WTF China Stories: The 8-MONTH-OLD English Student | REAL TIGER PARENTS

This is a 100% true China story. Think of this like the Chinese version of Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories, except without Hollywood and with a fat, white guy who's not really famous for anything. Anyway....on with the story!

I used to work at a Chinese English training school, which is basically an after-school school for kids to take an extra-curricular English class or two in order to give them an edge over the competition here in China. I've mentioned competition before on this channel in one of my "This is China" videos, which you can find on my channel. 

I've taught plenty of children in China - early education is a very strongly emphasized facet of education here in China, and foreigners are usually called in to teach children the foundations of English. 

This training school was called i2, and the kids usually ranged in age from 6-12 years old. However, one time, a couple came in with a baby and asked if we could teach her child. We said, "Sure, where's the child?" "What do you mean? He's here," she said, gesturing to the infant in her arms. 

Bish, what??? An Eight-month-old student?! Oh, wow....my poor co-worker. Now, the story begins....

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The Teaching Begins

Well, I guess I'm a teacher now!

As I write this, I've just finished teaching my classes for this week at Lanzhou Jiaotong University. It's been interesting, encouraging, discouraging, awesome, extraordinarily dull, and amazingly crazy all at the same time.

There are a lot of emotions for me because I'm a first-time teacher. Dull from teaching the same lesson 8 times a week, awesome because of the students, discouraging from the limitations of the book/curriculum, interesting because of the questions I've been asked, and a lot more.

I've got big classes - all around 60-70 students each, so it's going to be hard to get all of them interested and engaged. I can already tell which classes are going to be the most outgoing, which students will be the most interested, and which students don't understand anything I say. I hope to work more with them soon.

I'm teaching non-English major freshmen students. A pretty shy group, all in all. I've taught the first week - I teach 4 hours a day, 4 days a week. One hour of required "office hours" a week, and that's about all. Since I don't teach English majors, I don't have to deal with English Corner! (at least at the moment)

It's been really fun to be at the front of the class and talking about where I am from. It's so easy in one respect - this is my language and I'm talking about my home and my culture, but on the other hand, these are freshmen, non-English major students. I have to talk slower and make sure most of them understand what I'm talking about.


It's also really fun to share funny stories about being a foreigner in China - it feels good to have the whole class laugh and whisper and stuff at my comments. That way, I know they're paying attention. If I say something funny, and there's crickets.....then there's a problem and I need to explain myself haha

I have had no discipline problems whatsoever - it's always quiet, maybe too quiet. The students are smart, but they're shy. That's going to be the biggest challenge: getting them to come out of their shells. That's the big thing about Gansu students...they're just too shy.

Chinese students in general are too shy. They have low self-esteem, and they think they are not smart enough to contribute to the class. But if I ask them questions, they can answer them almost every time. If I can just convince them that they're worth something and that they're smart, maybe we can really open up and have some fun. I've really tried to emphasize this, and I've seen a couple of encouraging smiles and a twinkle in some students' eyes, and that's great. Maybe it won't always be there, but I'm happy right now.

We've talked about movies, music, sports, the Diaoyu Islands, Apple, traveling, and a lot more. It looks like this will be a good year.

I'm sorry that I haven't been posting much in the past week or two - I've been adjusting, preparing for my classes, losing my USB Drive (which gets videos from my laptop to the desktop computer with faster internet. Long story for not using the laptop), and my new addictions to "Inside the Actor's Studio" and "Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza."

"Don't Lose Your Sense of Wonder..." and Upcoming Projects

Well, I have run out of things to do today, so I guess I will put up a blog post! It's funny, blogging was so important a few days ago, and I have totally neglected documenting this "just arrived and still adjusting" time.

I spent yesterday and today at Lanzhou University of Technology, my old school, to see old friends and help one of them do a crazy difficult and heavily technical translation for a recruiting presentation. It was so difficult and seemed impossible at times, but together, we did it! I feel pretty accomplished because I was able to translate pretty well in my own right except for some really, really technical things (like different kinds of engineering projects and statistics kind of technical).

Basically, that made me realize that I DON'T want to be written translator. Ever. That's just too tedious, and because of the nature of written vs. spoken language (not just Chinese, any language), it's much harder and it takes the human element out of the equation. No fun.

Besides that, I hung out, had a few meals with, and joked around with my friends who are still left at L.U.T. - they kind of became my family during that time there, and it brings back memories of great times to see them.

Anyway, you didn't come here to read about me waxing nostalgic - you came here to read about me and Lanzhou (or just Lanzhou.). 

