Day 2 of my 7 day hot water challenge and there is a little more water going down me! In fact I'm getting used to the taste and the smell can be ignored if you hold your breath whilst drinking. Still, I wouldn't go as far as to say that I like it!
Today was again, relatively laid back with the country gearing up for the upcoming new year. School is getting quieter and quieter while the rest of China seems to be getting busier! The past few weeks I have been concentrating on learning the language with a target of conversational level by March. No easy feat! Alongside the language, which uses sounds that we just don't know how to pronounce in the west, learning the cultural differences can equally as challenging.
Last Saturday is a fine example. Teaching an open class to 16 potential new students, a class number far bigger than that I have taught before, I was stressed about the content and delivery of my lesson. With my bosses watching and pressure to get new students, my lessons had to be more than good, it had to impress.
But when running through the delivery with my assistant teacher, I found out I could potentially insult many Chinese parents with my body language and movement. For example, pointing is a big no, no. In China, we use and open palm face up, fingers together to indicate to others. We also don't step over chairs (mini 3 year old type chairs) we go around so not to open our legs to others. These sound like simple things but when your body naturally moves in one way, trying to consciously change that whilst concentrating on another task is hard work!
I'm pretty sure the hot water this week hasn't been helping my language or cultural learning but I certainly don't feel any worse for drinking it... Let's just see how we are at day 7!
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