Mandarin Spring High-Intermediate Class

中高級班(當代中文課程第3冊)—李昕橒老師、林天馨老師，每週一、二3/12-5/29 High –Intermediate (A Course in Contemporary Chinese book 3) Ms. Lee & Ms. Lin，Monday and Tuesday. Room 512.

      On March 13, 2018, my study buddy  wrote me that he was starting the free Mandarin class for immigrants that day. I hadn’t been sent the new schedule because I dropped out of the winter class. This class should be perfect for me; high intermediate and meeting on my free evenings, Monday and Tuesday, 6:30-9:00 pm. I started the next Monday and missed one class only. 

 I had not studied any Mandarin since we got back from visiting my daughters in Pittsburgh in February. I was just getting back into the habit of 90 minutes of study per day and was not looking forward to returning to the free Mandarin class other than for a place to review and bike riding exercise. If I didn't like the teachers, I was out of there.

      Rachelle Lee was the teacher I met at the springtime Mandarin class. She said Ms. Lin taught on Tuesdays. Rachelle put her Facebook page on the board and created a group for the class  to join. I felt very comfortable in the upper intermediate level class. I didn’t want any pressure from teachers or classmates;  I could do an advanced level under the right conditions. In the new class were Sharif, from Egypt, and the Vietnamese and Filipino women I liked from the summer '17 class. I met a nice Thai guy and a middle-aged  dude named Vito. We went over vocabulary and a dialog about Thailand, and then we were put into groups of six to write summaries. My group chose me to complete our summary, with suggestions from all, and then urged me to go solo up front to read it to the class. My Chinese character paragraph was handed in as our presentation for correction. 

From my reclusive 5th floor balcony, I sat, had a yam for dinner, and cooled off after my twenty minute bike ride from Beitun. I was happy I decided to go to class. I liked how the new vocabulary Teacher Lee introduced and continuity of the same Unit 9 book 2 handout she distributed the week before. I like being able to understand 80% of what is written and  20% of words I don't remember so I could know them in context. This was week 3 but I missed the first two Tuesday classes I finally met Teacher Lin. 

     On April 1, my study buddy came over to dinner. I was surprised he had dropped his spring advanced class. At dinner he talked about why he left; he had bad teachers. He considered joining another class but the days weren't right. Before he left, he walked me through setting up Quizlet lists to study and test myself in Mandarin. 

    At home, I moved the table in our tea room to the patio window to easily grab Mandarin study material outside. I used the Quizlet list of 78 terms from Bk. 4 Unit 1 I entered after my buddy showed me how and spent my waiting time reviewing and testing myself. The springtime Mandarin teachers used Book 2 of  National Taiwan Teachers College textbook series. I considered buying it when I saw it in Caves but it seemed too easy for me; I will continue to take the copies handed out. It's a good thing I did because later in the class, the teachers jumped to Unit 9 of Book 3!The class is okay for a place to go and practice but is not a substitute for home study or a private tutor.  

     About that Mandarin class; Teacher Lee digressed form the textbook into idiomatic expressions that had little to do with the lesson we were asked to review two weeks ago by Teacher Lee. Most of the class had no idea what she was talking about; she spent a good half hour before realizing she'd better stick with the lesson. That being said, I will possibly remember the idioms simply because they were so out of left field. She even taught an idiom in Taiwanese. Most of the teachers in the free Immigrant Mandarin classes are well-intentioned and Teachers Lin and Lee don't have chips on their shoulders.    

      Meanwhile, at home I spent the daily ninety minutes I allot myself for Mandarin reading "The Fox and the Lion" idiom parable from Chinese Moral Tales. I enjoy reading that more than the mundane textbook topics of shopping and holidays. I add the new vocabulary to Quizlet to study when I get the chance. I have a few  homework sheets from the springtime Mandarin teachers that I do, too. That entails writing  which is more daunting but good for me. 

