Lucky Sevens

(by the way Zach when you send new questions you really should number them continuously, otherwise we're gonna have problems)

7 How are Chinese elementary school kids?

Look for a video on this subject later this week but basically they are just like little kids everywhere. they like school, they like the teacher, they want to be bad and roll around on the floor but they also want to be good. Once again I've got forty kids in the class, so it can be a nightmare to control on a bad day, but I divide them into two groups and do a bunch of stuff like:
"team two stand up!"
"team one touch your knee!"
"team one stand up!"
"team two jump twice!"
"team one clap three times"
"okay all sit down, back to color words"
they looooove it, it's silly and it's a game (if anyone on a team doesn't do it right, the team loses a point, the team with the most points each day gets..... nothing) and it works off some energy.
The lesson's gotta be tight though, if the material is too easy they get bored, and if it's too hard they get confused.

But you asked me what the kids are like, not the class. And that's complicated. I have a student in one class who grew up in America, and it's really hard to talk to her. You see, she's got an american accent, and I can ask her questions like "how's your mom?" or "what are you doing this weekend?"

Having her there just reminds me how little connection I can have with the other 9-year-olds. They know a lot of words in english, but the conversation is still somewhat limited. And I wish we could talk a little more.