I met a couple of American teachers who live next door to me at Lanzhou Jiaotong University, and they are really cool - they're in their early 40s and the wife has spent some time in Kunming and Hohhot, Inner Mongolia. They can't speak much Chinese, so I gave them some advice and said I would help them out anytime they needed. I like them a lot, and I hope we can hang out more.

Campus is still kind of crazy with all the new students - I see people giving tours to groups of 30-50 people at a time and people are clogging the shops to stock their rooms with snacks, water containers, etc.

Living in China is a constant exercise of your patience, your sense of adventure, and your capacity to deal with unfamiliarity. Pretty much how you do everything in China is different from how it's done in America. The public transportation system is the best way to get around, which is new to most Americans, water must be boiled before drinking, walking is just part of life, not an exercise regime, people drink tea instead of coffee and soda, eat rice, noodles and dumplings instead of pot roast, steak, hot dogs, and burgers, and live in apartments instead of suburban houses. It's a whole different way of life.

My dad told me,

"Hey, while you're over there, don't lose your sense of wonder and appreciation at where you are. You have a really unique opportunity, and you need to not lose sight of where you are and where you come from."

That's been rolling around in my head a lot these past few days, and while the wonder is still fresh in my head being sort of "fresh off the plane" for this time, it's my third time to come to China and to Lanzhou. It's more or less daily life, and it's hard to shake your head out of the daily routine and remember where you are. Most days last year, I totally forgot I was living in China - it was just life. Anyway, I'll try to stay conscious of that.

Anyway, I will make a video about all of that soon - I've been a bit busy and distracted to film much stuff. I've got about 2 minutes of raw footage I could spin into a video, but I want to wait until I've got enough for a good video. I want to make good stuff, you know?

I met an American couple online who are in Lanzhou now who said they saw my videos and read my blog about Lanzhou, and they said it gave them a lot of really good information, so I'm very happy about that, and the American couple who live next door to me said they read my blog and watched my videos as well, so it appears that what I'm doing is at least reaching a few people.

I know  that Lanzhou seems like a relatively unimportant place in a world with cities like New York City, Shanghai, Beijing, Mumbai, London, Sydney, and Chicago, but that doesn't mean that it's not a place worth visiting. It's a whole different kind of city, with great people, great food, unique culture, and a long history.

I will be putting together a series of pages/posts about a "Guide to Lanzhou" project, and I'm hoping to get some feedback from my readers and the people I know here as to what they want to see in it. In the future, I'm kind of hoping that my blog will become a significant stopping place for people who want to visit northwest China, and hopefully Lanzhou in particular. It's got it's faults, sure, but I like it just the way it is.

Until next time,

Austin Guidry

From Huan Xian, Gansu, China

What's up guys?

It's been a while, yeah! Unfortunately, internet access has been a bit troublesome for me, and this is the first time I have actually been able to sit down and write without worrying about a coming appointment...

It's hot in my hotel room in 环县, Huan County, and I'm a bit thirsty from the Oreos I was just eating as I was talking to my mom on Skype. America is worlds away right now. Outside the window are honking taxis, sputtering motorbikes, and the sounds of shopping and bargaining. 

The fan is slowly panning back and forth, but it's not quite enough to get me "comfortable."

I've spent the day with my friend Benjamin Xi, his girlfriend Elena, his brother Peng, and his mom and dad. We had a great breakfast of 包子 (Bao Zi), which are meat/vegetable stuffed steamed buns that are a typical Chinese breakfast, followed in two hours by a great noodle/egg/tomato/bokchoy lunch with steamed bread, and lots of watermelon.

Lots of watermelon.

Watermelon is good here because it provides much-needed water to the body in a dry place like this. It's also tasty, which helps as well.

After that, we went to the market where Ben's mom sells her food - Sha Guo, which is a small, but deep bowl filled with soup, noodles, tons of vegetables, and meat of some kind (chicken in this case, but it varies). She also sells "mouse ear" noodles, which I will just have to put up a picture of, because I can't really explain what they look like. 

Anyway, we had a great dinner of Sha Guo and Northwestern-barbecue. Awesome! Seriously, this is great food...if Northwestern Chinese food made its way into America, people would quit going to those crappy Cantonese-dish filled buffets. The Northwest is the best!

In a couple of days, we're gonna go to Ben's village - where he is originally from. I will stay with him and his family in their cave homes, devoid of showers and an abundance of water. Life is hard in that part of the country, and I hope I can show you guys why I feel such a strong attachment to these somewhat, but in this case, definitely, far-flung places.

I'll be typing up another blog post right after this one --- read if you like! 

See you next time!


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Top 8 Facts About China (and Thoughts on Vlogging)

Hey, guys! (and ladies.....hello, ladies)

Today I'm coming at you with my Top 8 Facts About China in vlog form. I've been sort of addicted to vlogging because I just love being able to tell stories. I love being in front of the camera and talking about stuff that I love, which is China.

