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Q: Do you have a classroom experience to share?
Living in the mainland, you can encounter all sorts of insanity in the classroom.
Do you have an experience to share?
Here's mine..
Summary:
I'm teaching my students I wish+past tense/would/wouldn't etc.
The class almost derailed into a political discussion trainwreck...but I saved it at the last moment.
It went something like this.
Me: "____, what do you wish would change about the world?"
Student: "I wish Korea and America would stop making missiles to attack China"
Me: ".... Where did you get that idea?"
Student: "Everyone knows, the missile thing America put in Korea can see everything and attack us"
Me "No need to worry about that, we have no reason to fight"
Different Student: "But China and Japan are fighting, if we have a war, then America can shoot China's nuclear missiles, that's not fair!"
Me: "Honestly, when I was a kid, I didn't worry about this stuff and you shouldn't either. You have tons of homework every day and other things to worry about.
Try to enjoy being young while you still can, because us old people are just insane and you will be, too"
Another student: "I'm insane!" ...as he proceeds to make funny faces and cross his eyes.
Whew! That was a close one.
7 years 4 weeks ago in Teaching & Learning - China
You should stay out of the politics (of any kind), while you're in the classroom/China.
Zethe:
Exactly why I stopped the conversation and ended it with a joke.
ironman510:
@Zethe, you'll never beat icnif77 at joking. Checkmate friend!
icnif77:
At 'politics in classroom', I often 'stop' at Chinese leaders 
, especially when task requires memorizing and pronunciation of Chinese names ...
In my 'many-years-in-China', I could only memorize 'Hu Jintao' and 'Xi Jinping', so when I show examples to students, I often say: 'My name is Hu Jintao, I come from .....' or 'This is my friend Xi Jinping ....'.
I can also fine-ly 
pronounce (in Chinese) 'Li Na' and 'Yao Ming' for more, different topics examples. 
My chaps here like to yell: 'tim bu dong', 'bu zhi dao' and (my) 'no ming bai' during my English Qs and explanations ....
One day (last Semester), I replied to the first 'tim bu dong' with 'ni shi Osaka-ren?'.
I just tone it as a Q, because I don't know how to properly ask Q in Chinese. Similar as I say in English: 'you're finished ...?'.
SS: 'meiyou, I am chungwa-ren!'
After few exchanges, I hit the BB with 'Osaka' on the R side and 'Shanghai' on the L side of the board. 'Tokyo' and 'Beijing' follows .... 3rd city is our city .... and then 'China' underlined on the top of Chinese cities and 'J-A-P-A-N' on the .....
My nick-name is 'loudly': 'Japanese!' with finger pointing during my corridor walks and they are 'Osaka-ren' during the English lessons.
I also often comment to students: ''chungwa-ren understands and speaks English for difference of 'Japanese-ren', who's keep 'tim-bu-dong -ing ...''
We talk 'Japan' here all the time...
, and I rarely hear 'tim bu dong'-and-others since 'Japan's ..... intro' ...
I 'pong' them (finely) with their 'ping'!
RandallFlagg:
You should stay out of politics of any kind in ANY classroom. It's a workplace and not the place for a teacher to get on their soapbox to brainwash their class about whatever precious cause they believe in.
Zethe:
Really Randallflag?
Gee I didn't know that, I must have remained neutral on the topic while veering the students on to a new topic using humor by ACCIDENT.
You should stay out of the politics (of any kind), while you're in the classroom/China.
Zethe:
Exactly why I stopped the conversation and ended it with a joke.
ironman510:
@Zethe, you'll never beat icnif77 at joking. Checkmate friend!
icnif77:
At 'politics in classroom', I often 'stop' at Chinese leaders , especially when task requires memorizing and pronunciation of Chinese names ...
In my 'many-years-in-China', I could only memorize 'Hu Jintao' and 'Xi Jinping', so when I show examples to students, I often say: 'My name is Hu Jintao, I come from .....' or 'This is my friend Xi Jinping ....'.
I can also fine-ly pronounce (in Chinese) 'Li Na' and 'Yao Ming' for more, different topics examples.
My chaps here like to yell: 'tim bu dong', 'bu zhi dao' and (my) 'no ming bai' during my English Qs and explanations ....
One day (last Semester), I replied to the first 'tim bu dong' with 'ni shi Osaka-ren?'.
I just tone it as a Q, because I don't know how to properly ask Q in Chinese. Similar as I say in English: 'you're finished ...?'.
SS: 'meiyou, I am chungwa-ren!'
After few exchanges, I hit the BB with 'Osaka' on the R side and 'Shanghai' on the L side of the board. 'Tokyo' and 'Beijing' follows .... 3rd city is our city .... and then 'China' underlined on the top of Chinese cities and 'J-A-P-A-N' on the .....
My nick-name is 'loudly': 'Japanese!' with finger pointing during my corridor walks and they are 'Osaka-ren' during the English lessons.
I also often comment to students: ''chungwa-ren understands and speaks English for difference of 'Japanese-ren', who's keep 'tim-bu-dong -ing ...''
We talk 'Japan' here all the time...
, and I rarely hear 'tim bu dong'-and-others since 'Japan's ..... intro' ...
I 'pong' them (finely) with their 'ping'!
RandallFlagg:
You should stay out of politics of any kind in ANY classroom. It's a workplace and not the place for a teacher to get on their soapbox to brainwash their class about whatever precious cause they believe in.
Zethe:
Really Randallflag?
Gee I didn't know that, I must have remained neutral on the topic while veering the students on to a new topic using humor by ACCIDENT.
i always say i dont care if a war happens between china and japan because then america will be number 1 in gdp and number 2 and 3 will kill each other and thats good for me as an american.
then i explain to the student that china looks out for china, america looks out for america, and russia looks out for russia, and the world keeps on turning and you and i are nothing and nobody cares. end of discussion.
I had a Rock Star moment at the kindergarten when all the children chanted my name,
the kids were doing flag raising I went out to take a look and then over 300 children started chanting my name.
I guess one of those things that could only possibly happen in China. When I first arrived in China many years ago, I brought my old laptop with me that was fitted with a UK style plug. I took it into a classroom to a demonstration to some students and used an adapter to plug it in. One student found this highly amusing.
Only dumbass foreigners would design a plug that couldn't be pushed into the socket. So I then went about explaining that in my country, the sockets are also different so the plug can be pushed into it. He found that even more amusing as the sockets were not made in such a way that a plug could be pushed into it.
I gave up at that stage and just accepted that he had a point.
