1st Meeting of Our English Club

Yeay! so, finally Beijing no.9 High School has a English Club, or a English Corner... whatever, it's just the same.

There were some challenges that we had in our way to make the first meeting in Monday, 19 October 2009. First challenge, we didn't know yet where we can do this club, because the school had not tell us the place. But some of Martyna's students sent her an email where will the club take place, so she just told them to gather in front of the school gate.

Second challenge, suddenly in Monday afternoon, Wang Lao Shi told us that it's better to start the club on Wednesday, because they need to report any kind of gathering and meeting due to the issue of H5N1. Hehe,, that was a bit funny for me. But we told him that we've already told the students about this club, so we have to do it today. So, he gave us a meeting room to do this activity.

(the 6 first club members)

And finally, we managed to hold the first meeting of our English Corner in Monday (19-10-09) at 12.45 until 13.40. There were 6 students who attended this club, but we think that it was a good start, since we didn't give proper announcement about the place. Moreover, we like a small class. We can give more quality in fewer quantity.

The first meeting is only about introduction, but we made them make a long introduction so that they have to say long sentences and use more complicated phrases. The method was that we divided them into pairs, an then each of them had to introduce themselves as their friend. It was just a simple one.

("My name is Candy...")

I had quite fun. And i will prepare the next meeting (Wednesday, 21 October 2009) more seriously. We asked them to prepare a topic that they like to be told during the club, because we will learn about Public Speaking. Meanwhile, i will make a poster to announce everyone about the next meeting.

Anyway, these are our 6 first club members:

1. Michael
   
2. Sam
   
3. Candy
   
4. Maria
   
5. Li Sa Tong
   
6. She wrote her name in Chinese characters so i can't read it >.<

I hope we will see them again in our next meeting, and also some more club members! Cheers!

Remember Their Name

I always find it's pretty hard to remember people's name, even in Indonesia. There was one situation when i handle the press hosting in an event.

(an important-faced, senior journalist approached. I stood up immediately, set up a professional PR gesture, smiled widely, and greeted him so warmly because i felt that i know him pretty well)
Me: (shake his hand) "Mr. Agam... how are you? wow, it's been a long time! been busy?"
Him: "Umm... actually, I'm Kuncoro"
Me: "........"

Now, can you imagine when i have to remember Chinese names? well, more than 200 Chinese names?

But i have to do it, anyway. Because i found out that, your students will pay more attention to you, and feel closer to you, if you remember their name. Because for them, it's an appreciation if you remember them and call them by their name. Of course it's really hard to remember them all, but start to remember those who most active first.

(each of them wants to be recognized...)

Still, it's hard for me. So, i made a strategy. I asked them to write down their name in my notes, those who most active, for sure. Some of them have English name, and it makes everything easier for me. So, here's my note:

Class I-1
Cindy: long hair, sweet face, her English is not really good but she's so passionate and cheerful
Michelle: she just had her English name, really friendly
(they like to come to my room and talk with me, Martyna and Slava)

Class I-5
Chu Wen Yi: tall, pretty, friendly, she asked me if i can sell my batik blouse to her. She gave me a bracelet in our first meeting and showed me how to write my name in Chinese characters

(she said it's to protect me ^_^)

Scarlett: Sweet, active, intelligent, she sang for me in our first meeting. She asked me to come to her baptist ceremony and become a witness or something haha.
Denise: I'm impressed by this young girl. She told me that she wants to go to Canada for college, but her family isn't rich. So, she needs to find a scholarship, but she has to speak English well for that. She can't afford an English course, so she asked me to teach her English. She has that quality of knowing exactly what she wants and also how to get it. I don't know whether she'll achieve Canada or not, but she will achieve a lot of great thing with that kind of personality. She sent me a sweet letter and i will keep it. I really wish the best for her.
Cai Chen: The guy with glasses who's not really active but speaks English pretty well.
Zhang Xu: Haha,, he's the man! he's the funniest guy in the class. The whole class put attention everytime he speaks and makes jokes. He helped me a lot to get the class attention. He's also really friendly and active. Eventhough his English isn't that good, he always try to speak and seek for new words in his dictionary.
Yin Cheng Xuan: Korean student. He can't speak English or Chinese really well, but he always greet me and try to speak with me.

Class I-9
Gu Ming: (Secara fisik mengingatkan gw pada tokoh A Kiong di Laskar Pelangi >.<) kind of attention seeker who requires extra treatment. But if he got the attention he needs, he will be really kind and helpful.
Liu Chuang: One of the class cool gangster. His hand was fractured in our first meeting (not by me, for sure). He can't really speak nor understand English. But recently he was becoming really proactive and nice.
Tao Yun: He doesn't look like Chinese at all. He looks like Indonesian-Western mixed born. He speaks pretty good English and really friendly.
Guo Wei: A nice little gentleman who always help me with the computer.

