'Sorry Huw', Tongue Twisters and Exercise?

Sorry about the absence of posts this week! Been a bit hectic and yet nothing has happened...

Thursday (1 day after Dragonboat)

This week's lessons are all about speaking and singing! I have poems ("Hand on the Bridge" by Michael Rosen and "Please Mrs Butler", nod in the direction of Steve from HPJS). I have songs ("School is nearly over", nod to Kingsley from HPJS) and tongue twisters, including "Moses Supposes" from "Singin' in the Rain" (just for Ella). I was really excited about this lesson plan!

So I got to Jiaxiaozhuang in high spirits! My morning classes went fine and lunch was ok. However it all went to the dogs in the afternoon. The head master had invited a TV crew to come and film in the school and naturally they wanted me in virtually every scene... Not only that but they told me not to bother with my lesson! They wanted me to set up scenarios which would look good on film, such as the kids discussing intently, me asking them questions, us outside playing games, etc. All of it fake and ridiculous! Really getting sick of being messed around and its ALWAYS by this school. That is why they are my least favourite.

Friday

Today I was at Guchengtai school (with my classes of younger kids). My first lesson went well but my second lesson... Wow. Those kids were horrors. I haven't had to tell many classes off in China but I gave them a right bollocking. They didn't know what hit them, here I was a fun, easy going teacher one minute and now a ball-busting bad ass. Needless to say there were many utterances of 'Sorry Teacher Huw'. My third class was good though!

Lunch was with Mrs Wan and Chris! We went and had hot pot! It was delicious! I even tried fish head! Chris threw a tantrum though so that was a bit of a downer.

Sadly I had to begin my lesson with a 'talk' because they had ignored me asking them to be quiet for 10 minutes. I am not sure most of them understood what I was saying but the tone is unmistakable. More utterances of 'Sorry Huw' followed.

Luckily for them, the lesson went really well. They liked the songs and poems but they LOVED the tongue twisters! Naturally they tried to teach me some Chinese tongue twisters which, bearing in mind their whole language is a tongue twister, could only end badly. Here is one of the more confusing ones...

施氏食獅史
石室詩士施氏，嗜獅，誓食十獅。
氏時時適市視獅。
十時，適十獅適市。
是時，適施氏適市。
氏視是十獅，恃矢勢，使是十獅逝世。
氏拾是十獅屍，適石室。
石室濕，氏使侍拭石室。
石室拭，氏始試食是十獅。
食時，始識是十獅，實十石獅屍。
試釋是事。

In Pinyin:

Shī Shì shí shī shǐ
Shíshì shīshì Shī Shì, shì shī, shì shí shí shī.
Shì shíshí shì shì shì shī.
Shí shí, shì shí shī shì shì.
Shì shí, shì Shī Shì shì shì.
Shì shì shì shí shī, shì shǐ shì, shǐ shì shí shī shìshì.
Shì shí shì shí shī shī, shì shíshì.
Shíshì shī, Shì shǐ shì shì shíshì.
Shíshì shì, Shì shǐ shì shí shì shí shī.
Shí shí, shǐ shí shì shí shī, shí shí shí shī shī.
Shì shì shì shì.

It loosely translates (apparently) to "the Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone room. Mr. Shi, the poet from a stone room, likes to eat lions. He promises solemnly, that he will eat ten lions. Regularly he goes to the market to look at the lions."

The kids also LOVED "Singin' in the Rain", they were so captivated by it! They preferred it to Mr Bean!!

The lesson finished and I had some time to burn before meeting the guys for dinner, no driver again, so I decided to play football with some of the kids. I know right, me choosing to play sport? What has China done to me? However I was soon being praised as the best player?! More of a reflection of the other boys... I am just glad I didn't break a window of anything! It was really fun though!! I then decided to walk to the place where we were having dinner instead of get a bus, go me! Dinner was ok, lamb kebabs are boring.