Happy Thanksgiving! from China...
Well it is safe to say that this Thanksgiving holiday was the most interesting Thanksgiving I have ever experienced. There were so many different things that made this Thanksgiving a very special and fascinating holiday. Lets first start with the students….
The Students
For the entire week I gave all of my freshman classes the same Thanksgiving lesson. I thought that all of the kids would definitely enjoy a change of pace from the listening lessons that they are accustomed too (I was definitely right about that).
The lesson included a brief video about the history of Thanksgiving and some of the traditions that we practice in America. I then showed the students a powerpoint with more information about various traditions that we had in America on Thanksgiving. But the best part of the whole lesson was showing them the food.
Turkey: They all knew what the turkey was and when the picture came on the screen they all yelled in unison "TURKEY!!!!!!!!" followed by "OOOOOOO" and "AHHHHHHH". Very funny.
Stuffing: They were baffled to say the least. Most students looked at the picture in disgust and said, "What is that? Meat? Ew. It looks gross." I then proceeded to tell them that it was one of my favorite dishes. They just looked at me very suspiciously. I told them it was basically tiny bits of bread with some different vegetables like celery and onions mixed in. They didn't understand what was so good about it at all… anyway, on to the next…
Mashed Potatoes: "It's a bowl of milk? Why do you have a bowl of milk on Thanksgiving?" Then some students would realized its potatoes and exclaim at the top of their lungs, "IT'S POTATOES!!!! But why do they look like that?" I then had to explain that they were mashed potatoes and that we crushed them into a creamy sort of substance. I told them they were delicious and that we could eat them easily with a spoon. They were skeptical…
Gravy: Loved the response to this picture. "Coffee? You have a bowl of coffee on the table?" To which my response was, "We cover our food in this sauce. Do you think we would pour coffee all over our food?" The students reacted by saying, "ewwww. No. I hope that you don't." I explained that it was gravy and that I loved gravy because it was delicious and salty. They didn't understand.
The Full Plate: I then showed them a picture of what a full plate of food on Thanksgiving looks like. The stared at the picture and their mouths were watering. All of the students went "OOOOOOOO" and "AHHHHH" followed by "TEACHER, I'M SO HUNGRY." It was hilarious.
After all of the food pictures I told the students about Thanksgiving with my family and that we typically had about 27 people at our Thanksgiving dinner. They were absolutely stunned. I explained that we had A LOT of food.
Giving Thanks: I explained that Thanksgiving is all about giving thanks to the things you have in your life and to any special people, such as friends and family. I got some awesome responses when I asked them what they were thankful for….
"I'm thankful for my parents for bringing me up" was the most common response.
"I'm thankful for all of my disadvantages in life," and I was just thinking to myself, "What? Why? Maybe you don't understand." But they continued to say, "because these disadvantages make me stronger as a person." Okay maybe they do understand. A lot of students said things like this. I was surprised.
The students also decided to get me some gifts or cards for the holiday. It was extremely nice of them and it made me feel very happy. I know that the students like me a lot because they tell me all the time; however, the cards that I got from the students and some of the gifts were really touching. It made me feel very happy to actually be a teacher.
This is one note from a Freshman class:
The note was very sweet. I love this class. A lot of very good students. One of the students is extremely dedicated and comes to me all the time to improve his English skills. I also decided everyone in this class gets an A… because of this letter…. I can do that right?
The ABSOLUTE best thing came from a junior student in my Western Etiquette class. The student is probably the best student in the class. She is extremely dedicated to learning English and she speaks it very well. She sent me this email:
Hi Jono, thanks for your information about etiquette this semester. To be frank, at the beginning of the course, I was arrogant, wondering how something like etiquette could be taught for the whole semester. However, it turns out that by taking your class, I realized that I had been provincial. Etiquette has a lot of details, manners, and meanings to be disscussed. Besides, the course gave me a clearer understanding of some certain manners than what I've heard before, like the etiquette of using a phone.
I've tried to prepare a gift for you a week ago - Autographes of Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh, as your favourite sport is golf. However, so far I havn't received any reply. ( is that because America is too far from here?) For Woods, I sent a message to his employees to ask for an autograph on his official website, and for Vijay I sent a letter to the address mentioned on his website about how fans could get his autograph. Hope I could receive his reply soon. In addition, since Facebook and Twitter is not available in China, it is difficult to get direct contact with them.
Anyway, I've learned how to behave more properly in your class, and hope you enjoy this Thanksgiving in China.
This was easily the greatest email I have ever received in my entire life. It was also the nicest thing that any student has ever tried to do for me. I had to explain to Wendy that getting their autographs was very difficult to do and that to actually get one, people would have to pay a lot of money. I didn't want her to spend a ridiculous amount of money on a gift for me.
The students are extremely sweet. I got a lot of different gifts, cards, and special performances from my students to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. I love my students, they are amazing.
A Thanksgiving Dinner? Well, something like it….
The administration prepared a Thanksgiving meal for the foreign teachers. It was…. ummm… interesting…
They had a Turkey…
At least we think it was a turkey? I'm not totally sure. Might have been a goose. Nevertheless, the WHOLE bird was cooked. So it included the head…
We also had some mashed potatoes along with bread and butter. It was a pretty decent meal. Nothing like a Thanksgiving meal in America. I was very happy for them to have done this. We ate dinner with the director of foreign affairs as well as the president of the school. It was very nice.
Our Own Twist on Thanksgiving
Our Chinese teachers had come up with the brilliant idea of making our very own dumplings to celebrate Thanksgiving. I absolutely love dumplings, so of course, I was game.
We got all of the ingredients the weekend before and the day after Thanksgiving we finally got an opportunity to make our own dumplings. YES!
The vegetable mix (left) and the pork mix (right)
And the rolling party begins...
So. Many. Dumplings.
The finished product… Pretty damn good if I say so myself.
Time to eat… yummmmmmmm
These dumplings were so good. I must have eaten 30 of them in total. We also had some mashed potatoes, green beans, lots of beer, and some really good whiskey that our friend brought. It was an awesome meal. Good food, good people, couldn't ask any better way to spend a Thanksgiving in China.
While our Thanksgiving was very fun and unique, it really did make me miss America. I wanted to spend time with my family and friends very badly. I wanted to eat traditional Thanksgiving food. However, I can't complain about our Thanksgiving situation.
Thank you for reading and I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well!
Jono
No comments:
Post a Comment