teaching!

Well, after much preparation and anticipation, we have started teaching.  I have only had one of my three classes so far. They seem like a good group of students (most of whom are 18 and 19).  It is an oral English class.  Their writing is quite good for the most part, but their spoken English is not as good.  A lot of them are very nervous about making mistakes and so are reluctant to try speaking.  I hope I can make it a fun, productive and comfortable class.  All three of my classes have about 35 students each.  Of the students that Mark and I have met so far, most of them are very excited to meet foreigners.  It is a new experience for a lot of them.  They are all very helpful and excited to show us things around campus.  In our first classes, Mark and I had the students fill out an information form for us so that we could know more about them as well as to check the levels of their written language.  In the forms, most of the students wrote a note saying that they hope that they can get to know us on a personal level as well.  I think there will be a lot of opportunities to form good relationships, as well as practice our Chinese.  We started our Chinese classes as well this week.  We have two language courses and one Chinese culture course each week.  Not only will we be learning to speak Mandarin, we will also be learning Chinese characters.  I feel that this is a very overwhelming task.  10 months is not long enough to learn how to speak let a alone recognize and write Chinese characters.  I hope that I will have time to be studious while I am here! Things are starting to get very busy.  I will be teaching at Sea Turtle ( run by Wang Ying, a lady who is connected to Mennonite Partners in China) two evenings a week.  This will mean that Sunday is my only completely free day.  You can pray that Mark and I will have a lot of energy this year for teaching and building relationships!

Lisa