Rice, Noodles, and Watermelon: English Summer School in China

By Maralie Akers

"Do you know that you have something people all over the world want""your language?" began a radio announcement that would be a life-changing experience for Maralie Akers, a middle-aged high school teacher with empty nest syndrome. Two summers teaching English to Chinese English teachers gave opportunity to see Chinese life in both a rural and urban setting, along with a unique teaching curriculum and dialogue with young adult students. Akers felt a call of God to go to the country she had dreamed off for years and live in a cultural setting unlike her American South home. Rice, Noodles, and Watermelon recounts the differences in the rice belt, wheat belt, and the favorite summer food of all Chinese.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 14, 2018
• ISBN: 9781641409629

Book preview

Introduction

In the middle 1990s, there was great opportunity to travel to a country that had previously been off-limits to most Americans. A relationship with the country of China was beginning to blossom, especially in teaching English, which had become China’s second language taught in schools. Many programs were opened to encourage American teachers to spend several weeks in the summer teaching English to students of all ages, especially to Chinese teachers of English. Their skills in reading the language and simple writing were well taught in their teacher training courses, but conversational skills were lacking. A number of programs were offered to make English language immersion courses available during summer break that would satisfy continuing education units necessary for certification but also allow the opportunity for listening and speaking with native English speakers.

Having spent many years teaching junior high and senior high English, as well as English for Speakers of Other Languages, I was ready for a new opportunity. Suffering from empty nest syndrome, the summer ahead held little challenge to fill its hours when school was no longer in session. With a husband who not only worked year-round but traveled some and worked long hours when at home, I considered several options: going back to school for another degree, taking a part-time job, or perhaps training for a new career to pursue in retirement. Since I didn’t have a hobby to occupy my time, I thought about traveling abroad, but it was not in the budget at that time.

While traveling home from a visit with our younger daughter, who was in her first job after college, I heard an announcement on a local radio station that led to a life-changing experience for me.

Do you know that you have something that people around the world would like to learn? Have you ever considered how you could make their lives better? Many people worldwide would like to learn English. You can teach them! You may call this number for information.

The first time I heard the announcement, I was driving through a thunderstorm. Nevertheless, I was interested. I thought back to previous years in Basic Adult Education during the time that many Vietnamese had entered the United States sponsored by various groups. I had taught students basic English conversation skills and had enjoyed many adults who came to courses taught in the evenings at a local community college in Iowa. But that had been almost twenty years before. The last students I had taught in ESOL were all Spanish speakers. Could I really go back to those classes again?

The next time the announcement came on, I was ready to write down the phone number. I had been making a list in my mind of the pros and cons of how I could fulfill a dream of mine—to travel—and use the skills that I had to help someone learn a language that might open many doors to him/her. The cons all came down to one thing—money. I didn’t know how I would ever be able to afford to go on a program like the one mentioned.

The next day, I contacted the agency in California and learned about marvelous opportunities to go to several Asian countries to provide six weeks of English classes. The cost, while low for that type of travel, seemed too large for me to manage. I asked for the application and packet of materials to be sent to me anyway even though I thought it was not financially feasible.

When my husband and I sat down to look over the materials, I told him about the strong call I felt to do this; he said that we would find the money somehow to finance the trip. He had known for several years about my interest in Asian culture. When I was a child, my mother was acquainted with missionaries who had been expelled from China in 1949, had gone to Taiwan (Formosa) for several years, and then moved to Japan to teach in a Christian girls’ boarding school. I had been to their home several times and was fascinated by their collection of pottery, porcelain, silks, painted glass bottles, and other items that had been gifts to them from their friends and students. I had heard them speak about their work many times and wondered if someday I might have the opportunity to go to those far-distant lands to tell Bible stories and speak to people about Jesus. In my childhood, China was a closed destination for Americans.

My application was accepted and fund-raising began. I started with my church and friends with whom I shared my desire to go. Most saw this as a chance to share in helping people so far away when they had no opportunity to go themselves. There would be opportunities to speak about Christianity, considered by other nations to be the American faith of record. Although not specifically part of the program, there would be some travel within the country and the experience of living a short time in a different culture. My teacher friends, especially those in social studies, made small donations with the understanding that I would share with their students my insights into a different culture when I returned home.

