"They are not good drivers"

In a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, China's hazardous driving is spotlighted and I couldn't agree more with what the author had to say. China is a booming country and along with the new high rise apartment buildings and new fashion malls popping up everywhere, so are new drivers. China recently passed the United States to become the world's top buyer of new vehicles, nearly 50,000 a day. And although China currently has 40% fewer cars on the road than the United States, it doubles the number of people that die in road accidents each year. Driving in China certainly is not the same thing as driving in America. There are so many more things to watch out for here, the same rules simply don't apply. Many pedestrians act as if the auto revolution never happened and many motorists don't obey common traffic rules. I like to think of the roads in China as "survival of the fittest". Usually the biggest vehicle wins. Then theres the difference between cars, electric-scooters and bicycles. While few cars obey traffic rules, scooters and bicycles definitely do not.

Because of the sheer number of people living in China, if a car stopped at a pedestrian crossing, they might be there for hours waiting for the crowds of people to part. Cars that miss an exit on the highway will often slam on their brakes, throw the car in reverse and stop traffic to get back to their exit. When making a right or left turn, cars do not yield to oncoming traffic but force other cars out of their way. Lane markers are a suggested rule to follow but don't mean much. I often see cars attempting a 3 point turn in the middle of road, blocking all lanes of traffic. I regularly take public buses and we are often stopped in traffic with a car directly facing us, almost as if its a duel. I chuckle to myself because the bus will always win, its the biggest. When crossing the road, it doesn't matter if I am in a cross walk or not, I have to look in all directions and for all types of vehicles. Usually if a motorist sees you, they will avoid you, but I never depend on them.

I often see accidents on the road that easily could have been avoided. People just don't obey simple rules like yielding when making a turn, using turn signals, stopping at red lights and staying in your lane. China is far from becoming a country that obeys traffic laws. If the rules are not enforced (which they aren't), people will continue to drive recklessly. I have no desire to become a driver here and even riding my bike on the streets is stressful!

Read the full article at: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/apr/20/business/la-fi-china-crash-20110421

A Day in the Life of a Chinese Student...

On our recent trip to Deze Middle School to teach English, I got a copy of a students schedule. I was shocked to see how busy these middle school students are. The students live at the school Mon-Fri and go home on the weekend. They live in small dormitories of 12 people to a room. So the next time your son or daughter complains about having too much homework or too many classes, inform them of the life of a Chinese student in the countryside.

Day to Day Schedule:

6:30 - Wake Up

6:40-6:50 - Exercise

6:50-7:15 - Breakfast

7:15 - 7:45 - Reading

7:50 - 8:35 - Class

8:45 - 9:30 - Class

9:30 - 9:50 - Exercise

9:50 - 10:35 - Class

10:45 - 11:30 - Class

11:30 - 12:00 - Lunch

12:00-1:10 - Rest

2:00-2:45 - Class

2:55-3:40 - Class

3:50-4:35 - Class

4:35-5:05 - Homework

5:05-5:35 - Dinner

6:00-7:00 - Study time

7:30-8:10 - Class

8:20-9:00 - Class

9:10-9:50 - Class

10:10 - Bedtime

A student dormitory

English Teaching - Creativity

Last week I traveled outside of Kunming to the countryside of Deze to teach English at a middle school for two days. I was accompanied by three women from Hong Kong and Alma, CWEF’s Education Director. We were welcomed by a large group of teachers from the Education Bureau who were very eager to have us teach at their school. As we prepared for the following days activities, I soon realized that teachers were coming in from around the county to observe our foreign teaching techniques and were taking our lessons very seriously.

Each class consisted of 60-70 students and each period lasted 45 minutes. Such large class sizes initially posed as a problem, but since 4 of us were teaching each class we were able to get around to each student and help them. We emphasized creativity in the classroom: drawing, singing, dancing, games, etc. Chinese classrooms can be a bit boring, with emphasis on memorization and repetition so we really wanted to show the teachers there are more fun ways to learn English.

We brought the students outside and gave them chalk to draw activities they like to do. We were teaching Who, What, When and Where, so students made sentences such as: “On Monday, I like to play ping pong with my sister on the playground.” Leaving the classroom to have class was such a foreign concept to these students they were very reluctant to even start drawing on the playground with the chalk. We also had to encourage them to get out of their seats to move around the classroom when doing other fun activities and games. We tried to be as silly as possible to get the kids laughing and enjoying themselves and at the end of the day, one of the English teachers in the back of the room commented that we seemed very professional.

Overall, it was a great trip. At the end of each day I certainly was exhausted. I have to give credit to all teachers out there, getting in front of a classroom full of students and keeping them engaged is an exhausting activity. I only did it for two days, I can’t imagine doing it year after year!

I hope the English teachers that observed us can utilize the teaching techniques we used and engage their students more. In countryside schools, much like the one we were at, it is common for students to drop out after middle school to go work in the city or help their parents on the farm. Many of them don’t see a use for learning English and their classes are so boring they don’t care to try. It can be hard to find ways for students to practice their English, but we encouraged them to speak as much as they can to their teachers and peers.

Hopefully, CWEF can continue to work with this school and provide English lessons and teaching excursions to encourage these students to study and work hard so they can get into college.

Deze countryside

A student showing her paper in the front of the class

Working my way around the classroom which is hard to do with 70 students

Students drawing their own pictures

Megan, from Hong Kong, teaching "happy" to the class

A view of the entire middle school, 800 students

Student dormitories

Ping pong table on the playground

So cute

Students eating their lunch outside