English Corner

We meet weekly on Sunday afternoon for an informal "English Corner" during which students practice spoken English in smaller groups. Today was my first and I hosted about 20 students, mostly seniors, who were eager to hear more about ME. Since the idea is to get them to practice their spoken English, I steered the conversation toward talk of their own families. I learned that some of them come from families of more than one child (the official policy in the PRC is "one child family"), and that a second child is permitted in exchange for paying a "tax" of about RMB 6000 (slightly less than $1000).

Getting the students to talk about issues really helps them manufacture new language, so I asked if they had heard about the recent Guizhou earthquake. They easily became animated and expressed sadness, wanting to be able to do something as a school. When I asked what they wanted to do, one student carefully described that the victims needed help to build new houses -- "because that's where love is found", he added. It was great to hear them using their English without fear. It's not that way in a classroom of 60 students, so these English Corner sessions on Sundays allow smaller groups more freedom to speak.