Class I-10
Jeff: A cute, intelligent young man ;p he sang for me so beautifully in our second meeting ("nothing's gonna change my love for you..."). He's also really active during the class and he speaks English pretty well. Slava was right, he makes us think, "Damn, i wish i'm 7 years younger..." wkwkwkwk >:D
Belinda: A sweet girl that wants me to go to Badachu park with her
Betty: The girl with glasses, a bit shy but her English is good

Sally: She gave me a heart shaped origami with "We love you, teacher!" written on it. Aaaawww,, how sweet is that??

(I love you guys, too! :D)

And finally, this gentleman... he's also from Class I-10. He wanted to take picture with me. I can't remember his Chinese name, so he asked me to give him an English name. Wow, that's an honor to give someone a name. I have to think seriously about it. By the way, this is him:

So, i'm thinking about the name of some cool guys...
Bruce (from Bruce Willis)
Brad (from Brad Pitt)
Ashton (from Ashton Kutcher)
Johny (from Johny Depp)
Hugh (from Hugh Jackman)
Antonio (from Antonio Banderas)
Clint (from Clint Eastwood)
Stephen (from Stephen Spielberg)
Robert (from Robert Langdon- come to fiction)

So... can anyone give me an idea for this guy's name? his future is depend on us!
*untungny gak perlu bubur merah- bubur putih bwt kesempatan ini.. wkwk

I'm a Teacher! >.<

"Tuhan tahu, tapi menunggu"
(Leo Tolstoy)

Really, be careful with what you do, and with what you say
Because, karma does exist! Huahahaha >:D

My mother is a teacher, and i always tell her that i never want to be a teacher, or lecturer. I think those two profession require really high competence and patience. Well, it happens that i don't really have the 2nd requirement.

Moreover, i don't want to be a teacher because i'm afraid of karma hehehehe. Really, i was a bad student. I was always being so mean to the young, new teachers. Together with my friends, i teased them, and really intended to piss them off. I thought it was fun. I talked a lot during the lesson, played card, took pictures, ate, and slept. I really did, i've told you i was a bad student :p

(Me in highschool. This picture is taken during lesson and i was half- sleeping)

Since i believe in karma, i don't want to be a teacher. I don't want to meet a student like me. It would be a nightmare >.<

But through ESD Program, life brought me into Beijing no.9 High School and made me a teacher! I mean, how funny is that?? I was terrified that i would meet "another version of me" here. Being a teacher is challenging. But you know what? i like it. I have to teach 4 classes of 1st Grade High School students (aged between 15-16 years old) per week. This is my schedule:

Friday, 10.15- 11.00 Class I-1
Friday, 11.10- 11.55 Class I-5
Friday, 13.30- 14.15 Class I-10
Friday, 14.25- 15.10 Class I-9
(in average, each class has 52 students)

(One of my class. I finished the lesson too early so i took my time to have some fun ;p)

I have to teach them Sustainable Development, which is something pretty new and hard for their age. I have to do it in English, which is not their, nor my, native language. That's the 1st challenge. The 2nd challenge is that i'm a foreign teacher, i don't really understand their language, and they know that i don't have any authority to give them score. The 3rd challenge is that, i'm a petite girl with small voice, they thought i was 18 *sigh.

So, i try to be their friend. I love it, so do they (well, hope so... >.<)

There's a lot of thing that you can learn from being a teacher. I can tell you some of it:

1. Punctuality. It's a shame here if the teacher come late. So i train my self to be in the class 5 minutes before the lesson (it's hard... late is almost my habit wkwk).
   
2. Preparation. It's quite challenging to make them interested on what you're explaining, so you have to make sure that you design an interactive class, prepare a good presentation, translate some difficult words for them, etc.
   
3. Creativity. They will get bored with you as the time goes by. So, you have to prepare different strategies each week to maintain their interest in the topic.
   
4. Flexibility. I just realize that each class has different personality, habit and culture. I have to treat them differently in each class. Well, duh.
   
5. Patience. I don't have to explain more about this.
   

Actually, i find out that i learn more things from the students than they do from me. It's actually me who have 4 lessons to learn each week. They are my teachers. They make me think and evaluate my self every time. They push me to develop my self, to give better lesson each week, to be as creative as i can, to be tough and determined, and so on. I'm sure i will still learn a lot of things from them.

So, i love to be a teacher. I learn a lot from this experience. It's sometimes frustrating and tiring, but this job pulls me out of comfort zone, and i like it. I feel it because of my wonderful students. Some of them are really sweet, friendly and clever, some of them act like me when i was in their age XD. I will tell you about them in another post.

