are the same in first and in second grade). Before entering fifth grade students are tested and placed in classes in terms of athletic ability so that the boys and girls basketball team members are grouped together in their own homeroom class.   They spend two years learning and practicing together. I teach all the third through sixth graders and the sixth grade basketball class is one of my most enjoyable classes.

This past weekend they had a big basketball tournament and they invited me to come watch them play. I went with Kristin to watch the girls play on Saturday and then I met Shuting (my co-teacher) Sunday to watch the boys’ game.

Let me tell you, I was impressed. They play so well, and they are only in sixth grade. The girls played hard, but lost Saturday. The other team was vicious, which resulted in a lot of injuries.

The boys won Saturday and were matched up against the returning champions on Sunday. The team they played had three huge boys on their team.  They were 180 cm in sixth grade! Despite their lack of height, the boys played really clean and showed their skill. They lost in the end, but they kept the score really close the entire game.

I think the best part of watching them play was watching them interact so positively with one another. Although sixth grade is an awkward age, epecially in terms of boy-girl friendships, the girls team was so excited and supportive of the boys team and vice versa.When I first arrived the girls greeted me and they exclaimed ”the boys are winners!”. After the girls’ game began the boys watched the girls play, and took turns taking pictures and videos with the school’s camera.

Here are some pictures from the game:

Although they lost, they did a wonderful job. We are hoping to use basketball in English class as a dictation exercise. We want to play a game with English commentary and work on decoding it together. They could then write commentary for a video of themselves playing…actually there isn’t enough time probably, but I think it is a good idea.

EV ends!

Last week I checked my last “customer” out of the FuTong Clothing shop and stamped their passports…and all I could do was smile.

This semester each ETA spends four hours working in a Kaohsiung City English Village. English Villages simulate real life situations for using English. The English Villages have real looking restaurants, airports, airplanes, subways, supermarkets, etc.  This way students can practice buying a banana, while holding a banana- it makes English seem more practical and also fun. All students in Kaohsiung City public schools get to attend an English Village once for two hours. While at the English Village they travel in groups of eight or nine go to eight different stations. They get a stamp in a “passport” and after completing each station they receive a stamp in their passport. They are also scored secretly at each station. At the end the winning team gets pinned by the foreign teachers (Kevin and I in this case) while celebratory music plays in the background.  The marching music at the end is my favorite part- partially because it is so obnoxious, mostly because it means EV is over. Most stations have English games (matching vocabulary, etc.), but two stations have a foreigner, who simulates a real life dialog with the students.

The dialog goes like this:

Student: How much is this ____________?

Clerk (me): The _______ is  __________ dollars.

Student: Ok, here you go.

Clerk: Thank you, have a nice day.

Student: Thank you, you too.

What is important to realize is that while each fifth grader gets to have one conversation with each foreigner, the foreigner teachers get to have the same conversation with different fifth graders over 64  times in one English Village day and over 6656 times over the course of one year.

Understand why I was happy?  hehe Below are some pictures of the FuTong EnglishVillage staff and I after our last EV.

Gigi, Vicky, myself and Eddy

Each EV has two managers, volunteers and usually the school’s military workers helps out too. (all men have to do one year of military service in Taiwan).

This is a picture of Kevin and I. Ordinarily Kevin is my EV “buddy”, but he already departed Taiwan to start a masters program in China. This was our farewell “EV buddy” shot.

As I close this post I would like to say that although I do not think my skills or my BA degree in English was utilized to its full potential, I would like to highlight the benefits of having a foreigner at English Village. Although I did not do innovative work with the students at English Village I believe that having a foreigner at English Village does generate an interest in English for students. I have had really fun groups of kids at EV, who are really excited to practice English and be in the new environment.

Cultural Choiring

When I applied to the Fulbright Taiwan ETA program they asked for a statement of purpose. Obviously my first purpose was to teach English, but the question asked for what else we might like to do in Taiwan. Since I traveled to Taiwan thee years ago with my choir, I wrote in my application that I would like to join a Taiwanese choir.

Well my friends I did just that. This semester I attended at least one three hour rehearsal with the Kaohsiung City Chamber Choir each week. Until the beginning of June all rehearsals and emails were in straight up Chinese.As you expect, I was not always entirely sure what was going on all the time.

While my lack of comprehension was frustrating to me at times, overall the experience was unforgettable in the most positive way. True to my interaction with most Taiwanese people, the choir was  incredibly kind and welcoming to me. People would often translate for me, offer me food, compliment my long eyelashes, etc.

Aside from the social experience, I also realized how much body language and demonstration is involved in directing a choir. I say this because although I could not understand what was going on sometimes, I generally understood what sort of feeling or dynamic the director wanted by watching her face, her hands, and her general body position. We also sang repetoire in a variety of languages, none of which were Chinese. Therefore the music was telling the story for all of us. Essentially we all learned the songs together.

Although I attended Chinese run rehearsals for the first  three months the last month had double the rehearsals and all of these rehearsals were conducted in English. Why?…because this semester the choir arranged for a foreign, guest conductor to come from Norway. Karl Hanken, was our guest conductor, and he spoke only English as he does not speak Chinese. The tables turned completely. When the director called out a measure in Chinese, I often took second longer to find it as I was trying to translate quickly in my mind. The girl sitting next to me would often point it out to me, so that I could not miss the entrance. Now I was able to do the same for her! Our repetoire included one song in English and one in Taiwanese. The rest of the pieces were in Latin, German and Norwegian. Two young sopranos who I sat with each rehearsals and I formed a language alliance of sorts. I was  able to help them pronounce the English words in the English song we sang, and they helped me to grasp the sounds of the Taiwanese words in the Taiwanese song. It was a real cultural exchange, as cliche as it sounds.

One Sunday June 20, we performed with the foreign director at the Cultural Center across the street from my house. I sang thirteen songs and wore a blue silky dress.

Below are pictures from backstage:

the woman on the left gave me a ride home every night after choir and the woman on the right sat next to me and was really nice to me all semester

Pei Ying sat next to me, she was so friendly and nice. she helped me with everything this semester...she also did my make-up for me before the concert!

the ladies with Dr. Hanken the guest conductor from Norway

Although the experience of the choir was incredibly special, what was most touching about the evening was that my friends here in Taiwan came to see me. It meant so much that they all showed up and were so genuinely excited for me.  I really have a great support system here. I often do not recognize this fact day to day, but the people I have met here are so wonderful and they mean very much to me.

Fonda, Kristin, Grace, Katherine, Cristina (another LET) and Bekah all came and sent me two HUGE flowers backstage.

A group from my school came, which included my co-teacher Shuting, Justin(my school’s EV manager), MinZ i (another teacher), and ShyenTz (the military worker). They brought me beautiful flowers to, which are sitting on my desk.

Charles and his friend also came, although he was departing the next day to start his journey home to America.

I am truly going to miss everyone here. Saying goodbye in six days will be soooooooooooooooooo hard.