Today, we taught our very first class- it was only a half-day (3 periods after lunch) and we were all already exhausted. The day began with a silly little skit performed by our group members, in which we acted as poorly dressed towel-cape superheroes that were assigned to defeat bad guys using English. (the video will hopefully never make its way around my social media outlets)
After the skit, we did a few introductions and were able to enjoy an amazing welcome performance by a few of the local students. The Bunong tribe are supposedly famous for their singing abilities, and after the performance, I do not doubt that one bit- this girl had a beautiful voice and was able to sing in both Chinese and English. Shortly after the performance was a simple pre-test, in which we asked things ranging from "What is your name?" to more complicated comprehension questions. Some of the students were really quick to respond, while others clearly had very little exposure to English. From their scores, they were divided into beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels.
Pre-tests being administered by Chris, Tammy, Yatyng, Lauren, and me.
Yatyng and I are teaching the beginner class, and it is REALLY difficult. We have all the punks (of course), the thirteen-year-old boys who care about nothing except sports and sleeping in class. Our students were either very responsive, or straight up fell asleep in front of us, and it was tricky to keep them amused due to the general ADD level of middle schoolers. We played a few games, the ones that involved candy and prizes were naturally those that rallied the best response. Three periods felt like an eternity, because we had to be on our feet constantly, keeping them amused and making sure they were paying attention and participating.
Each moment I spend here makes me appreciate teachers that much more. Furthermore, our living accomodations here are certainly less than standard. Our place, while air conditioned, is also quite drafty due to random gaps in the walls. At night, we sleep on thin tatami mats on a hard wood floor, which isn't quite conducive to my usual rolling around. We have no shower, only two spigots for hot and cold, so we fill shallow basins with water and pour, fill, and repeat. On top of that, there is a considerable menagerie of critters that live in the mountains, and every day and night we come across cockroaches, snakes, geckos, lizards, toads, spiders, and even the occasional goat. The bugs are the least desirable by far, and a few cockroaches have perished under the vengeful stomp of our teammate Richard, who is the only one brave enough to kill anything larger than a thumbnail. We all agree that living here is going to humble us a lot by the time our weeks are up...
The silver lining, however, is that on the weekends, the staff takes us out on adventures around the local area. The city of Haiduan is a small farming community that is populated by a majority of Aboriginal Taiwanese, specifically the Bunong tribe. The city is surrounded by mountains on one side, and endless rice fields on the other. We've had the chance to go for a bike ride around the area, and to eat at a few local spots.
From Mr. James (in purple) going right: Tammy, Lauren, another teacher, Yatyng, Chris, me, Nival, and Richard.
