Well, for the first time I was driven to the point of having to "lay the smack down." (A phrase I attribute to my friend C). I was inspired by my Chinese co-teacher in Grade 2 Yi this morning. She gave a 5 minute lecture to the kids about how they were disappointing her and not showing me respect. She then made them all bow and say in unison "Sorry, Miss Carole." And they actually were sorry. The culture here and the fear of shame make such talks very effective. And my Grade 7 Boys II pushed me to it. And I think I did a very good job for the first time, by the end they all looked so remorseful and shamed. Ha-Ha. The power of a teacher. But they did deserve it, we'll see if it worked next week.
Today was the first day we went out to lunch with some of our Chinese co-teachers. Their English is just as good as ours so it isn't a matter of communication, more a matter of culture. See, most of them are single women in their thirties, who still live at home, and who's mother's make their lunches to bring to school each day. Seriously. So we go out while they eat their lunch boxes. But today three of them took us to have Japanese noodles, which were quite good. And it was nice to get to talk with them in a relaxed setting.
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