Summer Camp 2004

Andrew Publicover (Maryland), Kathy Kravitz (Pennsylcania) and Debra Legters (Detroit), three American teachers who taught at No 1 School. The others all taught at JuniorMiddle School No. 5 and later at ShenTao.

Since my arrival in China I have learned many things, one of which is, that nothing is well planned here, or if it is, you (anyone not immediately involved in the planning) will not be told about it until the last minute. I could give you example after example of this, and it is something which the Americans who came to No 1 School for Summer Camp experienced for themselves.

I made sure right from the commencement of term to constantly mention that I was not teaching any summer camps but was going to Beijing to study Putonghua (mandarin).

It nevertheless still came as a surprise to me in May, when I was told by a teacher during OUR discussion on which is the best place to go and study Putonghua, that I would not be able to study for the whole summer, as I would be teaching in the Summer Camp at our school.

Chinese is a difficult language to learn, only because words sound alike and are written the same in Ping Ying (English alphabet), but each has a different inflection or tone. In Chinese characters of course, they are all different. An example of this in English might be for instance, 'I am going to present this present to the manager'. There is a pronunciation difference between the two words that are written the same and sound alike.  In Chinese, this occurs with each word, for each 'word' can be inflected 4 different ways.

'Wo mai dong xi' in Chinese, and without the 'accent' points, could be, I'm 'buying/ burying/ selling' something. You have to get it right. 

I really wanted to go to Beijing and get all of this stuff down pat, before trying to expand my vocabulary base. But as it turned out I was required to teach during summer. "But it is all arranged with the JingZhou government and the education department and this school!" (Don't worry about me boys - I'm Chinese. I always just sit around waiting for someone to tell me what to do with my life!)

Debbie (the foreigner) talking with teachers in the teachers office during camp, and one of her associates at Chibi pretending to be Chinese.

When I had my appointment with the Education Department, they told me that I was desperately needed, because they would lose face if the Americans arrived and found the 'local foreigner' was not teaching here. Of course from the western perspective, it makes no difference, but I could not explain that to them.

They told me that I would earn 6000 RMB for 4 weeks. Wonderful, except that the course crossed over the July and August camps in China, and so I would not be able to earn up to 18,000 yuan working in two other camps (had I wanted to earn money). Additionally, the pay rate was much lower than they are supposed to pay, never mind that it is against the law for teachers to teach during summer.

Crystal on the left and Diana on the right. Mandarin teachers. Composite photo with me cut out.

I finally agreed for two reasons. The first was that I was required to teach teachers, and I felt that if I could accomplish something with them, it would benefit their students.

My second reason for agreeing, was that they agreed to provide me with Putonghua lessons. Of course they never did organise this. That was left to my co-ordinator to arrange after the camp started and I mentioned that this had not been arranged. He organised two of my students to give me classes in my home.

Crystal and Diana came to my home most afternoons after class, and were soon joined by Chen Yang and Chen Bao Cai both of whom wanted to improve their English.

Chen Yang's mother turned out to be the owner of the dry cleaning store where I take my clothes. Bao Cai had previously been my brother's student, but beyond that I know nothing of him, except that he moved out of his temporary accommodation at his friend's place and moved into mine. (If you have been following my stories you will understand this).

When Summer break commenced, my boarders Xie Qin Chao and Zhang Ming Xing (who had completed their last year at school) went off to TianJin and Feng Kou respectively, and Zhan Yan my other (14 year old Junior Middle School) boarder had to move back home, because he had a summer camp of his own to attend.

Zhan Yan (14 yrs) and Chen Bao Cai (16 yrs) in our communal bed on the lounge room floor. Such a cute photo. They are real angels (when asleep).

I was so pleased when all the boys were gone, because I finally had the house to myself. I was desperately in need of a rest. When my friend Tobias found out that I was alone, he gallantly offered to come and stay with me to keep me company. I agreed to let him come and stay, if first I could have one week on my own. It was settled.

The week on my own however turned out to be a week of every man and his dog coming to my home early in the morning to visit, or arriving before first class so that they could escort me to school, or coming to my home at lunch time to talk, or dropping in during the evenings to improve their English. I was beginning to go crazy.

By week three, fourteen of the seventeen Americans travelling with 'our' three foreign teachers, had their duties canceled at No. 5 Middle School.

Their 600 students turned out to be somewhat less in number than that, and most of them hadn't paid. So while three teachers remained at No 5 Middle School the others got sent to ShenTao, which, while a part of Hong Hu, is a town about an hour's drive away.

With Zhan Yan's classes canceled, he moved back to my place. Then Chen Bao Cai moved in to sleep with Zhan Yan and I on the floor, while Tobias slept in the bed in the spare room.

