| Summer invited me to her family's home on the evening of her last day in Hefei to have dinner. I was nervous about facing her parents, knowing that I had to keep our growing relationship a secret. It was not my responsibility to tell them about it, nor was it possible since I couldn't speak Mandarin. Shortly after arriving at Summer's home, we walked with her sister Amy through some dark alleys and dirt roads to another small building not far away, where many of her extended family had gathered together for dinner. I met some of her aunts and uncles, and her father was there too. I was glad to see him again, but he didn't look too happy to see me for some reason. He probably knew who Summer was helping each day until late hours and began to grow suspicious. I had a seat at a table in a garage-like section of the building where everyone was gathered together. Amy sat down next to me. Summer's aunts and uncles looked at Summer, Amy, and I, and then said something to Summer. Summer then told me that her family thought it was strange that Amy seemed more comfortable around me than she did. I looked at them, and then looked back at Summer and shrugged my shoulders, as though I didn't know why Summer was afraid of me in front of her family. I don't usually keep secrets from people, but this wasn't exactly my secret to keep. Summer was the one who would get in serious trouble if her parents ever found out about us. Summer's young math tutor was also there, and a group of us went to a back room and waited for dinner to be served. I wasn't sure if this place was where they usually ate, or if they just used the building when their extended family would come to have dinner with them. In a small dining room, there was a large case of Snow Beer on the ground, and Summer, her math tutor, and a few others began drinking. I didn't feel like drinking that night because my thoughts were already troubled enough about Summer, so I politely refused. Most of them were trying hard to get the other to drink instead of drinking themselves, but everyone had a fair amount to drink in the end. After we finished eating, I asked Summer's math tutor, "You're still drinking?" It seemed like they drank for a long time without finishing much of the beer. He couldn't speak much English, so he asked Summer to translate for me, "You can go and drink with your American friends! We know how to drink in China!" I looked at the case that still had many beer bottles inside of it and said to him, "I could easily finish all of that beer myself, if I wanted to." When he received the translation, he was stunned with surprise, and he swallowed his words faster than he swallowed his dinner. He obviously didn't know how people can drink in America. After dinner, Summer, Amy, Summer's math tutor, and I left the kitchen. Summer's father was standing outside at the entrance and said goodbye to us in Mandarin, "Zai jian," though he glanced at me suspiciously. I told Summer about it, and she said he acts like that around all of her male friends at first. The area we were in was much out of the way of regular traffic. We had to walk along several dark and deserted dirt roads to find a place where Summer's math tutor could catch a taxi. He heard about my teaching job with Wongas that I would start in only a few days, so he encouraged me by saying, "You can make it!" before he got into his taxi and went home. It reminded me of back when I was teaching for Daler because of the large poster he had of himself with those same words printed on it. We went back to Summer's house where I had a suitcase full of clothes that Summer's mom so kindly washed for me as she promised. It was getting late, and the buses were about to stop running for the day, so I had to leave Summer who was leaving for Korea the next day. Her father offered to take me by motorcycle to the bus stop, but Summer demanded that she be the one to do it. Amy walked with us to the bus stop for a minute, but then disappeared before I looked back to see if she was still there. Maybe Summer said something to her in Mandarin. As I was dragging my suitcase, Summer asked if she could help pull it with me in our final moments together. We got to the bus stop and talked as bus 122 kept passing by us. I always tried to get on the bus, but we weren';t finished talking yet, so I would wait for the next one to come again and again. Then she finally hugged me goodbye as one of the last buses came up, risking being seen by her father. I got on the bus and went home to my quiet apartment in Hu Po where Jackie was waiting for me. Summer in China was over for me. The day after Summer went to Korea, Jackie received a phone call from someone while we were sitting in my apartment. It was Jane from the first summer camp, and she had come to Hefei from her hometown, Anqing, to go to college at Anhui University during the upcoming school year. She came to my apartment and I was very glad to see her. I hadn't seen or heard from her for the entire month after I left Anqing. Late afternoon, Jackie and Jane started talking about going to something called English corner. They said it was a meeting at Anhui University of students who gather together to practice their oral English. I wanted to stay at the apartment and watch movies with them, but I finally gave in to their idea because I realized it was an opportunity to meet new people in an English-speaking environment. We took a taxi out of Hu Po several miles south to Anhui University, which was about one block away from Anhui Medical University where Jackie went to school. After passing through the front gate, there was a cement roadway lined with sidewalks and trees that led straight back and over a ridge towards the other side of the campus. We walked down the crowded roadway in between student dorms on one side and stores that sold phone cards, school supplies, and food products on the other side. We came to another road just after the front gate fell out of sight behind us, and turned right where there was a large pond stretching away from the road with several stone benches on the left side slightly downhill from the road where some young couples liked to share peaceful moments with each other in between their hectic studying periods. Immediately after passing by the pond, there was a small section of land with just enough trees to cover the sky above where there were many small groups of students huddled together speaking English. Jackie, Jane, and I walked into the crowd and looked around for a chance to speak with someone. It was Friday night, and the people who would rather spend their time doing something to improve their knowledge than going out and partying in the clubs would come to places like this. Even though it was completely dark, it wasn't hard to get noticed by people, as I was the only foreigner in the entire crowd. After a couple of minutes, several people approached me with smiling faces and started asking me questions like "Where are you from? What do you think of China? Do you like Chinese food?" And many other questions about life and education in the United States. Soon there was a crowd of about 30 people surrounding me, and it was difficult to keep track of Jackie and Jane as they became engulfed by the other curious students who were so anxious to have the rare opportunity to speak with a foreigner. In the circle of students that gathered around me, there were many of them that kept quiet and only listened. Many people were afraid that their English was too poor to risk speaking out in front of others. But none of them were afraid to stand close to me and look at me directly. Some students would ask me so many questions that after a while they were cut off by other students who wanted the chance to speak with me as well. It was difficult to give everyone an equal amount of conversation time, but I tried my