Wednesday

We were invited to the 'offcial welcoming ceremonies' of the school. There were banners everywhere. Flower presentations to all the teachers, speaches and the singing of our national anthem all done outside with all the students. This was really a big deal. Even our hotel had a bright red banner hung out in front welcoming it's Canadian visitors. The speeches were heart warming, but not even close to the smiles on these children. We are such a curiousity to them, and at the same time they are so excited to have a chance to practice speaking English. The Canadian children can scarcly walk 10 feet without being stoped for a question.

After the ceremonies we had a tour of the grounds and then SURPRISE!!! We were told on our lunchbreak that we would be teaching all afternoon to classes of 50-60 students each! This is when I began to realize that my preconceptions about the level of English speaking of these children have were way off. Actually, we all saw that they are very book smart, but almost completely lack oral skills - a rude awakening. After 4 years of taking English classes for 50 minutes 6 days/wk; Students were paralized if we asked for more than their basic personal information. So we played games, sang simple songs and drew pictures of words I wrote on the board. Not my best day of teaching, but the kids had fun. The Canadian kids were paired up with the teachers for the teaching, and that part was great fun. Mason and I did 2 classes together, and he was both funny and a great help. I taught the Chinese students the phrase 'very cool' by pointing at him, and his new ski-ing goggles that he wears everywhere! All the children are instant celebretities, and after the teaching was over they spent 45 minutes, signing autographs and handing out their email addies!