Today, I had a really interesting day. I went to our guide’s daughter’s school. We have a guide for a couple days and we wanted to see a school. Her daughter, Nancy, is the same age as I am. Her school is like a private school and has about 2,000 kids. It is huge complex! There are a couple buildings, a field, a track, and a beautiful gateway in. This is one of the more upscale schools. The school’s name is Green Town and is K-12. I didn’t stay for the whole day, just 2 classes. The classes are 45 minutes long and the school day starts at 7am and goes until 5pm. This is a really long day compared with my school. The way the school runs is the complete opposite of my school. When you walk in, you go to your class room and sit down at your assigned desk. The desks are in rows and there are about 40 kids in each class. When the teacher walks in, you are supposed to bow to him or her respectively. I was hit with a surprise when an English teacher came over to us and asked me to help teach the class. In Nancy’s school, they learn English, like I learn Spanish. They were at about the same level as I am in 
Spanish. I stood up in front of the class and read different words to them. I read them 
twice and the class repeated them after I said them. I could easily read the English vocabulary, but the hard part was the names. The students were learning about famous people from Italy and France. I had never learned about these people and I don’t know how to pronounce their names. I just used my best reading skills and read them how I thought they sounded. I then sat down and repeated more words with the class. The Chinese schools have very different teaching techniques than the ones I’m used to. There is a lot of repetition and just repetition. Since it was Monday, there were morning exercises in the middle of the first class. We ran out to the track and stood in lines. The lines were organized by gender and each line had the same amount of kids in it. The national anthem played and after, different kids went up to a podium. It was in Chinese, but I learned later it was singling out individual 
people for their work or behavior. The next class was math. I understood the math, but the class was in Chinese. I thought it was interesting because when the teacher said the equations there would be the occasional English word in the Chinese. Another thing they did differently was use chalkboards. I have seen them, but never actually used them. When we were done visiting the school, our guide took us to a tea plantation. It was absolutely beautiful. The tea plants look like ordinary little plants, but there were so many of them. The plants were in rows on rolling hills. After seeing the plants, we went to taste the tea. We went to the tea museum and then lead into a little room. The tea was still in the plant form and leaf form. A woman used different kinds of tools to get the tea out of jars. She then put it in one teapot, poured it in to a cup, washed the cup and added new water. It was a complicated process and it took about 10 minutes to make a cup of tea. I am not a big fan of Chinese tea, so I liked the experience but not the tea. 
The picture of the flower in a cup is a picture of the jasmine tea. Inside of a plant wrapping is the jasmine flower. As it gets hotter, the wrapping fall apart and the flower emerges. That night we went and saw the Music Fountain on West Lake. The fountain is a fountain with water spurting in a variety of ways and it goes up, down, and changes patterns with the mood of the music. I enjoyed it a lot. This is our last day in Hangzhou, we will fly to Guilin next.
Spanish. I stood up in front of the class and read different words to them. I read them 
twice and the class repeated them after I said them. I could easily read the English vocabulary, but the hard part was the names. The students were learning about famous people from Italy and France. I had never learned about these people and I don’t know how to pronounce their names. I just used my best reading skills and read them how I thought they sounded. I then sat down and repeated more words with the class. The Chinese schools have very different teaching techniques than the ones I’m used to. There is a lot of repetition and just repetition. Since it was Monday, there were morning exercises in the middle of the first class. We ran out to the track and stood in lines. The lines were organized by gender and each line had the same amount of kids in it. The national anthem played and after, different kids went up to a podium. It was in Chinese, but I learned later it was singling out individual 
people for their work or behavior. The next class was math. I understood the math, but the class was in Chinese. I thought it was interesting because when the teacher said the equations there would be the occasional English word in the Chinese. Another thing they did differently was use chalkboards. I have seen them, but never actually used them. When we were done visiting the school, our guide took us to a tea plantation. It was absolutely beautiful. The tea plants look like ordinary little plants, but there were so many of them. The plants were in rows on rolling hills. After seeing the plants, we went to taste the tea. We went to the tea museum and then lead into a little room. The tea was still in the plant form and leaf form. A woman used different kinds of tools to get the tea out of jars. She then put it in one teapot, poured it in to a cup, washed the cup and added new water. It was a complicated process and it took about 10 minutes to make a cup of tea. I am not a big fan of Chinese tea, so I liked the experience but not the tea. 
The picture of the flower in a cup is a picture of the jasmine tea. Inside of a plant wrapping is the jasmine flower. As it gets hotter, the wrapping fall apart and the flower emerges. That night we went and saw the Music Fountain on West Lake. The fountain is a fountain with water spurting in a variety of ways and it goes up, down, and changes patterns with the mood of the music. I enjoyed it a lot. This is our last day in Hangzhou, we will fly to Guilin next. Lianne
1 comment:
Lianne,
How great that you got to visit a school and to know that there are private, exclusive schools in China. Very interesting. Hangzhou is so beautiful. What a great trip. We're getting ready for Thanksgiving.
Love,
Auntie Marilee & Uncle Sam
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