I'm back in 北京at the radio station. It's nice to be back but I still feel pretty useless having nothing to do - not for lack of wanting to do anything but for not being able to do much other than retrieve mail, deliver lunch, and refill tea cups. I think I'll start answering the telephone too and practice my conversational Chinese.
Teaching English to those wonderful kids was so rewarding. I don't know if I was teaching them or if it was the other way around, really. I was trying to teach them all these little, unimportant things like phonics and vocabulary. But while I tried to teach them the difference in pronunciation between a long A and a long I, they were unconsciously teaching me about perserverance, determination, thankfulness, and appreciation, and above all about the will to survive and to achieve their dreams. The students all aspire to climb out of the cycle of poverty through the only means they know: education. Therefore, they study study study despite extreme financial difficulty, sickness, death, and opposition from family members so that they might one day get a good job with their college degree and make something of themselves that's more than just a terrace farmer.
These kids are really not much different than we are, except their future hopes aren't merely for lots of money and a comfortable life after school but also for the chance to bring some of their prosperity back home to their 家乡。They're so thankful for what they have, though it seems so little to us. Furthermore, they don't easily forget those who have helped them. On the last night, each and every kid gave each of us teachers a warm hug to say goodbye. They were all so sad to see us go and many had tears in their eyes or streaming down their faces. But there was also happiness and gratefulness mixed in with the sadness in their tears. They said, thank you so much teacher i really love you promise you'll come again next year? It was so bittersweet and I was so moved. I made up my mind to go to YuanYang again no matter how hard it would be to organize my schedule around it.
The kids had all completely changed. They were so different from the timid, reserved students who sat in my class on the first day. They were silent little note-taking students and now they were more than just students; they were kids too. They were themselves. In my class, for example, I saw a complete metamorphosis. My students smiled more and laughed louder. They said what they thought. Their faces were open and their eyes bright. The boy who was originally the quietest and the most unwilling to participate turned out to be my class clown. My once timid, self-deprecating 吴远芬 who had been too afraid to even look at me when I spoke to her surprised me with the best English pronunciation in the class.
According to the other teachrs, the same metamorphosis occurred in all the classes. At the closing ceremony, the students laughed and cheered uproariously after each of the acts. They especially loved the skits that made fun of themselves or the teachers. They were so happy, so confident. The sun shone from their faces.
I originally thought that it would be so hard to communicate with these students who came from backgrounds so differnet from mine. But after spending a week getting to know them, teaching them and learning from them, I realized that we're all not that different at all. Some people may have more and some may have less, but in the end it's still the same things that make us happy, like nature's beauty, love, and friendship. They helped me realize these intangible precious things through their own heartfelt appreciation for them.
So, to my new friends:
Thank you.
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