So I have now officially started all of my classes. On week two I started my sophomore level 3s, on week 4 I started my freshman level 1s, and on the hellish week 5 I was introduced to my first and only class of non-English majors which are the only kids I have more than once a week (cue sarcastic yay).
My first class ever was my Wednesday sophomores. Needless to say I was terrified walking into a room of 40 Chinese people staring. I only had 2 boys in this class and about 4 invaders who were mechanical engineering majors, come to gawk at the foreigner. I had everyone break into groups and while I went around speaking with everyone I noticed they didn't have the book. The girl sitting next to them said they weren't in the class, and after I started speaking to them rapidly in English asking what they were doing in my class it seemed as if they couldn't pack up their things quickly enough to escape lol. So class began and I soon realized I was WAY under prepared. I couldn't figure out how to open the projector and decided to just wing it...which didn't work. Luckily my students were super sweet and filled up most of the time just chatting with me about America, and what I had been doing in china so far. I wrote all my contact info on the board, including my QQ number which elicited a resounding chorus of laughter from everyone. Overall this class is golden; they are all well behaved and avid in participation. Thankfully they're in the middle of the week, a nice break of the chaos that goes on Monday and Tuesday. My Friday sophomore's are much shyer but I can see ideas starting to brew when I ask them questions. The class is huge (56 people) so I can understand why participation is much lower with them than with my other English major classes. They're more challenging to wrangle because it’s the last day period on Friday but they're starting to catch on.
My English major freshmen are all pretty funny. I am the first foreigner most of them have ever spoken with and as such this illicit great statements like, "Did you know Shijiazhuang is the capital of Hebei?” why no i just popped over here to china, you know we don't have such information in the states, with the open internet and such. They're kind of adorable, in a puppy/kitten kind of way. They soak up information like sponges and it’s funny to hear them all repeat something I say in a whisper when they encounter a word they don't know. Then again this phenomenon occurs in all my classes, it's the only way I can tell when they don't understand something.
My non-majors are the equivalent of the class from hell. I can plan and plan all day and still have 30 minutes left in class when I’ve gone over everything. They don't care enough to ask questions or participate, even when I come around to small groups. I swear if I try to catch another one of them trying to take a picture while I’m walking around the classroom I’m banning cell phones from class. The worst thing is I have them two days in a row for two hours a day, and on the second day I don’t even have a projector. I'm fairly certain they are the reason I go to beer so quickly.