As the months rolled by that winter, I studied everything I could about life and work in China. I had not yet received my location assignment so I found a wealth of information about the country, its history, and the many changes occurring there after President Nixon’s visit in 1976. I was overwhelmed with four thousand years of history—no wonder Chinese students thought we should have everything memorized about our paltry two hundred plus years!

Spring came and with it an assignment to a central China furnace city (called that because of its extreme summer heat) previously unknown to me. I would go to California to meet team members for training for ten days and then on to China for six weeks. We would be housed in guest quarters at the national university in that city and would travel from Hong Kong through Southern China by train to our summer residence. I would be working with a team of fifteen other teachers.

A word about funds and God’s provision: during the months before I was to mail the first of funds necessary to complete the trip, I was running short of money I needed. Several friends and family members sent contributions, along with money I had put aside from my part-time jobs and donations from my church. My husband went to the credit union to see how to draw from our long-term savings account and how long it would take to receive funds. About a month before the trip, I was contacted by the agency asking me to accept a position as assistant team leader. Since I had no previous experience, I was reluctant to accept, but they believed that I could do the work since I was going with an experienced team leader. When they told me that I would be credited with a large part of costs for accepting the responsibility, I felt that I should accept. That meant that I had covered all my costs except spending money without having to borrow any money. God is good! On Sunday before my trip, my husband’s small country church held a supper to wish me bon voyage and gave me $700 to meet expenses. I did not want to accept the money since I knew that I had covered the necessary funds, but they told me to keep it because I might have a need arise and not have a way to cover it.

Chapter 1

On a Friday morning in the middle of June, I left Atlanta to fly to Los Angeles where I would spend the next ten days training. Being in California for the first time was an adventure in itself—it was colder than I expected, and the brown haze that hung over the city was the first clue that our days there would be filled with smoky air from canyon fires. Blue Queen of the Nile lilies were blooming everywhere, and tropical palms and colorful crotons made the campus a beautiful garden in the middle of a noisy polluted city. I was anxious to get to China, where mountains and sea would provide clean air and a refreshing step back in time to a less hurried pace than life in Los Angeles. I was in for a big surprise.

During our week of training, I met my team members for the first time. They were an interesting group of college students, retirees, and middle-aged adults (who had jobs with accrued vacation time or part-time work that allowed them to be gone for several weeks). I learned that seven out of the sixteen had no teaching experience, so I took the opportunity to familiarize myself with the educator’s English material while going over some of the techniques with them. We took apart each lesson to stress important elements and how to follow the teaching guide. We began by setting class rules in the first session, how to introduce oneself, and the purpose of the summer course.

We discussed the importance of following the partner plan for lessons and discouraging Chinese speaking, while gently encouraging English. We also talked about the importance of varying activities to keep student interest and stressed doing homework. We gave each teacher packets of teaching materials, reviewed student materials, and went over the schedule for each day.

We would start the summer by testing three hundred and fifty students to determine their language abilities. We would then divide them into ability-grouped classes of sixteen students per teacher. From eight to eleven o’clock each morning, we would have English classes. On Monday and Wednesday afternoons, I would teach methodology in the lecture hall. (This was assigned to me by the team leader.) That was to help students learn methods to use with their students.

Tuesday afternoons would be American culture lectures with Thursday afternoons for learning stations—another teaching activity for students to use in their own classroom. One night a week, we would have culture night devoted to classrooms set up for celebrating holidays, a wedding, and other family activities. Each American teacher had a partner with whom to plan these weekly events. Weekends were reserved for activities planned by the university to take us with students on short trips around the area. As in all the activities, students must speak English.

I was also charged with planning devotional time for team members before lunch each day and leading songs we would incorporate into classes and lectures. We were encouraged to develop activities that would lend themselves to practices in classrooms of our students. Since singing is a good way to learn words, I bought an inexpensive keyboard at a local discount store and put together a song sheet. We would start each lecture with a song or two.

At the end of our training time, we had prepared the first ten lessons for English classes, and my notes were ready for lectures I would present. My team leader gave me a schedule from years past that he would follow for his culture lectures, but no notes. He did not need them, having spent