A Letter to Siggy

Aug. 6

Hi, dear Siggy,

I wrote a blog about the life here, about all my experiences. You can get access to it by connecting to http://smilecherry73.blogspot.com/2015/08/before-saying-good-bye.html.

 Here is another a little simple one about the instruction skills I learned and reflected during these six weeks.

First and the most impressive thing I learned is not the skills of how to control the class but the deep love a teacher gives his/her students with agreement and support all the time, just as you demonstrated all the time in your classes with us and in your sharing your teaching experiences. This love I also felt in many other teachers’ classes, Betsy’s, Susan’s, Kirk’s and Carrie’s, just mentioned a few.

Second is the close connection among students themselves. You taught us many ice-breaker activities, the main purpose of which is not oonly getting the energetic atmosphere in class but more importantly giving students opportunities to know each other and feel closely connected with each other. So they are involved in one class and also in the course. The better they know each other the more they love the course. 

And the time a teacher uses the ice-breakers should be flexible as well, when they do not know each other well, before starting a difficult task, at the end of a tiring class,... It depends on the students’ mood at that time. This requires the teacher’s close attention and sensitive experience. I have to bear this in mind and practice more.

The teaching activities you taught us are multi-tasking, so inspiring that I can always develop more versions and steps from them. What’s more, you shared so many articles and books whatever you think useful and beneficial to us, for which I will always be grateful. Teaching activities are never enough and I can learn them by searching online, and developing original ones or from the traditional ones by myself. And I always know you will be there whenever it is an emergency for my class. How much I appreciate that, you will never know.

 Another thing I learned from you, my dear teacher Siggy, is that never stop making oneself versatile. You write beautiful rhythmic poems, dance different dances, say so many different languages, pronounce so amazingly varied voices, ... I have to admit all of these are beyond my imagination. But I would like to have a try in the future because of you.

 I know there are so many more things I could learn from you but time is so limited. If you can come to Changsha, China, I hope to be your student again. Many thanks can not express how much I love you and respect you. And I believe I am not the only one who said this to you, such an excellent teacher and friend! And best wishes to my dear teacher Siggy!

 Yours,

Cherry

Before Saying Good-bye

Aug. 6, 2015

Busy with learning, observing, discussing and SHOPPING and traveling, I passed six the most valuable weeks in this summer. Every moment, every second I have been experiencing the cultural differences, the fascinating scenes, the thoughtprovoking discussions and the warm love.  

I experience so many cultural differences in Yale. When you going out and meet people face to face, remember to smile and greet them with your eyes giving the same information. When walking on the street, keep your body a little far from Americans, at least far enough not touching them, otherwise you may hear a sentence like ‘are you OK’. If you could not avoid that, say ‘sorry’ or ‘excuse me’ immediately. People in Yale (or maybe in New Haven) speak in rising tone to show politeness and interest, so when in Rome, do as Romans do. When coming to an end of a conversation, always remember to close your conversation with a good-wish sentence like “have a good day”. If you want to attract others’ attention or show your excitement while talking, fluctuate your voice, because that sounds more interesting. If you are going to an important place or participating a big event, dress formal clothes to show your respect, not matter how small the place is or how few people there might be. All of these are what we learned from books, but now we are doing these, doing the culture! To tell the truth, I just mentioned a few. The list could go on and on if I had more time in Yale.

 I saw interesting and beauuutiful attractions in Eastern America from the north to the south. In Niagara. The splashing ‘pouring rain’ from the waterfall, the swirling whirlpool under the fall, so many doves flying, wandering and floating around, the ship advanced forward courageously into the heavy mist and we the passengers on the board kept shooting pictures with continuous excited shouting. In Boston, my colleagues filled their mouths with luxuriously big red lobsters and we strolled in the renowned Harvard and MIT campuses, polished the shining left shoe of Mr. Harvard the statue, passed through the teaching building, observed the lab of Material School, found the famous and biggest Asia-study library--Harvard Yenching Library, and visited the historic harbor where Boston citizens once threw away the tea from Britain. In New York, we enjoyed the typical Chinese food, saw Chinese strangers in groups and heard Chinese spoken everywhere, even the Chinese songs from a black man playing saxophone in front of Metropolitan Museum. In Philadelphia, I walked through the Liberty Bell Center, Independence Hall, and National Historic Park within two hours without missing the so-called first public restroom :-). In Washington, we sat in the grass in front of Lincoln Memorial, watching people of different races, dressing in different styles speaking different languages, posing for photos, and feeling the melting pot atmosphere. In fact, we have so many wonderful memories in every city we visited. 