Vlogging is such a great way to do that - it's still relatively new and is exploding all over the internet - from China to Giraffes to Tea to Music, vloggers talk about all kinds of things, and are able to share their gift of storytelling through the medium of video.

Here's my latest one from my YouTube Channel - http://www.youtube.com/user/austinguidry2





I'm still learning and improving on my vlogging techniques - if you watch the first video that I ever did all the way up until what I've done now, you can see how I've improved.

I've really begun to realize just how much of an art form that vlogging can be - there are so many different facets to the way things are shot, the way you say things, whether or not you have a script or lighting or a microphone, how you use your jump cuts or your silence.....it's really hard, but can sometimes just be organic and in-the-moment.

I really love doing it, and I can't wait to get back over to Lanzhou to do more and share my adventures with you!

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My Daily Life in a Chinese City

I've been really surprised at the number of views on my posts concerning what Chinese cities are like, so I thought I'd post a little something about the subject, since it seems to be a topic of interest.

[by the way, the blog hit 10,000 total hits a few days ago! Great milestone for me!]

Although I'm not in China now, I can remember very well the daily routine of the life of a foreign student in mid-sized Lanzhou (3.3 million people) when school was not in session. Some of the stuff is not exactly pretty, but it's part of what's really in China. I love China just as much (or more) than America, but there's no such thing as a perfect country.

Breakfast

Breakfast usually consisted of 饼子 of some kind (sort of like if a pancake and a crepe had a baby. A wonderful, tasty, baby), and then a short walk to the bus stop to either the West Campus of 兰州理工大学 (Lanzhou University of Technology) or to 西关, a downtown region of Lanzhou. It could be any other place, but for this post it'll be 西关 (pronounced "She-Gwan") and Zhongshan Bridge.

The Bus

In Chinese cities, the bus is what most people take to get places. Depending on where you're at, they can be air conditioned and clean with a few people in them or hot, dirty, musty, smoky, and crowded with all of the migrant workers of the entire city.

It's different from place to place, and you never really know what it's gonna be like when you step on - you just hope to God that it's not so bad.

On an average day in Lanzhou, you'll be standing up in the bus. Only one bus line in the city has air conditioning, and I think it's bus line 1. How appropriate, right? The #1 bus is the only one with air conditioning.

Most buses have windows you can slide open if it gets too hot, but it's generally not too unbearable unless it's the weekend and everybody's going downtown to shop. God forbid. I really didn't enjoy the weekend crowds.

The Streets

Just like every section in this post - it depends on where you are. If you're in Guangzhou or Beijing or any other city that sees a lot of tourist and/or foreign business activity, it's pretty clean and organized with a decent amount of English speakers.

However, if you're in Lanzhou, Huan Xian, parts of northern Beijing, or any other place where not many tourists go and no foreigners "dare to venture", it's a little different. Many streets are dirty or under construction, there's a lot of trash in places, and you can see a lot more of China's poverty. It's in these moments that you are forced to confront the fact that you're in another country. Not many streets in America will have kids wearing only dirty t-shirts run through the street and playing in trash piles and peeing on the street. Seen it.

The People

When walking the streets of Lanzhou, I was usually left alone except for the occasional "Hello," but it was whenever I was idling about by myself or just standing alone looking at the Yellow River that people usually came up and talked to me.

(Okay, this photo is cheating...it's actually on a train, but he DID just start talking to me)

It's true - it's not just some funny story we tell people for fun. People really do come up to foreigners and try to practice their English! If they don't speak English, you'll get to practice your Chinese. This is especially true in certain situations:

1.) The person who comes up to you is alone.
2.) You are alone or are only with other foreigners.
3.) You are just idling about and not really doing anything.
4.) You say you can speak a little bit of Chinese and are friendly.

If you're with another Chinese person, it's rare that a strange Chinese person will approach you if they speak sub-standard English. They'll assume your Chinese buddy will be fluent and that they'll be inferior. Best advice - go alone to a place where you know you can just hang out and chill.

For me, that was the area around Zhongshan Bridge.

The area on the far side of this picture is green, shaded, and dotted with small beaches and areas where you can sit and buy a drink and just chill.

Along that street, you can see a lot of older people in the morning doing Tai Chi, and in the afternoon you can see some doing different types of martial arts or playing the Erhu or any number of activities.

It's a great little area that reminds you of why you wanted to come to China in the first place.

After hanging out and talking to a few people, it's always cool to go to 西关 (pronounced "she-gwan"), which is the most cosmopolitan area of the city. It's mostly pedestrian roads and has a lot of shopping centers and restaurants and tea houses. It's the perfect place to go for a snack. I don't really have any pictures of 西关 itself, which is something I'll have to rectify, but I've got some video of it here and here if you want to check it out.