    The teacher posted photos of me, Sharif, and Vito doing our cell phone store dialogue. It was a good collaboration and fun to do. We were the only group ready after a week notice;the Frenchman and the blond dude tried, too. The French guy met me on the elevator going homer and remarked that we had the same dialogue in a cell phone store. I would have been more inventive but Vito and Sharif like cell phones and the sample dialogue was about cell phone purchases. 

     By the end of May, I had gained a lot. Ms. Lee, returned my homework papers corrected. The final presentation class was coming near. We practiced our show song. 

     One thing I didn't like was a guessing game; we each sat in the light of the projector showing the new vocabulary behind our backs and our classmates had to try to get us to say the words. It was long, awful, and stressful to piece together my classmates Mandarin explanation with vocabulary I hadn't fully memorized. While it may have been a true test of recognition, a one word synonym or antonym would have sufficed. Instead, we all struggled. At least I was one of the best giving clues to others, but I was helpless myself; I couldn’t even remember the first character of words I had been prompted to say when the second character was attacked.

The last part of class was more to my liking; the teacher showed photos and a  video demonstrating ten idiomatic expressions; she tried to explain their origins and what they meant. I  wished we had studied the stories for the bulk of class; I  have four such books at home that I use for home study. 

The free immigrant-geared classes are for survival skills. Some of my classmates, such as the young Vietnamese woman I went down the elevator with, needed Mandarin proficiency to stay in Taiwan and keep her job.  I am there for my pleasure. I ride my bike there, sit on my ‘private’ fifth floor balcony, eat my sweet potato and look at the Taichung skyline. For my graduation certificate, I copied down my ARC card and passport number. I thank Teachers Lin and Lee for their dedication, the City of Taichung for providing these free classes, and my classmates for making it all enjoyable.

Tipsy 'Happy Hour' Preschool

In 1986, I pioneered preschool EFL in Taipei with Open Sesame

     The post in the Taichung English Teachers Facebook group on May 5th said that a "Kinder Native English Teacher" was wanted for "seven 2-4 year old for an hour class, either Tues. or Sun. from 10:30 to 11:30 noon in Beitun; salary: 900 NT." I sent a Line to a woman named Summer saying I was interested and then an e-mail with two attachments when she requested it; my resume and introduction. I then rode the twenty minutes on my bicycle to the address she sent to meet me at, off Chungde Road in sight of the Taichung Intercontinental baseball stadium. We talked  in front of her brand new spiffy condo for almost an hour about my teaching method, materials, and  personal background. It seemed she wanted me for both Tues. and Sun., not one or the other, and even offered a private tutorial for her and her two-year old son she 'temporarily' named Yo-Yo.

      I had the time, experience, and inclination to do this, what could have been 10,800 NT a month for twelve hours teaching, for the summer and beyond. Their current teacher, an Indonesian named Re-mi, had to leave Taiwan in June. Summer asked me to return May 20th to meet him and the class. With her friend, the owner of the start-up, the one that placed the ad by her side, we shook hands and agreed to meet there that Sunday morning at a storefront near her condo. 

     When I arrived, the class was in progress. The teacher spurted out a string of words I'm sure no one understood, though his Indonesian accent was no impediment. He was friendly, vibrant window-dressing to children that wandered off directionless and parents who didn't seem to mind. He played music from a boom box and hopped around with the children. I stood outside the 'corral' and watched. He was too busy to look up and acknowledge my presence but kept his eye on the wall clock for the end of his happy hour. We shook hands but didn't talk, and then he left. 

     On the ride home,  I pondered how
I would approach the preschoolers for maximum joy with some seeds of literacy, too. Sesame Street’s “If You're Happy and You Know It” video would be a fixture in the preschool EFL class I was to start the next Tuesday, June 5th. I couldn’t get the audio from the Open Sesame Oxford series; Big Bird’s Yellow Book.; it was still being exploited exclusively by the Sesame Street bushiban franchises.I would use my smart phone to show videos from YouTube and a little Bluetooth amplifier in class. The Yellow Book textbook was on its way; I had all the exercise books in the series at home. The class would meet twice a week for an hour of delight.

