​Journal Entry #13: Wednesday, May 26, 2010

The big decision has been made.  My new Chinese friend who was deciding on what name to select from my choices…  Well, read this email I received from ぁ綯气钸钉

Hello Professor Steve,

I'm Hillary, and I'm so happy to have this new name. And I wonder if it is convenient for you to send the photo taken by Sally to me. I'd appreciate it very much.
 
I do envy you because you've done so many wonderful things and you are living your life with enthusiasm, love and passion. Your attitude and the way you teaching really inspired me.

Someone once said, 
‘‘Life is a journey,
Just follow your heart wherever it takes you.
Just follow your dream whatever it takes.''

I wanna say you just have set a good example for me.

Hillary

WOW!  That’s inspiring to me to think that I have made such an impact even to come close to what she expressed here.  I’m not sure what I may have said about my jobs that gave her so much inspiration or if this is just her best English working overtime!

I do get a lot of questions from the students regarding the different things I have done in my career.  They don’t understand how or why Americans make so many job changes.  Here in China people are often hired out of college and keep that job their entire life.  I explained that some job changes we make the decision, and others are not our own choice.  I tell them that if we find a job we like better we are free to move on.  But, I also tell them that our free market economy often allows a business to “let-us-go” at their will.  It’s a concept that a communist/socialist led people, even with an emerging economic force, does not seem to understand.   I may have inadvertently convinced them that our government and economic system is not so good after all.

Wednesday morning started with a reminder that I was to speak at an 8:00 a.m. class to answer questions for an English class.  This was arranged more to allow the students to practice their English than to make any real formal presentations.  Barbara Last, the American teacher, had each student stand, greet me with a good morning and some sort of welcome sentence, and then proceed to ask me a question.  The questions were a lot of what I had said before, but that was OK because they had not heard me yet.  They seemed to enjoy it when I engaged them in more than an answer, with an interactive discussion to answer their questions.

After class as I was walking out of the building a lot of students wanted to stop me so that they could get their picture made with me.  Some of the students I had never even met or had in class, but students that just wanted to show their parents a picture of an American that they had met on campus!  But one very petite young female student asked me to sit with her under the shade of a tree to discuss something with her.  I had some time so I agreed.  She wanted to talk about her career training.  She was a pre-med major and wanted to talk about life as a doctor.  Obviously I could not help her as much as she thought I might have, so I turned the discussion of healing the physical body to the wonder of God creating our bodies.  She seemed very willing to make that turn in the discussion.  She readily said that her grandparents were devout Buddhists.  She told me her parents were not Buddhists, but Atheists.  When I pressed her about what she had learned about the complexity of the body and how that could not have happened by chance or evolution she admitted that she was very confused about the concept of God.   I’m fairly certain that we do not have another theist among us now, but I do believe I planted some seeds for thought.  I encouraged her to pursue that reasonable line of thinking and to come see me again with questions about God.  We’ll see what happens?

I had a lunch date, sort of!  The day before I received a phone call from a female student asking me to go to lunch with her on Wednesday.  She said, “This is Xiao, Xiao Ya.” When I asked her American name, (because I did not know who she was based on her Chinese name and voice on the phone), she said she did not have an American name.  I then admitted that I did not know who she was, but I would still meet her on campus and we could go to lunch.  Xiao said just to meet her at the front gate and she would come up to me to show me who she was.  She asked about the other Americans coming with me.  I told her I would ask, but I did not know their schedule.  But I asked her to bring a couple of her friends as well.  I’m trying not to meet with a female student off campus by myself.  My students were not available, but I felt pretty good about her bringing friends.  Sure enough she brought two other friends, one of which I knew well.  When I saw them I recognized the caller as well.  We went to lunch at a nearby restaurant and as per usual I had to get them to read the menu and order for me.  I always tell them that I like everything but PLEASE, PLEASE, hold off on the hot spice as much as they can.  The food was good.  We had beef, cauliflower, and green beans (of some sort), in three differently prepared dishes.  I was able to use my chopsticks to pick out the chopped up red hot peppers. I’m getting pretty good with those things! We had a good discussion about all sorts of things.