Other

Usually, after that, I'd go back home to the apartment and just chill until dinner, which was at one of the local restaurants, but I'd also do laundry every couple of weeks or so. Very involved process you can see here at my YouTube page. If YouTube's blocked in your country, sorry....I'll put them up on Youku eventually

You'll get a few (or a lot) of strange calls. I've gotten calls from:

1.) The International Office of L.U.T. asking if I would hang out with a high school kid who wanted to practice his English

2.) From a local TV producer asking me do participate in a segment about my culture shock in Lanzhou

3.) From a primary school asking me to come down to participate in "English Adventure Day"

4.) From a VERY wealthy businessman who wanted me to help him in some very lucrative (and possibly illegal) business ventures

5.) From many random people that I never met or talked to before.....just to chat! "You're a foreigner in Lanzhou? Oh, what's your name?......etc."

6.) Calls from anyone and everyone inviting me to dinners, parties, just to hang out, help with schoolwork

7.) To travel to Tibet......wait, what? Yeah, I got a series of texts/calls from some random guy who wanted to take me to Tibet. My friend Elizabeth would've jumped on it in a heartbeat haha. Yeah, I don't think I told you about that one, did I? Maybe I should've called you, yeah? haha

I'm a pretty friendly guy, and once I got over there, I made it a policy of mine to never refuse an offer for a new experience unless it was: physically dangerous, illegal, or if I was really ill. I never once did, and I don't regret any of it - I had a lot of interesting experiences, and you've got to be open.

When people find out how open you are to try new stuff, you'll get more and more friends, more and more calls, and you'll be a popular dude! (or chick).

So, if I had to sum up my Lanzhou life in a nutshell, that'd be about it!

See you guys next time,

Austin.

Seeing Foreigners

As discussed in Two Chinas, there are entirely different countries to be found within China’s vast territory. These countries deal with seeing foreigners in different ways.

In developing regions without much Westernization, all foreigners will be stared at. This is not an exaggeration or any kind of warning against anything sinister in nature; it is simply a fact.

Generally speaking, the farther inland a person goes, and especially the further Northwest a person goes, the less foreigners that person will see. Therefore, inland Chinese and Northwestern Chinese people do the most staring in the country. Also, generally speaking, the smaller the city, the less foreigners there will be.

Because these areas see few foreigners, foreigners are something of a novelty. The stories that one hears about people practicing their English on the street become real experiences in the developing cities. If a foreigner is traveling somewhere in a developing area by themselves, it is pretty much guaranteed that a Chinese person will try to practice their English with them on every day of their travel.

Something like this situation

If the foreigner can speak Chinese, the Chinese will be very, very surprised and will talk so much that the foreigner will soon be exhausted by their excitement, although both parties will, of course, have a nice chat. In developing areas, it is common to hear “You are the first foreigner I have ever seen” or “You are the first foreigner I have ever talked to”, which is an unnerving phrase the first time one hears it. After living in Northwest China for half a year, I never got used to hearing that. The first time you hear someone say this is an unforgettable experience.

In nearly-developed and developed regions such as Tianjin, Beijing, Xi’an, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, foreigners are very common, so the Chinese people on the street will not give you a second glance. Because foreigners are very common, do not expect special treatment except for a possible English-language transaction at the local market. Nearly every major market, commercial business center, and service center will have English language services and possibly even English language signs and labels.

Because the developed areas see so many foreigners and learning basic English vocabulary is a must for many workers, some Chinese in these areas hold different attitudes towards foreigners.

Some Chinese see foreigners as a means to get rich by posing as taxi drivers, who then charge exorbitant fees. Some become tour guides, interpreters, or attempt to lure the unknowing tourist/newly-come worker into places such as a KTV or an art gallery and then using a variety of tricks to get money and/or a free fun activity.

A Beijing tour guide. A real one, not a sham!

Some Chinese see the foreigners as foreigners, outsiders who should not be in China. They believe the foreigners may be able to help China, but they should help China from outside the country and that China belongs to the China. These people exist and the traveler will occasionally find them, but they are not by any means the biggest group of people in these areas.

The last group consists mainly of students and the college-educated, who have embraced English as a means of broadening their minds and wish to dedicate their lives to the study of foreign language and helping foreign people.

These people will perhaps be the friendlies and most refreshing English-speaking Chinese people you will meet because they genuinely wish to make new friends and speak another language and learn about another culture. They will be outgoing, friendly, hospitable, and extroverted to the point where it may scare you. Never fear, they mean nothing but the best.