Our time this week was split between three different schools. The first one, obviously, was No. 9 Middle School. This was our last real week teaching, and we finished saying our goodbyes to our English students. I was extremely sad to be saying goodbye to them; it felt like we had just begun to truly get to know them, and now, in all likelihood, we would never see them again. I took a picture with my students in each class to remember them, and a few of my students gave me some small presents, or took Polaroids and asked me to sign them. (One of my female students, Jenny, even wrote me a “love letter,” which I’m going to keep and treasure and adore forever.) For my last class on Wednesday, which we didn’t end up teaching because No. 9 had a half-day in preparation for the 中考, Tessa and I lurked outside the classroom for a good fifteen to twenty minutes waiting for our kids to come out so we could take a commemoration photo. Absolutely no regrets; would do it all over again!
Meanwhile, I finally! Finished! My Chinese Dance! I’m so touched right now, and I’m glowing with pride that my kids managed to learn the entire dance. For a while, I seriously contemplated cutting out the last thirty seconds of the dance, because I questioned whether or not they would be able to learn that quickly. In the end, I shouldn’t have doubted them. They proved to me that they could do it, which is honestly amazing considering my Duke dance group took the entire year to learn and practice it, while they finished it in at most 15 classes. I’m also astonished at the dedication my Class One chicken pox students have put in. Almost every day after practice, they would come over and ask if I had time to teach them what they missed. I had to teach it to them very quickly, but they have shown an admirable willingness to put in the time and effort to learn. Now, the only thing left is to hope and pray that they won’t completely forget what I have taught them over the next one and a half weeks. At this point, I’m seriously considering sending them daily reminders to practice!
Aside from No. 9 Middle School, we also had the opportunity to visit a vocational high school. We were fortunate enough to witness a performance by all the clubs at the school, and I was absolutely blown away. Their dance teams blew our meme dance (which I am normally quite proud of) out of the water, and I honestly couldn’t believe that we really just went on stage and did the Baby Shark dance after witnessing such awe-inspiring break-dancing, martial arts, K-pop dancing, popping and locking, singing, and much, much more. The next day, we returned to the school to watch a movie, and afterwards, Tessa, Kristie, Elizabeth, and I spent some time connecting with the K-pop dance team. They taught us a little bit of the choreography of Kill This Love by Blackpink and Fire by BTS, while we taught them some of Ddu-Ddu-Du by Blackpink and Tempo by EXO. They’re honestly some of the coolest high schoolers I’ve met; they have a passion that shines through in their resilience and dedication to practice.
In particular, the leader of the K-pop dance club is astonishingly, brilliantly talented, but he’s only been dancing for one year! He’s also a fellow EXO fan, so he really inspired me to keep learning and improving in dance as well. Meanwhile, another boy is a huge fan of Lay (Zhang Yixing), and his dream is to be an idol one day as well, or if not, a dance teacher. He confessed to me that he intends to spend twelve hours a day practicing dance during the summer. These students amaze me; they’re in a vocational school because they didn’t score well enough on the 中考, but they don’t let that define them or stop them from living their lives. In fact, they use the greater freedom and time for themselves in the vocational school to passionately pursue their interests and their dreams, and I find that truly admirable.
Finally, the last school we visited was a special school for children with disabilities, where we spent two mornings. The first day, we helped the children draw and color Chinese opera singers. My group, Group B, worked with children with hearing disabilities or who were deaf. I was assigned to two children, one tiny, adorable little girl, and a slightly older, cheerful boy. The little girl was a true artist and creative soul; I was blown away by her final creation. She was also incredibly sweet, with a lovely smile. The boy, on the other hand, was also quite good at art, because he was extremely detail-oriented. He was also extremely well-behaved and obedient; he would often hug my arm, and my heart would simply melt. The next day, we played games with the kids, danced together, took pictures, and much more. I spent most of my time with the same two children, and by the time we had to leave, I was already much too attached to say goodbye so soon. I was shocked by how strong of a bond we could form in such a short amount of time with no language needed at all, as those two children couldn’t speak or hear, and the only sign language I knew was ‘beautiful,’ ‘handsome,’ and ‘I like you.’ It only goes to show that even language is not truly needed for relationships to form.
I really enjoyed being able to visit these different schools in the past week. I love my No. 9 students dearly, but I got to see a different side of the Chinese education system by visiting the other two schools. In the end, the most important thing I learned is this: no matter the school, no matter the age of the students, no matter if they are able-bodied or have a disability, as long as you put in the effort to connect with others, you will always be able to create relationships and memories to last a lifetime.