The last but not the least at all is the days we spent with Carrie and Siggy. At this departure time, even mentioning their beloved names would make me a lachrymose person. I hate tears, embarrassing tears when saying goodbye. But how could I not to cry after being supported and sheltered by their considerate love for six weeks; how could I stay calm and motionless when so many touching moments flashing by as films playing in front? Who can forget those days and nights we prepared the culture presentations anxiously but convinced ourselves after Carrie did the rehearsals with us? Who can ignore Siggy’s giggles, surprising wows and exciting claps when we performing on the stage? Who can disregard those heated discussions and debates, eye-catching in-class activities, thought-provoking materials in their classes? Certainly I memorized those notes I wrote down when Siggy shared her experiences with those introductions to the activities. With no doubt I remember the merry moment when I talked with Carrie about the cultural differences and shocking changes. Still I recalled what Carrie said about her Chinese experience with watery eyes. Only if I had another chance to be their students! I loooove Siggy’s attractive voice, fluctuating, exciting, rhythmic sound which can sing the most beautiful songs in the world. I enjoy Carrie reading stories, amazingly deep, slow and vivid. I was inspired all the time when listening to those appealing teaching activities. I was deeply impressed by Siggy for her devoted understanding and support and by Carrie for her rational and friendly suggestion when I felt confused with my observations.

There are so many things I have no time to do during the six weeks. I have not visited the art gallery yet, I was only in front of the closed door in a wrong day. I have not listened to the hilarious singing in the black church--St. Paul Church. Nor have I been on a red or orange line to see the other side of Yale. Neither have I been to the earliest Asia-study library in the world. ... So I decided to stay for another week to make up the time I lost in traveling and shopping. And my kind landlord allowed me to stay in the apartment! 

Good-bye, Yale, not now, but a week later!

The blog deleted, I feel better now.

July 27, 2015

I deleted a blog. It was about what I observed in two different teachers' classes. The two teachers have quite different styles, one was interactive and communicative, and the other was informal lecturing.

I struggled these days for publishing it. It's not because what I said is not true, but I felt sad for commenting on a teacher's not-so-good instruction. That's not my nature. But when  I seeing the students sitting there yawning several times, I felt guilty not saying anything for them.

But now I felt even more guilty not talking with the teacher face to face, which now I think would be the better choice than writing a blog without her knowing what was expected.

Every teacher has their awareness and they know quite well what kind of class activities are better for their classes. I do not understand her students as well as she does, hence I am not supposed to criticise her on her instruction. I should be more suggestive instead of jumping into that conclusion.

And I learned how to organize my own class after all. That's what I am here for.

After deleting the blog, I feel better. Thank goddness! Hope no one is hurt.



So,

Oh, A Lovely Lovely Little Girl!

Oh, A Lovely Lovely Little Girl!

July 20th, 2015

I had been to New York for 2 days this weekend. I had no time to go anywhere but learnt Ba Gua in a Zen place. Before I came back to New Haven I went to TJ Max which was near the hotel I lived in. After grabbing what I needed, I rushed to the Cashier, thinking about catching the train, when I met this lovely little girl.

I was first attracted by a sweet little girl's voice from a shelf on my left. A two-year-old girl was skipping up to her mom, saying something like Spanish with a small red plastic bag in her left hand. Her mother, a young lady, sitting on a pram and playing her mobile phone, gave a very short response without even looking up at the little girl. The poor girl judged her mother's face for a while then turned back to a shelf with a reproachful pout.

Only several seconds later, she ran out, waving a more colorful plastic little packet, smiling and saying something with those expecting dark eyes. Her mother looked up with no feeling clearly seen on her face, said another short response. The girl drawned and retracted her lip  and turned to a man standing by with a begging voice. Just as she turned to her father(I supposed he was the father), the mother held up her right index finger swinging it  to the father and her mouth moved for some words with no sound.  The father receive the meaning and hugged the poor girl and said something comfortingly. With a disappointed sign, the girl went back to the shelf.

 A little while later, she jumped out and moved hesitately toward her mom. Presenting the yellow and green packet to her mom, she murmured several words. Her mother did not looked up at her this time and kept silent. (I supposed she tried to hardern her heart because any mother could not refuse the little girl's request if seeing her begging yet worrying dark eyes. ) The girl began to whimper, then sobbed. Finally it turned into crying. Her mother let her cry for a while without looking at her, then patted her on her back and shh-ed comfortingly. The poor lovely little girl stopped crying, wiped away her tears and went back into another aisle.

After several minutes, I did not find her coming out. As I was guessing whether she would give up,  the lovely girl appeared with another colorful packet in her little right hand. She held it so high above her head and walked steadily toward her dad, who was now checking out with the cashier. She stood on her tiptoes and handed it to the cashier HERSELF! What a clever girl!

Did she got it? No. Perhaps this is another time she tried to use her "tatctics" to get what she wants. Her parents are used to that. I was once such a parent as well. I felt a little sorry for her. But what a lovely girl!

 

A Trip to Boston

July 15th, 2015

Boston is a place where two famous universities are located, where Americans began to fight for their own independence, where only four hours’ drive from New Haven.

With great expectation, I and my colleagues went to Boston at the last weekend. The first stop was the famous statue of John Harvard, who according to some story was the creator of Harvard but turned out to be one of the donators of Harvard University. There is also a saying that his left foot will bring good luck to those who touch it. So almost every visitor goes up to shot a picture with it. With hundreds and hundreds of people touching it, the first half of his left shoe was so noticeably shining on its base, which seems a proof that touching does really work and which attracts more people going up and touching.:)  Did I touch it? No. It was so popular, crowded with people waiting to take a photo. But I am not a photo fan, you know.