best to answer everyone's questions. The students had a wide range of English pronunciation styles varying from British style accents to having Chinese accents. There weren't so many people who spoke American English, but there were a few rare cases, and they also knew about some slang words. Some students could speak very fluently while others were less confident and tripped on their words more often. There were a couple of students that could speak English so quickly that I had a hard time following them even though their pronunciation was quite accurate. There was evidence of the students being very well educated because of their wide-ranging English vocabulary, as well as great knowledge of American presidents, politics and history. A lot of students would repeat the same questions that others had already asked me, but I acted as though I was answering the questions for the first time to maintain a tolerable amount of patience. Their impression of Americans was that Americans are very passionate, independent, and outspoken about their opinions while they believed that Chinese truly were more conservative and family oriented. I was surprised that those students were so excited about speaking English and learning about American culture, but I didn't yet know the reason behind it. I found out that night that there are very many students all over China who make learning English a high priority in their lives. There is a college entrance exam that requires a high level of knowledge about English that is necessary to pass before being allowed into any college. And only about 3 out of 10 students who qualify to enter into college are able to attend because of the high population in China. There is a lot of competition in schools and there are very high education standards. Some people have said that teaching is the most difficult job in China. Most of the college students don't have jobs, and focus most of their energy into scoring high marks on their exams. It is very common for a college student to be fully supported by their parents until they graduate and find a job with a high salary. The parents know who is going to be taking care of them when they are too old to work, so they do whatever they can to help their children succeed in life. After several hours of talking to students, I slowly pulled away from the crowds and searched around for Jackie and Jane. Jane had to leave while I was talking to the students because she had to get back to her dorm before she got locked out. I was glad that I decided to go to English corner because if I ever felt lonely about being in a foreign country where I had no one to talk to, I could always go there once a week and be overwhelmed by a barrage of questions. A couple of weeks before the 2006 school year would begin, a new roommate from Salt Lake City, Utah arrived at my apartment. His name was Chad, and he had already been staying in another province in China called Guangxi since January teaching at a high school. My first impression of him left me with a feeling that he had some kind of inner torment that was potentially volatile. But he was a witty conversationalist on top of that, which helped smooth over the rough edges of his personality. Chad had studied Mandarin for one year before coming to China just as Nathan did, so I was very glad to have a roommate who would make living in China much easier. We would eat most of our meals at the second family restaurant along the strip of road in front of the apartment complexes where we lived while sharing our personal stoies with each other. Neither of us were interested in cooking, and since the meals were so cheap, it was very convenient for us to eat that way. Over time, through the help of Chad's ability to speak Mandarin, we all became very friendly with each other at the restaurant. The father at the restaurant told us we could come there and speak English anytime we wanted to. His son and daughter would alternate between helping the father cook and taking food deliveries to customers around Hu Po on their bicycles. They were a working-class family that had not enough money for the children to go to school, and had to struggle everyday to keep from going under completely, but their spirits were never broken. They had some of the biggest smiles in the whole city, and they were our friends. In the beginning of September, the new school year finally began. I was assigned by Wongas to teach at several schools around Hefei. There were two primary schools, Changjiang and Yong Hong, and also middle school number 47. Hillary wrote directions how to get to each school so I could show it to the taxi driver whenever I needed to. David also reimbursed me for my taxi fair if I brought him each taxi receipt. As a foreign teacher, my salary would start at about 5 times as much as the average Chinese person made in Hefei, and I was also given an allowance at the beginning of each month by David. There were many people who thought it was unfair. In the morning, I taught at Changjiang and Yong Hong alternating every other day, but in the afternoon, I always taught at the middle school. Hillary was my translator at both Changjiang and Yong Hong schools, which were both very close to San Xiao Kou in the city center. She had the most keen observational skills I had ever seen. Any mistake I made was noticed immediately, and she had no reservations about letting it be known. I was constantly under her scrutiny, and criticized for anything that she didn't find acceptable. That kind of treatment forces a person to level up quickly. David came to watch my classes at Changjiang on the first day, and after my classes were over, he told me that there was another teacher he was going to hire for his company. That other teacher was from Slovenia, and he came to Changjiang Primary School with his girlfriend. Their names were Damian and Nina. Damian wore glasses, and was tall, skinny, and had short blonde hair that had thinned out considerably. Nina had thick blondish-brown hair that was a little wavy in the back, and was a little heavy, and with cherry-red cheeks. When I looked at her, the thing I noticed most was a great deal of anger that seemed to be permanently fixed in her eyes. She was very outspoken, and could at least be relied upon to let someone know when she was angry without trying to push it below the surface. Chad was assigned to teach English at a preschool full-time that was within walking distance of our apartment in Hu Po. We all had at least 22 hours of teaching time each week, not including the time it took to make lesson plans and prepare for each class, which was another 10-15 hours a week. The parents were very actively involved in their children's learning, and had a schedule for how long it should take us to complete each unit in their study books. Sometimes, they would sit in during our classes and observe us even if they didn't know what we were saying, which added a lot of pressure to an already stressful job. According to Hillary, our lesson plans had to be perfectly organized, leaving us little to no room for error. The children's education was such a large part of their lives that they had little time to do anything else but study, even at a young age. It served to keep the majority of children out of trouble because they were punished by their teachers, as well as their parents for not doing homework. There wasn't much room for wandering or independence. Also, drugs were not a problem for young people because not only are they illegal, but the possession of drugs is punishable by death in some cases. Children in China are forced to take education very seriously, but they are also protected from making many mistakes that cause people to become jaded early in life. |
| China Dispatch/Andrew Gramling When Summer is gone |
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