Five China sojourn anecdotes

Clair Lasater has taught spoken English, writing and Western culture in China for almost nine years. He has lectured as a professor, at Hainan University, Maoming University, Ling Ling University, and Shunde Polytechnic. He currently teaches at Shandong Jiaotong University.

Morale Lift

At the end of one term, by surprise arrangement of the management, I tested one colleague's class, and he tested mine. This was a speaking and comprehension test.

Clair Lasater [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

I was not in the best of spirits by the end of that term, yet I was extremely and sincerely cordial and polite to each one of his class. Each student entered the room, one-by-one, looking quite worried. Each exited, minutes later, smiling -- some, beaming.

The testing over, I sat alone, at a table in the classroom, compiling the data. His students, now out in the hall, mingled with many others who were awaiting testing in other rooms. Moments later, I heard a girl speak, quite loudly, an appreciation of the kindness she had just received during the testing. I could not see which student it was. She kept it an covert aside.

"You Darling!" she exclaimed, in English, secretly, through a window.

My morale slump terminated kuai kuai.

ANOTHER Morale Benefaction

The students gave a Christmas party for the teachers. Attendance was mandatory. Thanks to ambiguous direction, I was not sure where the party was. I found it though, and entered the large auditorium area. When I reached the teachers' table, I noticed that the only open seat lay next to the Director of Education. I sat there, feeling good about that, in any case.

Early during the program, the director introduced each of the teachers, in order, going around the table. Though I thought it possible, I was not expecting much applause from the large gathering of students. To be sure, I was hoping only that the response I received was adequate. I prayed, silently, that I would not be humiliated.

Each teacher was getting good applause. Then, "R," the fourth or fifth colleague introduced won an overwhelmingly loud, enthusiastic ovation. I was jealous. The applause levels returned to normal, until one of my detractors in the teachers' office was introduced. This one drew embarrassingly little reaction. Her face turned red. Two more teachers, then my name was called.

I stood, to a second overwhelmingly loud and prolonged cheer. I almost blacked out.

The evening went well enough after that.

Planting Trees For China

In Wuhan, I accepted an offer to help plant trees for China. I thoroughly enjoyed the green labor.

The month was March; the weather moist and cool. My co-workers, (a different Director of Education, and a Scottish female teaching colleague), and I were fed buffet-style, after not too much work, at all. We would have been willing to work another hour or so, but we were called in quite early, by a Chinese marketing associate from our school. We had as a team, though, successfully ensconced a fairly large number of saplings.

The buffet dinner was five-star.

Trees Again

Newspaper and television press photographers documented our tree-planting adventure. The girl from Scotland claims she was recognized in the supermarket. I didn't believe her until I passed my huge hall picture-window classroom, on the way to the office. The students were grinning, and looking at me in a scary manner. When I arrived for class, they reported that they had seen me on television.

The next day, someone said our picture was in a newspaper. I bought five copies. I presented one to each of my environmentalist-teacher co-workers.

Fun Teaching For Free

At one university, I taught classes for free -- during a long wait before a belated semester. (The dean-professor offered to pay me, but I decided to do it voluntarily.) My language classes were held in a huge older building on campus.

This group of students has a perfect attitude. They are adults, going into service for China as volunteer teachers, here and there, around the globe. Fiji, Bangledesh, Nigeria, etc.

Later, during the awaited semester, I taught in a new building. It was so new, that parts of it were still under construction. My day class students complained about the construction noise, so I moved them to the old building. This was okay, because the older classrooms are great in their own way.

I wouldn't have known about this oasis from distraction, if I had not agreed to teach these early extra classes for a Chinese professor, (who is now a friend).

[The End.]

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