Oh children...

The troubles of remembering, or even recognizing, 750 Taiwanese children plague me frequently. There are a handful of students now whom I am able to recognize and call by name (a fact which is probably much more exciting for me, than for them). These would be all of my club students and resource class kids, whom I see on a weekly basis (many of the club kids I even get to see multiple times a week). Recently, I have hung out with another group of my students in a non-school setting via one of my church friends.

Phoebe and I

I first met Phoebe a few months back at my church, the Bilingual Community Church (BCC). She came with Katherine (another one of the ETAs here), whom she went to school with back in Buffalo, NY. Both of them graduated last spring, Katherine with her BA and Phoebe with her MA. Katherine then moved to Kaohsiung through Fulbright, while Phoebe moved back home to Kaohsiung to be near her family and to teach English in the cram schools. About a month ago, Phoebe discovered that she teaches some of my students from Minghua at her English cram school. When the kids figured this out (I think they saw a picture of Phoebe and I together on her facebook - which is why I do not friend my students on fb...), they got super excited. I now receive random phone calls from Phoebe's phone on weekday evenings or Saturday mornings, on occasions when the students have snatched her phone with the intention of calling "Teacher Grace." A few weeks ago, she invited them to church, and three of the girls came, just to see "Teacher Grace." I went out to lunch with them afterwards, which completely made their day.

Anyways, last night, one of the churches in the area hosted a Thanksgiving dinner and invited a few other churches in town (including BCC) to attend. Originally, I had not planned on going, but was later talked into it by several of my students at school. Phoebe had again invited them, and this time, all of them wanted to go, as long as I promised to go and eat with them.


The dinner was quite the interesting and awkward event. First of all, the only part of it that was remotely "Thanksgiving" style was the fact that there was a turkey and mashed potatoes. Sadly, though, the turkey was cooked Asian-style, and the potatoes did not have matching gravy... And there was no pumpkin pie... Luckily for me, I went with few expectations, so was not too crushed by disappointment.


The awkwardness of the evening came in with the seating arrangements. Katherine and I scootered over to the hotel hosting the event, and arrived slightly late. This meant that most people had already arrived and claimed tables. Phoebe met us and informed me that Katherine was sitting at her table, and I was sitting with all of my students at a different table. Now you might think this would be a fun idea, but that is because you neither know my students' English level nor my Chinese level. Awkward is the appropriate word. Phoebe later told me that the kids had all told her that they did not want her sitting with them at their table. So sweet, since she was the one who invited them - little gems, all of them... She was quite hurt by their attitudes, I think. Anyways, why they thought this seating arrangement would be a good idea, since we clearly have communication issues, is beyond me. There were eight of them, and only about two of them were brave enough to initiate conversation with me. This group of students is probably representative of the average Minghua student. They have been learning English since the third grade, and all of them are currently enrolled in English cram school, yet their learning has been limited to reading and writing. Listening comprehension and oral communication skills are noticeably lacking (My favorite is when I ask students, "how are you doing?" and am met with a "聽不懂" - honestly, if you do not know the most basic of all English greetings, we have a problem!). I did my best to get them talking in both English and Chinese, but did not meet with much success. My students are so shy! I had thought it was just in class and that they would be more talkative when in a non-school setting one-on-one with me, but alas no. Apparently the beauty of my blond hair and green eyes are just too overwhelming for them, especially the boys. :) The boys were truly hilarious - I am not sure that I have ever made anyone so nervous in my entire life.

So moral of the story: if someone invites you to a dinner, you should never be so rude as to refuse to sit with them. And secondly, never over-estimate your language skills and think that you can have a comfortable conversation with your language teacher without a translator present.

Phoebe and her sister