Some days I'm not sure that I am teaching any English to my students. I wonder if I am only taking up their time. Speaking and listening classes can be wholly uplifting and/or completely frustrating. My job, as I see it is to get them to speak. I do that through assignments. They speak, everyone else listens. That is the hard part actually. Some students have poor pronunciation; I can't even understand much of what some of my students say. But I am offering them the chance to say it, I talk to them about how to improve their pronunciation and I encourage other students to listen. Many are rude and don't listen well. I suspect this is because they don't understand much and don't see the point in listening. Also, students who are presenting don't seem to be bothered by the fact that some of their classmates aren't listening at all and are in fact, having their own conversations over their presentation. Sometimes this irritates me. I preach (and I do mean preach) courtesy. They seem to listen but not take it to heart. I will continue to work on that aspect. I am teaching future doctors of China this term and I told them that my main goal is to instill a sense of the need for courtesy in their profession in them. Good luck to me.

I came across this little passage in the Baha'i Writings this morning. " One reason that people despair of the world of religion is this very matter of superstitions and imitations practiced by religious leaders. When intelligent and learned people see these imitations and customs as being contrary to reason and knowledge they forsake the divine religion and are not aware that these are idle fancies of the leaders and have nothing to do with divine principles. The foundations of divine religion do not negate sound reason and true science. The principles of divine religion do not contradict knowledge and insight, except for some principles and minutiae of the law which were given according to the exigencies of the time and age. Of course, the second or social laws suited to the Mosaic dispensation and useful for the Jewish people at that time are now purposeless and ineffective and seem futile, but they were pertinent and useful at the time."



Linda and I have just finished watching the HBO miniseries "John Adams" and found it to be very good entertainment. It was a great historical lesson and was really good at reminding us of the great principles upon which our country was founded and some of which we are still struggling with after 200 years. It is great to see that these issues have been periodically before us since the founding of our country. Paul Giamati and Laura Linney are great as John and Abigail Adams and David Morse does a great George Washington. If it's available to rent, I recommend it. Our DVD cover says First Season John Adams but since he dies at the end I don't think there will be another season. Also on the back it lists it as "A British Classic" "Sing Big Sficgif" which really made me laugh - a very poor job of piracy. Now that you have reached the end of these musings, I expect you will do one of two things, go to Barnes and Noble and try to find a book about the Baha'i Faith to enlighten yourself more or go to your local video store to try to find a copy of John Adams. Whichever you choose, good luck (and may the force be with you).

A couple of days ago I found myself feeling so sad that it became a real distraction. I stopped for a moment and realized that I was/am tremendously home-sick. I told Linda I realized I just wanted to be home. I didn't want to go home. I wanted to be home. I'm not sure that going home will feel very much like home when we get there. I mean we may not feel like we belong there either. I meet so many friendly Chinese people who are encouraging as well. Even if all I say are one or two words of Chinese they seem impressed. But I feel frustrated that I can't have the kind of conversations I want to have with them. I'm not sure I would have those conversations all that often, but knowing that I can't is what bothers me. But a few days ago I wanted to be home. I was home-sick. The thing that really helped the most was talking to my brother, Michael. So thank you, Michael. He suggested that perhaps it was because it was very close to the anniversary of our mother's death. I know that this time can affect me sometimes but I don't think that was it. If I also get home-sick the first week of May I will know it is about my parents' deaths. I wait to see.

Today I went with a former student to buy a ping pong paddle - a "professional" ping pong paddle, a cheap "professional" ping pong paddle. I had no idea that ping pong paddles could cost so much. The one I bought wound up costing about $20. There are paddles at this store that cost more than $400. I could not imagine what the possible differences could be. Buying a ping pong paddle in China is akin to buying a car in America. We had to look at all the models, try out a couple, bad mouth some aspect, ask for a discount and settle on extras. Did you know that that padding on the paddles is extra and some rubber costs more than others? I had no idea. And it may wear out sometimes. But its ok, you can get your paddle recovered for only $6. It's nice to know that even a seemingly cheap hobby like ping pong can actually cost a lot of money if you're willing to spend it.