English class...it is useful

So here’s where I stand up and say I was completely wrong about English class. While I was a young lad back in school sitting in class and the teacher was talking about the Subject, Object, Verb, Dangling Participle, etc., I would daydream about slaying dragons or winning the lottery or slaying the dragon that won the lottery. I mean, I could speak English and be understood right. Did I really need to be able to go through a group of sentences and identify the structure and parts? C’mon, who would ever use this stuff? Can’t we just move on a read Shakespeare or Poe already (like he would be able to break down his sentences, I thinkith not!). Well, now I finally understand why we did this (and the curtains around his eyes open wide to let in the bright sky). Pray tell, you say…fear not my comrades for you shall be told.

As part of my Chinese classes, my teacher Ling Ling asks us to put together sentences with the various vocabulary words. Her method to teaching appears rather simple…learn a word, use it in a sentence and then hold a free dialogue using the new words. [By simple, I mean her approach is simple but it’s much more difficult than it may sound] Of course, the more you use a word, the more likely you are to recognize it and be able to use it in everyday settings. There is a catch; you have to be able to follow the Chinese sentence structure (Quoth the raven, “OH NO!!!”). In Chinese, the structure is completely different from English and many times we will create a sentence and she will say “that’s how you would say it in English” or the even more dreaded “that’s written Chinese but not spoken Chinese”. It started off rather simple but as we continue, it’s getting more and more complex and that’s when I think I should’ve paid a lot more attention in class rather than catching the winning TD pass in the closing moments of the Super Bowl. For all the teacher’s out there, I apologize for daydreaming in your class (but you have to admit it was boring…HA!); you now have another example to use to tell your students about how your subject ties into the real world (not that I’m telling you how to teach, it’s just a suggestion if kids ask “why am I learning this?”). In the case of language and language composition, it is useful when learning a second language. “But I don’t want to learn a second language” will be the whiny response. Hey, you never know where life will take you. I never thought I would be working in China.

Just one more item that to adds insult to injury concerning learning Chinese. The kids are taking Chinese in school and I guess they are doing okay with the language although the only time they use it is when they want to tell me I’m saying something wrong (POW!!! Right in the kisser!!!). The other week we are in the Bamboo shop (a place that sells things made of bamboo, not sure what the real name is but that’s what we call it just because we can) and they don’t have what we are looking for, they are out of stock. The lady picks up the phone and calls someone to inquire about this item and after a few moments on the phone hangs up and returns to us. She starts talking and trying to tell us something. Tammy is trying to understand, I’m trying to act extremely interested in something over there and the kids are just mulling about. Warren steps up to try and help out but he’s also a little lost. I walk by Jacob who has not interest in the conversation and is just looking to leave the shop (or pickup everything on the shelves no matter how many times we tell him “look, don’t touch”). He says “day after tomorrow, same time”. What? “She said, day after tomorrow at the same time she’ll have them here”. AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!! I relay the information to Tammy and she confirms with the lady by using words she knows (not that we don’t trust Jacob but he could’ve just made it up so we left, not that he would do that [wink-wink]). That little booger (I have better terms but I’ll keep it clean)!! Here we are trying to learn and understand; trying to figure out what is being said, struggling mightily and from the peanut gallery…. Using all of our “skills” with the language to determine if she is hitting on me (c’mon, it’s possible….okay maybe not), making light of Warren’s big feet (definitely possible), telling us to go away, etc., and in comes Jacob and seemingly without any effort, picks up exactly what she is saying. Now that is frustrating! Many times we have had to try and rely on our kids to help us understand what the locals are saying since they seem to have a better grasp of the language than we do. That’s a tough pill to swallow (after all we are the parents), I would love to be able to understand what is being said, even if I can’t respond exactly the way I would like. Tammy and I will continue to take classes and increase our vocabulary but we know that our kids already know more than we do and they will continue to outpace us in this area. It’s not a bad thing, it just is what it is.