World's Best ESL Students

World's best ESL students

 I am gradually discovering that Xi'an, for me, is all about people.  Lili, Grace and Michelle are part of my ladies English class.  They offered to take a trip to a park on my day off.
 1) It rained all day,
2) The traffic was terrible,
3) Communication was challenging
These facts didn't deter them in the slightest.  We had a delightful outing and ended up in a very nice restaurant belonging to Lucy, another student.

modelling school

By now I ought to be used to having extraordinary experiences here.  Catherine, the manager of the school where I teach, asked me how I am liking Xi'an.  The question has no simple answer; my emotions travel in many directions on a given day.  So many things happen with no warning and little explanation that I have been forced into a far greater openness to life and to destiny.
For example, yesterday Catherine suddenly took me to a modelling agency.  The students were all unimaginably tall, slender and beautiful.  They are learning to be models, flight attendance or airline security personnel.  In addition, it had been decided that some knowledge of English will help their careers which is why we were called in.  Its another world indeed!  I had no idea how much communication is contained in simple movements - how you stand, how you walk.  They seemed very delighted to meet me, which was gratifying though a little puzzling.

Shirley helps in translation

I am convinced that if Chinese women were to rule the world in future it would be a much better place.  Shirley, who is maybe 20 years old, has volunteered to translate vocabulary on the board for my ladies class.  They appreciate it so much.  I operate entirely without textbooks so that the classes can be prepared specifically for the students.  I could not do this without Shirley's able assistance.
      Last night as I was walking home I encountered some new students in the street.  One of them greeted me with 'Sawasdee kaa'.   He wasn't Thai, he had simply been there on a visit.  He was quite surprised when I informed him in Chinese that it is a greeting from a woman; since he is a boy he should say 'Sawasdee krab'.  They are very friendly, partly because they're curious about the world and I am the only non-Chinese person around.  From there I wandered into a small shop on the ground floor of one of our towering apartment blocks.  The sign was translated into English as 'convenient store'.   Very appropriate.  Although small, the convenient store appeared to have everything one could possibly need fro mops to noodles to red wine.  The shopkeeper greeted me warmly offering me a cigarette which he immediately lit for me.  It felt a bit strange strolling around a store smoking a cigarette.  Oh well, its his store. I bought some yogurt and promised to come back soon.  As I continued in the dark to my own building I passed the small police station, a small kiosk with red and blue lights.  The guards know me because I go to the little exercise park nearby every night.  Neon lights run up and down the sides of some of the buildings. Residents glide silently homewards along the narrow car-lined streets.  I wonder at the strangeness of it all and at how my life here becomes, little by little, not strange at all.