Students make the job what it is...

After a little bout of food poisoning, I’m back on my feet. My students were very kind and I got a ton of advice on how I should take care of myself. Throughout my whole time here, the students have been the most enjoyable part. They are very caring, but somewhat young in maturity. I’ve enjoyed challenging them to think outside the box. Some things were more controversial than others (Japan will be a world power similar to the US) but they were able to hear a differing opinion. Not that I wasn’t quick to play devil’s advocate, but even a few of the classes got to discussing things as a few students may have different ideas on how to solve a problem. One of my students expressed the opinion that you can solve poverty by rounding up all the poor people and dropping an A-bomb on them. This was not met with much support and luckily other students quickly changed the topic. There were times when my questions or challenges are met with silence, but not as often as at the beginning of the semester. I hope that in the end they have gained a bit of American culture along with improving their language skills.

It has been a strange transition to being a teacher, but I did enjoy it. I went from asking what would be on the midterm to writing it, not something I ever thought I would have been doing. Grades work a bit differently here, obviously as they do not have an A/B/C/D/F lettering system. They use straight numbers and 90 and above is considered a good mark; below 60 means you retake the class.

Just walking around campus, going to the local grocery story, or even walking down Nanjing Lu I have seen my students or we stop to talk. It will be interesting to see how their college careers turn out as I got to see how it began. There is a good chance that they will have the same teachers that I have had, which is both cool and strange at the same time.