At last, be nice to your teachers and lecturers. Don't make any mess with them. You don't know what will happen to you in the future. Huahahahaha >:D

(Me and Beijing no.9 Middle School. You might not see it clearly, but that's me)

Beijing no.9 High School English Corner

I really like my school, Beijing no.9 High School.


People are super nice and friendly, the environment is great, the facilities are good. That's why i want to make a contribution for them. I want to do something more to help them, so do my trainees friend, Martyna and Slava.

We proposed a English Club to our school, and i submitted the proposal to our supervisor, Wang Lao Shi, last week. The proposal is like this:

English Public Speaking Club

Current condition:

English is widely needed nowadays. Students show high appreciation on it, and really interested to learn more about it. There are many students who really try to speak English well, and they need a platform in which they can practice English speaking actively, with correct pronunciation.

Objectives:

1. To boost students self confidence in speaking English

2. To give students a platform to speak English actively

3. To teach students how to pronounce English correctly

4. To give students platform to learn new words and use them actively

Activities:

1. Story telling

2. Simple presentation (Informative)

3. Simple presentation (educative)

4. Simple presentation (persuasive)

5. Simple presentation (to entertain)

6. Vocabulary learning

Method:

1. Practice

2. Trial and error

3. Evaluation

Schedule:

1 class/ week

(negotiable)

But it happened that Wang Lao Shi hadn't read it yet. So today, he asked three of us to meet him and an English teacher as a translator in the teacher office, in 3rd floor. So, there we went.

Finally, i could ask them if it's possible for us to make this English Club. We explained roughly about the club's purpose and what we will do there. For my surprise, they instantly say, "yes". We managed to arrange an English Corner, 3 times a week, (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) from 12.40 until 13.45. They will ask the ban zhu ren (coordinator teacher) in every class to inform this new club to the students.

I was so happy that i finally i can have more experience in working in this school. More experience= more development, rite?. Martyna, Slava and I will discuss about the material that we will give during the club activity, it will be improvised from the one i've made. We really determined to give the students a really good activity. So, Monday next week, will be our first meeting of the club! Wish us luck! ;D

The important thing that i want to tell is, if you're a trainee, you gotta be proactive. If you feel like you need something more to do, just propose the activity to the place you're working at. If you think you can do something good for them, just tell them. It's your development, so be responsible to it.

I will seriously prepare for this English Corner. I will give them my best. And I will tell you about our first meeting in another post. For now, i'm soo happy that we can do this club! :D

I like Xidan!

Ok, i will tell you about one of my fav place in Beijing. It's Xidan street!
Practically, i like a place where i can find many different things in one place. Xidan is a place like this. Let's list what Xidan has:

1. Beijing Book Building. It's known as the biggest book store in Asia. It's a 6 stories building with almost all kinds of book provided. Most of them are in Chinese, for sure, but i'm amazed that i could find some art books with pictures of famous paintings on it. I could also find a bilingual Dale Carnegie book for 25Y (and bought it). International books are in the B1 floor, but too bad i couldn't find a small Collins English-Chinese dictionary for me there. Owyah, this bookstore has the complete collection of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, Hans Christian Anderson's, Hemingway's,, etc... all in English version, and all so cheap!
2. Street vendors. You can find a lot of street vendors in Xidan street selling many kinds of interesting foods. Chicken kebab, many kinds of barbeque, noodles, caramelized fruits, baked corn, you name it! All people just enjoying it in the sidewalk, and that was interesting for me. And, oh, seriously, don't eat that orange colored food seen in the picture. Tastes soooo awful!
3. Fruitime. Oh my... this stall sells many kinds of heavenly drink. If i have enough money, i will buy the franchise right and sell it in Indonesia. Oh, yes, sure i will. You can find many Fruitime stall in Beijing, they are pretty obvious because of the green color that they use. They sell milkshake, coffee, milk tea, green tea, smoothies, chocolate, juice, etc! the price range is between 3-5Y. My favorite is richaroma chocolate and hazelnut coffee. You got to visit this stall when you're in Beijing!
4. Cheap stores. Shopping time! First, try 77th Street, then, go to Xidan Cultural Square... but actually, you will find a lot of store in Xidan that sell cute clothes for 19-39Y! We also found boots for 60Y, bags for 35Y, and so on... You can even bargain in some stores. How good is that??
5. Stylish people. I think Xidan is also Beijing youth's fav place. Because i saw a lot of them there, dressed really fashionably. I saw a lot of girl mixed cropped jacket, skinny jeans and boots. Also hot pants, tights and scarf. Cardigans, legging, and animal printed bags. All in a really cute way! (I think they are really stylish. Well, except the one with the white shirt and grey throusers. Maap blur, maklum candid)

I was so happy when I sat in the sidewalk of this street, had Richaroma Chocolate from Fruitime, had survived from my financial crisis, and planned to try some foods sold by the street vendors. Oh man, i love this street!