     On June 1st, the springtime Mandarin class at Taichung Teachers College ended with a party for two classes. A young man from the other class approached me and we started talking. I'd seen his face before but couldn't place it. He asked me how the children were but I didn't realize who he was until I asked his name; then it hit me. He was the Indonesian teacher I was replacing at Happy Hour the following week! 

     On June 4th, Summer, from Happy Hour, contacted me to make sure I was coming ten minutes early for the next day's 10:30 am class. I told her I had prepared clear books and markers for the children but she didn’t know what a clear book was and thought seven of them would be too difficult for the preschoolers! I made one request: that the parents not speak Chinese during class, and she agreed. 

     The next day, my wife went with me to Family Mart to make color copies of the "colors" page from the Open Sesame Picture Dictionary. It was less expensive than making a color copy at home. The four large sheets with two pages each and seven black and white '1-5 Number' Yellow Book workbook copies were 110 NT. I'm not going to ask to be reimbursed though I'd spent about 800 NT of my own money so far. If they asked, I'd tell them. If they wanted to reimburse me, I'd take it. 

     At the first Happy Hour class on June 5th, the children mostly stayed on task as I distributed clear books, got their names, and began an exploration of 6 colors and the number 1 to 5. They loved the Bluetooth mini-speaker and the YouTube presentation of the alphabet, numbers, and "If You're Happy and You Know It" for Total Physical Response (TPR) on my smart phone. As I suspected, the smallness of the screen worked in my favor keeping the preschoolers close to get a good view. The Natural Approach, introduced by Steven Krashen, would anchor my presentation. The parents assisted controlling their children and only one spoke Mandarin during class; I asked her kindly not to. Only 5 of the 7 were there but at least three or four more children with parents waited outside the enclosed teaching area. 

         On June 10th, I was looking forward to the two hours of pre-school classes. I knew I could have fun with the children and teach them a little English. The organizer didn’t let me and blamed the parents. I rode there today and was told at the door by her husband that she had called to tell me there was no class; she had done nothing of the sort. I simply got back on the bike and rode up the river. 

         I wasn't going to make a big deal out of it. After all, I felt no pain and had fun riding the bicycle there, but my wife was indignant. She knows my pedagogical background; how I was the first teacher to bring the Open Sesame ESL series to Taiwan in my bushiban in Taipei in 1986; how I pioneered the swivel chair within the circle of desks for preschoolers so successfully that Ladder Publishing, the company that bought the rights to exclusively use Open Sesame in franchises they were beginning wanted me to be their instructional director. She knows how we raised four children of our own to educated achievement, and was there in the Beverly Condo when we retired in Taichung in 2012 when I organized preschooler tenants. She had to call up and demand an explanation and compensation for my work for them. I let her get it off her chest in my defense.

Preschoolers and parents sit around circular desks 

                                  at my bushiban in '86

     Though Summer did apologize for not informing me my services wouldn't be needed, it went downhill from there in typical passive aggressive format. It was my misunderstanding, she told my wife, that I was to continue teaching. It was the parents fault for not liking my method, one that they believed was too demanding of their children. I knew, she told my wife, that my first lesson for them was an unpaid demonstration; ironically I offered to give a free demo but she insisted on paying me anyway.

      When Summer raised her voice, my wife had heard enough, my wife  gave her  a piece of her mind and pointed out her unprofessionalism.   Summer had decided, unilaterally and arbitrarily,  I'd be compensated 1100 NT for the services and materials I prepared and distributed. She balked at my offer to ride by  and asked me for our bank account number to deposit it into; I was done with this woman. I cut my losses when the petty entrepreneur balked at paying me the 2800 NT. I’d agree to let it go without further argument.

      Once again, backward greedy arrogance in Taiwan EFL circles prevails. They won’t know what they’re missing. Their children will not get a proper foundation in English, but I don’t mind; there'll be other students to fall through the cracks of incompetence and meet up with dedicated teachers such as I. Summer's worst offence was having all week to tell me they wanted to go another way and then her husband lied to me outside the tiny storefront saying that she had. Fortunately, I like to ride the bike on Sunday morning, anyway, and it was beautiful day for a bike ride up the Han River, where the air is sweet.