I spent five whole minutes teaching a class the meaning of “extracurricular activities.” They repeated the words after me. They laughed at the difficulty that their peers had in pronouncing “extracurricular.” They competed to name examples of extracurricular activities in which they are involved. The next week when I met with the same class, not a single student remembered the word. I was shocked and forced to question my purpose as an English teacher at Zhuhai no. 9 middle school.
I re-shifted my focus to the relationships that I have been building with my students. I visited their classrooms during lunch breaks, grabbed boba with them outside of class, and excitedly dropped whatever I was doing to say hi if I spotted them during school hours. Of course, I spent a lot of time communicating with my students via WeChat. Since the “extracurricular” incident, my relationships with the students in my classes has grown stronger. I hoped that through these newly formed relationships, the students would begin to enjoy coming to class and be engaged in my lessons. In fact, I myself started to look forward to my classes and seeing the kids. Lessons were more fun, and the students were less hesitant to ask questions.
This week was the last week of English classes, and the topic was “Planning and Arranging.” Evan, Elizabeth, and I combined our classes and gave the students 5-10 minutes near the end of class to create the “best day ever” together in small groups. I was impressed by their levels of creativity. The students used their knowledge of our past weekly topics (transportation, shopping, food, etc.) to write their best day ever on the blackboard. One group wanted to travel to the moon on a rocket at 1pm the next day; they also wanted to converse with and fight aliens while eating egg noodles… This week, I witnessed my students be engaged, curious, and creative during my classes, and with that, I am content.
Last week, I wrote about some of the frustrations I have felt with my K-pop dance class. During those frustrating times, I questioned my purpose as a dance teacher. In the heat of my frustration, I wanted them to be perfect. The purpose is not to be perfect. As Professor Ku reminded me, these students are not professional dancers. For me, the purpose is to show that we love what we do. The purpose is for us together to grow confident in the abilities that we have. The purpose is to be engaging and exciting because we have had such a magnificent time learning K-pop dance together.
After four weeks of teaching and enduring the intense heat and humidity, I encountered some unexpected highlights. On Monday morning, we were given 10-15 minutes to give a performance to the ninth grade students. The ninth graders had been studying hard for the Zhong Kao – a high-pressure test that determines whether or not they will go to high school. The score they receive determines which high school they can go to, which sets them up for what job they can secure in the future. The stakes are very high for them. We wanted to cheer them up and make them smile, laugh, and hopefully relax a little. We had very little time to prepare. When the time came, we ran up the stairs and across the four floors shouting “Chu San Jia You!” which means something like “Keep it up, ninth graders!” After we had grabbed their attention, they trickled out of their classrooms and leaned against the rails, watching us as we ran back down the stairs to the ground-level floor to dance for them. After performing one of our group dances and saying a few words of encouragement each through a microphone, there was still time to entertain the ninth graders. We quickly decided to perform the “Ddu-du Ddu-du” K-pop dance that I had very recently taught to five Duke friends. I ran back to our office to grab my phone for the music while other Duke students threw frisbees and small footballs up to the excited ninth graders. We performed the K-pop dance, and it was a hit (see 8-second video clip below). K-pop music is much more popular than I had expected. The middle school students were obviously familiar with the song. We definitely got the students to smile and cheer that morning, and I hope the very best for them as they prepare for the Zhong Kao exam. I really admire how these students are able to compose themselves and dedicate all of their time to performing well on such a big exam.
After spending the majority of our time with no. 9 middle schoolers, it was refreshing to visit Zhuhai Vocational School on Wednesday. After some group bonding time and English conversations with some of the high school students, we walked around the school. Near the gate of the school, the extracurricular clubs were practicing for a big performance they had that day. I was blown away by their incredible talent. For the next couple of hours, I could not peel my eyes away from their practice, performance, and post-performance practice. The dancing groups were phenomenal, and I was astonished by the level of talent of especially the breakdancers and K-pop club.
The next day, we visited the same high school to use one of their rooms since no. 9 middle school was closed for the rest of the week. After our team meeting, we spotted the K-pop club practicing on the stage. They performed again for us, and we showed them our “Ddu-du Ddu-du” dance. They knew very little English. I told their K-pop club president (middle, first row in the photo above) that I was teaching a K-pop dance class at a middle school. Elizabeth translated for us (Thank you Elizabeth!!!). We asked each other which dances and K-pop groups we both knew, and we taught each other dances we had both learned through watching videos. Tessa, Karen, Elizabeth, and I stayed to hang out with them, and we had so much fun! They taught us their dances, and we taught them ours. At one point, their K-pop club president said “wow, we bonded just over K-pop” with a big smile on his face. It is amazing to be able to dance the same choreography as someone who lives halfway across the world because we watched the same videos. I learned later that the K-pop club president has been dancing for only one year. He is very talented, with the stage presence of an experienced dancer. Many students who do not score high enough on their exams (i.e. Zhong Kao) go to vocational school. I hope that through the experience of learning K-pop dance, the middle school students become more confident in their own abilities and realize that there are so many possibilities for them.