University Classrooms

I teach in Room A317, Building A. I take the bus about 8:00 a.m. and class starts at 8:30 (to 11:40). We break for a long lunch because the kids sleep at school, with their heads on their desks, during the noon break. The classrooms are air conditioned, but only during class hours. Someone comes around to turn the AC on after I arrive and then they turn it off when I leave. Students live in spartan unairconditioned dorm rooms. It is exceedingly hot here, and many students stay up until 12 or 1 p.m. until it cools off enough to sleep. Consequently, they are very tired the next day. At least a dozen of them sleep in the classroom from 11:45-2:15 daily. The rooms have large banks of windows, but they also have long blue curtains which, when closed, make the room very dark. We start class again at 2:30 - 5:40, and then I catch the bus back to the hotel.

There is no elevator in the four story teaching building. I teach on the third floor which is four long flights of stairs. Every teacher brings toilet paper and bottled water. In Chinese-style bathrooms toilet paper is seldom provided. Sinks are outside the bathrooms in the main hall. There is only cold water and no paper towels (this is common in China -- air-drying your hands is the rule). There are no vending machines for water or cokes or candy bars. No eating is permitted in the classrooms. My room has about 80 seats which are bolted to the floor like old-fashioned desks in the U.S. years ago. Consequently, the seating cannot be rearranged.

I have a terrific teaching assistant . Some of the T.A.'s speak very poor English and are very passive in the classroom. My T.A. Elena has a great personality, speaks better English than the students, and is "proactive" in a way that is somewhat un-Chinese. Chinese students are excellent at following instructions. They listen and do exactly what they're told to do. Elena has a quality I really admire (and need here). She can think on her feet; she brings her own ideas to the table. She can look around the room and see what needs to be done and do it without comment. If she doesn't know how to do something, she does some research and gets it done. She's part of the solution, not part of the problem. She is a Finance major and will make some Chinese firm a great employee.