Hari buka puasa ;D (Muti goes to the bank)

It was the 1st of October when suddenly i realized that i only got 240Y left in my wallet. Crap.

I still had some dollars with me, but i didn't like that i've spent almost 1300Y before my first month. I started to think what have i bought... what places i've been visited... umm...

The conclusion was that, i only got 140Y to live until the 14th of October, because i would use the other 100Y to pay for the Great Wall trip. Remember everyone, it was the 1st of October. Then i had to spend only 140Y for 14 days. I need to use not more than 10Y per day. (Oh, 1-8 Oct was the National Holiday, and the school didn't serve the food during the holiday. Double crap).

Well, actually, i managed to survive during MY financial crisis. I will give you the tips in another post. There was unexpected thing happened when my yi-ka-dong was out of credit, so I needed to refill it. I needed to pay 20Y for this. Okay, plan changed. I will save it until 12th of October. Humph.

October 12th 2009

I did it, everyone! i survived! i even still had some yuan in my wallet. But i seriously needed to go to the bank and exchange some money. So there i went. I went to Xidan because i knew there's a lot of bank there. I chose EXIT B, because it was written that Bank of Communications is somewhere nearby.

I asked two polices where the bank is, and they pointed to the wrong direction. Then i went to the Xidan street. I was going around the block while i only needed to walk few metres to reach the bank!. But it was blessing in disguise. Xidan street is now one of my favorit place in Beijing. There's a lot of interesting thing there. I will tell you in another post.

Ok, i managed to find the bank. The Bank of Communications. I've practiced some conversations that i can use to exchange money in the bank. Thank you for www.nciku.com!

Here are some phrases and words that you can use for this occation:
"Wo yao huan qian" (I want to exchange money)
"Meiyuan huancheng renminbi" (dollar to yuan)
hu jiao= passport
huilu= exchange rate

I highly recommend Bank of Communications. The employee are so nice and helpful. I didn't have long queue, and they didn't need a long process to echange my money. Huff,, now that i have money, i breath again. It feels like i was breaking the fast, heheheu. Owyah, Bank of Communications is located beside Beijing Books Building. It's pretty easy to find.

(Sbenerny pgn foto2 di dlm bankny, tp takut dtangkep... heheheu)

Beijing Subway

I really love Beijing Subway, yes i do!

I always feel convenient enough with angkot, DAMRI bus, BABON bus, ojek, and all kinds of transportation that i used to take in Indonesia. But to live in Beijing, i need more sophisticated and comfortable transportation, unless i'll get lost. Because Beijing is super huge city, and believe me, you don't want to get lost in Beijing.

Maybe for some people, Beijing subway is not really comfortable, since there always be a lot of people using it. But i have to say, I like the system. And the arrangement is easy even for foreigner like me. A foreigner who doesn't even have subway in her country (Pak SBY, mari qta bkin subway yuuk...).

I can tell you how easy to use it...
First, here is the map of Beijing Subway:


Easy, huh? the lines connect almost all areas in Beijing. They always prepare this kind of map in every subway station, and they will give it to you for free. All you need to do is ask,
"Ni you mei you ditie ditu ma?" (Do you have subway station map?)

Ok, if you need to take subway in Beijing, here are the things that you need to do:

1. Find the closest subway station from your area. You can ask, "Ditie, zai nar?" (where's subway station?). It's pretty easy to be found, since it always has this kind of sign:
2. After you get in to the station, you need to buy the ticket. It will costs you 2Y for one way ticket. But if you intent to stay for quite long time in Beijing, i highly suggest you to buy this yi-ka-dong (subscription card). You can find it in big subway station, like Pingguoyuan, Guamao, Nanlishilu, Wanfujing, etc. It'll costs you 50Y. 30Y for the credit and 20Y for deposit. You can also use it to pay the bus (it'll be cheaper). You just need to wipe it into the ticket machine to use it. It look like this:
3. Then, you just need to get into the train. Remember that the seats are reserved for seniors, children, pregnant women, the sick and the disable.
4. If you need to check the stations you've passed, there's a subway line map available inside the train. Some of them are new ones with the light. It's so comfortable for you to check. But there will be also some notofication about the station that u're arriving.
   

Sometimes, we have to stand for quite long time in the train, but if you can sit, it's pretty comfortable inside. This is the inside of the train:


Always say "Lao jia" (Excuse me) if you want to get off and there's a person in front of you... bon voyage! :D