Today I met with one of my favorite freshmen students, Monica. She is the speech competition and asked me if I could help her with her speech and pronunciation. So I met with her Friday afternoon. She was waiting for me in front of the main teaching building and when she saw me her and her two friends she was with came running up to me. It was really funny.
I also loved that she brought her two roommates along because they wanted to hang out with a foreigner. The "meeting" went well. We corrected her speech and made it longer and I helped her with her pronunciation. A lot of my students have a difficult time saying "youth" it comes out "yute" or "use". When we were done she told me she wasn't sure if she would be at practice tomorrow because she has to wait for a call to tell her if she made it to the next round or not. When she told me this I couldn't help but admire her. I could tell that she knew she wasn't going to make it to the next round yet it was still so important to her to perfect her speech and her pronunciation and innotation. I feel like most students would wait for the call and then if they made it to the next round they would work on their speech and everything else.
Tonight Henry, Alicia and I went to the night market to get shaokao (Chinese BBQ). We decided we should go as many times as possible before it gets too cold to eat outside. After dinner we came back to my apartment and Fran came over to have drinks with us. I don't know if I have introduced Fran but Fran is older (around Renta and Ian's age) and from Tennessee. She teaches at the middle school here in Ma'anshan.
I asked if anyone wanted popcorn and Fran almost fell out of her seat with excitement. So I sent her home with 4 bags of popcorn. I figured since I was going back to HK next weekend I could get some more!
Overall it was a fun night! Fran invited us all over for Italian food on Sunday. Her school does an exchange program and there is an Italian girl there who is 17 that Fran has sort of taken under wing. Her name is Geraldina and she stays with a Chinese host family and has ZERO freedom. So Fran tries to get her out of the house as much as possible. I can't wait to meet her Sunday. Maybe I'll forget about learning Chinese and just learn Italian from her!
I also loved that she brought her two roommates along because they wanted to hang out with a foreigner. The "meeting" went well. We corrected her speech and made it longer and I helped her with her pronunciation. A lot of my students have a difficult time saying "youth" it comes out "yute" or "use". When we were done she told me she wasn't sure if she would be at practice tomorrow because she has to wait for a call to tell her if she made it to the next round or not. When she told me this I couldn't help but admire her. I could tell that she knew she wasn't going to make it to the next round yet it was still so important to her to perfect her speech and her pronunciation and innotation. I feel like most students would wait for the call and then if they made it to the next round they would work on their speech and everything else.
Tonight Henry, Alicia and I went to the night market to get shaokao (Chinese BBQ). We decided we should go as many times as possible before it gets too cold to eat outside. After dinner we came back to my apartment and Fran came over to have drinks with us. I don't know if I have introduced Fran but Fran is older (around Renta and Ian's age) and from Tennessee. She teaches at the middle school here in Ma'anshan.
I asked if anyone wanted popcorn and Fran almost fell out of her seat with excitement. So I sent her home with 4 bags of popcorn. I figured since I was going back to HK next weekend I could get some more!
Overall it was a fun night! Fran invited us all over for Italian food on Sunday. Her school does an exchange program and there is an Italian girl there who is 17 that Fran has sort of taken under wing. Her name is Geraldina and she stays with a Chinese host family and has ZERO freedom. So Fran tries to get her out of the house as much as possible. I can't wait to meet her Sunday. Maybe I'll forget about learning Chinese and just learn Italian from her!
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