Cranes and Tables

This is over a week late, due to a number of problems:
-We had to work the weekend following break to make up some of the classes we missed during break (note that only Thursday and Friday classes were made up, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday classes remain a class short for the rest of the semester; another genius of the Chinese education system)
-I have broken a third computer. Well, either I did, or the power in my room did. Of the three broken computers, at least two had their power supplies burn out. Note that this is a relatively uncommon problem, and it means that there is likely something wrong with either the power at the wall or the power stip that is supposed to be protecting this expensive peice of equipment.
-The internet is down on campus, for almost a week, so I can't use the computers at the library or in my neighbor's appartments either.

So, I am once again writing from an internet cafe.

I had all kinds of poetic things to write when I came back from Xi'an, with pictures to help demonstrate my points. About how the rain kept away the worst of the tourists and created an irrigular ground-beat behind the performance at the drum tower (and an irregular wall of droplets in front of the line of drums). About the combination of garden-variety crazies and crazily garden-variety travelers at the hostel where I stayed (which was in the post office, and looked directly out onto the bell tower and the main intersection in town). About the delicious Northwestern Muslim food: yang rou pao mo (a kind of lamb stew), duck eggs (blue-green shells and salty yolks), yang rou xian tang (a kind of lamb stew), palmegranites, yang rou mian (a kind of lamb stew). About the way structural steel cranes now dominate the skies the way bone and feather cranes once did (at least in paintings; the name of my post was going to be "cranes"). About the beautiful serentiy of the Eight Immortals Temple. About the contrast between the seats on the train ride there and the sleeper compartment on the train ride back (and the equally contrasting prices thereof).

Instead, I'm writing about my second war with Secretary Wang. Oh, and the dean of the Foreign Language Department. See, we had a meeting on Thursday. The purpose of the meeting was basically for the dean to nitpick at the way we do our jobs: use the book, work in your office when you're not teaching, use the book, turn out the lights in the office when you're not working, use the book, hold English corner, oh and use the book. He then made the error of opening up for questions. Dennis mentioned that the books are generally bad, he asked if they could buy CD players to replace the out-of-date tape-decks, Janet mentioned that the books are generally bad, she said the movies that they want to teach are generally out-of-date, I said the books are out-of-date, Curtis asked how the books were chosen and could we help choose ones that are not out-of-date. The dean said teaching takes patience. I asked if we could arrange for English-only tables at lunch to help the kids practice, Dennis asked about showing English movies to help the kids practice. The dean said teaching takes patience. Then, the worst of the trouble-makers (myself and Janet) were selected for observation as "volunteers" (because we had asked questions about other things); Dennis barely avoided this same fate, and Bob was chosen as a third, seemingly because he was sitting next to Dennis.

When I mentioned the idea to some of the FAO workers, they thought it was a great plan. After the weekend, they talked to the head of the FAO, who thought it was a great plan and gave the go-ahead to arrange it. For now, the English table will be for 40 minutes at lunch; we will have two tables, which I will man myself five days a week, if need be. However, I feel that this was not the FAO's job. They are in place to deal with the foreign teachers, with respect to any out-of-class concerns. The English table is a teaching concern, and should concern the whole English department, not just the foreign teachers, and certainly not just me. With this in mind, I am looking to recruit more teachers, both foreign and Chinese, to work the tables, in the hope that we can run them more hours (for all of lunch? seven days a week? dinner and/or breakfast as well?) or that we can set up more tables. There are a lot of students, and they need to practice their spoken English more than just in class if they want it to improve. And if the duty is shared, each teacher need only do an hour a week, maybe only an hour a month! However, I think that this is the English department's responsability. If the FAO and I set this up ourselves, we are in effect doing the English Department's job, for which additional recognition is in order. Beyond recognition, the department should be doing what is nessisary to help the students learn English, not ignoring good ideas that cost them no money and a minimal amount of time. So I am going to confront the department about this, and let them know that I am not afraid to go above their heads.

And don't get me started on the state of English books in the library. For what these students are paying, they deserve better.