Q: we will be going to Sheng Da college at Zhengzhou. Supposed to be all
English major students  and no, we don't exactly know what we are going to
teach (or should that be, "perform")

A: I am going to guess, since I don't know Sheng Da or Zhengzhou, that you will
be in a university.  In that case you will more likely have around 35 to 40
students.  If you haven't been to China or seen some of the pictures, you'll
have a rather large room with four or five oversized windows on one side of
the class.  The desks will be big enough for two and a wooden bench for two
students.  There will be about 4 rows of desks and about four or five desks
deep.  In the front will be a painted black board for writing on.  On the
side and in the back the walls will have been decorated by the students with
various writing, poems, vocabulary and pictures.  The work is usually not
created by them, but is copied from something.  The floors are wooden and
the lights, if there are some, are florescent lights when they have money
and bare bulbs when no money.  Lucky if all of them work.  Usually there
will be three or four ceiling fans but I've only seen one room where they
actually worked.  The halls will be made of cement.  The lower level rooms
are for the freshman and upper level for more advanced.  That is partly
because the lower level is usually more damp and cold than the upper levels.
In FuJian Province we weren't allowed heaters so the room was always damp
and cold until the heat started in April.  Then everything was well over 90
everywhere.  Since there was no snow we usually didn't have glass in the
windows.  Several places in the floor were weak from rotten wood so my big
size, over 230 pounds,  made me watch carefully where I walked.

The students will clean the room, if you call it cleaning, about every week
and wash all the floors with dirty mops every three or four weeks.  The
administration leaves everything to be fixed or replaced by the students.
It is their room for the full year.

Since the seats are close together and two to a bench it is difficult to
move the furniture around to encourage conversation.  Often I would move all
the desks against the walls and arrange the benches in a circle.  This is
not something they will be used to doing and especially making them all
vulnerable to have to talk.  Typically the girls sit together holding each
others arms and trying to stay away from the boys.  Likewise the boys are
sitting together.  One or two boys are good and want to dominate and two or
three girls are also willing to carry all of the conversation.  The other
girls are more interested in each other and may not be concentrating on
English.  The other boys are looking around for something different to do.
Later outside of class the boys will tease the girls for trying to learn and
in how they sound when speaking.

So this is your starting point.  If they haven't had a foreign teacher, many
will be in awe of you for a long time.  I've seen some take more than a
month to warm up to the fact that I was human with human feelings just like
them.  Go for outings and design activities that are sometimes outside of
the class.  They will loosen up a lot outside and many will talk who would
otherwise shy away.  If they want to climb a mountain and make lunch at the
crest, do it and it will be a great time by you and them.  Use your outings
for writing assignments or discussions.

True that much of teaching is entertaining, but once you have the attention
make the point.  Sometimes act like Robin Williams in Dead Poet's Society
and like Barbara Straisand in the movie where she was a teacher.  Be
animated and if you play an instrument make it work with you in the class.
Chinese students love to sing.  Think of fun activities that teach
vocabulary and get people talking to each other, in English only, take off
points if they speak Chinese.  They don't know what that means, to take off
points, but it doesn't sound good and they all want 90's from you in the
class.

I can almost smell the dust in the room or the moisture in the air.  Or feel
the sweat running down my back with my shirt soaking wet (which will make
everyone uncomfortable as they watch something they never have seen).  But I
can also almost taste the jiao si (dumplings), ba mian (noodles with a
peanut paste), and a tall bottle of beer.  Sorry for those of you who don't
drink, I like my beer.

Have fun, look up and purchase books that have lots of activities.  Bring
things or wait and purchase in China, things that can be used to be
creative.  Enjoy.

john