Stuff about teaching, learning and bossing veggie sellers around
So, as you know I'm back in Shanghai's endless toaster oven. My pukey post-Myanmar tummy bug cleared up just in time for my intensive Chinese course, so I've not had to work on my tones and on not keeling over at the same time. I'm actually enjoying being in the learning seat for once- the teachers at my school are good, surprisingly good. I had been dreading signing up for Chinese classes for ages because I feared they'd be like my few attempts at Turkish classes had been: hours of rote recitation and worksheets with very little practical applicability. I taught myself better just by reading lots of Turkish signs and listening to Turkish music. But these guys are good- a nice mixture of non bouncy activities, drilling, thinking, and a very logical/intuitive presentation of language points. It's all unfolding in a way that makes me go, ah- yeah, I get it now. As a former beginners-only teacher, I'm a big fan of teachers who actually stop and think about how to start building a strong linguistic foundation. Most don't. God knows I've observed many many clueless teachers over the years. When you have next to zero language ability, you're not going to understand anything the teacher says if they blather on in an unstructured way, flinging too many variables and vocab at you. Variables are for higher levels, once the foundation has been firmly set.
Anyway.
So the class is enjoyable, with lots of interesting people in it. I had forgotten how utterly wonderful it is to actually talk to a wide range of people- not just D., not just work people (not that I have colleagues or anything...). I used to be a really sociable person until I moved here. I miss that part of me- she was a much happier person, balancing intense privacy with a buoyant amount of human interaction. I'm not sure what went wrong. But I have people around for this month at least and I like it.
In other news, I went to the veggie market on Fuxing Lu to get stuff for dinner and bought two bags of veggies (spuds, carrots, purple onions, cilantro and a ton of bok choy). When I asked the fellow how much it came to, he told me 15 rmb. My brain inexplicably calculated that in Myanmar kyat and it registered as being 15,000 kyat ($15 US) and I blurted out in English, "Are you out of your fucking mind??" The veggie man sheepishly tucked a bundle of chives into my bag to appease me. 15rmb is just slightly over $2. Whoops.
Anyway.
So the class is enjoyable, with lots of interesting people in it. I had forgotten how utterly wonderful it is to actually talk to a wide range of people- not just D., not just work people (not that I have colleagues or anything...). I used to be a really sociable person until I moved here. I miss that part of me- she was a much happier person, balancing intense privacy with a buoyant amount of human interaction. I'm not sure what went wrong. But I have people around for this month at least and I like it.
In other news, I went to the veggie market on Fuxing Lu to get stuff for dinner and bought two bags of veggies (spuds, carrots, purple onions, cilantro and a ton of bok choy). When I asked the fellow how much it came to, he told me 15 rmb. My brain inexplicably calculated that in Myanmar kyat and it registered as being 15,000 kyat ($15 US) and I blurted out in English, "Are you out of your fucking mind??" The veggie man sheepishly tucked a bundle of chives into my bag to appease me. 15rmb is just slightly over $2. Whoops.