Add this company to my 4 daily classes, plus my putonghua lessons, and all the visitors, is it any wonder that I would explode every time someone asked 'Do you ever get lonely?' I could only wish! I was quickly becoming sleep deprived.

Chinese people can sleep anywhere at anytime irrespective of the noise going on around them, and never mind being woken up by someone who just wants to ask them a question. My boarders often ask, "Why do you foreigners always like to sleep so much?" I can just about scream when I hear this question too. But let's go back to the beginning.

A shot I took of my class preparing for our class photo. These are junior middle school teachers who love improve their speaking BY LISTENING.

In the weeks leading up to the Summer Camp, the only information that I could get was that the camp would start on July 10th and run through until August 8th.

Of course there were to be meetings before the camp started, and I would have to do PR work with the foreigners. But here I was, having finished school, with three weeks to go until the camp started, and no information.

On July 1st I decided to disappear, and went to TianJin in the North East of China. (You can read about this in a future story).

I arrived back in Hong Hu on July 9th, the day before the start of Camp, and was handed a class schedule by my brother, who had come to Hong Hu and was staying in my house.

The schedule told me which classes I would be doing everyday, but didn't tell me the times or where the classes were located. That night I received a telephone call from my co-ordinator, who advised me that there was a meeting at 8:30 am next morning, and my presence was required.

This is a ground shot of the mosaic at Yellow Crane Tower, shown from the upper floors in the article at KingsCalendar.com. Taken during the 'free weekend' escape to Wuhan.

At 7:45 am another teacher arrived to tell me that the meeting was at 8am. I was at that time helping my brother move 'his' furniture out of my house and into a truck his father-in-law had brought to remove it.

I deliberately took my time and turned up at the auditorium at 8:15 am to discover no one was there, so I returned home for a coffee. At 8:35am I was back at the auditorium to discover it completely full of people, and a meeting under way.

Up on the dais I could see the 'foreigners'. When I saw some furtive gesturing directing me to come to the platform, I disappeared from view, and bided my time until the meeting was over.

Ten minutes before that occurred however, a convoy of buses and taxi's arrived bearing the 'prized trophies'. Seventeen Americans alighted from the convoy and with due ceremony were paraded before the assembled throng, who despite their anti American sentiments, clapped and cheered.

It was a wonderful spectacle, one which I'm sure might have been more enjoyable for the 'pet foreigners', had anyone bothered to translate any of the speeches into English, or had they been provided with English Transcripts. "Ah but it doesn't matter, it is not important." It certainly bode well that all these people were English teachers who needed the speeches to be delivered in Chinese.

After the ceremonies were complete, I went to the side door to meet with one of the camp leaders, who duly introduced me to the 'foreigners'. Their greetings were less than enthusiastic, but that I soon realised, was because they were trying to find out what the hell was going on.

You see, firstly they had been in town for one whole week with nothing to do, and then, despite being informed that their first teaching day would be the following day (Sunday), they had been awoken early this morning and told to attend 'a meeting', and now, having attended the meeting, they had been informed that they were to immediately proceed to their first classes. It was, I think, just a little bit too much. Finding my presence uncalled for, I proceeded to class, but not before I heard one foreigner saying, 'But we can't stay for the whole course. We have to leave town on August 2nd'. "Mmmmm, I thought. Everything is as normal in Hong Hu."

Top shot was taken by Zhang Ming Xing on the barge crossing to Chibi town: The bottom photos shows the foreigners at the Museum fort at Chibi. Entrance price is now 40 RMB.

I had a chance later in the day to talk to the foreigners, and offered to give them copies of some of my own material, from which they might glean something that they could use in their classes. Oh! Did I mention it? They had been dumped into their classes with no materials, no teaching program, no nothing. They just had to sink or swim. 'Welcome to China!'.

That night I went to their hotel with the promised material, and had the opportunity to meet the other foreigners who would be teaching at No. 5 Junior Middle School. The common theme from the foreigners that night was that they had been left to rot in their hotel rooms for a week, without the benefit of being shown around, and with apparently a variety of rules about how and when they were to go out on their own.

I organised for my boarder Zhang Ming Xing to take them to Chibi the next day, and I think about nine of them went and had a lovely day despite the rain. Unfortunately, their trip out of town upset the officials and organisers of the tour, and some bums got kicked for letting them go.

If there is one thing I keep telling my school it is this, 'You have to stop treating foreigners as though they are Chinese. You have to make the effort to understand who they are and why they have come here.'

Already this year my school has lost two prospective teachers for this school because they simply cannot move their butts. They think foreigners should be like Chinese and just sit around waiting for someone to tell them what to do.

