It’s week 10 of classes here at the University of South China so we’re over halfway done with the semester now
It’s been a busy semester, full of teaching and traveling and lots of trips to 17 mile for coffee and I can’t believe how fast it’s going. Take a look at what’s happening in my little corner of the world – Hengyang, China.
Freshman Oral English Classes
This semester I’m still teaching oral English to 7 classes. I wanted to try something new so I assigned them a movie project – the students worked with a group and had to create an original movie idea, write a script, then act out and film their movie.
For a few weeks part of our class time was devoted to developing different components of their movie, so one week they turned scripts in for me to edit and review, and the next week they would review those edits and practice their dialogue with their groups.
I really had no idea how they would turn out – many of them said they had never made a movie before and I didn’t know what to expect in terms of video quality or acting. The most important thing, I told them, was their English and creativity.
And they blew me away. The movie had to be turned in during week 8 and we spent that class time watching and reviewing their movies. It was awesome! Their videos were so funny and interesting to watch and you could tell some groups really spent time planning their movie. There’s this great Chinese video editor that most of them used and they added funny music and effects to their videos as well.
We’ve been doing other speaking activities as well – it’s funny to watch them interact in class and have a chance to talk with them more.
University Events
There have been several university events this semester – I’ve had English corner, helped with a Model United Nations event, and acted in an English Business competition. I like seeing the students outside of class because it’s a chance to see what their university life is like and to get to know them better.
At the Business competition some of my students from last year had to advertise a product and explain a marketing analysis of their business. I was the foreigner buying their product hahaha.
At the Model United Nation event I just attended the opening ceremony and gave a short speech, then went to their social event and played a song on the ukulele for their show! If you want to see a video I posted a short clip of it here (laugh if you want to).
Other Things In China
Life in China is always interesting – if you’re looking for something to do there’s always KTV, dinner and meetings with friends, live music bars, Chinese lessons, and random traveling breaks to switch things up.
Twenty Four
I just turned 24 which is both exciting and a little weird for my mind to process. I had a great day! My classes sang to me in the morning (and my mom and dad facetimed me during class) and later I went to dinner and had a party in my apartment with some Chinese and American friends. We played games and created a new band (we’re called ‘Waiguoren’ which means foreigner in Chinese, check us out.)
It’s also fun to be in China on your birthday because once it ends on this side of the world your birthday has just begun in America, so you get like two days to celebrate 😉
These four Chinese friends are so special to me – Ruby, Emily, Andy, and Mervin are four of my closest friends here. I’ve traveled with all of them in China and they’ve introduced me to various Chinese cultural things like their hometown food, famous singers, and new Chinese words. If I have a problem translating something or need help they’re the first ones I call and I’m so grateful they decided to stay friends with the crazy American girl.
So there you have it, just a little slice of life in Hengyang – bye for now!
Rachel Meets China 