Month: August 2012

Due to some unexpected technical difficulties, we were unable to upload photos while in Baotou. Here are a few now which show some of the highlights of our experience.

1. The 2012 Amity Summer Education Program Volunteers

Amity staff – all Chinese people – are in the front row. Note that many of the volunteers are young adults in their twenties. Can you find Anne & Gordon? (See top left.)

2. The Baotou “Foreign Teachers”

From left to right: Anne Saunders, Gordon Timbers, Helen Allen, Bob Jones

3. Churches are alive and well in China

We went to three church services at three different churches; each time the congregation numbered at least 1500, with the sermon lasting 30-40 minutes. In one case everyone applauded the minister after he spoke!

Sunday service with the choir singing an anthem

Gordon, Helen and Anne standing outside a Protestant church in Baotou

4. Teaching Chinese teachers in Baotou

The Baotou program was held at one of the best resourced secondary schools in the city. The school was not air-conditioned, but drinking water was available and floor fans kept the air moving on hot, humid days. Each classroom had a computer console enabling us to teach with Power Point presentations, audio clips, and scenes from movies.

An aerial drawing of the school — we taught on the 4th floor of the building shown in the lower right

Both the opening and closing ceremonies were formal events. We were seated at the head table on stage with the Chinese teachers – our students – sitting in the audience. These teachers came from various parts of the Baotou region; many of them teach in remote, rural schools. Speeches by our hosts – from the Baotou Bureau of Education and from the hosting secondary school – were translated into English.

The Opening Ceremony in the school auditorium

The 100 Chinese teachers were divided into four classes. Each “foreign teacher,” as they called us, taught one course. The courses and their outlines were provided by Amity. A fifth course, “English Corner,” was taught jointly by us the first week with all 100 Chinese teachers together; the following weeks small groups of the Chinese teachers had the opportunity to lead the class. The content included activities, games and songs using English vocabulary of course (e.g. Simon Says, tongue twisters, word scrambles, charades).

Our teaching objective was always to improve the oral English of the Chinese teachers. We encouraged learning activities that required dialogue with a partner or discussion in small groups. Below are some classroom scenes.

5. Outings

Each class took the four of us out for a delicious meal before we left. Our hosts from the Bureau of Education also took us out — to the grasslands on the outskirts of the city, where Mongolian culture is featured, and to the desert about an hour from Baotou.

Baotou means “city of the deer” and behind to the right is a statue with three deer on the top

Mongolian entertainers

A Mongolian banquet with our hosts in a yurt restaurant

A herd of deer on the grasslands with the Baotou sports complex in the background

On the grasslands with Baotou cityscape in the background

 The vast desert landscape about an hour from Baotou

Our team on the desert with our hosts from the Baotou Bureau of Education

What an experience we have had!

We have learned a lot first-hand about China and its people. But most memorable are the personal stories we and the Chinese teachers have shared about our day-to-day lives, our families, and our careers against a backdrop of rapid social change.

We are grateful to The Presbyterian Church in Canada and to the Amity Foundation for giving us this opportunity.

We are now on the last stretch of our journey. Our last posting will be some photos from our three weeks in Baotou.

Posted by Gordon Timbers and Anne Saunders

It is hard to believe that we have been teaching in Baotou now for more than two weeks! How the situation has changed with each day, as friendships have formed – not only between the “foreign teachers” and the Chinese teachers, but also among the Chinese teachers for they were all strangers to each other.

We have made friends particularly with those in our homeroom. Each morning as we climb the last stair to the 4th floor and walk around the corner to the hallway, many of the teachers await us, warmly greeting us and walking into homeroom with us, talking casually in English with new confidence.

This past Monday there was talk about the weather as it was raining quite hard and some of the roads were flooded. And each morning now we are brought up-to-date about the Olympics.

As we have come to know each other better, we have had longer conversations about our day-to-day lives and found many similarities with respect to our goals as educators, our experiences teaching young people, and our hopes for our families.

Last week there was great activity in taking homeroom class photos, photos of each Chinese teacher with their foreign teacher, and candid shots while classes were in session. To our surprise and delight last Friday one class took our team — Bob, Helen, Gordon and Anne — out for a lunch of Mongolian hot pot. And this week, our last week of teaching, the three other classes are doing the same, but for dinner on different evenings. It is great to be eating and conversing together, in English, for a couple of hours. What progress these teachers have made!

On Friday we have our Closing Ceremony and lunch with the Baotou Bureau of Education officials. Then late afternoon we depart for Shanghai for the weekend Amity Debriefing. What a wonderful learning experience this has been!

Posted by Anne Saunders and Gordon Timbers