Ningxia University's foreign students trip 08

Thursday the 23rd of october we were invited to attend a trip for all the foreign students studying Chinese at the university. We had a fantastic time. The day started with museums, and after lunch we ended up in the desert, near the Huang He (The Yellow River), outside Yinchuan. We got to try a lot of fun stuff. Both of us tried "Desert Surfing". The surfing started already when we entered a crazy machine, a kind of desert bus, that took us up to a steep sandhill next to the Yellow River. The vehicle and the ride was awesome and thrilling. Until that day we didn't know that you could surf the sand, but it's possible. We also tried a ziprope which was fun, the view from the top was stunning, and the end of the ziprope was just by the river. After that we saw camels and sheepskinfleets. After a while, most of the students and some teachers joined desert-volleyball or desert-football.

The day ended in an Inner Mongolian restaurant close to the Yellow River. It was a round big hut, with great food. Grilled lamb (the whole animal on a plate) was served as the main course, which this region is famous for.

There were musicians and we helped to serve, which was fun. Those who wanted could entertain after eating. Both teachers and students entered the stage to a lot of applause.

After the entertainment was over a big bonfire was made and we stayed outside in the cold night, dancing and having fun.

All in all it was a great day in a great place with a lot of great people. Great!

Preparatory School for Ethnic Minorities

This school is a preparatory school for those of an ethnic minority whose education has not been sufficient to the demands of the Chinese government.

"Ethnic students whose literacy level is not up to the standard will be enrolled first in preparatory classes to receive one or two years' up-grading training. After passing the qualifying examinations, these students will be transferred to the regular classes. " (China Education and Research Network, www.edu.cn)

So after this one year of preparatory education, they can finally enroll into China's different Universities.

The students at this school chooses a major, for example Liberal Arts or Science and Technology. I have one class from each of these two majors and teach eight lessons a week. Each class consist of about 50 students. In Norway you normally teach classes of 16-24 students, so this is a challenge. But it is also very fun. The students are really eager to learn English. Even though my class of Oral English is just a bonus class for the students, they really put their mind into it and try their best. And, really, that's all I can demand from anyone.

Even though this is a Hui minority region, it doesn't mean that my classes only have Hui people. As a matter of fact, I only teach one Hui. But I have lots of people from all over China. They live in campus, but their hometowns are in Shan Dong, Shan Xi, Sha An Xi, Chong Qing, Ji Lin, Yun Nan, Gui Zhou, Guang Xi, Ning Xia, Hei Long Jiang, Fu Jian, He Nan, Hu Nan, Liao Ning, Si Chuan, Gan Su, Inner Mongolia and Xin Jiang regions, which means 18 of China's 34 in total. So through these classes I meet a lot of China, and it's a great experience.

My classes consist mostly of communicative activities, and different ways of making them speak English. This is partly because these are good ways of promoting oral English, and also because my classes don't have a textbook. So I have to start from scratch every day, finding new and exciting ways of learning English. This is also a challenge, but a very fun challenge. It's definitely worth all the work.

Our trip to Xian during the October holiday

During October holiday we went to the city of Xian, in Shaanxi province. This was one of the old capitols in ancient China, during the famous Qin-dynasty (221-207 BC), the Han-dynasty (206-220AD) and the Tang-dynasty (618-907AD). It was a beautiful city, but quite big for two western Norwegians with its 3,2 million inhabitants. We heard there that during the holiday it is supposed to be exceptionally crowded, which we found out was true. Crowded it surely was:)

We took the night train from Yinchuan to get there. This was the first train experience in China for both of us, and we enjoyed it alot. We had hard sleepers, in an open wagon, which was surprisingly comfortable. Except for Tom who for some reason never fits into China's when it comes to doorways, lamps, and in this case, beds. Travelling with the train ("firewagon") in China is a social event and it was a great opportunity for us to practice our Chinese. The journey took approximately 13 hours.

In Xian we visited the Shanxi History Museum, The Terracotta Warriors, The Calligraphy Museum, A Silk factory, The City Walls,The Big Goose Pagoda, The Muslim Quarter and The Bell Tower to mention some of the sights. Xian is a more Chinese town as we know it from movies and books, with the typical traditional architecture and ancient tourist sites. It is a city with a lot of history and many of the places preserve history very well.

We had a great time during our first Chinese holiday trip. Xian is definitely a city worth visiting. Drop in at the city's home cozy youth hostel if you are there, a really neat place with people from all over the world. Highly recommended by Chris and Tom.

Xinhua College

8 hours a week I (Chris) teach at Xinhua College, a part of Ningxia University. The school was build in 2002.The whole school has approx. 4000 students and around 200 teachers. The school has it's own cantine, dormitories for the students, a student information center and good sports facilities.

Here I teach 3 classes with approx. 30 - 35 students in each class. The classes consist of students who each will take an English major, and the classes I'm in are 1. year students. I teach Oral English there. We have a textbook that the class has to follow, but it is filled with alot of good communicative activities. In the beginning the students seamed unfamiliar with talking in the class, but they are slowly getting more used to having conversations in class. They also seem to understand better the importance of speaking as an English skill aswell as writing, listening and reading. The fact that they now have to use spoken English to communicate with their foreign teacher is a motivation factor for the students at Xinhua. Alongside the book, I also use communicative activities I was tought back home.
6 hours a week I teach single classes, and 2 hours a week I teach all three classes together. This is a new experience for me as a newly educated teacher because when I have all three classes together they are over 100 individuals. Teaching at Xinhua is challenging but very fun. Most of the students are higly motivated, and want to become eighter English teachers or interpreters.