Anyway, I did have several talks with officials to try and impress on them that the foreigners at least should be taken for a few drives, taken to the lake, taken for a picnic or something. Someone must have listened because they did organise a trip to the lake and another place.

Picturesque views of the Chibi countryside, the sight of the three kingdoms battle which was primarily a naval affair.

The foreigners have their own impressions of what life is like in Hong Hu, and despite the observations shared with me, they undoubtedly found my behaviour shocking (on at least one occasion), but I have been here too long to allow myself to be treated like a circus attraction, and have learned not to suffer fools gladly.

If they are reading this, they can be assured that the teachers found them to be very nice people, and admired them greatly. Not like my lot who complained that the Americans did not correct speaking mistakes, so I should not do it either.

This is Chen Yang on the way up the stairs to his mother's apartment, and on the roof, one can find the kitchen. How I wish I had such a big kitchen.

For my money, the Camp was an utter waste of time and energy that not only robbed me of my chance to spend two straight months studying in Beijing, but has destroyed every last vestige of personal 'hope' for China's future. 'Childlike' hardly begins to describe the mentality of the teachers, and I finished camp thinking that the old chairman did not 'pick off' enough people when he was alive (if you catch my drift).

I can't help but think that the government of China is wrong to force students to learn English. There is far far too much cultural baggage attached to the process, not to mention cultural barriers that must come down if students are to be successful.

One of my successes was Chen Yang. When I asked him if he had improved since being in my class, he answered with a definitive 'Yes!'.

When I asked him to elaborate, he explained that before my class, he never spoke with people in English. Notice that he did not say, 'you improved my vocab or pronunciation', but that he finally found his voice. And that is all it takes.

One very good English Speaker, Shelly, thanked me for teaching her how to change the direction of a conversation.

She said that it often frustrated her that she did not know how to turn a boring conversation into an interesting one, but that she had learned the process through what I taught. I'm glad that she learned what I was teaching, and glad that not everyone wasted their opportunity to learn something.

As already mentioned, my house filled up with people, and during this period I spent a lot of time with Crystal and Diana, as well as Tobias, Chen Yang and Bao Cai. I enjoyed many a dinner in restaurants, either as host or guest, as well as dinner in Chen Yang's home, which, as mentioned in another article, offers fantastic views (I think) of Hong Hu.

Some views from the roof of Chen Yang's house.

That first week of camp I was very anxious about teaching as I was certain that the teachers would hate me. As stated, it was my intention to actually 'improve' them so that they would not pass on common mistakes to their students. That first week went Ok, but by the end of the second week I was beginning to feel not only sleep deprived but depressed.

After 13 days straight I got two days off, and decided to escape to Wuhan. I was looking forward to some, peace, some quiet, some solitude, and some sleep. But Oh No! Murphy's law decided to step in. Zhan Yan it seems had no where to stay that weekend as his mother was away, and so he came with me.  There was this memorable moment when I really thought about teaching him how to 'fly' - from a hotel window sixteen floors up!

The most memorable part of the trip occurred between our checking out of the hotel and catching the bus home. We went to HuangHeLou or Yellow Crane Tower, photos of which can be viewed at KingsCalendar.com at: http://www.kingscalendar.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?action=viewnews&id=133

Top shot is of some traditional buildings on the other side of the road from Yellow Crane Tower. The main road is under those trees. Bottom photo is of a model of the place.

By the end of the third week of camp I was really sick of being there, and could not wait to leave. The teachers I was teaching were just like the students. They want to improve their speaking, BUT THEY DON'T WANT TO SPEAK. They say they want to learn, but they don't want to listen.

They love to make suggestions, but these suggestions usually mean that you should make the OTHER students do this or that. They don't actually want to do it themselves. 

I told the American visitors that nobody really cared what they did in their classes, for as long as you make everyone feel good, then they are happy, and you are a good teacher.

That final week after the foreigners left, I had three days of teaching not just my two classes, but three of theirs. The first two days were OK, but on the third day, I got so angry that I walked out of 4 of my 5 classes within 20 minutes. The fifth class spent the lesson singing Auld Lang Syne and You Take the Highway (with Scottish accent mind you). It was a lot of fun but a waste of time as an English Lesson.

The fact of the matter is that the mainland Chinese people won't do anything unless they are forced. They were forced to come to camp, but unless one forces them to speak, they won't. On the other hand, as any of them will tell you, foreigners have no right to force Chinese people to do anything. Catch 22!

I told my last class (Class 7) that they were stupid. 'Stupidity' I told them, 'is when you have intelligence but refuse to use it. You all have intelligence and training, but you act as though you have none!' I told them in common Aussie language what they could do with themselves, and left the class.

