Sorry I've been out of commission with this blog for a while. School, preparing for my upcoming China trip, and some technical difficulties with this site have prevented me from posting for a few weeks. Luckily I can report that our classes have been amazing! We have made so much progress, and I am so impressed with each and everyone of my students. I'd like to go back to the original blogging format now and give y'all a report of our last few classes.
During the week of February 14th, I thought it would be a good time to take a "culture class" and learn a little bit more about some Chinese traditions. We learned the story of "Chinese Valentines Day" and had fun acting out different parts. We also reviewed our colors with a new color game. I think learning culture is just as important as learning grammar or pronunciation when it comes to learning a new language. That's how I have studied both the languages that I'm currently learning, and it has given me a new out look on the world.
Last week I was just absolutely blown away by the kids. Every single student could introduce themselves in Mandarin without thinking about it. I am so proud! I'm beginning to see that it takes about four-five classes to completely master one subject, and review is VITAL. We review all of our subjects briefly at the beginning of each class and I think this is really important for the class. Afterward I was equally pretty shocked to see that pretty much everybody could count to ten/twelve and had *most* of their hand-motions down. Colors are equally improving, seriously these guys have better tones than I do! We also had a ton of fun playing the parts of the twelve zodiac animals! We had quite the little zoo going on!
I know I'm gushing, but it's really nice to see this paying off. At first I was a little apprehensive about teaching, I'm still learning the language myself, how am I supposed to teach anyone in 45 minutes a week? But now I'm feeling more confident than ever about what a great impact this class is having on our students. Everyone is enthusiastic about the class, eager to learn, and honestly pretty talented. These kids just have such a natural ability to pick up new words and such a willingness to learn about a different language and culture that they make every long hour or desperate search for a lesson plan worth it. I thought I would be inspiring them with this class, and in all honesty as corny as it sounds they are the ones inspiring me.
