Meeting the Freshman

I had class with my Freshman. Their English is…very poor. Very, very poor. So I’m requiring English Corner, and I try to get them to speak to each other, to introduce each other, and to speak to the class. Today was introductions, like the book was introductions, and so introductions worked really, really well. But I need to send them a syllabus because I’m quite sure not everyone understood what I said, even through I tried to be slow and clear, even more than yesterday.

That class will be much more slow than my other classes. It’s strange from people who can hold a decent conversation vs people who are only, essentially, first year students.

Today as I had Audio-Visual (class 2 of 4 for this subject) watch Northern Exposure, I wanted to know if they had any suggestions. I know it was a risky move, because it’s saying “I’m not sure how to run the class”, but the risk is weighed against the fact that I don’t know what these students best need, and I don’t want first pancakes, if you will. If something needs to be changed, I want to know it while I have time to change it. Essentially, as I see it, it’s a request so that I understand better what the students understand.

I got a really good suggestion I’ll use for out of class work, but I’m not going to post it here. Official nonsense and all that. That was the only one, from Jasmine, who didn’t tell me directly, but a very good idea indeed, and so I’ll implement that. That, plus, I want to make sure that this class is okay with printing out scripts monetary wise. Nobody said any differently, so.

As per usual, anyone who has a question is told to send me an e-mail or qq me (Chinese instant message) or text me. I’m here for them. Or at least, I try to be.

Which reminds me.

LA, my Chinese name is: 艾夏冰。

The first character is my family name, ai, and the second character, xia (fourth tone), means summer. The last character means winter, and is bing (first tone). So my given name is like “summer ice”, which is actually a medical poison.

It’s so coooooool.