Teaching has begun

A game played by men on the street. Don't know what it is

A street sign in Tianjin.
The days market purchases after washing.

TEDA ( Tianjin Economic Development Area. International School. We visited last Saturday.
Building I saw on a walk Guitar store close to School. Just for you, Russell.

We've been teaching 2 days now. We were so nervous about it and then it began and I (James) was still pretty nervous but the students love us and want to impress us and want to work hard with us. They want to learn English just like we want to learn Mandarin. We'll see how our respective times work out for us. What I mean is we're just a two hour class a week for them. They have many demands being put on them. I think an hour English class may slip to the bottom of the pile when the pressures of study really hit these students. In my 1st English class, I have 32 students. These are graduate students. The majors I remember are: BioChemistry (many), BioMedical Engineering, Pharmaceutical research, Pharmacology, Toxicology, Immunology (1), and Medical Ethics (1). These are some really smart people. Some have graduated from Tianjin Medical University and some have graduated from other schools and come here for graduate school. Some have come from the south of China where they had the bad winter weather this year. Some have been away from home for 5 or 6 years and only get back once or twice a year. these are mainly students in the mid to late twenties who have been in school (university) for 5-8 years. I have one returning student who is 33 years old and has been working for several years.

I'm thinking I should try to get pictures of our classes to put on the blog. I'll see if they agree.

Today was supposed to be cold but it is the first time I ventured off campus without my coat. It must be 60 today. It's really nice out. It makes it nice to be outdoors and hard to stay in. I'm sure we'll get a major case of spring fever. Pictures will be added now above.

We are off to eat at a Korean Restuarant. I will add more to this after that. No class til 4:00pm tomorrow. That will be so nice!

We're back and the food was pretty good. The Korean restuarant was Tudari. On the little flags hanging inside, it said Tudali. I wonder which one was right? Jim's food came on a tray with sections. One had a mound of rice, then there was some small chunks of beef with a boiled egg in the middle, some roasted peanuts, some kimshi, some water chestnuts, and a small bowl of fatty egg drop soup. We had a small dish of onions and a small dish on kimshi on the table. Mine was a bowl with some rice topped with some steamed spinach and a few other greens and maybe some small strips of meat topped again with a fried egg. The server added the miso (i think) sauce and mixed it up. It was pretty good.

Yes, school has started. I have had 2 English classes and one nursing class. I knew when I got done with the first one of each I would be much better and I am. They both went well. You learn so many useful things just by doing it. So tomorrow, my nursing class will be a little different from the first. I had 28 students today and asked them to share something they know about nursing in America. It took longer than I thought it would and what did not help was the hammering on the floor above. It took all the focus and concentration I could muster to understand most of what they were saying. They are all so eager to share and smiling and friendly, it is a joy no matter what. Most want to learn better English, learn about nursing in the US and some want to come to America to be a nurse. They want to be respected more and get paid better. Lots of them heard that nurses run the hospitals. I had to correct them slightly on that. My English class went well also. I have nurses in all my classes so will be able to bring articles on nursing and health in so it should make it easier to organise. Jim and I are both curious on how we are going to test and grade. That is yet to be seen!

Kelly told me I have to try to remember their names. She remembers that I am not good at that, mixing two of her friends names for about 3 years. I am not proud of that so will try hard. All of my students have English names so I am grateful. All is well.