images and words

jinzhou students

class of 1999

Chinese universities classify students by the year they enter university rather than the American system of their expected year of graduation. So these students graduated in 2003.

On Baseball and Hot Dogs and Teaching English

hot dogs

Another teaching method I use is interactive and competitive. When I want my students to review in my content classes (Lit or History) I often play BUZZ!!!

I turn the classroom into a Game Show - kind of like Tag-Team Jeopardy. Since we don't have buzzers, one member of each team is the designated buzzer. If the team knows the answer, they tap the buzzer on the shoulder and that student yells "BUZZ!"

I use questions from my recent lectures so the students get a good chance to review.

At first, they think I am crazy, until I tell them that I will treat the winning team to lunch. Then everyone prepares really hard and when we play BUZZ!!! the classroom is alive with learning.

Here's the winning team of the last BUZZ!!! game. I took them to a new American-style Hot Dog stand that just opened here in little ol' Jinzhou along the banks of the Xiao Ling River Boardwalk. So the reward actually turned into yet another lesson in American Culture: The All-American Hot Dog Stand. They had a blast (as the pictures below show) and I TOO had a blast as the place has REAL French's® mustard, chopped onions and quasi-relish - all of which are about non-existent outside the BIG Cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenyang).

Rear (L to R) Irene, Weekend (yep, that's her English name-'cuz she likes Weekends)
(Front, L to R)- Julie, Marie, Vivien

So I took 'em to the American Hot Dog Stand near the Jinzhou Boardwalk. They know me there. After all, I'm American and I gave 'em the Chuck@China SEAL OF APPROVAL after my second visit (real dogs, mustard, etc!!). The owner, of course, called the newspaper photographer to record the event. Of course, I'm still waiting for HIS pictures (Chinese businessmen honor about 10% of their promises), but here are shots I took a few weeks later when I took my student winners there AND taught them how to dress their own hot dogs.

If you are a westerner, you must understand that Hot Dogs are anathema in China. You have to use your hands to eat them (chopsticks won't work) and the onions and mustard are, like, considered WEIRD here.

Still, my students had a great time as you can see:

Vivien (R) takes your order while
Julie (L) prepares your hot dog.
Was that a mustard and onion dog?

(Left) Irene and Weekend (yes, that's her chosen English name) share a lemonade slushie while Maria contemplates how to handle her first hot dog.

(Right) Irene has no problem
digging into her first Hot Dog

What about Baseball?

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