Every Thursday from roughly 7-9pm the foreign English teachers gather in front of one of the main buildings on campus (nicknamed Titanic) to chat and socialize with any interested students who want to practice their English, just listen to spoken English, get to know us or learn more about U.S. culture. Being more of an introverted and passive person by nature, English Corner is not my favorite thing. Sometimes I feel like a caged animal with crowds of people pressing in closer and closer to get a good view, take pictures of me with their camera phone or ask me questions that I have already been asked hundreds of times already (how long have you been here? what do you think of China? how long are you going to stay here? can you speak Chinese? etc.). There are always some awkward moments when we run out of things to talk about or when they compliment me excessively about any number of things. They also get really embarrassed when I don't understand their questions even though half the time it is just because I can't hear them.

Tonight was the third English Corner I have been to and things are getting easier. The challenge tonight was trying to remember everyone's name. In classes, when students are divided up and I have the name list in front of me the probability of finding the correct name is fairly high. But having all of the students mixed up in one place makes it almost impossible for me to remember anyone's name. I felt especially terrible tonight when one student came up to me and asked if I remembered who she was. I recognized her face but it took me two tries before I came up with the correct name of Shirley (I always mix her up with Joyce and Cookie because they are all short, adorable, wear glasses and sit in the front row - never mind that I also have three other Shirleys in various other classes!).


I tried to explain to Shirley that I have about 250 students who I only see once a week and that I really struggle remembering everyone's name. She replied with "It makes me feel very sad that you don't know who I am because I sit in the front row, talk with you at English Corner and say hi to you on campus." Yikes. I feel horrible. After hearing that I felt awful and vowed to take pictures of every student to try and learn their names and add these lists to my slowly growing lists of Chinese words that I need to study.

1 Comment

1. Chen on October 16, 2009 at 2:50 AM

   Every time I went back from English corner, I would say that more and more non English majors are interested in western culture. That's a great progress to the students in the university.