After lunch, I asked them if they had a few minutes to help me make a purchase. They seemed to be excited about the task that lay before them!  I wanted them to go back to the eyeglass/optometrist store to help me order a new pair of glasses.  They are so cheap here!  I had been to this store by myself the day before and was about to make a purchase when I decided to come back with Chinese friends to make sure I was purchasing what I thought I was purchasing.  I picked out my new frames; they measured the lens in my current glasses, and came back with a price of ¥165.  When I did the math and realized that I was getting a new pair of bi-focal, lens and frames, for $25.00 American I quickly said, YES!  But my new friend, Xiao, said in Chinese, “Bu – Bu – Bu!” (No, no, no).  She went on to tell me in English that I should always bargain with the store owners on something that expensive.  I just said, “Go ahead and help me.”  She talked to the clerk for a few seconds with lots of animation and he came back with a price of ¥150.  That’s $21.95 for a new pair of glasses!  I may go back and get a couple more before I leave.  It was just fun to watch her negotiate and to be a part of their everyday transactions.  I asked what I could do for her in exchange, and she said I had already done something by buying her lunch.  It was not her intention when we arranged to meet for me to pay.  I just can’t seem to let a 19-year-old college student buy my lunch at a restaurant.  We also agreed to meet next Wednesday for lunch, but this time we are going to eat in the one of the three school dining halls.  I had not done this yet and have had a hard time even figuring out if they had such a service.  With 30,000 students I knew they had to have something to feed all these students.  Xiao and her two friends said next week they are paying, and I agreed to let them.

I was all ready for my 3:00 p.m. class with the teachers.  I was assigned to speak on, “Does the media have any effect on culture?”  This is one of my favorite subjects. They were about to get an earful.  Only six teachers were able to attend and the scheduler thought it would be best to cancel and present the material another day when more could attend.  But God had other plans!  One graduate student in English and an assistant teacher, whom I had not met yet, wanted to speak with me privately after class.  She wanted to know more about linguistics and the differences in what we say and what we mean in English.  That is what she is doing her Masters Thesis on for her degree in English. I love this communication subject, but I asked her more about what exactly she was looking for.  She gave me an example, “What does it mean when you say, someone is “Just shooting off at his or her mouth?”  Great question!  I explained to her the concept of “idioms”!  I had been keeping a list of idioms that I had encountered with my Chinese students in America.  I then went on to tell her that I even had a list of idioms that were used in the Bible, like the “11th hour,” and “casting your pearls before swine,” etc.  It was a fascinating and even an intellectual discussion of the English language, not just the same old, “Where are you from and do you like Chinese food?”

This young woman’s name was Alice Gu.  Alice asked me why the Americans always seemed to get the discussion back to the Bible when discussing the English language.  Ooh, she may have had me on that one…  but then I remembered something that I had learned when I was in college about English and the Bible and something that I had heard Edwin say as well.  I repeated it the best I could, when I said, “the English Language was proliferated more after Guttenberg and the printing of the Bible in the 1400’s than in any other period of our history.”  I explained the Bible was used to teach English to the commoners.  I went on to say that it is still the best text to understand English, language, and linguistics from one language to any other language.  She thought that was a wonderful revelation. She said she was now going to use the Bible as a major reference/resource in her Master’s thesis.  And, I thought, ‘Thank you Holy Spirit!”

The evening was to be one of the most fun nights so far.  Carey and Sarah had invited an entire class to their apartment for a party.  The Chinese students were going to cook.  On the menu, among other things, hand-made Dumplings!  There were a lot of students, maybe 25 or so.  They were all working on the dough, the dumpling content mixture, lots of side dishes and other delicious entrees.  The small kitchen had about 10 students all chopping, cooking and preparing various parts of the meal.  The dining room table was covered with flour and dough to make the dumplings. Cindy, one of my favorite student-hosts (the ping pong player), seemed to be in charge of the kitchen/cooking process.  Just like when she plays Ping Pong, she was very much in command of the situation!  The food was fun, the place was rockin’, the music was loud, and the endless frivolity seemed to delight the students.  There were seven Americans in attendance and we just joined right in with the fun.  They still gathered around each of us as they could, to listen to us tell stories and speak of the American way of life.  At one point Carey had on her I-pod (that we had plugged into a player with speakers) a song that was meant for a group line dance.  You know the one that goes, “Everybody-stomp-their-feet! Step to the right, - slide to the left, etc.”  We all lined up to join in and had a blast! It was a wonderful day. I just couldn’t help thinking, “WOW – Have I been blessed or what?”