E-mails to home
Excerpts from e-mails sent by Carthage students in China to family and friends
Steve Stagliano,’06, spent the summer working at the Bilingual Elementary School in Huairou: China is awesome? I either fill in for the other foreign teachers as a substitute, observe a class and give suggestions, teach a class for an example to the other teachers, help decorate the classrooms with signs and posters, or help with administrative stuff. Our boss is Mr.Zeng Ming (We call him Roger) The true joy of the simmer, besides the service work, is the children. They are just the cutest kids I have ever seen; the smartest, too. We have the four-year-old Chinese kids farther along in English, math, and reading than American students! The most notable cultural difference that we have noticed is the genuine kindheartedness of the Chinese people as a whole. Everyone we meet is just so patient and caring to our needs. It is amazing how hospitable everyone is. Lisa Sullivan, 06, also experienced an internship at the Bilingual Elementary School in Huairou: Stephen and I are doing well in China. We are really enjoying this experience. Roger has been very accommodating and the other teachers are friendly. We have had a few minor changes and difficulties getting adjusted but we did get through it together? We are very glad to be here and helping out in the school. It is really rewarding to see the students learn and to decorate the classrooms!
Lisa Sullivan, “06, also experienced an internship ar the Bilingual Elementary School in Huairou: Stephen and I are doing well in China. We are really enjoying this experience. Roger has been very accommodating and the other teachers are friendly. We have had a few minor changes and difficulties getting adjusted but we did get through it together… We are very glad to be here and helping out in the school. It is really rewarding to see the students learn and to decorate the classrooms!
Ben Jonston-Urey,”06, spent the summer working at South Ocean International School in Lianyungang:
There is a marked spirit of friendship that abounds wherever we go. Everyone we meet is incredibly generous, offering us everything from a friendly greeting to fruits and foods. Our location could not e more picturesque; every morning we wake up to the beautiful mountain vistas looming outside out windows, with the calls of roosters in the distance… A typical day of a foreign teacher in the South Ocean LYG Summer Program is as follows; At 7;00a.m., we get up to eat breakfast… Them we make our way to the first class at 8:00, which involves teaching the students popular English dialogue phrases…. At 9:00, we teach the kids English games…. Such as, Red Rover and Duck-Duck-Goose because our classes are made up primarily of children under age 11. Then at 10:20, we typically teach the children English jokes and riddles…. 11:40 marks the end of the morning classes, and the beginning of lunch. Between 12:30 and 3:00 p.m.…. Caitlin and I spend time further developing our lesson plans…. We begin the afternoon classes with a lecture on well-known English customs and festivals, such as dining etiquette, Thanksgiving, and Valentine’s day…. At 4;00, we begin our English story class… and tell well-known American folk stories and tall tales, such as the legends of Paul Bunyan and John Henry…
Caitlin Penington, ’05, also experienced an internship at South Ocean International School in Lianyuangang:
For the past couple of days, I have taught the youngest ones many songs. So far, they have learned the “ABC” song, “ Row, Row, Row your boat,” and “ Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.” They love “ Head, Shoulders….” They are sooo adorable, too! They love talking very, so Ben always says that they are good, he will tell them a Christmas story, or I will show them what surprise I have in a bag. Yesterday, Ben gave a lecture on Thanksgiving. Ben and I pre-made Indian feathers and hats. They loved it! They like the song, “Ten Little Indians,” so tomorrow we going to sing that song in the dining hall while they wear their hats.
Dana Grueter, “07, spent the summer working at South Ocean International School In Dalian:
We are doing quite well here in Huairou. Yesterday we went to some kind of weird action park that was quite cool --- we did everything from rock climbing to the dying to making bread. The day before we went into Beijing with some Chinese friends and went to the History Museum and Tian’an Men Square and the Forbidden City….
I am safely back home in the USA! The people that I met in China were so anxious to share everything with me—to tell me about their lives, to bring me to their homes, and to introduce me to their families. Speaking Chinese was a major help in this. People in China were so touched that I would speak to them in their own language. That feeling is very cool, that you can connect with people whose lives and culture are so far from your own, and that the language that you learned in a classroom thousands of miles away actually is understandable to the people that live there….