Time is going quickly

This week is my last week of classes. What I have been doing is showing some films in class. One DVD is about Australia and the other is a popular movie.

Sadly I have been unable to access the class rooms with audio visual facilities for my Oral English class. Sure one does not want to show movies all the time in English class, but they are very helpful.

Because it is the last lesson I have not used them as I would normally do in English class, but there is English subtitles, and English dialogue and it is a musical so the students can sing along with the cast members.

In class movies can be very helpful but to do it properly there is quite a lot of planning required. It is helpful to give students information on some of the dialogue - especially words that they might not normally have seen or understood.

There are some tearful farewells too. Yes, and some of the tears are from my eyes. I have made some great friends.

It is funny though. For the final examination of the Oral English students I have included an interview with them. Some conversation and some reading. On two occasions boys - and there are few here - at the end of the class, ask if they can hug me. They will miss me!

I do laugh a little about this. Are they trying to woo the teacher a little for extra marks? Probably. But at the same time probably not. I'm hoping that the guys are genuine in their affection for me, and that is all. Rather funny really. And no, they don't get extra marks.

Last night I spoke with two students in the coffee bar, and walked about the different cultures and the different manners. I told them about the time I went with a student to dinner and how the student spat our her bones and other wanted food onto the table. (It is quite acceptable in China and is done in all the nice restaurants!) Of course I found it quite appalling. Also the loud eating of food - munch, munch, crunch, crunch - often with the mouth open.

We also talked about the issues with spitting and smoking. Few women smoke in China, in fact the only one I have seen is an English teacher from Australia. I find it very uncomfortable in restaurants, in elevators and in the taxi when the cigarette is lit up and I have to endure a gulf of smoke. Strangely there is a sign in taxis that smoking is forbidden, but that appears to exclude the driver!!!!

Even the Chinese students do not like the spitting. And the disrespect for other peoples property too. They acknowledge that there is a problem with rubbish - pollution. Of course there are waste bins everywhere, but many Chinese people just throw their stuff on the ground.

I would hope that the students at university now understand some of the things that their country needs to change. Some of the above. I learned that men who do plumbing work and electricians do not need to have training. Anyone can do it.

Which is probably why there is so much problem with plumbing here. It is common to find a toilet "broken" - "it is broken" and no one can fix it.

All I can see is that there are many opportunities - yes, for plumbers and electricians to be trained, for education on pollution, and spitting, and for education on maintenance (not done much at all!), and so on.

I know a lot of people are highly critical of some aspects of life here in China, and there are days I can slip into frustration about it. But this country has had challenges that no other country has faced, and I think they are doing well. Extremely well.

Just more opportunities and challenges. It will be interesting to watch China develop.

Unusual meat

I've procrastinated about posting some photos here, as I know it will make some people cringe. But most people know that in Asia many foods are eaten that we in the west, from the UK, USA or Australia would find too difficult to eat.

In China, where poverty and starvation have played a big role in their history, it is joked that the folk here will eat "anything" - the reality is that they have had little choice, and so their taste buds and sensitivities are different to ours.

I remember when we were first told about dog meat, how horrified we were. One of the influential teachers here was shocked at our reaction to the thought of eating dog meat. Wasn't it the same as eating chicken, pork, lamb, or beef? It was an animal. The meat of dogs is savoured by many and dogs are specially bred for this purpose. So should we be horrified?

There certainly is no discussion on animal cruelty here - certainly not as we know it in Australia. I wonder at the ducks and chickens kept in a small cage at the shop front watching as their "friends" are killed, plucked and prepared in front of them! Poor chickens! Poor ducks! But this is a different world here - and it will be many years, if ever, that the sensitivity to these things will be an issue here.

I keep reminding myself that managing such a huge population - feeding them, housing them and employing them is on a scale that we don't really understand in the west.

There are two photos. One of dog meat in the local village adjacent to the university, and the other in the wet market where part of the dog is on the chopping block. The only way I knew it was dog meat in the latter is the feet of the meat, which are still attached. No hoof - just a dog paw.

Auld Lang Syne

Auld Lang Syne in China - yes, our musos at the Banana Leaf were happy to lead us in this old Scottish song on New Year's Eve. We perhaps can pretend it was near midnight, but the reality was that it was several hours earlier - but we were happy to sing and join arms to dance this old Scottis song. You can get the lyrics here.




We had enjoyed a great meal and cameraderie at the Banana Leaf - and some of us returned to the college campus and others went on to continue the celebrations.

It was freezing - probably around 1 degree! I do not enjoy the cold and scampered back to my warm apartment and warm bed. Brrrrrr. I've never lived in such cold conditions and I don't like it.

Dinkum dunnies

Most of the toilets in homes and public places are what we call "squat toilets" not the western style sit on dunny (toilet) that we are more familiar with. It is exciting to see so many plumbing/bathroom supply shops with pedestal toilets and hopefully more will be installed in public places.

As well, it would be good to see the public loos cleaned well - as some of them are quite a challenge to "go" to.

Chinese children in winter

Babies being carried in baby holders on the back of their mothers. Sometimes it is impossible to see the baby, as they are well rugged up during winter.


Often the little children play on the streets in front of the shops that their mother or father own. I'm not sure about this little fellow, but he was certainly enjoying his activities with the game that he had to bang on the little characters that popped up from the holes.



The little children are well rugged up during winter - and we find it slightly amusing that they are so dressed that they would have trouble walking, or bending their knees or elbows - such is the thickness of the clothes that they wear. This little fellow as being carried by his mother in a cane basket - I suspect that they are strapped in. These baskets are common and carried on the backs of the women who come from villages.