You can disapprove if you like, but the reality is that foreigners are like the natives. They smile, and are polite, and lie through their teeth. The foreigners go to class, do whatever is necessary to justify their salary, take their pay, and go. It is not worth the effort to fight the system. Me! I fight! I fight everyday! Just like Mao Ze Dong!

The people of China cannot boast of being proud to be Chinese, and that China is the greatest country on the earth, if at the same time they refuse to do what the government and the law and the education department says that they must. They must study English, and they must learn to speak it. The failure in speaking ability has led to some changes in the system that will see many students fail their oral exams if they don't get off their backsides and start speaking.

Here she is! Mother having lunch in her kitchen. Bottom Photo: Look at the size of that guy beside the tree. Not all Chinese are small.

Anyone can teach a bird to speak, but that doesn't mean the bird understands what it says. I refuse to have parrots in my class, nor infants for that matter.

Anyway, enough gripes. I am grateful to Chen Yang for his invitations to go swimming in the local swimming hole, http://www.kingscalendar.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?action=viewnews&id=136 and to his mother for all the invitations to lunch and dinner. Combined with meals in restaurants with me as host or guest, I did manage not to go completely crazy.

When classes finally finished, I kicked everyone out of my home and locked myself in for 3 days. I slept, I cleaned, and I reorganised my house.  When I finally emerged, it was to arrange a trip to PuQi, to interview the catholic priests there, and to make inquiries about PuQi adoptees who are growing up in America.

At the time this article was written, I am waiting to leave for YiChang and the Three Gorges Dam, where I will spend 3-4 days before going on to Wuhan and perhaps JingZhou.

I will later on provide photographic articles on these upcoming adventures, but for now, I'm just going to leave you with some additional photographs. I hope you have enjoyed this insight into the frustrations of living in China.

Additional Reading:http://magic-city-news.com/article_1869.shtml

ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHS:

On our way to the local river to swim. On this my second visit, the water had receeded and we could walk on dry ground.

TOP: Modesty prevails. ChenYang with his mother to the left and some white jocks to the right background. BOTTOM: In the red shirt and half dressed is Chen Bao Cai and the white man in the foreground in my friend Tobias. Not all Chinese are yellow when they take off their shirts.

At the local swimming 'pool' as they call it. Yes please! Take my photo! Me too! Thank god it was a digital camera.

Just a regular scene in the river on a hot afternoon. Lots of men in the wet jocks sitting around on someone's boat. It doesn't matter!

Two views of Chen Yang's mother and her friend, manouvering through the flooded forest.

Top shot show the lock that keeps this river from being flooded by the Yangtze which is on the other side. Bottom photo is of a house boat. Yes! They have them in China, although not usually this modern.

Top photo is a dry daytime view of a shot taken at night displayed at KingsCalendar. The bottom shot is of a 'pool table'?

Day and night views of Chen Yang's roof top garden and meal room.

Another series of shots looking over the rooftops of Hong Hu. Take a look at the top left photo. There is a pink and white building in the background. In the early 'view over the rooftops' there is a shot of two men working inside some windows. This shot shows you how high up they were. There kept crawling out onto the ledges - no harnasses!

On the banks of the Yangtze River, traditional life goes on. Probably didn't even notice the foreigners.

Views on my way to Wuhan to escape from the Teachers at camp. Being harvest time, the roadway is used as a drying and threshing ground, which makes for some interesting manouvering.

A terra cotta warrior from the Museum at Chibi.

POST SCRIPT: ... Thanks to those who have been emailing me. In the August 8th article on Western Socialisation versus Life in China I made a comment about our cultural perceptions ... Our western perceptions of right and wrong are not necessarily shared by people of 'other' cultures, and in fact, may not at all have anything to do with morality or righteousness 'per se', but perception, and that, not just a personal thing, but something engineered by some 'vested interest' ... and it is interesting to note the range of email comments that go from accusing me of being a racist to those that thanked me for presenting 'life as it is'. What you receive when you read my articles has more to do with your personal 'perceptions' than what I write.

For those of you who missed seeing my real agenda, it was this: We should get our heads out of the clouds and look at real life, as it really happens. It is one thing to have high ideals, it is another to live in the real world.

Next week I take you to PuQi in my pursuit to learn something about PuQi Adoptees that now live in America, and something about Roman Catholicism in China.

R.P.Bendedek

rpbendedek@hotmail.com

Note: Because of a change of Servers some links within articles no longer work. This file was amended August 2007.
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R.P.BenDedek is the pseudonym of the Author of 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran' (www.kingscalendar.com), and he is a guest columnist at Magic City Morning Star News. An Australian, he currently teaches Conversational English in China. Other Stories can be found at:  http://www.kingscalendar.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?action=viewnews&id=128