Debate Club

Sophie & Felicity--The two students I am coaching from Qufu Normal University who will compete at the FLTRP Cup National English Debate Competition in Beijing.

This semester I was asked to coach the debate team at our university. There has been quite a learning curve for me as I have worked to learn the British Parliamentary Procedure and understand difficult issues facing China. We have been practicing a couple of days each week with about 20-30 students. Last night we had a big campus competition where we chose our two best debaters to compete in Beijing. The competition will be held May 7th-14th. I am excited to attend the competition and coach the students as they compete against universities all across China and discuss hot topics that impact China and the world.

More about the English debate competition: http://www.chinadebate.org/

Winning competitors with the coaches and judges.

Top 8 Debaters that participated in the campus debate competition

Oh What a Night!

Last night Chip had an Italian dinner for one of his classes. It is QingMing Jie (Tomb Sweeping Festival) so we have a holiday from classes, and as a result, many of his students forgot that they had signed up to come over for dinner. Only three students showed up, and we had made a ton of spaghetti, Italian potatoes, and garlic bread. We encouraged the girls to call their roommates and friends to come over since we had so much food. Then we ended up with a crowd! We scrurried around to find more plates, forks, and cups. They finished off all the food, so there was just enough for everyone.

Towards the end of dinner, one of the students said to me, "One of my roommates is gone for the holiday, do you want to spend the night?" Chip pointed out that this may be a once in a lifetime opportunity, so I said yes! I brushed my teeth, grabbed my pillow, and headed to the dormitory for the night.

Me and my roommates for the night!

I popped in a few of my students rooms down the hallway. I got the same response everywhere I went: First, surprise at seeing me in the dorm. Shock at hearing I would spend the night! Second, embarrassment that their room was not cleaner. Third, concern for Chip alone at home.

Just one of the girls!

Qufu Lately

We haven't blogged in awhile. Classes have been busy, relationships with students are going deeper, but I haven't taken as many photos. So here is what I've got--quite the random assortment of shots on my camera.
Hopefully it will give you a glimpse of Qufu lately.

Why are Asian kids so darn cute?!


Spring has sprung! We are seeing budding and lots of green.

Our teammate, Alison's parents came to visit this week and we ate many large meals!

I would like to title these photos: "Qufu Always"
In a culture with a high appreciation for hot water, there are always thermoses around campus, there are always events happening that we don't understand and others can't seem to explain (like the crowd all dressed as Confucius below) and with two foreign teachers in one apartment, there are always students in our home.

Traditional Chinese Tea

Some of my students came over to share traditional Chinese tea with me. The cups are little, but you drink many cups! The first cup has the most flavor. You continue straining hot water through the leaves until there is no more color. Each progressive cup is a bit weaker than the one before . (Which was a good thing in my opinion because the first cup tasted like the smell of a perm in a salon).

I plan a lot of events for students. I thought it was great that these students planned an event for me. These two sophomores both have excellent English, and it was a delight to spend the afternoon with them.

Wedding Week

We taught "American Weddings" this week in Sophomore Western Culture class. Chip teaches two sections, and I teach three so together we celebrated five weddings this week. Each class had a bride, groom, bridesmaids, groomsmen, ring bearer, flower girl, singer, parents of the couple, and preacher.

Each bride wore a lovely dress made of toilet paper.

Wedding Party

The "father" giving away the bride
(At our school, English majors are mostly females so we had few male options.)

The flower girl threw fake flowers in the air!

The Wedding Ceremonies

Blowing bubbles to whisk away the bride and groom

Reception Party


The toast and speeches by the best man and maid of honor

Catching the garter!

Cake Cutting (and feeding)

Dancing at the reception (Cha-Cha Slide)

For those tremendously interested, there is an edited video of one of the weddings and some reception highlights.

Freshmen Listening

Listening class. Not exactly the best idea for a class, I don't think. It's a bit boring. Basically, my students wear headphones for two hours listening to English speakers and filling in blanks or multiple choice bubbles. Of course, listening skills are important, and my freshmen could sure use the practice, but I am trying to find more interesting ways of improving their listening by supplementing with commercials, YouTube videos, songs, comedians, and reading aloud a chapter from a mystery novel each week (The Westing Game). If you have any great ideas, e-mail me!

My favorite part of this new class is being able to teach freshmen. There is a world of difference in English level between my freshmen and sophomores! What I like about them is their innocence. They ask questions that our sophomores know not to ask. "Will you live in China the rest of your life?" "You can be my best friend?" "What do you think of Obama?"

I had one freshmen class over on Monday night. One of the students stared me down for a good while and finally said, "Before I came to university, I had never seen a foreigner." Wow. I've heard it before, but it surprises me every time!

Chip's Chewables: China makes fake rice from plastic: report

Chew on this: "Allegedly, some Chinese companies produce fake rice by mixing in plastic. This fake rice is then "massively sold" on the Chinese market..."

Please click on the link to read the entire article.

(Thanks Robbie for sending us this article)