             

In Harvard, most of the empty space in front of the teaching buildings were occupied with different styles of chairs placed in circles for the convenience of discussion. This reminded me of the idea of indoor designing of Microsoft Corp: give brilliant brains some space to talk and create. Discussing casually would help a lot for innovative ideas and future Nobel prize winners.

 

Another aspect of Harvard is its red-wall-white-window buildings. Though the buildings are not so 16th-century styled as those in Yale, these red-white-matched buidings are so classic and amazing.

 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology was our next destination, where we also found some amazing architectures. I love them feeling they are so sacred and scientific.

 

 

In the afternoon, we went to Boston beech. Wow, so many people of different races and ethnics, speaking different languages. Standing among them, I finally felt the sense why America is called a melting pot. what an important discovery! :)

 

Wondering in the street, I saw for the first time the unique styles of a Boston tourist guide and a Boston tour bus.

 

 



 

We also went to a historical spot where a battle during the independence war took place. What a pity was that the door to the top of the monument was closed just half an hour before we got there.

 

 

 

The Boston trip provided me a quite different view from New Haven and I enjoyed it.

 

 





 

 



The Apple Store in Yale

The Apple Store in Yale

July 11, 2015

I heard about the Apple store in Yale University many times. I passed it several times. I knew they had discount for Yale students. I enjoyed the benefit of its wifi when waiting outside. I had planned to visit it someday.

Finally the day came. Marina and I went to the Apple store to enjoy ipad and macbook, and of course have a glimpse of iwatch as well.

Someone wearing the Apple slogan told us we could have $30 down for each ipad and $50 down for macbook. Although the discounts are not big, they are discounts.  We wondered there for a whole hour, taking pictures of the comparison of different types of ipad, macbook and iwatch. These electronic gadgets are not low-priced, but they are even more expensive back in China.

An Apple product is definitely a precious and unrejectable gift for most Chinese I know. The products from Apple are all very helpful and once you own one, you will inevitably depend on it and cannot live without it. One ipad given by my sister-in-law helped my son learned a lot, and was regarded as a marvelous indispensible learning tool. This is also agreed by many Chinese. Everyone wants to have one Apple gadget if they can afford it. That also push the price higher. But  now I am in the U.S.A. I can get these products cheaper.

We didnot buy it immidiately but returned to search more information online to check which one is more suitable, more worthy and more practcal. After a whole night on line searching, we went back to the Apple store, only to find that we were misguided last time. There was only $20 discount for each ipad. But a women working there suggested we wait for the big discount this summer. The discount begins August through September. I do hope I get some good bargins. So we accepted her suggestions.

I cannot help but searching Apple.com to see those wonderful pictures and illustrations of each Apple product. I am really looking forward to the lucky day for Apple.

Prepare the culture show flyer

Prepare the culture show flyer

July 7, 2015

Thanks to Carrie and Xia Feng's help, we finally have a chance to present some Chinese culture in New Haven Free Public Library as a volunteer activity. So Monday afternoon Carrie tried to get us together to work out the flyer for it.

Rachel came up with an impressive name as "A Walk into China" and everyone liked it. So we started to work out the description of the program and a brief introduction to our group. Junia thought about the description, Arnold took charge of the introduction, Rachel and I designed the picture, while Carrie was always there with us, giving a lot of helpful suggestions, from the topics, the names for the topics, the expressions, the designing to even the font (the word size). She helped us pick up interesting topics, suggested how we can organize them, and illustrated how to design a flyer.  All of these she did were just her suggestions, as a typical American, she did not push her ideas but gave fast beneficial help.

We searched the Chinese calligraphy for some elegant handwriting styles, and then cut the images and copied them into our powerpoint. It took a long time since the elegant Chinese characters are not easy to find.

Gradually an elegant and beautiful flyer came out. We joyfully took pictures and uploaded it to WECHAT so that everyone in our group can see it. We got more suggestions and improved it.

 

Then we sent it to Xia Feng, the Chinese manager of New Haven Public Library, through email and quickly received her response--her telephone number. We connected her and asked some questions about the audience and the lecture room and planned to practice once so that she could give some suggestions. She was so kind in the phone and said she was ready to do anything to help us make it. We are really looking forward to next Thursday.



 

At night I received another email from Xia Feng, asking whether the ppt we sent her was the final one. I sent the message to everyone, Junia, Rachel and Joice responded that they found a spelling mistake. After some improvement I sent this back to her. I was really impressed by my teammates' carefulness.

The next morning I found another email from Xia Feng, who sent me a template they always use for flyers. It is in a Publisher which is quite new for me. With no knowledge of how to do this, I asked Siggie who was giving us classes that morning. Make sure everything I started to work on this template. The characters were so small and I didnot know whether I could change it or not. With so limited skills, I just filled the blanks. Sharing this with other teammates on WECHAT, I received suggestions from Rachel. Unfortunately, I had no time to work on it because we went to a lecture after class and a shopping trip to Target Mall in the evening.

When we got back, I received another email from Xia Feng, who already made a new one for us.

 

Much better! I relieved. That's wonderful! Xia Feng is so great and helpful!