Tonight was a parent meeting at the end of the day at Sophia's new school. This took about 1 hour with a Chinese dictionary for me to figure out..but I am proud of my achievement! ---I actually learned how to look up words in Chinese characters in the dictionary! First you figure out the main radical (part of a character) and then count the strokes in the rest of the character and look it up in the index which gives you a page number in the dictionary...did you follow that??? But anyway...we digress. I got to Sophia's school in time to take a few pictures on the playground. Of course I had some trouble following the meeting, since it was all in Chinese, but my friend from the waiban (foreign faculty) office translated a little as we went along. It also helped that I have heard it all before -- with 2 other kids..safety, hygiene, social skills -- the full pep talk. Suddenly at one point I realized the teacher was talking about Sophia...she pointed out that although she was the second youngest in the class, she was already dressing herself, feeding herself, etc. Then everyone looked at me..so I said..since I have 3 children she is always having to wait and learned a little early..or something closely resembling that in Chinese...the teacher then said that Chinese parents do too much babying of the kids, etc....a fascinating moment in parenting history for me-- and funny since the principal was afraid to accept her..
This isn't a great photo-- I snapped it during the meeting -- but that's Chen Laoshi in the black sweater. See Sophia in the background? She is sitting on the lap of one of the classroom aides having a lovely time -- watching them was the first time I felt I had made the right decision to send her --she is obviously beloved there. The teacher also said they are teaching all the children a few words of English. I was fresh from a very successful lesson this morning in Helen's class, so I offered to come in with a few songs for the littles in English periodically, which will be great since I will get to see her class up close. I was hesitating until I was sure she wouldn't have a fit when I leave, but I think that is less of a risk now....hopefully!
Note to the reader from Cardiff -- if you are staying in the foreign scholars building next week...stop by and say hello -- room 301. Sorry -- I can't reply to comments due to blogger being blocked in China, and you did not leave an email address.
Speaking of the great firewall of China--now I can read the New York Times (not that I want to this week -- oh Elliot, what have you been up to?!?!) but I can't access my yahoo groups ! The firewall is an unpredictable place!
1 comment:
Dear Anne,
You are right about Eliot, how are the mighty fallen! And the news has reached even China, I am so impressed. I was wondering if you had heard it. Here it was like a death watch for about 36 hours, wondering when he would finally resign. Nobody can figure out why he was so self-destructive as to do it, since he was the Attorney General who installed the banking computer program that picked up the wire transfers that initiated the entire investigation.
Onto other matters, such as your impressive negotiation of Chinese pre-schools protocol. And Sophia's equally impressive charm (which we all knew about anyway).
Another late-breaking piece of news-- you did know that Sarah Signorino and her husband Jerad are buying the house across the street from you? I don't think that they have closed on it yet, but they will be moved in before you are back.
We had 13+ inches of wet snow last weekend, all the better to build snowmen and forts and tunnels with. Leprechaun tracks were also spotted today, with St. Patrick's Day around the corner.
Can't wait to learn how to make paper cuts from you and Helen!
Best, Jane, Mike, Ani and Elia
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