I have never been welcomed anywhere the way that I was welcomed to Zhuhai no. 9 school on Monday morning. There were flowers. There was a red carpet. There were big banners with Duke University's name on it. There was a sea of excited middle schoolers on either side of us as we made our way to the front to seat ourselves at the long table in front of the outdoor stage. Students and staff gave us a warm welcome ceremony. Soon afterwards, our first English classes began.
Each group of ~8-10 students that I taught had a different level of English and a different “group vibe”. One group was pretty good at English as a whole and crowded around me as I showed them pictures of my family on my phone; at one point, they all cheerfully sang a pop song in front of me in English. Another group was wild and none of them seemed to understand my English at all; the students kept roasting each other in Chinese. I had to adapt my activities according to the energy and English levels of the different groups. For example, for the wild, high-energy group, I made them stand up and played a game that involved dancing as they each introduced themselves in English. They seemed to have a lot of fun with it!
I look Chinese, but I do not speak Chinese. An expectation I had coming to Zhuhai was that the students would not find me as interesting as the other Americans not only because I look like them, but I do not even speak Chinese. A low point was when a student in one of my 8-student classes left my group immediately after being assigned to my group just so that he could be in the group with an American who looked more different than me. However, at the very end of the first week, when we were told to socialize with small groups of students, one of the students that had been in one of my classes earlier in the week actually refused to join other groups because he recognized me and wanted to be in my group. I was happy and encouraged because the whole week I had been pretty persistent in trying to connect with at least the students in my English classes.
In general, this whole week, all of us Duke students have been treated like celebrities. The students will wave energetically to us as we walk down the halls, and we’ll smile and wave back. Between classes, the students will swarm around us and ask to add us on WeChat. Some of the students have even asked for my signature. I am amazed at how excited these students are to have us at their school, and it makes me want even more to give my best effort to do whatever I can for them. I am excited for next week to get to know the students more, and I am especially excited to move in with a Chinese host family.