The foreign teachers were invited on a tour of the new Olympic soccer stadium before it was opened up to the public. On Thursday I was able to go since my class didn't start until 4:00 and I did not have any prep because I had 2 guest speakers lined up. One of them is a daughter of Vince and Connie , 2 foreign teachers here and the other is her friend. They were on a 3 week tour of China and stopped in Tianjin before going home. Renee, the daughter, is a nurse educator at a community hospital in Madison, WI. Marla, her friend is a pharmacist with her own pharmacy and staff. She developed a HRT about 2o yrs ago that is dosed individually to each woman depending on her hormone levels. We put my students and Vince and Connie's in a large class room and they each spent an hour talking to them. We had to switch classrooms to accomodate the size of pupils and found out right before class started that we were supposed to get this ok'd a week ahead of time. One of the Chinese nursing instructors was there and got an ok for us! I was a bit anxious for a few minutes. They seem to like us and let us do what we want, I am finding out. The students enjoyed learning something different and always like hearing native English speakers talks no matter what they say.
The tour group met on campus at 0900 and left via a tour bus to pick up other foreign teachers from Normal University and Nankai Univ. There were about 25 of us. There were people from Germany, New Zealand, Moscow, Russia, Africa, Idaho, and Japan. There were 4 teachers from our university.
We got to the stadium at about 1000 and were able to walk around the track. The grass in the center is real, not astroturf. We were also allowed to see one of the VVIP rooms. See the pics. We ended the tour with dinner at a very elegant refurbished hotel in the Concession area. The building was occupied by Germans that lived in Tianjin in the late 19th-early 20th century. There were waitresses that put our napkins on our laps even. That was a first for me, I think. Very unusual for China. The chamber of commerce of Tianjin was putting on the tour. We had a at least 15 course meal served on the large round rotating table in the center. Most of the food was really good, at least the stuff I could eat. We got home by 1310 per cab. They were still eating their last course of rice when we left and some of the teachers had to be back for class at 1400.
For all of you teachers that offered help for my classes, I have taken your advice and things are going much better. I am enjoying my students immensely and learning what works best for them. Consequently, I am doing more of the talking and am getting hoarse in the process but they are learning more and I am able to explain things as we go along. This is mainly for the nursing class. I am using power point presentations and they are used to that so respond well. It helps if they can see as well as hear what I am saying. I found out that after I figured out thow to put the pp presentations together I love doing it. Debbie, I can see why you like it so well. I still may call you for some help, though - the creative stuff. I'm pretty basic right now. The English class work is more in groups as you all suggested and their desks are now arranged so they sit in groups of 5-6 so they can communicate better with each other and I can get around them all to help easier. There is another nurse instructor from England that has been working with them for 3 years who also gave me some hints. She is really helpful. They are used to her English, though and mine is sometimes difficult for them. I used one of her stuffed animals, Wang, a Chinese bear, for a demonstration in class last week. She has a whole family of animals in her spare bedroom including a Pooh bear!
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